Ver. 29. ὡς ἐξουσίαν ἔχων: Fritzsche supplies, after ἔχων, τοῦ διδάσκειν, and renders, He taught as one having a right to teach, because He could do it well, “‘scite et perite,”? a master of the art. The thought lies deeper. It is an ethical, not an artistic or esthetical contrast that is intended. The scribes spake by authority, resting all they said on tradi- tions of what had been said before. Jesus spake with authority, out of His own soul, with direct intuition of truth ; and, therefore, to the answering soul of His hearers. The people could not quite explain the difference, but that was what they obscurely felt.
Cuapters VIII., IX. THe HEALING MINISTRY OF JESUS. These two chap- ters consist mainly of miracle narratives,
‘VIII. τ--3.
ο Ἡι
VIII. 1. ΚΑΤΑΒΑΝΤΙ δὲ αὐτῷ 1 ἀπὸ τοῦ Spous, ἠκολούθησαν αὐτῷ α Ch. x. 8;
ὄχλοι πολλοί: 2. καὶ ἰδού, "λεπρὸς ἐλθὼν 3 προσεκύνει αὐτῷ, λέγων, ἁ Κύριε, ἐὰν θέλῃς, δύνασαί µε Ὁ καθαρίσαι.” χεῖρα, ἤψατο αὐτοῦ 6 “Inaods,® λέγων, “Θέλω, καθαρίσθητι.
xvil. 14, 17.
Xi. 5; XXVi.
6. Lk. iv. 27; xvii. 3. Kat "ἐκτείνας τὴν 12. _b Ch. x. 8 Kae xi 5). Lk iv. (277;
ο with τὴν χειρα often in Sept. and frequently in the Gospels (Ch. xii. 13, 49, etc.).
1 For καταβαντι δε αυτω (the reading of $§ al. adopted by Tisch.) κ Ρο have
xataBavtos δε αυτου. _matical “«ἱπιρτονεπιεπί”..
2 For ελθων (in CKL, etc.) BAZ have προσελθων.
fallen out through homeeot. (λεπρος).
Z has the gen. also (και κατ. av.).
The dative is a gram-
The προς has probably
5 NBCZ omit o Ἴησους, which T. R. often introduces.
the greater number being reports of healing acts performed by Jesus, nine in all, being the second part of the pro- gramme sketched in chap. iv. 23-25. These wonderful works are not to be regarded, after the manner of the older apologists, as evidential signs appended ‘to the teaching on the hill to invest it with authority. That teaching needed no external credentials; it spoke for itself then as now. These histories are an integral part of the self-revelation of Jesus by word and deed; they are de- monstrations not merely of His power, but above all, of ‘is spirit. Therein lies their chief permanent interest, which is entirely independent of all disputes as to the strictly miraculous character of the events. This collection is not arranged in chronological order. The connection is topical, not temporal. CuaPTER VIII. 1-4. The leper (Mk. i. 40-45; Lk. v. 12-16). This is the first individual act of healing reported in this Gospel, chap. iv. 23-24 containing only a general notice. Itis avery remarkable one. Notheory of moral therapeutics will avail here to eliminate the miraculous element. Leprosy is not a disease of the nerves, amenable to emotional treat- ment, but of the skin and the flesh, ‘covering the body with unsightly sores. The story occurs in all three Synoptics, and, as belonging to the triple tradition, is one of the best attested. Matthew’s version is the shortest and simplest here as often, his concern being rather to re- port the main fact and what Christ said, than to give pictorial details. Possibly he gives it as he found it in the Apostolic Document both in form and in fosition, immediately after Sermon on Mount, so placed, conceivably, to illustrate Christ’s _ respectful attitude towards the law as ‘stated in v. 17 (cf. viii. 4 and vide Weiss, Matt. Evan., p. 227). 4
Ver. 1. καταβάντος αὐτοῦ (for the reading vide above). Jesus descended from the hill towards Capernaum (ver. 5), but we must beware of supposing that the immediately following events all happened there, or at any one place or time. Mark seems to connect the cure of the leper with the preaching tour in Galilee (i. 40), and that of the palsied man with Christ’s return therefrom (ii. 1). Jesus had ascended the hill to escape the pressure of human need. He descends, in Matt.’s narrative, to encounter it again— ἠκολούθησαν, large crowds gather about and follow Him.—i6ov, the sign mark of the Apostolic Document according to Weiss; its lively formula for introducing a Narrative.—mpooekvver, prostrated him- self to the ground, in the abject manner of salutation suitable from an inferior to one deemed much superior, and also to one who had a great favour to ask.—Kupte: not implying in the leper a higher idea than that of Master or Rabbi.—éav θέλῃς: the leper’s doubt is not about the power, for he probably knows what mar- vellous things have been happening of late in and around Capernaum, but about the will, a doubt natural in one suffering from a loathsome disease. Besides, men more easily believe in miraculous power than in miraculous love. θέλῃς, present subjunctive, not aorist, which would ex- press something that might happen at a future time (vide Winer, § xlii., 2, b).— καθαρίσαι---οί course the man means to cleanse by healing, not merely to pro- nounce clean. This has an important bearing on the meaning of the word in next νετ.--ἤψατο, touched him, not to show that He was not under the law, and that tothe pure nothing is un- clean (Chrys., Hom. xxv.), but to evince His willingness and sympathy. The stretching out of the hand does not mean that, in touching, He might be as far off as