Bible Study series: Matthew 9:18-26. Two females in need, and he helps both of them. Wonderful.
A warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together. I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click on this link:
In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Matthew 9:18-26
18 While he was saying these things, look! One of the rulers came and fell before him and said, “My daughter just now died. However, when you come and place your hand on her, she will also live!” 19 So Jesus got up and followed him, and his disciples did too.
20 Then another unexpected thing! A woman discharging blood for twelve years approached from behind and touched the tassels of his garment, 21 for she was saying to herself, “If only I might touch his garment, I’ll be healed.” 22 Then Jesus, turning and seeing her, said, “Courage, daughter! Your faith has healed you.” The woman was healed from that very moment on.
23 Jesus came up to the ruler’s house, and when he saw the flute-players and the crowd making a racket, 24 he began to say, “Go away! For the girl has not died, but she is sleeping!” Then they ridiculed him. 25 But when the crowd was shooed out, he entered and took her hand, and the girl got up. 26 Then this report went out into that entire land. (Matt. 9:18-26)
Comments:
Mark 5:21-43 and Luke 8:40-56 also treat this event in Jesus’s ministry, and you can tell by the number of verses how much longer their versions are. Matthew the Trimmer or Streamliner.
This is a double-story about two females who got their miracles. One was a little girl; the other a woman.
From here to v. 26, Matthew is about to interlock the stories of two very different people. On the one side stands Jairus the synagogue ruler, who was rich and powerful, but his daughter is dying. And on the one side stands an unnamed, unclean woman, who was socially degraded and rejected in her unclean status. Jairus has to fall at the feet of Jesus, and he has his plea answered. He was raised up. Even the rich can be accepted if they humble themselves. A real lesson there. The unclean woman was already very humble and needy and also fell at the feet of Jesus. She too was healed and raised up.
18-19:
“look!” This is an updated translation of the older word “behold!” If you prefer to go the traditional route, then run with “behold!” Though I tend to translate more literally, I sometimes go with the “feel” of the passage, when the Greek allows it.
“fell before”: this one verb in Greek can often be translated as “worship,” but here he fell before him. He prostrated himself. The ruler was desperate.
“ruler”: A synagogue ruler, who was important in this society, was rich, but what is wealth when your daughter is dying? The ruler had faith by his strong words and by his humility and worshipful posture before Jesus (cf. 2:2, 8, 11; 9:18; 14:33; 15:25). Again this is Matthew’s high Christology. The ruler’s confession shows that he really had strong faith. My daughter just died—however!—if you come and touch her, she will live! Remarkable.
“Then another unexpected thing”: this phrase also updates the older word “behold!”
It seems Jesus instantly responded and followed him. Personally I would be shaking in my soul. “God if you don’t come through, I’m a goner. Everyone will laugh at me forever!” But I am not like Jesus; he had perfect confidence in God and the Spirit.
“disciples”: see v. 10 for further comments.
20-21:
“unexpected thing”: It is the verb “behold!” It is a surprising development in the narrative.
“blood”: what caused her inability to stop the blood flow for twelve years? A cyst? A lesion? We don’t know, but God did. Read the laws in Lev. 15:19-30 at my post:
Childbirth, Bodily Discharges in Leviticus 12, 15 from a NT Perspective
She herself was unclean. Anything she sat on was unclean. Anyone who touched her was unclean. If anyone touches her or anything she touched, then he will have to rinse his hands, but if he does not, then he has to take a bath and wash his clothes. The rituals go on. I can understand the law from a sanitation point of view. Bodily fluids from a man (Lev. 15:3-6, 16-17) or woman can spread disease, without proper washing. Good law. Yet it is still remarkable that he did not mind one bit about her touching him. He was clean, and she was unclean. When the story finishes, she was made clean.
“Touching a hem was an ancient symbol for deep trust and prayer, thus highlighting her faith” (Osborne, p. 349, note 9).
She got her healing, instantly. The verb could be translated as “saved.” The verb is sōzō (pronounced soh-zoh and used 106 times in the NT), and is passive (“be saved”). Since the theology of salvation (soteriology) is so critical for our lives, let’s look more closely at the noun salvation, which is sōtēria (pronounced soh-tay-ree-ah and used 46 times) and at the verb sōzō (pronounced soh-zoh and used 106 times)
Greek is the language of the NT. BDAG defines the noun sōtēria as follows, depending on the context: (1) “deliverance, preservation” … (2) “salvation.”
