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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 8:14

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And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever.

14. Peter’s house ] From Joh 1:44 we learn that Bethsaida was the city of Andrew and Simon Peter. Either then (i) they had changed their home to Capernaum, or (2) Bethsaida was close to Capernaum. One theory is that Bethsaida was the port of Capernaum.

laid, and sick of a fever ] St Luke uses a technical term, “great fever,” the symptoms of which were those of typhus fever.

laid ] Literally, struck down, an expression which denotes the great and sudden prostration which characterises typhus fever.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14 17. The Cure of Peter’s Mother-in-law of a Fever, Mar 1:29-31; Luk 4:38-39

St Luke’s description bears special marks of scientific accuracy.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

This account is contained also in Mar 1:29-31, and Luk 4:38-41. Mark says that Simon and Andrew lived together, and that James and John went with them to the house. He adds, also, that before the miracle they spake to him about the sick person. The miracle was direct and complete. She that had been sick was so completely restored as to attend to them and minister to them. The mention of Peters wifes mother proves that Peter either then was or had been married. The fair and obvious interpretation is, that his wife was then living. Compare 1Co 9:5, and see the note at that place. Peter is claimed by the Roman Catholics to be the head of the church and the vicegerent of Christ. The Pope, according to their view, is the successor of this apostle. On what pretence do they maintain that it is wrong for priests to marry? Why did not Christ at once reject Peter from being an apostle for having a wife? How remarkable that he should be set up as the head of the church, and an example and a model to all who were to succeed him! But all this is human law, and is contrary to the New Testament. Compare 1Ti 3:2, 1Ti 3:4-5. That Peter had a wife was no objection to his being an apostle, and marriage has been expressly declared to be honorable in all, Heb 13:4.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Mat 8:14

Sick of a fever.

Peter was a disciple, yet affliction was permitted to visit his domestic circle.

Affliction at home

1. Develops social sympathy.

2. Brings out family characteristics.

3. Unites the household in devotional exercises.

4. Evokes practical and affectionate gratitude. (Dr. Parker.)

Fevers at Capernaum

How do you account for the prevalence of fevers at Capernaum? for it was there, of course, that Peters wifes mother laid, and sick of a fever. Fevers are still prevalent in this region, particularly in summer and autumn, owing to the extreme heat acting upon the marshy plains, like that of El Batihah,, at the influxof the Jordan. (W. M. Thomson, D. D.)

Domestic affliction an imoving ministry

You would not be half the man you are but for your sick child; your tendency is towards bumptiousness, aggressiveness of speech, sternness, harshness. You have a magisterial cast and bearing in your life; but that little sick child has softened you, and been like a benediction upon your life. Men now take notice of your voice and say, What new tones have subtly entered into it; how different the kind grasp, how noble the new bearing, how impressive the sacred patience, how touching and pathetic the sadness of the face! Afflictions do not spring out of the dust: do not be impatient with them; we need something to soften this hard life. O, if it were all buying, selling, getting gain, outrunning one another in a race for wealth in which the racers take no time to recover themselves-there would be no gardens on the face of the earth, no places consecrated to floral beauty, no houses built for music, no churches set up for prayer. But affliction helps to keep us right, affliction brings us to our knees. (J. Perkier, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 14. Peter’s house] That Peter lived at Capernaum, and that Christ lodged with him, is fully evident from this verse compared with Mt 17:24.

Peter’s – wife’s mother] Learn hence, says Theophylact, that marriage is no hinderance to virtue, since the chief of the apostles had his wife. Marriage is one of the first of Divine institutions, and is a positive command of God. He says, the state of celibacy is not GOOD, Ge 2:18. Those who pretend to say that the single state is more holy than the other slander their Maker, and say in effect, “We are too holy to keep the commandments of God.”

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

This story is related, with some further circumstances, Mar 1:29-31; Luk 4:38,39. Mark tells us it was the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John; ( it seems they lived there together); that they told him of her sickness, after he had been there some time; that he

took her by the hand, and lifted her up. Luke saith it was a great fever; that they besought him for her; that

he stood over her, and rebuked the fever. Here is no contradiction, only some amplifications of the story. It is plain from this text, that Peter was a married man, and continued so though called to be an apostle, and that he had a family. Fevers are ordinary distempers, and often cured by ordinary means, but this was a great fever. The miracle here was not in the cure of an incurable disease, but in the way of the cure, by a touch of his hand, or a lifting her up; and the suddenness of the cure, it immediately left her; and her sudden recovery of strength, that she could presently arise and minister to them: that she could do it, argued her cure miraculous; that she did do it, argues her sense of Christs goodness, and thankfulness, and teacheth us the use we should make of all Gods gracious providences to us, to make us fitter for the service of God, and to employ ourselves in it; so taking the cup of salvation, and praising the name of the Lord, Psa 116:13.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house,…. And which was also Andrew’s, Mr 1:29 for these two brothers lived together, and this was in Capernaum, as appears from the context. Though Andrew and Peter were originally of Bethsaida, a place not far from this, but had removed hither since their call by Christ, this being his city; though probably this house was Peter’s wife’s mother’s, and only called their’s, because they lodged there, whilst in this city: into this house Christ entered, with James and John, and others; when

he saw his (Peter’s) wife’s mother, laid, or “cast” on a bed,

See Gill “Mt 8:6”.

and sick of a fever: Luke says, Lu 4:38 that she “was taken”, or rather held, or “detained with a great fever”; the distemper was very raging and furious, it had got to a very great height. The other evangelists say, that the persons in the house told him of her, and besought him for her, that he would heal her, having a very great affection for her, and desire of her life, which seemed to be in great danger. Hence it may be observed against the Papists, that ministers of the Gospel may lawfully marry; Peter, an apostle, and from whom they pretend to derive their succession of bishops, was a married man, had a wife, and that after he was called to be an apostle. His wife’s mother is expressly mentioned, being the person labouring under a violent fever, and whom Christ cured in the following manner.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Peter’s Wife’s Mother Healed.

14 And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever. 15 And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them. 16 When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: 17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.

They who pretend to be critical in the Harmony of the evangelists, place this passage, and all that follows to the end of ch. ix. before the sermon on the mount, according to the order which Mark and Luke observe in placing it. Dr. Lightfoot places only this passage before the sermon on the mount, and v. 18, c. after. Here we have,

I. A particular account of the cure of Peter’s wife’s mother, who was ill of a fever in which observe,

1. The case, which was nothing extraordinary; fevers are the most common distempers; but, the patient being a near relation of Peter’s, it is recorded as an instance of Christ’s peculiar care of, and kindness to, the families of his disciples. Here we find, (1.) That Peter had a wife, and yet was called to be an apostle of Christ; and Christ countenanced the marriage state, by being thus kind to his wife’s relations. The church of Rome, therefore, which forbids ministers to marry, goes contrary to that apostle from whom they pretend to derive an infallibility. (2.) That Peter had a house, though Christ had not, v. 20. Thus was the disciple better provided for than his Lord. (3.) That he had a house at Capernaum, though he was originally of Bethsaida; it is probably, he removed to Capernaum, when Christ removed thither, and made that his principal residence. Note, It is worth while to change our quarters, that we may be near to Christ, and have opportunities of converse with him. When the ark removes, Israel must remove and go after it. (4.) That he had his wife’s mother with him in his family, which is an example to yoke-fellows to be kind to one another’s relations as their own. Probably, this good woman was old, and yet was respected and taken care of, as old people ought to be, with all possible tenderness. (5.) That she lay ill of a fever. Neither the strength of youth, nor the weakness and coldness of age, will be a fence against diseases of this kind. The palsy was a chronical disease, the fever an acute disease, but both were brought to Christ.

2. The cure, v. 15. (1.) How it was effected; He touched her hand; not to know the disease, as the physicians do, by the pulse, but to heal it. This was an intimation of his kindness and tenderness; he is himself touched with the feeling of our infirmities; it likewise shows the way of spiritual healing, by the exerting of the power of Christ with his word, and the application of Christ to ourselves. The scripture speaks the word, the Spirit gives the touch, touches the heart, touches the hand. (2.) How it was evidenced: this showed that the fever left her, she arose, and ministered to them. By this it appears, [1.] That the mercy was perfected. They that recover from fevers by the power of nature are commonly weak and feeble, and unfit for business a great while after; to show therefore that this cure was above the power of nature, she was immediately so well as to go about the business of the house. [2.] That the mercy was sanctified; and the mercies that are so are indeed perfected. Though she was thus dignified by a peculiar favour, yet she does not assume importance, but is as ready to wait at table, if there be occasion, as any servant. They must be humble whom Christ has honoured; being thus delivered, she studies what she shall render. It is very fit that they whom Christ hath healed should minister unto him, as his humble servants, all their days.

