A certain man before him which had the dropsy. — This is the only miracle of the kind recorded in the Gospels. The term which St. Luke uses is strictly technical (hydropikos), and we may fairly see in the narrative another illustration of his professional character. He, more than others, had been led to specific inquiries as to the nature of the diseases which our Lord had healed. (See Introduction.) The man may have been an invited guest, or the feast may have been one of the semi-public ones in which the richer Pharisees displayed their hospitality.

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