Leviticus 6:18

6:18 Every male among the sons of Aaron may eat it. It is a perpetual allotted portion ¹  throughout your generations ²  from the gifts of the Lord. Anyone who touches these gifts ³  must be holy.’” ⁴ 

Exodus 29:37

29:37 For seven days ⁵  you are to make atonement for the altar and set it apart as holy. Then the altar will be most holy. ⁶  Anything that touches the altar will be holy. ⁷ 

Exodus 30:29

30:29 So you are to sanctify them, ⁸  and they will be most holy; ⁹  anything that touches them will be holy. ¹⁰ 

Haggai 2:12

2:12 If someone carries holy meat in a fold of his garment and that fold touches bread, a boiled dish, wine, olive oil, or any other food, will that item become holy?’” ¹¹  The priests answered, “It will not.”

Matthew 9:21

9:21 For she kept saying to herself, ¹²  “If only I touch his cloak, I will be healed.” ¹³ 

Matthew 14:36

14:36 They begged him if ¹⁴  they could only touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.

¹ tn Or “a perpetual regulation”; cf. NASB “a permanent ordinance”; NRSV “as their perpetual due.”

² tn Heb “for your generations”; cf. NIV “for the generations to come.”

³ tn Heb “touches them”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity. In this context “them” must refer to the “gifts” of the Lord.

⁴ tn Or “anyone/anything that touches them shall become holy” (J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:443-56). The question is whether this refers to the contagious nature of holy objects (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT) or whether it simply sets forth a demand that anyone who touches the holy gifts of the Lord must be a holy person (cf. CEV). See R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:900-902.

⁵ tn Once again this is an adverbial accusative of time. Each day for seven days the ritual at the altar is to be followed.

⁶ tn The construction is the superlative genitive: “holy of holies,” or “most holy.”

⁷ sn This line states an unusual principle, meant to preserve the sanctity of the altar. S. R. Driver explains it this way (Exodus, 325): If anything comes in contact with the altar, it becomes holy and must remain in the sanctuary for Yahweh’s use. If a person touches the altar, he likewise becomes holy and cannot return to the profane regions. He will be given over to God to be dealt with as God pleases. Anyone who was not qualified to touch the altar did not dare approach it, for contact would have meant that he was no longer free to leave but was God’s holy possession – and might pay for it with his life (see Exod 30:29; Lev 6:18b, 27; and Ezek 46:20).

⁸ tn The verb is a Piel perfect with vav (ו) consecutive; in this verse it is summarizing or explaining what the anointing has accomplished. This is the effect of the anointing (see Exod 29:36).

⁹ tn This is the superlative genitive again, Heb “holy of holies.”

¹⁰ tn See Exod 29:37; as before, this could refer to anything or anyone touching the sanctified items.

¹¹ sn This is probably not an appeal to the Torah (i.e., the Pentateuch) as such but to a priestly ruling (known in postbiblical Judaism as a pÿsaq din). There is, however, a Mosaic law that provides the basis for the priestly ruling (Lev 6:27).

¹² tn The imperfect verb is here taken iteratively, for the context suggests that the woman was trying to find the courage to touch Jesus’ cloak.

¹³ tn Grk “saved.”

¹⁴ tn Grk “asked that they might touch.”