Matthew 9:18

‘While he spoke these things to them, behold, there came a ruler, and worshipped him (or ‘paid him homage'), saying, “My daughter is even now dead, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” '

‘While He spoke these things to them.' This could be intended to be specific (and thus as signifying ‘while He was actually speaking what has just been recorded') or it could be intended to be more vague (‘while He was teaching similar types of things to those which have just been recorded') as a convenient means of linking the narratives. In the latter case he would simply be saying that the Ruler burst in on Jesus at some time when He was teaching about the coming of what was new. Compare Mark 5:21 which is also vague. Neither confirms the true chronological position of the story.

We have in this whole account a typical Matthaean abbreviation. He condenses a more complicated situation mainly in order to save space, but possibly in this verse also for the purpose of emphasising from the start that by the time Jesus arrived at the house she really was dead. By establishing that fact here there would be no danger of anyone (well, nearly anyone) misinterpreting Jesus' later comment about her being ‘asleep'. In order to obtain the full facts the sentence has to be divided into two halves, the first indicating that the Ruler came to Jesus and fell at His feet, and the second indicating that the Ruler informed Jesus that his daughter was dead, for this latter in fact took place some time after the former. It may thus be a typical piece of journalistic condensation. Basically Matthew is saying as briefly as possible that the father came to Jesus for help, informed Jesus (later) that his daughter was dead, and asked Him to heal her in the usual manner. The way in which Jesus regularly healed was no mystery. It was, however, unusual. There is a solitary reference to Abraham being called on to lay hands on a sick person in a Qumran scroll, but it is a rare occurrence.

Alternately Matthew may be depicting the Ruler as exaggerating the case in order to bring home to Jesus the seriousness of the situation. By ‘is dead' he may simply have meant ‘as good as dead', ‘could die at any moment', ‘dead if you do not come and do something about it'. (Compare ‘let the dead bury their dead'). This may have been a commonly recognised way of indicating nearness to death, especially when calling a doctor. ‘She is dead if you do not come quickly with your medicines'. But if this is so we have no other evidence of it. On the other hand this interpretation is supported by the words that follow. For the suggestion that Jesus would lay hands on her so that she might live suggests that the father did not see her as actually dead, but was hoping for a cure. The Ruler would have had no cause to think that Jesus could raise the dead by laying hands on them, but he would have every cause to think that Jesus could heal the sick by doing so. (Note that in fact Jesus does not lay His hands on her, so this is not conforming the story to the later facts).

We are given fuller details in the other synoptic Gospels. When the Ruler first made contact with Jesus, as far as he was aware his daughter was still alive, although dying. It was only later when messengers arrived to tell him that his daughter was dead that he passed that information on to Jesus. So the basic facts as depicted in Matthew is right, it is the inessential (to Matthew) detail that is missing.

This should act as a warning to us that in many Bible stories details are often missing so that we should beware of drawing lessons from silence, or overemphasising what might simply be the result of condensation. But we do note that while Matthew elsewhere draws attention to outstanding faith (Matthew 8:10; Matthew 9:28), even doing so later in this story (Matthew 9:22), there is no mention of the Ruler's faith here, simply because Matthew knew the full story and knew that his was a wavering faith, and not something to be especially commended.

‘The Ruler.' He was a ruler of the synagogue and therefore respected, playing an important part in society. We must not judge the attitude of the synagogues by the Pharisees (see Matthew 12:9; Matthew 13:54), although Jesus was aware that His Apostles would experience rough treatment in some synagogues (Matthew 10:17).