II. Here is a general account of the many cures that Christ wrought. This cure of Peter’s mother-in-law brought him abundance of patients. “He healed such a one; why not me? Such a one’s friend, why not mine?” Now we are here told,

1. What he did, v. 16. (1.) He cast out devils; cast out the evil spirits with his word. There may be much of Satan’s agency, by the divine permission, in those diseases of which natural causes may be assigned, as in Job’s boils, especially in the diseases of the mind; but, about the time of Christ’s being in the world, there seems to have been more than ordinary letting loose of the devil, to possess and vex the bodies of people; he came, having great wrath, for he knew that his time was short; and God wisely ordered it so, that Christ might have the fairer and more frequent opportunities of showing his power over Satan, and the purpose and design of his coming into the world, which was to disarm and dispossess Satan, to break his power, and to destroy his works; and his success was as glorious as his design was gracious. (2.) He healed all that were sick; all without exception, though the patient was ever so mean, and the case ever so bad.

2. How the scripture was herein fulfilled, v. 17. The accomplishment of the Old-Testament prophecies was the great thing Christ had in his eye, and the great proof of his being the Messiah: among other things, it was written of him (Isa. liii. 4), Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: it is referred to, 1 Pet. ii. 24, and there it is construed, he hath borne our sins; here it is referred to, and is construed, he hath borne our sicknesses; our sins make our sicknesses our griefs; Christ bore away sin by the merit of his death, and bore away sickness by the miracles of his life; nay, though those miracles are ceased, we may say, that he bore our sicknesses then, when he bore our sins in his own body upon the tree; for sin is both the cause and the sting of sickness. Many are the diseases and calamities to which we are liable in the body: and there is more, in this one line of the gospels, to support and comfort us under them, than in all the writings of the philosophers–that Jesus Christ bore our sicknesses, and carried our sorrows; he bore them before us; though he was never sick, yet he was hungry, and thirsty, and weary, and troubled in spirit, sorrowful and very heavy; he bore them for us in his passion, and bears them with us in compassion, being touched with the feeling of our infirmities: and thus he bears them off from us, and makes them sit light, if it be not our own fault. Observe how emphatically it is expressed here: Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses; he was both able and willing to interpose in that matter, and concerned to deal with our infirmities and sicknesses, as our Physician; that part of the calamity of the human nature was his particular care, which he evidenced by his great readiness to cure diseases; and he is no less powerful, no less tender now, for we are sure that never were any the worse for going to heaven.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

Lying sick of a fever ( ). Two participles, bedridden (perfect passive of ) and burning with fever (present active). How long the fever had had her we have no means of knowing, possibly a sudden and severe attack (Mr 1:30), as they tell Jesus about her on reaching the house of Peter. We are not told what kind of fever it was. Fever itself was considered a disease. “Fever” is from German feuer (fire) like the Greek .

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Sick of a fever [] . Derived from pur, fire. Our word fever comes through the German feuer.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

THE HEALING OF PETER’S WIFE’S MOTHER

1) “And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house,” (kai elthon hi lesous eis ten oikian Petrou) “And as Jesus was entering into the house of Peter,” near the synagogue in Capernaum, Mat 8:5; Mr 1:21-29. James, John, and Andrew also resided there.

2) “He saw his wife’s mother laid,” (eipen ten pentheran autou beblemene) “He saw his mother-in-law who had been laid aside,” in a side room or apart from the flow of company, for health reasons, Mr 1:30. This passage indicates that Peter was a married man.

3) “And sick of a fever.” (kai puressousan) “And fever-stricken,” or fever sick; Luk 4:38 reads, “and they (the four apostles, Peter, James, John, and Andrew) besought Him for her,” healing.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

CRITICAL NOTES

Mat. 8:16. When the even was come.Or, as St. Luke has it, while the sun was setting. There were two reasons why the time should be thus specified.

1. It was natural that the sick should be brought in the cool of the evening, rather than in the scorching heat of the afternoon.

2. It was the Sabbath, and the feeling which made the Pharisees question the lawfulness of a mans carrying the bed on which he had been lying (Joh. 5:10), would probably have deterred the friends of the sick from bringing them as long as it lasted. But with sunset the Sabbath came to a close, and then they would feel themselves free to act (Plumptre). Possessed with devils.Or demoniacs. Persons who had lost hold of the helm of self-control, and who were, in both body and mind, steered hither and thither, without any regard to the chart of reason, by malevolent spirits (Morison). But some hold a different view. We cannot find more in this so-called devil-possession than an attempt to explain cases of disease which were obscure then, and are obscure still (Tuck).

Mat. 8:17. Himself took our infirmities, etc. (Isa. 53:4).A more literal translation of the original Hebrew than is given in our Old Testament version (Morison).

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Mat. 8:14-17

One and all.These two narratives, though in some respects different, may well be taken together. Both illustrate the special nature of the healing work of the Saviour. In the first story we see its singular completeness. In the second, its amazing extent. In the comment made on this second story, its wonderful depth.

I. Its singular completeness.We see this, on the one hand, in the state of things with which the Saviour began. Coming into the house of Peter He finds his wifes mother suffering from a fever. It appears to have been an attack of fever of a very serious kind. St. Luke, as a physician, seems to have especially noted this fact, and speaks of it as great (Luk. 4:38). Its effects, however, of themselves, seem to have testified sufficiently to this fact. The sufferers strength had altogether given way under its fury. She was laidalmost she had flung herselfon the bed. Not even for such a guest as Jesus was she able to rise. The state of things that finally followed on this. Touching her handand lifting her up (Mar. 1:31)the Saviour both banished the fever and brought back her strength. Also (Mar. 1:31 again), He did this immediately Also, yet more, He did it so that all her vigour came back. She was immediately as strong as she had been before the fever came on, and was soon engaged again in the same kind of duties as she attended to then. She arose and ministered unto themunto Him (so some)thus showing, if we adopt that reading, that He had touched her heart as well as her hand; and so that there was nothing deficient, in any way, in what He had done.

II. The amazing extent of Christs work.How wide, in every way, in the second narrative is the area touched by His mercy! How wide, to begin, in mere number and magnitude. When the even was comeprobably the eve after the Sabbath (Mar. 1:31-32), when it would be lawful to do sothey brought unto Him many. So many (we learn from Mar. 1:33), that all the city was gathered together at the door. How wide in variety also. Those who were possessed with devils, and so, in all probability, would not have come by themselves. Those who were suffering from sickness, and so, in all probability, could not have come by themselves. All theseall such of all sorts on that memorable evening to be found in that populous citymet together outside that door. What an assemblage they were! All differing in the nature, but none in the factand probably in the extremityof their needs. Such and so, however, in no case, were they allowed to remain. The more there came the more there were healed (Mat. 8:16). He healed them all. The more varied their needs, the more varied His help. The greater their extremity, the more present His power (cf. Luk. 5:17).

Oh! in what divers pains they met!
Oh! with what joy they went away!

III. Its wonderful depth.There was more here beneath the surface than there was even upon it. There was the hidden power, in the first place, of the spirits of evil. All sickness is spoken of sometimes as being not unconnected with them (Job. 2:6; Luk. 13:16; Act. 10:38, etc.). There were some sicknesses which are spoken of as being in a special way connected with them. Such are mentioned here in Mat. 8:16; and still more explicitly in the parallel passage of Mar. 1:32; Mar. 1:34. We cannot doubt, therefore, even though we do not know how, that these were at work in this case. Also here again, beneath the surfacethough not in such a way, therefore, as to be minutely followed by usthere was the operation of sin. For what is sin but the shadow of death? And what is death but the wages of sin? (Rom. 6:23). And how could there be the shadow without the substance that casts it? And how the substance without its cause? And is not this truth implied also in those striking words of the prophet (Isa. 33:24)? Not to say, also, that the general truth of the hand of the evil one in our sicknesses carries with it also the general truth of the presence of sin? For what could he do against us, with all his power, were it not for our sin? Lastly, there was here, beneath the surface, the atoning passion of Christ. How was it that He could so far deliver these victims of Satan and sin? Because He was about to do that which should deliver them from still worse! Because by death He was about to destroy him that had the power of death, i.e. the devil (Heb. 2:14). Because as the Lamb of God, He was about to take away the sins of the world; and to bear our sins in His own body on the tree. Such were His sympathy with us, and His work for us in connection with our sins. It was the same spirit which He shows here in regard to our sorrows. Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses. We may say this because He actually did thus with regard to their roots.

Two brief pregnant truths follow from this:

1. Jesus is the Saviour of all.However many, however diverse, however needy those who come to Him for salvation, they cannot exhaust either His love or His power. All fullnessof every kinddwelleth in Him.

2. Jesus is the Saviour of each.He is as ready for one as He is for the multitude (Mat. 8:2; Mat. 8:6; Mat. 8:14; Mat. 8:16). Him that cometh to Menot only them that come to MeI will in no wise cast out (Joh. 6:37).

HOMILIES ON THE VERSES

Mat. 8:14-15. The healing of Peters wifes mother.

