Luke 5:13

5:13 Jesus reached out and touched him: Most people feared catching the disease through physical contact, but Jesus showed compassion. Jesus was not contaminated by disease or evil, but brought healing and salvation. • Be healed: Literally Be cleansed. This act had spiritual and physical significance, since leprosy separated Israelites from social contact and religious practice.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk 5:13. Καὶ, and) [καὶ forming the Apodosis, and as the consequence, etc.] [A most real and immediate fruit of his prayers.—V. g.]

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 5:13 . ἥψατο : this also in all three a cardinal point; the touch the practical proof of the will and the sympathy. No shrinking from the loathsome disease. ἡ λέπρα ἀπῆλθεν : Lk. takes one of Mk.’s two phrases, Mt. the other. Lk. takes the one which most clearly implies a cure; ἐκαθερίσθη (Mt.) might conceivably mean: became technically clean.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13. and touched him] This was a distinct violation of the letter, but not of course of the spirit of the Mosaic law (Lev_13:46; Num_5:2). In order to prevent the accidental violation of this law, lepers, until the final stage of the disease, were then as now secluded from all living contact with others, “differing in nothing from a dead man” (Jos. Ant. iii. 11 § 3), and only appeared in public with the cry Tamê, Tamê—‘Unclean! Unclean!’ But Jesus, “because He is the Lord of the Law, does not obey the Law, but makes the Law” (St Ambrose); or rather, he obeys that divine eternal Law of Compassion, in its sudden impulse (σπλαγχνισθεὶς, Mar_1:40), which is older and grander than the written Law. (So Elijah and Elisha had not scrupled to touch the dead, 1Ki_17:21; 2Ki_4:34.) His touching the leper, yet remaining clean, is a type of His taking our humanity upon Him, remaining undefiled.

I will: be thou clean] Two words in the original—“a prompt echo to the ripe faith of the leper”—which are accurately preserved by all three Evangelists. Our Lord’s first miracles were done with a glad spontaneity in answer to faith. But when men had ceased to believe in Him, then lack of faith rendered His later miracles more sad and more delayed (Mar_6:5; Mat_13:58). We never however hear of a moment s delay in attending to the cry of a leper. When the sinner cries from his heart, “I have sinned against the Lord,” the answer comes instantly, “The Lord also hath put away thy sin” (2Sa_12:13).

the leprosy departed] Jesus was not polluted by the touch, but the leper was cleansed. Even so he touched our sinful nature, yet without sin (H. de St Victore).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he put forth his hand and touched him,.... Having compassion on him, and commiserating his sad case:

saying, I will, be thou clean; and immediately the leprosy departed from him; See Gill on Mat 8:3.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

13 And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him.

Ver. 13. I will, be thou clean] So ready is Christ to gratify his suppliants, yea, to be commanded by them, Isa 45:11.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The law forbade lepers to be touched; but he, who is the Lord of the law, dispenses with it. He touches the leper, not because he could not cleanse him without it, but in order to shew that he was not subject to the law, nor to fear of any infection. At the touch of Christ leprosy is dispelled, which before communicated contagion to all that touched it. (St. Ambrose)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

And he put forth his hand, mad touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. St. Mark adds here, "being touched with compassion." The Redeemer, at the sight of the man"s awful wretchedness wasting away, shunned by all men, dragging on a hopeless, aimless, weary life in his Divine pity, with a sudden impulse tosses aside all considerations of ceremonial uncleanness or contagion, and lays his hand on the miserable sufferer from whom all shrank, with his word of power exclaimed, "I will: be thou clean." St. Ambrose writes here how "Jesus, because he is the Lord of the Law, does not obey the Law, but makes the Law." "Here Jesus obeys that Divine eternal law of compassion, in its sudden impulse, which is older and grander than the written Law" (Farrar). It is observable that in these sudden cases, in which the common brotherhood of man was involved, the nobler spirits of Israel ever rose above all consideration of law and custom, and, putting aside all legal, orthodox restriction, obeyed at once the sovereign dictates of the heart. So Elijah and Elisha, those true saints of God, shrank not from touching the dead.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13. ἥψατο αὐτοῦ. This was a distinct violation of the letter, but not of course of the spirit of the Mosaic Law (Lev 13:46; Num 5:2). In order to prevent the accidental violation of this law, lepers, until the final stage of the disease, were then as now secluded from all living contact with others, “differing in nothing from a dead man” (Jos. Antt. III. 11, § 3), and only appeared in public with the cry Tamê, Tamê—‘Unclean! Unclean!’ But Jesus, “because He is the Lord of the Law, does not obey the Law, but makes the Law” (St Ambrose); or rather, He obeys that divine eternal Law of Compassion, in its sudden impulse (σπλαγχνισθεὶς, Mar 1:40), which is older and grander than the written Law. (So Elijah and Elisha had not scrupled to touch the dead, 1Ki 17:21; 2Ki 4:34.) His touching the leper, yet remaining clean, is a type of His taking our humanity upon Him, remaining undefiled.

θέλω, καθαρίσθητι. ‘I will! Be cleansed!’ Two words—“a prompt echo to the ripe faith of the leper”—which are accurately preserved by all three Evangelists. Our Lord’s first miracles were done with a glad spontaneity in answer to faith. But when men had ceased to believe in Him, then lack of faith rendered His latter miracles more sad and more delayed (Mar 6:5; Mat 13:58). We never however hear of a moment’s delay in attending to the cry of a leper. When the sinner cries from his heart, “I have sinned against the Lord,” the answer comes instantly, “The Lord also hath put away thy sin” (2Sa 12:13).

ἡ λέπρα ἀπῆλθεν ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ. St Matthew (Mat 8:2) says ἐκαθαρίσθη αὐτοῦ ἡ λέπρα. St Mark (Mar 1:42) writes both phrases. St Matthew looks at the result Levitically, St Luke medically. Jesus was not polluted by the touch, but the leper was cleansed. Even so He touched our sinful nature, yet without sin (H. de S. Victore).

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13. ἐκτείνας τὴν χεῖρα. All three have this Hebraistic amplification. In LXX the phrase commonly occurs in connexion with an act of punishment: Exo 7:5, Exo 7:19, Exo 7:8:1, Exo 7:2, Exo 7:9:22, Exo 7:23, Exo 7:10:12, Exo 7:21, Exo 7:22, Exo 7:14:16, Exo 7:21, 26, 27; Eze 6:14, Eze 6:14:9, 16:27, 25:7, Eze 6:13, 16, 35:3; Zep 1:4, Zep 1:2:13; Jer 6:12, Jer 15:6. In N.T. it rarely has this meaning. Jesus touched the leper on the same principle as that on which He healed on the sabbath: the ceremonial law gives place to the law of charity when the two come into collision. His touch aided the leper’s faith.

ἡ λέπρα ἀπῆλθεν ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ. Here again (see on 4:40) Mk. has the whole expression, of which Lk. and Mt. each use a part. Mk. has ἀπῆλθεν ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ ἡ λέπρα, καὶ ἐκαθαρίσθη, and Mt. has ἐκαθαρίσθη αὐτοῦ ἡλέπρα. All three have εὐθέως or εὐθύς, Showing that Jesus not merely prepared the way for a cure which nature accomplished, but healed the leper at once by His touch.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I will [θελω] . See on Mt 1:19.

Be thou clean [καθαρισθητι] . Rev., more accurately, gives the force of the passive voice, be thou made clean.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.