The verb sōzō means “save, rescue, heal” in a variety of contexts, but mostly it is used of saving the soul. BDAG says that the verb means, depending on the context: (1) “to preserve or rescue from natural dangers and afflictions, save, keep from harm, preserve,” and the sub-definitions under no. 1 are as follows: save from death; bring out safely; save from disease; keep, preserve in good condition; thrive, prosper, get on well; (2) “to save or preserve from transcendent danger or destruction, save or preserve from ‘eternal’ death … “bring Messianic salvation, bring to salvation,” and in the passive voice it means “be saved, attain salvation”; (3) some passages in the NT say we fit under the first and second definition at the same time (Mark 8:5; Luke 9:24; Rom. 9:27; 1 Cor. 3:15).
Clearly the first definition and “saved from disease.”
As noted throughout this commentary on Matthew, the noun salvation and the verb save go a lot farther than just preparing the soul to go on to heaven. Together, they have additional benefits: keeping and preserving and rescuing from harm and dangers; saving or freeing from diseases and demonic oppression; and saving or rescuing from sin dominating us; ushering into heaven and rescuing us from final judgment. What is our response to the gift of salvation? You are grateful and then you are moved to act. When you help or rescue one man from homelessness or an orphan from his oppression, you have moved one giant step towards salvation of his soul. Sometimes feeding a hungry man and giving clothes to the naked or taking him to a medical clinic come before saving his soul.
All of it is a package called salvation and being saved.
What Is the Work of Salvation?
22:
Once again, Jesus uses the word courage, which instills strength in her (see v. 2). She seems to have had a lot of faith, however. But would it work?
He also called her by the encouraging name “daughter.” This expresses a desire to relate to her. He used a kind term here. Let’s say she reached puberty at age twelve. When did she get her blood flow that did not stop for twelve years? At fourteen or fifteen years old? Twenty? Whatever her age, we have to add twelve years on to it. So she was at least in her mid-twenties, maybe in her thirties. So when Jesus called her “daughter,” he was showing, yes, authority, but also compassion. He sees himself as a minister-Rabbi, not an older brother. Further, Jesus wanted to invite her into his new kingdom; she was part of his new and true family. She was disqualified from fully participating in Israel’s religion, but not in Jesus’s family.
“has healed”: the verb is sōzō and here it means saving or healing the body. See vv. 20-21 for more comments.
“faith”: the noun is pistis (pronounced peace-teace or piss-tiss), and see v. 2 for more comments. In this verse she had faith to be healed, because her faith was directed at Jesus.
“from that very moment on”: the people back then did not have clocks, so it is best to translate the phrase by instantaneous healing.
In this pericope (pronounced puh-RIH-koh-pea) or unit or section, both physical and spiritual healing or salvation is in mind. Her affliction excluded her from participation in Israel’s worship, but not in God’s new family. Further, for all we know, she either had been married but her husband divorced her, or she was never married because of her affliction. The text is silent, but let’s face it. She was not marriageable or worthy to remain happily married, by the standards of society back then. But Jesus made her “undamaged” goods. Keener suggests that her condition rendered her unmarriageable or divorceable (p. 304).
Brief Overview of Divorce and Remarriage in New Testament
23-24:
Were the weepers and mourners in the house—no doubt a big house to host all the people who were there? Mark says that when they got to the house the crowd was outside weeping and wailing and then some were emoting inside the house too. Luke assumes that the readers would guess that the crowd would be outside too, in his version. It is not good to allow in doubters and skeptics and those who don’t have faith.
Jesus was about to teach the crowd a lesson by speaking words of irony, a deeper truth. Yes, the girl really was dead, but it is as if she were sleeping, as far as his limitless perspective was concerned. To them, she really was dead. To him, she was only asleep. Sleeping is a common metaphor for death (John 11:11-14; Acts 13:36 1 Cor. 15:21; 1 Thess. 4:13-14).
A free translation of “but she is sleeping” could be “but she is taking a nap!” Jesus was about to take the girl out of her temporary pause in her mortal life. This means that Jesus gave them hope. But rather than celebrate, they ridiculed, because they were operating according to what they saw. The Greek word for ridiculed has a sharp edge to it, implying “scorned, mocked him.” They used their own eyes and tested her breath and concluded, correctly, that she was dead. But Jesus sized up the true and higher situation—he was the resurrection and the life (John 11:17-27)—and concluded that this raising her from the dead was easy for him. She was merely sleeping. Now all he had to do was wake her up. So the lesson he was teaching the crowd was that nothing is impossible with God. He didn’t defend himself or give a theology lesson. He acted. He healed her. That quieted the mockery.