1. Marriage is lawful and honourable in the preachers of the gospel.
2. Christ will not disdain to visit the families of His own, how mean soever they be.
3. The special thing our Lord taketh notice of in the house He cometh unto is what aileth any in it, and what need they stand in of His help.
4. Christ will show His goodness and power as need be, for the comfort of His friends.
5. Although this might seem no great matter, in comparison of other miracles, yet faith will observe Christs Divine power in a little matter, as clearly as in the greatest work.
6. What benefit we receive of Christ ought to be employed for service to Him and His followers.David Dickson.

Simons wifes mother.The noticeable features of the transaction are these:

I. That this healing was done at the request of those around Jesus (Luk. 4:38).Jesus sought out many cases Himself, and healed them unasked. Here He gives examples numberless of the conversefor this was only the first of a whole crowd of such answered requests that afternoon and evening (Mat. 8:16)direct seals of His own maxim, ask and ye shall receive. Ask, not only for yourselves, but for others. Ask believing, and it shall be done unto you.

II. The specific action with which the cure was accompanied.The laying His hands upon the patient. This action seems to have characterised the whole group of healings which took place on this occasion, for St. Luke says of this great transaction, that He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them (Luk. 4:40). The action, though not invariable, was a very frequent one with Him. We may regard it as giving a sacramental character to these healings. It was significant that the Sent of God and the Saviour of men should use such an action. It means that He comes as well to reverse the curse of disease and suffering as to remove the sin which brought it. That He absolves both from the guilt and from the yoke of sin and restores men to the favour of God.

III. The immediate and entire recovery of the patient.In addition to the statement common to all the synoptic Gospels, that the completeness of the recovery was proved by the good dames prompt help at the table, St. Luke records the rebuke of the fevera detail which would strike the mind of a physician. The transaction is utterly removed by these details out of the category of an ordinary event.Prof. Laidlaw, D.D.

Mat. 8:14. Sin as a fever.Sin may be likened unto a fever:

I. In regard of the origin thereof.Both arise within.

II. In regard of the nature thereof.

1. The substance of the fever is a heat besides nature, which extinguisheth the natural heat. So the fire of concupiscence and lust of sin, doth extinguish the fire and heat of zeal.
2. The fever ariseth diversely, from divers humours. So sin sometimes ariseth from the lust of the flesh, sometimes from the lust of the eyes, sometimes from the pride of life.
3. There are two kinds of fever: a continual fever and a fever with some intermission. Some sin with intermissions of repentance, some sin perpetually.

III. In regard of the manner of the proceeding thereof.

1. At first the fever makes us cold, but by and by we burn. So at first we are afraid of sin, by and by fearless thereof.
2. The fever inflames the whole body. So sin wounds and enfeebles us, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot.

IV. In regard of the effects.

1. The fever debilitates and weakens the whole man. So by sin we are so weakened that we are neither able to walk in the ways of God, nor run the race that He hath set before us, nor work out our salvation.
2. The fever in the understanding disturbs and takes away the use of reason, making a man not know what he saith or doth. And this is very often mortal and deadly. So, when men grow obstinate and bold in sinning, and are neither sensible of sin nor punishment, but will do whatsoever they will, it is an argument of a soul not distant from death.
3. The fever in the appetite produceth these effects:
(1) It loathes the most wholesome things. So sin makes us loathe good works and good counsel.
(2) It longs for that which is unwholesome. So we love the vain pleasures of sin, etc.
(3) There is a thirst not to be quenched or satisfied. So many are furious in sinning, and cannot cease to sin.

V. In regard of the end thereof.Sometimes a fever ends in health and life of itself; sometimes it ends in health and life by the use of good means and the help of the physician; sometimes it ends in a sickly and weakly estate; sometimes it ends in death. Sin differs from a fever in that it cannot be cured of itself. It is cured and healed by Christ the only Physician of the soul.Richard Ward.

Mat. 8:16. The healing Christ.

1. No time was unseasonable to Christ, when people came to Him. When the even was come, when rest was due to Christ.
2. Among other effects which sin hath brought upon men, this is one, to be bodily possessed with devils.
3. There is no method of liberating men of devils but that they come, or be presented by others, to Christ.
4. Christ by His word or command can easily deliver men from deepest possession.
5. Never man came to Him to be helped whom He cured not; therefore justly do they perish who come not unto Him.David Dickson.

Mat. 8:17. Christ bearing our sicknesses.It is, at first blush, paradoxical to quote words which seem to express, not what the recovered crowds and their friends were enjoying, but what the Healer Himself was undertaking. But note the occasion. Not without significance are these words quoted in connection with this remarkable Sabbath days work. From morning to evening, and beyond evening into night, had Jesus been curing diseasesbodily, mental, and spiritual. He was, doubtless, much fatigued. Much virtue had gone out of Him. Much compassion had been excited within Him. He had found many harrowing cases of possession to deal with. Many sore distresses had been subjected to His view. True, He had been victorious over them all. It was a day of gladness in that place such as had never been seen since it was a place of human habitation, and doubtless the soul of Immanuel rejoiced in this outpouring of God-like help. But this well chosen citation directs our attention to some other aspects of the Lords healing offices. Think of the Son of God, the Eternal King of a city where no inhabitant can ever say, I am sick, now sojourning among suffering men. See what work ready for Him, what evils to grapple with in one little town of one obscure province of this dark earth, on one Sabbath afternoon. Then, think of His three years ministry, day after day healing, helping, suffering with and for men. Think, further, of the tremendous mass of human misery which Jesus Christ, through His blessed gospel, has come to remove, of the weight of His glorious but mighty undertaking, as it lay upon His mind during that compassionate, open-eyed public life of His in Juda and Galilee. Think, finally, of the innumerable evils of humanity meeting upon HimHim alonewho was to redeem us from them, and the force of the words will make itself felt.Prof. Laidlaw, D.D.

Christs vicarious sufferings.It is a further surprise, leading to a further expansion in the sense of this great utterance, to note that the words took and bare will not admit of being rendered merely took away or carried off. They are the proper terms for representative, place-taking, substitutionary suffering. Scholarship admits no other rendering of them. Now, at first sight, or on a superficial view, it does seem strange to say that Jesus bare or carried, like a surety or substitute, mens sicknesses and infirmities when, in point of fact, He was sympathising with them, or better still, was relieving and removing them. But the truth is, in a great deal of our Christian teaching the central doctrine of atonement has been shrivelled up to a mere test-point of orthodoxy, instead of taking in the breadth of the Scriptures. Is not this quotation of the Evangelist a fresh light thrown on the vicarious work of Jesus? Not His death alone bare that character, but His life as well. The same redeeming energy was shown in these blessed healings as when in the latest and highest phase of it, He, through the Eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot unto God. And the connection of the two sides of this great redemptive work becomes clear when we read the Scriptures in their own light. Accept the doctrinal standpoint of the sacred writers, and the whole becomes clear as a sunbeam. Suffering and disease are effects of sin and types of sin. The removal of disease, then, is an effect and a symbol of the removal of sin itself. And He who takes away the sin of the world is He who takes it upon Himself in life and death. As Jesus wrought these mighty and merciful works throughout the towns and villages of Galilee, He was showing Himself, by type and foretaste, the suffering, yet conquering Redeemer upon whom the Lord had laid that iniquity of us all from which all our pains and diseases flow.Ibid.

Christ and affliction.This central thought brings the diseases and sufferings of the children of God in every age within the sweep of that healing ministry of Jesus. There is more in this one line of the Gospel to support suffering Christians than in all the writings of the philosophers. Sicknesses and infirmities are to Gods children no longer of the curse, but within the covenant. He bore them for us in His passion; He bears them with us in His compassion. He can be touched with a feeling of them all. He touches them with the transmuting power of His love, and so makes them light afflictions which are but for a moment, working out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.Ibid.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Section 14
JESUS HEALS PETERS MOTHER-IN-LAW

(Parallels: Mar. 1:21-34; Luk. 4:31-41)

TEXT: 8:1417

14.

And when Jesus was come into Peters house, he saw his wifes mother lying sick of a fever.

15.

And he touched her hand, and the fever left her; and she arose, and ministered unto him.

16.

And when even was come, they brought unto him many possessed with demons: and he cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all that were sick:

17.

that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities and bare our diseases.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS

Why do you suppose Jesus came to Peters house? Was this a friendly social visit or something more?

What is Matthews purpose in the quotation of the prophecy?

How did Peters mother-in-law minister unto Jesus? Why?

Why does Matthew connect these cures of diseases and casting demons out that Jesus is doing with Isaiahs prophecy?

PARAPHRASE AND HARMONY

Jesus arose from the seat in the Capernaum synagogue where He had been teaching and left the building and entered the home of Simon Peter and Andrew. Accompanying Him were James and John.
Now Simons mother-in-law was ill and had been put to bed with a high fever. At once they told Him about her, seeking His help for her, and so Jesus came and saw her, As He stood beside the pallet on which she lay, He rebuked the fever. Taking her by the hand, He lifted her up, and as He did so the fever left her. At once she rose and began to wait on them.
That same evening, just as the sun was setting, everybody in that neighborhood who had any friends or kinfolk suffering from any sort of disease, brought them to Jesuseven those who were demon-possessed were brought. The whole town was crowded into the narrow street in front of Peters house.
Jesus laid His hands on every one of them and healed the sick ones but the spirits He cast out with a word. The demons came out of many, screaming, You are the Son of God! But He spoke sternly to them and refused them permission to testify what they knew to be true: that He was truly the Christ.

