Mark 1:40-45

40–45. THE CLEANSING OF A LEPER

Matthew 8:2-4; Luke 5:12-16

The three Evangelists give this miracle in different connexions. Mt. places it first in his three triplets of specimens of the Messiah’s mighty works, just after Christ had come down from delivering the Sermon on the Mount. Lk. places it just after the call of the first disciples. On the impossibility of eliminating miracles from the career of Jesus Christ see Sanday, Outlines of the Life of Christ, p. 113; Illingworth, Divine Immanence, p. 90; R.J. Ryle, M.D., Hibbert Journal, Apr. 1907, pp. 572–586. The healing of a leper cannot be explained as a case of “suggestion” or ordinary “faith-healing.” We have twelve cases of leprosy in N.T., this one, Simon the Leper (Mark 14:3), and the ten in Luke 17:12. The literature on the subject is enormous; see artt. in D.B., D.C.G., Enc. Brit., etc. Lepers were probably numerous in Palestine then as now, and the malady probably differed greatly in malignity, some skin-diseases being reckoned as “leprosy.” The disciples were commissioned to heal lepers (Matthew 10:8).