See your situation from a God’s-eye view. Have faith. Don’t doubt or fear. Your perspective and ability are limited. God’s perspective is infinite and his power to heal when his Son is on the scene speaking words of faith is strong.
Jesus took decisive action and shooed them out—or his disciples did. The Greek could be translated as “expelled.”
Blomberg answers the criticism that there is a contradiction between Matthew and Mark and Luke:
As consistently throughout his Gospel (and esp. with miracle stories), Matthew abbreviates Mark, this time to such an extent that he seems to contradict the parallel accounts (Mark 5:21–43; Luke 8:40–56). Instead of coming to plead with Jesus while his daughter is still alive, Jairus apparently arrives only after her death. Yet to call this a contradiction is anachronistically to impose on an ancient text modern standards of precision in story telling. What is more, in a world without modern medical monitors to establish the precise moment of expiry, there is not nearly so much difference between Matthew’s arti eteleutēsen in v. 18 (which could fairly be translated “just came to the point of death”; cf. Heb 11:22) and eschatos echei in Mark 5:23 (which could also be rendered “is dying”). What is important is not the precise moment of death but Jairus’s astonishing faith. On any interpretation, this influential religious leader believes that Jesus can miraculously reclaim his daughter’s life. (Comment on 9:18-19)
Blomberg is right to point out the main lesson from the passage. It is is Jairus’s faith, even when confronted with his dying daughter. We must not miss the forest (bigger picture) because of the trees (micro-analysis). Also, our faith must not be so brittle that it snaps in two when discrepancies emerge in the three accounts of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. God inspired men, not androids.
See my series on the reliability of the Gospels, and begin with the Conclusion, which has quick summaries and links to the other articles in the series:
15. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Conclusion
13. Are There Contradictions in the Gospels?
Postmodern critics of the Gospels read them in bad faith, assuming that the ancient authors were liars and plagiarists. They employ no subtlety and finesse and care. They drink from the well of their own times.
I urge everyone to see the critics for who they are, part of the hyper-skeptical age.
25:
Now Jesus initiates action because he knew the results.
First, he took her by the hand. That act takes faith in his Father, who was about to work a miracle.
In a related episode, Peter will raise Tabitha-Dorcas from the dead, and he shooed the weepers and mourners out of the room (Acts 9:36-43). Peter too will also command the girl to get up, and she will. He learned from his Lord and was in fact filled with the Spirit of the Lord (Acts 2:1-4), who empowered him to work the same miracle.
Other accounts of resurrections are recorded in the OT. In contrast to Jesus, who moved with more authority, Elijah stretched himself over a boy and raised him from the dead (1 Kings 17:21), and Elisha touched a child with his staff and then later lay over him (2 Kings 4:31, 34-35). Jesus issued a command and took the girl by the hand to get her up.
This girl’s “resurrection” is not the same as Jesus’s resurrection, for his body was transformed and glorified. Her body simply recovered from the dead and when she was older she died, like everyone else of her generation. So we should call it a “resuscitation” from the dead.
26:
Then Matthew records the normal flow of events. This specific report spread throughout the whole land or region.
What Happens to Children after They Die?
Turner is right on (comment on 9:25-26):
The two miracles in this double story address two basic issues of human existence: the depths of parental love and the pain of chronic disease (in this case resulting in social ostracisms due to ritual impurity). The synagogue ruler’s love for his little girl confronts the power of death when he takes the initiative to plead for Jesus to touch and heal her. Jesus defeats death, and a family is spared the shattering loss of a child. In light of Matthew’s already / not-yet conception of the kingdom, the raising of the little girls points to the ultimate resurrection of the dead by Jesus’s power (cf. Dan. 12:2; Matt. 13:43; 27:52; John 5:25-29; Acts 17:31).
5 The Kingdom of God: Already Here, But Not Yet Fully
GrowApp for Matt. 9:18-26
1. Jesus’s plan was interrupted. As he was going to raise a girl from the dead, a woman got her healing. Both females got their blessings. How flexible are you when events interrupt your life?
RELATED
9. Authoritative Testimony in Matthew’s Gospel
1. Church Fathers and Matthew’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES
To see the bibliography, please click on this link and scroll down to the bottom.
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 