This whole incident resulted in the fulfilment of Isaiahs inspired prediction (Isa. 53:4), He took our infirmities on Himself, and bore the burden of our diseases.

NOTES

With this section Matthew describes Jesus incomparable love for another group of Israels outcasts. But this time he does not choose those who by the Law are somehow proscribed or actually banned by the rabbis. Rather, he concentrates the readers attention on Gods interest in unknown, humble folk whom the rich, the elite, the higher circles, the religious aristocrats would rather have snubbed as those provincial nobodies, sometimes sneeringly referred to as this crowd, who do not know the law (Joh. 7:49 cf. Luk. 7:29). Matthew now gives the specific examples he had promised earlier (See Notes on Mat. 4:23-24).

The background and partial explanation of some of the expressions in this section find their origin in the events of the entire day on that Great Day of Miracles in Capernaum (study parallel texts, Mar. 1:21 ff.; Luk. 4:31 ff.). Jesus had returned to Capernaum from the seashore whence He had just called the four fishermen brothers and partners, Peter, Andrew, James and John, to become His close disciples, since Marks sequence is apparently tighter than that of Luke who places Jesus return from Nazareth in that general time-context. With His newly committed disciples, Jesus goes to the regular synagogue meeting on a Sabbath, where His teaching had special impact equal in power to His forcefulness in the Sermon on the Mount. (Cf. Mat. 7:28-29 with Mar. 1:22; Luk. 4:32) But Jesus was interrupted by a demoniacs raving, whereupon Jesus rebuked the demon, cast him out and freed the man. The onlookers were amazed that Jesus authority lay not merely in forceful words but also on thrilling deeds. News of this event spread everywhere, a fact which explains what follows the conclusion of the Sabbath rest that day. Immediately Jesus arose, left the synagogue and, with James and John, joined Peter and Andrew as guests in the home of Peter.

Mat. 8:14 Jesus was come into Peters house. This simple house probably located in Bethsaida (Joh. 1:44), apparently also the home of Andrew also (Mar. 1:29) excites our intense curiosity about the lives of the men whom Jesus had just called to close discipleship. If these men are still living in Bethsaida, this fishing village must be so much a suburb of Capernaum as to remain nameless in our text, while Capernaum is the only city named in Mark (Mar. 1:21; Mar. 1:29) as gathering about the door to Peters house. (See ISBE, 451, 452, article Bethsaida) However, the town, Bethsaida, remains distinct from Capernaum in Jesus mind (see Mat. 11:20; Mat. 11:23) and Capernaums sick might have been brought the short distance to Bethsaida. This strange silence about the passing from one city to another as our text has been interpreted by some as indicating the moving of Peter and Andrew to Capernaum.

Wherever this house was located, its very existence at this point in Peters discipleship indicates that he did not regard his service to Jesus as requiring the selling of the house, dispersion of his household effects and ascetic life with the Lord. To the contrary, this very house proves Peters intelligent regard for the central patient of our text, his mother-in-law, (See Notes on Mat. 4:18-22) since he maintained this house even in his absence in the service of Jesus.

He saw his wifes mother because the other members of the family told Him of her (Mar. 1:30) and requested His help on her behalf (Luk. 4:38). Does this mean that Peters mother-in-law were lying in another room out of sight of the company in the front room? Not necessarily, for immediately upon their entering the house the family begins animatedly to describe her attack of fever, urging His help. His mother-in-laws very existence, plus a later reference in Christian history (1Co. 9:5), demonstrates several interesting facts:

That Peter, the first so-called Roman pope, was married.

That Peter did not necessarily leave his wife to enter Christs service. She might have even accompanied Peter on some trips with Jesus, inasmuch as other women also followed Jesus and ministered to His needs and those of the group. (See Luk. 8:1-3; Mar. 15:41)

That having a wife was no apparent objection to Peters apostleship, since this incident and Pauls remark certainly follow Peters call.

That Peters wife accompanied Peter in later journeys, as did the other apostles wives work alongside their mates.

We know practically nothing about the wife of Peter herself except a notice or two in tradition, But her importance cannot be ignored, as she lends more flesh-and-blood reality to the person of her more illustrious husband. It is too easy emotionally to reject the apostles as somehow a motley collection of effeminate old bachelors quite out of touch with life problems.

Contrary to some opinion, a woman did not really count for very much in almost every society, except the Jewish in the world of that day. (See ISBE, article Woman, 3100). In Judaism the womans position was high, almost that of the man, although somewhat inferior. (See Edersheim, Sketches, Chap. IX) While this healing performed by Jesus is significant for its privacy, having been done in the home of a disciple, it is not necessarily significant in its being done for a woman, for whom the usual Jewish rabbi would have had less concern than for a man. (cf. Joh. 4:9; Joh. 4:27)

lying sick of a fever. Luke (Luk. 4:38) notices that she had a high fever (puret mglo), This may not be merely a thermometer reading but a specific medical term (Arndt-Gingrich, 738), possibly malaria due to the proximity of her home to the Jordan Valley and mosquito-infested marshes. Edersheim, (Life, I, 486) notes:

The Talmud gives this disease precisely the same name. . . . Burning fever, and prescribes for it a magical remedy, of which the principal part is to tie a knife wholly of iron by a braid of hair to a thornbush, and to repeat on successive days Exo. 3:2-3, then Exo. 3:4, finally Exo. 3:5, after which the bush is to be cut down, while a certain magical formula is pronounced.

Contrast the then-current Jewish standpoint, then, with Jesus approach to the problem:

Mat. 8:15 And he touched her hand, and the fever left her. The other Synoptic Evangelists describe Jesus also as standing over her, He rebuked the fever (Luk. 4:39) and taking her by the hand, He lifted her up (Mar. 1:31) Jesus used various methods of healing, as did His apostles after Him. (Act. 3:7; Act. 28:8; Joh. 4:50-52; Mar. 5:41; Mar. 9:27; Mat. 9:25) Lukes expression Jesus rebuked the fever must not be regarded as proof that Jesus shared popular superstitions which held diseases as malevolent personalities in the sufferers, somewhat like demons.

Jesus is merely addressing the impersonal fever in the same way He shouted at winds and waves. (Mat. 8:26)

The Gospel writers themselves saw and recorded a clear distinction between sickness or disease and demon-possession.

The fever left her, not weak and exhausted from the illness, as we would expect to see after a recovery finally comes by natural means, after a slow convalescence. immediately, says Luke, she was strong. All three Evangelists unite in emphasizing the intensity of her restored strength, evidenced by her immediately arising to serve Jesus. (Luk. 4:39) This stubborn immediacy is a fact which destroys the naturalistic explanations of this miracle that suggest that the magnetic personality of Jesus, the warmth of His personal touch or perhaps the psychological suggestion of His words caused people to think themselves well, (when really were not), whereby Jesus set in motion perfectly natural psychosomatic laws which later actually cured the sick.

And she arose and ministered unto him, ka egrthe ka dieknei Note the change of tense: She got up and began serving and kept it up. Mark and Luke remember that she served everyone present too. It is not difficult to imagine how she so ministered: what would you do if you had just been a sick woman put to bed with high fever when a houseful of company walks in? Peters wife was there too possibly, but this remarkable mother-in-law, fully conscious that all of Gods power had just been expended in her humble case, has no time for hallelujahs that just bring Jesus more sick people and unwanted publicity. (contrast Mat. 8:1-4 Notes). Rather, being fully aware of the completeness of her cure, being lovingly grateful to Jesus who had miraculously brought her back to immediate vigor and yet, being sensitively aware of His unmentioned but obvious needs, she busied herself in practical service! What a wife Peter must have had, if she were anything like her mother!

In this two-verse vignette Matthew holds up, not Peters mother-in-law for admiration, but Peters Lord! In Peters humble abode where there was no admiring audience to keep Jesus at His best, Jesus could hear the call of human need and expend all His love, care and power in the service of humble, unknown, unheard-of folk whose only claim to fame was their contact with Jesus of Nazareth, It is this kind of close-up study of Jesus that convinced His disciples they had found the real Messiah: He was the same at home as before the cheering, admiring crowds, He deserved privacy, rest and relaxation as much as any other man, and they know it. Yet He never considered human need a nuisance nor was He too tired to help.

Mat. 8:16 And when even was come. Matthew gives no reason why these folks should delay their coming until sunset (Mar. 1:32; Luk. 4:40). The two other Evangelists plainly declare the day to have been a Sabbath, a day on which stricter Jews considered bearing burdens to be illegal (cf. Joh. 5:10-18) as well as healing (cf. Luk. 13:14), The day legally ended at sunset (Lev. 23:32). These combined facts not only clear up otherwise obscure questions and render unnecessary ultimately unsatisfactory guessing about the delay, but also point up one of the undersigned coincidences among the Gospel writers that show they are independent. They did not contrive their story.

