Mark 1:41

1:41 Moved with compassion, ¹  Jesus ²  stretched out his hand and touched ³  him, saying, “I am willing. Be clean!”

Mark 5:27

5:27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, ⁴ 

Mark 5:31

5:31 His disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing against you and you say, ‘Who touched me?’”

Mark 7:33

7:33 After Jesus ⁵  took him aside privately, away from the crowd, he put his fingers in the man’s ⁶  ears, and after spitting, he touched his tongue. ⁷ 

Mark 5:30

5:30 Jesus knew at once that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?”

[1:41]  ¹ tc The reading found in almost the entire NT ms tradition is σπλαγχνισθείς (splancnisqei", “moved with compassion”). Codex Bezae (D), {1358}, and a few Latin mss (a ff² r^1*) here read ὀργισθείς (ojrgisqei", “moved with anger”). It is more difficult to account for a change from “moved with compassion” to “moved with anger” than it is for a copyist to soften “moved with anger” to “moved with compassion,” making the decision quite difficult. B. M. Metzger (TCGNT 65) suggests that “moved with anger” could have been prompted by 1:43, “Jesus sent the man away with a very strong warning.” It also could have been prompted by the man’s seeming doubt about Jesus’ desire to heal him (v. 40). As well, it is difficult to explain why scribes would be prone to soften the text here but not in Mark 3:5 or 10:14 (where Jesus is also said to be angry or indignant). Thus, in light of diverse mss supporting “moved with compassion,” and at least a plausible explanation for ὀργισθείς as arising from the other reading, it is perhaps best to adopt σπλαγχνισθείς as the original reading. Nevertheless, a decision in this case is not easy. For the best arguments for ὀργισθείς, however, see M. A. Proctor, “The ‘Western’ Text of Mark 1:41: A Case for the Angry Jesus” (Ph.D. diss., Baylor University, 1999).

[1:41]  ² tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:41]  ³ sn Touched. This touch would have rendered Jesus ceremonially unclean (Lev 14:46; also Mishnah, m. Nega’im 3.1; 11.1; 12.1; 13.6-12).

[5:27]  ⁴ tn Grk “garment,” but here ἱμάτιον (Jimation) denotes the outer garment in particular.

[7:33]  ⁷ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:33]  ⁸ tn Grk “his”; the referent (the deaf man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:33]  ⁹ sn After spitting, he touched his tongue. It was not uncommon in Judaism of the day to associate curative powers with a person’s saliva. The scene as a whole reflects Jesus’ willingness to get close to people and have physical contact with them where appropriate. See W. L. Lane, Mark (NICNT), 267 n. 78.