Luke 8:41-56

§ 52. RAISING OF JAIRUS’S DAUGHTER THE WOMAN WITH A FLUX, Luke 8:41-56 .

(See notes on Matthew 9:1; Matthew 9:10-26; Mark 5:22-43.)

Jesus, after recrossing the lake, from dispossessing the demoniacs of Gadara, attends the feast given by Matthew in his honour to his brother publicans, and is in full tide of rebuke to the Pharisees who were cavilling at his eating in such company, when a sudden interruption takes place. No less a person than the Ruler of the Synagogue of Capernaum appears, prostrates himself before Jesus, and, announcing that his daughter of twelve years old is at the point of death, beseeches him that he will come and lay his hand upon her. Such is the ruler’s faith, (according to Mark 5:23,) that although he did not, like the centurion of Capernaum, say that Jesus could restore her at a distance, yet he held that he could by a touch of the hand. Luke and Mark make the ruler say that she is a dying; is at the point of death; Matthew makes him say even now dead. He may, in his importunity, have said all three. In finally saying that she was dead, he may, in his intense feeling, have overstated, or may have felt that her death would occur before Jesus could arrive. Or, finally, Matthew may have substantially condensed the statements of the ruler and the messengers from home into one. See our note on chapter Luke 7:1.

Of Rulers of the Synagogue there sometimes appear to be several, as in Acts 13:15; and sometimes but one, who may have been president of the whole, as in Luke 13:14.