They brought unto him. Mark and Luke describe the scene as a spontaneous, almost-mass movement that began when the second star in the sky could be seen, which signalled the end of the Sabbath. Since Matthew had not described the demon-experience in the synagogue, in keeping with his simplicity of style, he omits also the size of the crowds, for since he had not mentioned them, he feels no obligation to explain their assemblage. Why was the whole city of Capernaum gathered at Simons door? All day long since the synagogue service conversations in the homes kept running back to Jesus power to heal and cast out demons. (Mar. 1:27-28; Luk. 4:36-37) Thus, what Matthew reports is all the more psychologically credible, because grounded in the exciting events in the synagogue earlier that day.

Many possessed with demons: and he cast out the spirits with a word. Again, Mark and Luke are more explicit regarding Jesus dealings with these sinister beings from the spirit world.

For special studies on DEMONS, EVIL SPIRITS, UNCLEAN SPIRITS, see standard Bible dictionary and encyclopedic articles; especially the Special Study Notes on Demon Possession by Seth Wilson, THE GOSPEL of MARK, Bible Study Textbook Series, p. 509ff.; Merrill Unger, Biblical Demonology.

He healed all that were sick. Note how carefully these supposedly superstitious, hence, uncritical people of Jesus generation, especially the Gospel writers, recognized a clear distinction between sicknesses, on the one hand, and demon possession, on the other. Jesus is pictured here by Luke (Luk. 4:40) as patiently moving through the entire group laying His hands upon each and every one, (hen heksto). Beware Capernaum: multiplied blessings brings multiplied responsibility for the quantity of the Light against which you sin! (See Notes on Mat. 11:20-24)

Mat. 8:17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet. For general discussion of Matthews use of prophecies, see Volume I, pp. 8186. Matthews citation of Isa. 53:4 raises the important question: how does Matthew intend to apply this prophecy to Jesus work? Does he mean to limit its application to the closing events of this one great day of miracles in Capernaum, of which he does not actually narrate the exciting events in the synagogue (a fact which might not affect our conclusion)? Yet is it possible that our author should presume to apply so grand a prediction to such limited circumstances?

Why not? Matthew may merely be calling up one verse from the entire prophecy to suggest to the Jewish readers mind, familiar with the Isaianic prophecy, the entire figure of the Suffering Servant of Jehovah. Isa. 53:7, as context for this text used by Matthew, applies so fitly to Jesus, who carried more than our human affliction, by bearing away especially its ultimate cause, human sin. (See Joh. 1:29; Joh. 1:36; Heb. 2:14; 1Pe. 2:24) Even though Matthew himself does not furnish the complete picture, the other Evangelists, who do record the synagogue scene, but not the prophecy, unintentially provide the necessary pieces that complete the picture:

Gods revelation through Jesus preaching in the synagogue;

Gods power over the evil spirit-world;

Gods power at the humble hearth of common people;

Gods mercy and help for unlimited varieties of diseased folk.

It might be objected that the most significant part of Isaiahs prophecy, the vicarious suffering and death of Jawehs Servant, finds no parallel in Matthews application. But to this objection, two answers are necessary:

Of course not, because Jesus death is yet a question for His future revelation to His disciples, even though He had given veiled hints already. (cf. Joh. 2:13-21) It does not need to be mentioned that His suffering and death itself is yet wholly future,

Further, Matthew is trying to teach us something in addition to, or something that goes beyond, our accustomed interest in Jesus Last Week Passion. Levi wants us to see that Jesus suffering really began with His incarnation and continued through His earthly preaching and healing ministry. His vicarious, sympathetic suffering not only culminated in His death and resurrection, but was His whole merciful life-work as He worked reasonably unhampered by hostile leaders too!
2.

Matthew is deliberately understating his case, applying only that portion of the prophecy that is actually appropriate to the situation at hand, but at the same time suggesting to the thoughtful reader to begin to look for more applications of Isaiahs words in the life of this Jesus of Nazareth, For had Jesus significantly fulfilled these words of the prophet, but fallen dismally short of Isaiahs further description of the vicarious death of Jawehs Servant, He would still be unworthy of further attention, in our search for the REAL Messiah.

Matthew is saying, If you think, dear reader, that these events I have just mentioned are wonderful for their revelation of a supernatural God at a particular point of time and space in His creation, you must remember the ancient prophecy which prepared our minds to look for just this kind of miracles. While, in the days of Isaiah, the prophecy might have had less force with those who heard him utter these words, for whom the fulfilment were yet future, yet for us, who are living in this day of Jesus ministry, this confirmation of Gods ancient promise through the healings performed by Jesus, actually doubles the force of each miracle, Each sign performed by Jesus is but the echo of Isaiahs voice repeated over again. The ancient prophets prophetic authority is vindicated in our day as his prediction comes true before our eyes; Jesus authority is doubly demonstrated both by His wonderful signs, which prove that God is working through Him, as well as by His fulfilment of Isaiahs promise uttered 800 years ago!

But, as even anyone reading the text can see, Matthew did not say all the above in so many words. This seems, however, to be his emphasis. It would perhaps seem strange to the modern apologist that Matthew should draw no more of a conclusion, adducing arguments and further proof. Yet, our author merely submits one sentence out of the prophecy introducing it into the middle of two chapters of miracles (Matthew 8, 9, but it is not until Matthew 12 that he returns to similar prophetic applications) to alert the reader not only to the fulfilment of the prophecy involved in those miracles of that one day, but also to similar fulfilment by those miracles which follow.

Himself took our infirmities, and bare our diseases. This phrase could have been translated into clearer English by rendering the first word, auts, with a clearer English pronoun:

Unemphatic personal pronoun: he, Isaiahs emphasis lying with the enormity of the deeds accomplished by Jawehs Servant;

Emphatic personal pronoun: he himself Isaiahs emphasis being upon the enormity of the fact that this great, despised Servant actually identified himself so completely with OUR weakness, as actually to bear Himself what we alone deserved.

Auts is capable of both emphases. (Cf. Arndt-Gingrich, 122) Either emphasis carries the amazed wonderment of an Israel, which bears witness against its former blindness, having seen the actual fulfilment of Isaiahs words in the mediatorial suffering and humiliation endured by Jesus, who, it turns out historically, is the exact counterpart of the prophets vicariously suffering Servant. Like Jobs friends, Israel had thought Jesus to be suffering humiliation and punishment for His own great sins, if His sufferings might be used as the measure for His supposed sinfulness. Matthews words merely suggest the shock the true Israelite would feel at the discovery that Isaiahs great Bearer took OUR human weaknesses as His own. He personally took upon Himself the whole crushing moral responsibility for the underlying cause for all our sin and sickness.

But, as Delitzsch (Isa., II, 316) points out regarding this text cited by Matthew, It is not really sin that is spoken of, but the evil which is consequent upon human sin, although not always the direct consequence of the sins of individuals (Joh. 9:3).

Matthew in citing this text so early in Jesus ministry, quite out of connection with Jesus mediation and vicarious bearing our sins in His own body on the cross, shows us that Jesus is already by His own powerful life taking sickness and infirmity away. He remained uncontaminated by personal sins, and presumably never sick a day in His life, but personally assumed and actually removed our burden from beginning to the end of His earthly incarnation.
But is there no sense in which Jesus took OUR infirmities and bare OUR diseases, i.e. from us who are Gentile Christians living today? Certainly, a comparatively few miracles in Palestine wrought over a three-year period do not exhaust either the meaning of Isaiah or the purpose of Jesus identification with us in our sickness and infirmity. This should be clear from the observation that the very few He healed in comparison to the worlds ill could again contact further diseases later and, presumably, the fewer still whom He raised from death died again. Matthews use of this prophecy merely draws our attention to Jesus perfect command over all human weakness which He can restore to perfect soundness. These few samples are convincing proof that His promises to remake us completely are based in historic fact, predicted by inspired prophecy and guaranteed valid for eternity. (cf. Php. 3:20-21; Rev. 21:3-4; Rom. 8:18-25)

Matthews deliberate use of a prophecy too big for the examples he cites as its fulfilment draws our attention to the broader general outline of what Jesus was actually doing. Certainly Jesus was working miracles of undoubtedly wonderful dimension, but we must also see beyond them to comprehend the conclusion that Jesus really intended us to draw: Jesus can make us completely whole in soul and body, because He personally bore away what had destroyed us through disease or sin.

He took and bore our weaknesses and sicknesses. These two verbs (laben ka ebstasen) also preach Jesus merciful understanding love for us: He can be touched with a feeling for our weaknesses! (Heb. 2:14-18; Heb. 4:14-16) This one line of Gospel has more power in it to support suffering Christians than all the writings of all the philosophers that ever dealt with the problem of pain. To us, Jesus has conquered sickness and transformed our viewpoint regarding it, making it mere little temporary troubles that illustrate once more that the outward man suffers wear and tear and decays, while their outcome is an eternal glory that far outweighs these shortlived difficulties. (cf. 2Co. 4:16 to 2Co. 5:9)

FACT QUESTIONS

Where had Jesus just been, when He entered Peters house?

