Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Matthew 9:20

Matthew 9:20, καὶ ἰδού : a new applicant for help appears on the scene, on the way to Jairus' house. γυνὴ … ἔτη, a woman who had suffered for twelve years from some kind of bloody flux. ὄπισθεν : realistic feature; from womanly shame or the morbid shrinking of chronic ill-health, or out of regard to the law concerning uncleanness (Leviticus 15). κρασπέδου, Hebrew צִיצִת (Numbers 15:38), fringes at the four corners of the outer garment, to remind of the commandments. In dress Jesus was not nonconformist. His mantle, ἱμάτιον, had its κράσπεδα like other people's. ἥψατο, touched one of the tassels; the least possible degree of contact enough to ensure a cure, without notice; faith, superstition and cunning combined. Matthew 9:21. ἔλεγε γὰρ ἐν ἐαυτῇ : such was her little private scheme. Matthew 9:22, ὁ δὲ Ι. στραφεὶς καὶ ἰδὼν. Matthew's narrative here is simple as compared with that of Mark and Luke, probably a transcript from Apostolic Document, concerned mainly about the words of Jesus. So far as our evangelist is concerned the turning round of Jesus might be an accident, or due to consciousness of a nervous jerk instinctively understood to mean something. θάρσει, θύγατερ, again as in Matthew 9:2, a terse, cordial sympathetic address; there child to a man, here daughter to a mature woman. πίστις, no notice taken of the superstition or the cunning, only of the good side; mark the rhythm: ἡ πίστις σου σέσωκέν σε, again in Luke 7:50, where, with πορεύου εἰς εἰρήνην, it forms a couplet. σέσωκεν, perfect, not future, to convey a feeling of confidence = you are a saved woman. καὶ ἐσώθη, and so she was from that hour. A true story in the main, say Strauss and Keim, strictly a case of faith-cure.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Matthew 9:20

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