Matthew 4:23-25

Jesus’ Healing Ministry

4:23 Jesus ¹  went throughout all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, ²  preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of disease and sickness among the people. 4:24 So a report about him spread throughout Syria. People ³  brought to him all who suffered with various illnesses and afflictions, those who had seizures, ⁴  paralytics, and those possessed by demons, ⁵  and he healed them. 4:25 And large crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, ⁶  Jerusalem, ⁷  Judea, and beyond the Jordan River. ⁸ 

Matthew 12:15

God’s Special Servant

12:15 Now when Jesus learned of this, he went away from there. Great ⁹  crowds ¹⁰  followed him, and he healed them all.

Mark 3:7-12

Crowds by the Sea

3:7 Then ¹¹  Jesus went away with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him. ¹²  And from Judea, 3:8 Jerusalem, ¹³  Idumea, beyond the Jordan River, ¹⁴  and around Tyre ¹⁵  and Sidon ¹⁶  a great multitude came to him when they heard about the things he had done. 3:9 Because of the crowd, he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him so the crowd ¹⁷  would not press toward him. 3:10 For he had healed many, so that all who were afflicted with diseases pressed toward him in order to touch him. 3:11 And whenever the unclean spirits ¹⁸  saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” 3:12 But ¹⁹  he sternly ordered them not to make him known. ²⁰ 

[4:23]  ¹ tn Grk “And he.”

[4:23]  ² sn Synagogues were places for Jewish prayer and worship, with recognized leadership (cf. Luke 8:41). Though the origin of the synagogue is not entirely clear, it seems to have arisen in the postexilic community during the intertestamental period. A town could establish a synagogue if there were at least ten men. In normative Judaism of the NT period, the OT scripture was read and discussed in the synagogue by the men who were present (see the Mishnah, m. Megillah 3-4; m. Berakhot 2).

[4:24]  ³ tn Grk “And they”; “they” is probably an indefinite plural, referring to people in general rather than to the Syrians (cf. v. 25).

[4:24]  ⁴ tn Grk “those who were moonstruck,” possibly meaning “lunatic” (so NAB), although now the term is generally regarded as referring to some sort of seizure disorder such as epilepsy (L&N 23.169; BDAG 919 s.v. σεληνιάζομαι).

[4:24]  ⁵ tn The translation has adopted a different phrase order here than that in the Greek text. The Greek text reads, “People brought to him all who suffered with various illnesses and afflictions, those possessed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics.” Even though it is obvious that four separate groups of people are in view here, following the Greek word order could lead to the misconception that certain people were possessed by epileptics and paralytics. The word order adopted in the translation avoids this problem.

[4:25]  ⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated before each of the places in the list, since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[4:25]  ⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[4:25]  ⁸ tn “River” is not in the Greek text but is supplied for clarity. The region referred to here is sometimes known as Transjordan (i.e., “across the Jordan”).

[12:15]  ⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[12:15]  ¹⁰ tc א B pc lat read only πολλοί (polloi, “many”) here, the first hand of N reads ὄχλοι (ocloi, “crowds”), while virtually all the rest of the witnesses have ὄχλοι πολλοί (ocloi polloi, “great crowds”). In spite of the good quality of both א and B (especially in combination), and the testimony of the Latin witnesses, the longer reading is most likely correct; the shorter readings were probably due to homoioteleuton.

[3:7]  ¹¹ tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[3:7]  ¹² tn The word “him” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[3:8]  ¹³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:8]  ¹⁴ tn “River” is not in the Greek text but is supplied for clarity. The region referred to here is sometimes known as Transjordan (i.e., “across the Jordan”).

[3:8]  ¹⁵ map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[3:8]  ¹⁶ sn These last two locations, Tyre and Sidon, represented an expansion outside of traditional Jewish territory. Jesus’ reputation continued to expand into new regions.

[3:9]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “they”; the referent (the crowd) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:11]  ¹⁸ sn Unclean spirits refers to evil spirits.

[3:12]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[3:12]  ²⁰ sn Jesus did not permit the demons to make him known because the time for such disclosure was not yet at hand, and such a revelation would have certainly been misunderstood by the people. In all likelihood, if the people had understood him early on to be the Son of God, or Messiah, they would have reduced his mission to one of political deliverance from Roman oppression (cf. John 6:15). Jesus wanted to avoid, as much as possible, any premature misunderstanding about who he was and what he was doing. However, at the end of his ministry, he did not deny such a title when the high priest asked him (14:61-62).