What is the importance of where Jesus had been, previous to His coming to Peters house, with regard to the events that follow?

Who was particularly sick in Peters house? What was the specific symptom mentioned by Luke?

Describe the manner in which Jesus healed this sick person.

Give the evidence that the person was really healed.

State the time when the second series of events, included in this text, began to occur.

Explain the reason for the Capernaum citizens waiting until just that moment to bring the sick to Jesus.

State the precise location where the sick were brought for healing.

Contrast the manner by which Jesus healed the sick with the manner in which He cast out demons, as seen in this text and its parallels.

10.

What was the unusual cry of the demons as Jesus cast them out? By comparison with normal human comprehension of the ministry and Person of Jesus seen in the Jews of that period, what does that cry indicate about the demons?

11.

Explain why Jesus would not permit the demons to speak because they knew He was the Christ. Both Mark and Luke offer this quotation as the reason Jesus silenced the demons. Show how this reason is the proper explanation of Jesus action.

12.

What kind of connection does Matthew indicate between Jesus activities and the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah?

13.

How does Matthew mean the word fulfil in this connection indicated in the previous question?

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(14) And when Jesus was come into Peters house.St. Mark (Mar. 1:29) and St. Luke (Luk. 4:38) relate more specifically that it was on the Sabbath, and that our Lord had previously taught in the synagogue and healed a demoniac. The sons of Zebedee and of Jona had all been present, and when the service was over they came to the house in which Peter apparently (though born in Bethsaida, Joh. 1:44) had settled on his marriage.

His wifes mother.The fact of St. Peters marriage has not unnaturally been almost unduly prominent in the Protestant argument against the enforced celibacy of the clergy. Here, it has been said, is the Apostle from whom the Bishop of Rome claims succession, married when called to his office, and never separated from his wife, and yet Rome declares the marriage of priests to be unlawful, and stigmatises it as worse than concubinage. Telling as it may sound, however, it is after all only an argumentum ad hominem. Had the case been otherwise, we should not have admitted that the celibacy of the chief of the Apostles was a ground for compelling all bishops, elders, and deacons of the Church to follow his example. And all that can be urged, as the case stands, is that there is an inconsistency in accepting these facts, and yet treating marriage as incompatible with the sacred office of the ministry. The Church of Rome might answer, that experience, or the teaching of the Spirit, or the moral authority of the saints and Fathers of the Church, outweighed the inference from St. Peters example, and the question must be discussed on wider ethical and social, as well as Scriptural, grounds. In that argument, it is believed, those who advocate Christian liberty (1Co. 9:5) as most in harmony with the mind of Christ are not likely to get the worst of it.

Sick of a fever.St. Luke, with a kind of medical precision, adds, with a great fever, and that they (Peter, John, and the others) asked Him about her, as if consulting about a case of which they almost despaired.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

28. THIRD MIRACLE HEALING PETER’S WIFE’S MOTHER, Mat 8:14-15 .

The peculiarity of this miracle seems to be that it was performed upon a person who would remain a present and permanent witness of the fact. It would, no doubt, contribute its share to produce that firm and earnest faith in the heart of Peter, the most eminent of the apostles, which he displayed so conspicuously in life and in death.

14. And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house This third miracle in Matthew’s group was performed on our Lord’s previous visit to Capernaum, (Mar 1:29-31,) before the delivery of the Sermon on the Mount. It took place, as we learn by Mark, immediately after his curing a demoniac in the synagogue, on the Sabbath. Of Tabiga, the grand manufacturing suburb of Capernaum, Dr. Thomson says: “As there is considerable marshy land about this Tabiga, may not this account for the prevalence of fevers at Capernaum? for here it was, of course, that Peter’s wife’s mother lay sick of a fever. “Fevers of a very malignant type are still prevalent, particularly in summer and autumn, owing, no doubt, to the extreme heat acting upon these marshy plains, such as the Butaiha, at the influx of the Jordan.”

Peter’s house And his brother Andrew’s also, as Mark says. Peter is mentioned alone by Matthew from his stronger personal character.

Wife’s mother So the Papists have to confess that the first pope was a married man. And 1Co 9:5, plainly shows that he led about his wife in his apostolic missions. So little authorized by Scripture is the Romish enforcement of clerical celibacy. Laid sick Evidently no slight indisposition.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother lying sick of a fever.’

This incident occurs in all three synoptic Gospels. It gains in importance to Matthew because she is one of the inner group of believers who welcome Jesus to their homes. But she was not welcoming Him this time. She was tossing and turning on her mattress. Matthew points out that Jesus ‘saw’ her. Thus he sees Jesus as taking personal direct note of her. It is a reminder to us that He knows also about our needs. He ‘sees’ us too. In Mark we learn that they first tell Him about her, just as others may tell Him about our needs in prayer. But Matthew as usual cuts out the frills and goes to the essential point. Here we learn that He had a personal interest in her need, just as, if we are His, He ever sees our need (compare Mat 6:32). The Father always knows (Mat 6:32), and Jesus always knows. What then have we to fear?

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Various Miracles of Healing.

Cure of a fever:

v. 14. And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, He saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever.

v. 15. And He touched her hand, and the fever left her; and she arose and ministered unto them.

Jesus had, on a certain Sabbath-day, attended the synagogue. Returning from there, and coming into the house of Peter, who here bears his name as disciple, Jesus saw a sad condition of affairs, Mar 1:29-31; Luk 4:38-39. Peter’s mother-in-law lay bedridden with a fever. Note: Peter had a home at Capernaum, having moved there from Bethsaida, probably on account of the better market for fish, but still more probably because the Lord had chosen this city for His sojourn. And Peter was married; he was not given to a false holiness, a dangerous asceticism, as the Roman Catholic Church demands of its clergy, but made use of his right to have a sister as his wife, 1Co 9:5. Jesus was touched with sympathy. He rebuked the fever, He took hold of the sick woman’s hand to raise her up, and at His miraculous touch the sickness vanished, with all its after-effects. She arose from her bed without a sign of weakness or unsteadiness. She could wait at the table and render all manner of services, singling out, in her gratitude, especially Him to whom she owed her perfect recovery. Any gift received from the Lord should prompt us to the most active individual service.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Mat 8:14. And when Jesus was come After this, Jesus going into Peter’s house, saw there his wife’s mother lying sick of a fever. This was the house into which Jesus was used to retire at Capernaum. See Mar 1:21 and Luk 4:31. Peter was of Bethsaida, which was at a little distance from Capernaum; Joh 1:44. This event happened after the cure wrought upon the demoniac in the synagogue, spoken of by St. Mark and St. Luke in the passages above quoted.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Mat 8:14 .Mar 1:29 ff., Luk 4:38 ff., assign to the following narrative another and earlier position, introducing it immediately after the healing of a demoniac in the synagogue, which Matthew omits. The account in Mark is the original one, but in none of the reports are we to suppose the evangelists to be recording the earliest of Jesus’ works of healing (Keim).

] in which also his brother Andrew lived along with him, Mar 1:29 . Not inconsistent with Joh 1:45 , as Peter was a native of Bethsaida, though he had removed to Capernaum. Whether the house belonged to him cannot be determined.

] 1Co 9:5 .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

The disease in the family; the diseases in the city. Salvation spreading from the household of Peter, or the dwelling of the Lord (the Church), into the city

Mat 8:14-17

14And when Jesus was [had] come into Peters house, he saw his wifes mother laidand sick of a fe Mat 8:15 And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose,and ministered unto them [him].8 16When the even [evening] was come, they brought9 unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his [a] word, and healed all that were sick: 17That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias [Isaiah] the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare [bore] our sicknesses.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

The accounts in Mark and Luke confirm the statement, that on the evening of the day when the Lord restored the mother-in-law of Peter, a large number of demoniacs in Capernaum were healed. Chronologically speaking, the event took place during the residence of the Lord at Capernaum, previous to His first journey into Galilee, and to the Sermon on the Mount. The statement of Luke, that Christ rebuked the disease, implies no contradiction. The healing word of Christ is omitted by Matthew and Mark, while Luke omits to mention that He took her by the hand and lifted her up. Lastly, according to Mark and Luke, the cure was performed on the intercession of the members of the family,the sick person herself being unable to entreat help. From the circumstance that Jesus rebuked the fever, we gather that her disease was somehow connected with the sufferings resulting from demoniacal possessions then prevailing in the town.

Mat 8:14. Into the house of Peter.According to Joh 1:44, Peter and Andrew, as well as Philip, were natives of Bethsaida. Afterward, Peter, and probably Andrew ( Mat 4:18), had settled in Capernaum,partly, perhaps, on account of the fisheries, and partly from his connection by marriage with the place. The marriage of Peter is also referred to in 1Co 9:5. It is remarkable that he who is said to have been the first bishop of Rome was a married man. Legend has it that her name was Perpetua, or Concordia; and that her husband accompanied her on her way to martyrdom in Rome. Their daughter was called Petronella. (Clement of Alexandria.)10

Mat 8:15. She ministered unto Him, .This refers particularly to waiting at table and serving, as an evidence of her perfect recovery.

