Text Used to Create the Splice “Jesus Cleanses a Man with Leprosy”
Matthew 8:1-4 (Greek Text Analysis starting with Matthew 8:1)
Mark 1:40-45 (Greek Text Analysis starting with Mark 1:40)
Luke 5:12-15 (Greek Text Analysis starting with Luke 5:12)
Leviticus 13:45-46
45 As for the leper who has the infection, his clothes shall be torn, and the hair of his head shall be uncovered, and he shall cover his mustache and cry, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ 46 He shall remain unclean all the days during which he has the infection; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.
THE SPLICE
When Jesus came down from the 1mountain, large crowds followed Him. While He was in one of the cities there was a man 2covered with 3leprosy, and when the man saw Him, he came to Him, and bowed down before Him, falling on his knees and to then to his face, beseeching and imploring Him, saying “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and 4touched him, and said to him, “I am willing, be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left the man and he was cleansed of it. And Jesus 5sternly warned and ordered him to tell no one, saying to him, “See that you tell no one, say nothing to anyone; but go and show yourself to the priest and 6present the offering, that Moses commanded/make an offering for your cleansing, just as Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” And Jesus immediately sent him away. But the formerly leprous man went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news around, to such an extent that 7Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city, but He stayed out in unpopulated areas; and people were coming to Him from everywhere. The news about Him was spreading even farther, and large crowds were gathering to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses.
- mountain: Jesus had just finished teaching, giving what we call “The Sermon on the Mount” and the inspiring Beatitudes. To read about The Sermon on the Mount and The Beatitudes, see Matthew 5-7 and Luke 6:20-38. ↩︎
- covered: The Greek word for covered used in Luke 5:12 is plérés and means “full, abounding in, complete, completely occupied with”. This tells us that the person who came to Jesus was in an advanced state of leprosy. ↩︎
- leprosy: The Greek word for leprosy is lepra and comes from the Greek word lepis which means “a scale (of a fish)”. The Hebrew priests had a procedure to follow, as ordered by God, in order to deem a person a leper. A person with leprosy amongst the Jews could expect an unhappy, humiliating, and lonely existence (Leviticus 13:45-46). If the person with leprosy happened to become cleansed or cured of the skin ailment, the priest performed a lengthy ceremony which deemed the formerly leprous person ceremonially clean and re-introduced them to social life, as commanded by God. Current-day leprosy, or Hansen’s Disease is rare and not easily transmitted. ↩︎
- touched him: This was a huge deal! This poor person had been cut off from all social aspects. No one touched him while he had leprosy and he had been saddled with it for a long time, since he was completely covered in it. ↩︎
- sternly: The Greek word used in Mark 1:43 for sternly is embrimaomai and means “to be moved with anger, to admonish sternly”. Jesus was not giving out gentle warnings to people, regarding keeping quiet about their encounters with Him. They rarely seemed to listen. ↩︎
- present the offering: See Leviticus 14. ↩︎
- Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city: Because of the formerly leprous man’s disobedience, Jesus couldn’t move around in the cities to actually go to the sick people who needed Him. The sick had to be traveled out to Him to be cured, making a miserable person even more so and putting an unneeded stress and strain on those who loved them/carried them out there. ↩︎