What Does Matthew 8:3 Mean?
And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, I will. Be clean. And straightway his leprosy was cleansed.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.THE KEY
The touch reaches the man before the cleansing, placing contact within the healing rather than after it.
THE MEANING
A visible condition does not put a person beyond reach: Jesus says, “I will,” touches him, and the cleansing follows at once. Need is met while the condition is still present; contact is not postponed until afterward.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a person must become clean before they can be touched is undone here: the touch comes first.
THE ROOT
ἐκαθαρίσθη
ekatharísthē
GROWS FROM
καθαρ
The Greek stem kathar- means clean or pure.
The form ἐκαθαρίσθη (ekatharísthē, “was cleansed”) presents the change as something received. Its word family connects the act of cleansing with the state of being clean, and that change follows a touch already given.
ALSO GROWS
katharós: clean, pure
καθαρός
The adjective names the state that the cleansing verb brings about.
katharismós: cleansing, purification
καθαρισμός
This noun carries the same καθαρ (kathar) stem, holding the act of cleansing close to the resulting state.
THE PATTERN
Cleansing reaches what is marked unclean and brings about a changed condition.
Then I will sprinkle clean waters upon you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your uncleannesses and from all your idols.And when he saw them, he said to them, Go, present yourselves to the priests. And it came to pass, that as they went, they were cleansed.THE THREAD
Already you are clean through the word which I have spoken to you.The same καθαρ (kathar, “clean”) word family moves from “was cleansed” in Matthew to “clean” here. Matthew shows the change arriving through touch and speech; John names the clean state through the spoken word.
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