Mat 8:16. It was a time when there was in Capernaum a deep stirring of enthusiasm for the Lordthe evening of a great daywhen this general longing seems to have seized the inhabitants of the place, and they brought unto Him their sick, especially those who were possessed with devils, and laid them down at the door of His house. On demoniacal possessions compare the remarks to Mat 4:24.

Mat 8:17. That it might be fulfilled.A reference to Isa 53:4 Our diseases () has He borne (), and our sorrows () He has taken on Himself (). In the Sept. more freely: , ,The Evangelist quotes from the original; but in strict accordance with its meaning, as Olshausen and others rightly remark, though Meyer denies it. It is true that in the original Hebrew, the Messiah is represented as bearing and expiating our sins. But our diseases are undoubtedly connected with sin on the one, and death on the other hand; while the suffering of Christ depends on His taking on Himself our sufferings, which again is connected with His carrying them away. We must not, however, go so far as Olshausen, and speak of spiritual exhaustion on the part of Christ. Meyer and von Ammon have overlooked the fact that, when healing those who were diseased, Christ entered into and shared their sufferings,a circumstance evident from the narrative in Mar 5:30 (showing that He felt the going out of virtue from Him), as also from the resurrection of Lazarus. But, in the present instance, the Lord had to contend with the concentrated sorrow and sickness of the whole city, and that on the evening of a laborious day. For this labor and contest of the Lord, the Evangelist can find no more apt description than by quoting the passage from Isaiah. Christ takes away disease, in token of His removing its root, sin, by taking upon Himself death as the full wages and the full burden of sin.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The afflicted family and the afflicted city, both highly privileged by the presence and grace of Christ. Significant connection between them: salvation spreading from the house to the city.

2. The Evangelist gives us here the key to the mystery of Christs atoning death. By His fellow-suffering with our diseases, He gradually descended into the unfathomable depth of His full sympathy with our death. Hence His miracles of healing partook of the nature of atoning suffering, and prepared for it. Accordingly, as He suffered in all He did, so His suffering and death crowned and completed all He had done. His active and passive obedience are most closely connected. But as in His fellow-suffering He took away the sting of suffering by taking away sin and awakening faith, so also has He swallowed up death in victory by discharging the debt of sin in His vicarious death, finishing the work of redemption, and introducing justifying faith. Such, then, was our reconciliation. In virtue of His perfect fellow-suffering, He submitted to the death due to us; by His perfect surrender to God, He became our reconciliation, even as by His communication of grace He wrought in us faith in the mercy of God, and in the imputation to us of His sacrificial service. His miracles form the introduction and the commencement of His reconciliation. Comp. 1Pe 2:24.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The cross in the family.The family and the town, as a household and a city of the Lord.How Christianity elevated woman.Christ and His people by turns engaged in the service of love. 1. He serves them; 2. they serve Him.Rapid change produced in the house by the interposition of Christ: 1. One laid down by fever, an active hostess; 2. an anxious family, a festive circle; 3. the Lord a physician, the Lord a king; 4. the house an hospital, the house a church.The right mode of celebrating our recovery.From the church, salvation spreads to the city.Glorious evening of power and grace.The morbid sympathy of man, and the healing sympathy Of the Lord. 1. With reference to the former,a. disease itself appears in morbid and irresistible sympathy; b. morbid sympathy increases disease and pestilence; c. at best, it leads to excitement and running to the Lord, while not a few are unprepared and unready. 2. The sympathy of Christ: a. Its Divine power resists all sinful influences, especially cowardice and despair; b. it penetrates into, and lights up, the lowest depths of misery; c. it conquers and removes the sufferings of man.The sufferings of Christ in His miraculous cures, pointing to the great miraculous cure by His sufferings on the crossJesus has taken upon Him the diseases of man also.The wards where those mentally afflicted are confined, belong also to the Lord.The sceptre of Christs triumph extends even over the cursed realm of demons.The apparent strength of despair, and the Divine strength of perfect confidence.Solemn night-seasons: 1. The night of suffering; 2. the night of repentance; 3. the night of death.

Starke:If we recover from disease, it is our duty to thank God, and all the more zealously to serve Christ and our neighbor.Let each bear anothers burden, Gal 6:2.Zeisius:Above all, learn that sin is the root of all disease, and that by true repentance thou mayest be set free from it.To visit, to comfort, to refresh, and to serve those who are laid on beds of sickness, Isa 38:1; Isa 38:4-5; Sir 7:2; Sir 7:4.Gossner:To come, to see, and to heal is here one.

Footnotes:

[8] Mat 8:15. is better supported than the reading of the text. rec. .

[9] Mat 8:16.[All the older E. V., also that of Rheims, correctly render : with a word, Wicl. bi. word.P. S.]

[10][St. Jerome, in the interest of monastic celibacy, infers that the wife of Peter was dead at the time, from the fact that her mother, when cured, waited on the table. Archbishop Kenrick (Notes on the four Gospels) seems to approve of this inference. But the ministering of the mother is here evidently mentioned to show her complete recovery and her love and gratitude for it. In the natural order a long convalescence follows the cure of a fever before health returns. Moreover St. Paul many years after this occurrence (A. D. 57) refers to Peters wife as living and accompanying her husband on his missionary journeys, 1Co 9:5. The Prot V. correctly translates , a sister a wife (Tynd. and Cranmer: a sister to wife; Gen.: a wife being a sister); while the R. C. V. has: a woman a sister.P. S.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

What a beautiful representation is here made, in a short compass, of the lovely, and all-loving JESUS! With a word only the Lord healed! Think of. his sovereignty: think of his grace. And let not the Reader overlook what is said of his taking our infirmities, and bearing our sicknesses. Mark, I pray you, it is said, that Himself did it. JESUS CHRIST personally did this. It is the Person of CHRIST, as God-man, in this instance, we are everlastingly to keep in view. Not the person of the FATHER, neither the person of the HOLY GHOST, for neither of those glorious persons took our nature: but the person of JESUS, God-Man-Mediator. And I very earnestly desire the Reader to pause a moment over the wonderful relation. Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses. In himself, there was no possibility of his becoming sick; for sickness is the sole effect of sin; and as there was no taint of sin in his holy nature, there could be no sickness, which is the sole consequence of sin: yet, as by imputation he bore our sins; so by sympathy he bore our sicknesses. Yea, in this sense, he knew and felt more what sin, and the sorrows of sin and sickness are than the sinners themselves for whom he bore them. For as JESUS sustained the persons of his redeemed; so he sustained their sorrows. He that felt the whole weight and burden of their sins, and the divine wrath as their surety, must have known more, and felt more, both of the bitterness of sin itself and all the dire effects of it than the whole body of sinners themselves. And if, as it is said, the righteous soul of Lot was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked, day by day, (2Pe 2:7 ) what must have been the feelings of the Lord JESUS, during his whole life upon earth in beholding the sins of his redeemed and which he himself bore and for which he gave himself a ransom. Reader! do not dismiss this view of the passage before that you have first considered what a most blessed opening it gives us of the person of our Lord. And let me add, that of all the arguments under the grace of the HOLY GHOST, to restrain from the commission of sin in the Lord’s people, this is the highest and the best. Oh! what a sad return for such unequalled love! A child of GOD might well say with Joseph, when tempted, how can I do this great wickedness, and sin against GOD. Gen 39:9 ; Rom 8:13 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Chapter 31

Prayer

Almighty God, we are all sick: do thou heal our sicknesses and take our infirmities, and make us well with the health of heaven. We are sick in body, or we are sick in heart: the whole life is crooked and in pain, our very breathing is a cry of distress, and every pulse of our heart is a confession of weakness. Behold our life is a poverty, and our existence is a sigh. The whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint, and there is in us no health. We come to the great Healer, to the Physician that is in Gilead, and to the balm that is there. Others have healed our hurt slightly: they have said, “Peace, peace,” where there is no peace now do we come to God our Father, that we may be healed in our heart and made clean in our whole being. Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make us clean. Yet why should we challenge thee thus when thy whole ministry is a welcome to thy love and an utterance of thine infinite gospel? Thou dost shut the door on none, thou hast said, “Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.” The grace is upon thy side more than the pleading is upon ours. Thine answer is greater than our prayer; the healing of God is greater than the distress of man. Thou dost pardon with pardons; thy forgiveness is as the waves of the sea, not to be numbered; great and mighty are they, and they come with all the force of thy tender heart. We confess our sins before thee with an open mouth, and with a heart that has no reservation; we cry, “Unclean, unclean, unprofitable, unprofitable, lepers are we all, and cankered in the very heart God be merciful unto us sinners.” The blood of Jesus Christ thy Son cleanseth from all sin; we would now feel its gracious power and answer its cleansing ministry. It is at the cross we find the laver of regeneration, it is on Calvary we are forgiven; the pardons of thine heart are signed with the blood of Christ.

Thou hast given unto us a few days, and we spend them as the fool spends his small heritage. We know not when our breath may be taken from us, yet behold we tell lies and do many deceitful things, and work before God as if we could claim the residue of our time. Show us that our breath is in our nostrils, that our grave is already dug, and that we are hastening with every breath we draw to the great judgment; and whilst this reflection makes us solemn, may all thy promises be as singing angels in our hearts, making them glad with the encouragements which come of thy grace and approbation. Help us to work with both hands diligently; may there be no half-heartedness in our industry; may our life be the toil of a slave, because having in it the love which constrains the heart, and we shall call no time or power our own. We would be the slaves of the Lord Jesus; we would be bound to him by every energy and every passion; would call nothing our own; to him would we give ourselves and all we have. Let this be a time of consecration, individual and universal; may every heart call nothing it has its own, but give itself and its possessions to the great Saviour of the race.

Upon the old and the young let thy sunlight fall; upon the venerable trees that have grown many years, and upon the little flowers that gleam at their roots, a few days old, and soon to be cut down and withered. The Lord look upon us in all the relations of our life; let our houses be homes, let our homes be Churches, and let the Church at home be the sweetest place on earth.

Give guidance to those who are in perplexity; put the right key into the hand of the man who is opening the gate that bars his honourable way; speak comfortably unto Jerusalem, and say with thine own voice that her welfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. Upon all Churches, upon all Christian institutions, upon all schools and universities, upon all men who are in any wise endeavouring to do good, let the blessing of God be poured out today in an impartial and refreshing rain. Amen.

Mat 8:14-17

Working All Day

“And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house.” The centurion would not hear of the Lord Jesus Christ going to his house: it was beneath so great a worker and teacher: it was a humiliation not to be permitted by the sense which the centurion had of Roman dignity and Roman majesty. Said he, “Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.” Jesus Christ appeared to the centurion to be in his right place when he was upon the mountain, when he was upon the sea, when the great blue sky was the only roof over his head. It did not enter into his mind that Jesus Christ could enter a little human habitation. Do not let us make the Lord Jesus Christ too dignified in our social and conventional sense: there is more in Christ than what we should limit by the word dignity. I am afraid that some of us keep a long way from God, because his dignity, as we falsely and vainly interpret it, keeps us at a cold distance. We must get to an appreciation of his mind by such words as love, grace, sympathy, condescension, pity. It is in that region that our imagination and our love must move if they would realise all the higher blessings and all the tenderer benedictions which are associated with the Divine name.

“When Jesus was come into the house.” We have been with him at the river there he was baptized; we have been with him in the wilderness there he was tempted: we have been with him as he walked by the seaside there he called disciples to become fishers of men: we have been with him on the mountain there in soft and musical thunder he addressed the ages. He came into Capernaum, the city; he is getting nearer. To-day he enters the house, and thus completes his relation to all points of human life and human need. He would come into your house if you would let him: he would come nearer still, he would come into your heart if you were willing. “Behold I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and will open the door I will come in.” He cannot force his way into your heart-house he could take the slates off your roof, pour down his rain upon your little fire until it was quenched, but he cannot force a child’s love: the feeblest life can mock him with bitter taunting and keep him outside. Know thy power: it is a mischievous strength, but know, O man, that it lies within thy power to smite God in the face and to mock him with every throb of thine heart. Know thy power, realise thy strange weird majesty that thou art almost God!

When he was come into the house, he found a shadow there.

There is a shadow in every house, there is a fever in every family.

But Peter was a disciple, he was an incipient apostle, he was the senior disciple; great honours were in store for his name in the ages, and yet the shadow was in his house. You would think that God would send all the shadows upon the atheist, and would pile night on him so thickly as to make him mad with darkness. Yet it is not so in the Divine government Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons, for what son is there whom the father chasteneth not? If ye be without chastening then are ye bastards and not sons. Doubt your sonship if the chastening be little and infrequent.

Who would not have spared the senior disciple who would not have made him the focal point on which should have converged all the rays of the Divine approbation, so that he might have been like a light seen afar, blazing forth the excellence and the wondrousness of the Divine election. The thief that lived next door had less fever in his house than Peter had. Sometimes the bad man’s ground brings forth plentifully, sometimes the pampered and overfed Dives has wealth upon wealth, while the praying soul is outside with dogs for his companions and crumbs as his portion. All this cannot be reconciled within the narrow limits of time. We want more field: the line that appears to be straight is only apparently straight, because of the limited points within which it is drawn. Extend the line and it partakes of the shape of the world upon whose surface it is drawn. So within these narrow points of time, the rocking cradle and the deep tomb, there is not scope enough to reconcile all the divine purposes and actions and mysteries; we need more field, an ampler horizon. We shall get it by-and-by, and then we shall know how God has been dealing with us in forcing rivers out of our eyes and in making our heads a burning pain. O child of God, much praying man, wearied almost with crying at heaven’s gate, proceed, persevere, the sigh of thy weakness shall be mightier far than the thunder of thy strength. Do not despair, do not yet give up; while there is one dying ray of light in the sky, hold on.

Who would be without affliction at home, at least sometimes? Affliction unites the family. Given great prosperity and great wealth, and you may possibly find along with these great vanity and great tendency to self-assertion and to mutual contradiction and contention: but given affliction, and there is something in it that touches every heart and constrains every energy, and focalises all the resources of the house, so that the sick-chamber is often the church of the habitation. It would be a fool’s hiding-place but for the sick-chamber; that sick-chamber makes the young pause, the impetuous take time, the thoughtless set down his foot quietly lest he should give needless shock and pain in the quiet place of suffering. It sets wits to work not the intellectual wits only, but the heart’s wits to find out new delicacies, new tones, new music, new expressions of gentleness. It makes women of us all.

You would not be half the man you are but for your sick child; your tendency is toward bumptiousness, aggressiveness of speech, sternness, harshness. You have a magisterial cast and bearing in your life; but that little sick child has softened you, and been like a benediction upon your life. Men now take notice of your voice and say, “What new tones have subtly entered into it; how different the kind grasp, how noble the new bearing, how impressive the sacred patience, how touching and pathetic the sadness of the face!” Afflictions do not spring out of the dust: do not be impatient with them; we need something to soften this hard life. O, if it were all buying, selling, getting gain, outrunning one another in a race for wealth in which the racers take no time to recover themselves there would be no gardens on the face of the earth, no places consecrated to floral beauty, no houses built for music, no churches set up for prayer. But affliction helps to keep us right, affliction brings us to our knees. Poverty says, ” Think, fool, think.” Affliction opens the Bible at the right places. If you, strong man, with the radiant face and the full pocket, were to open the Bible, it would open upside down, and at nothing. But you, broken-hearted mother, you, child of sickness, you, orphan and lonely one, your Bible falls open always at the right place. Give me your family Bible, and I will tell you your history. The Bible of the strong, prosperous, rich man ’tis like himself; well kept too well. Hand me yours, man of the broken heart and the tear-stained cheek, and the reddened eye and the furrowed brow. Ah, all marks and thumbings, and turnings down and marginal notes and pencil indications twenty-third Psalm, fortieth of Isaiah, a hundred places in Jeremiah including the Lamentations why, I need no concordance to this Bible, if I want to seek out the promises. I see your guest has been Sorrow, and the hospitality you have offered him has been Patience. If you would know the value of the Bible in the house, consult those who have needed it most, and abide by their sweet reply.

“When the even was come.” What even? The astronomical even. It brings its own beauty with it. Do not be sorry when the sun westers and glows with solemn pomp in his dying hour. When the even was come astronomically, the sun rose redeemingly. Jesus came with the sunset, and when he comes the sun rises. It was a wondrous conjunction, the old, old sun of the heavens, faithful servant of God, lamp too high to be blown out by man’s breath when the sun had done all he could for the earth, he was going away, and then arose the other Sun, the Sun of Righteousness, with healing under his wings. See what a busy sunset was this. They brought unto him many that were possessed with devils, and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick. Mark, this work of Jesus Christ was twofold: it had to do with devils that held the dominion of the mind, and it had to do with diseases that held the dominion of the body. What wondrous ease is in these words “He cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick,” and it is written as if he had merely looked up or breathed, so consummate, so infinite, so deific the ease. It is always so that God must work; he can do nothing by an effort; if it were an effort it would not be divine. Power is in the ease: the ease is the signature of deity.

In all great life the same thing is exemplified. The painter does not paint with difficulty, if he be heaven-born; he paints because he breathes. The poet does not struggle with a long and painful agony to write his verses: he writes because he breathes. All this, of course, has its limitations in human life; it reaches the fulness and the last touch of its infinite sacredness in Christ, who spake and it was done, who commanded and it stood fast because he planted the heavens and set the earth upon nothing.

Observe, not only was the word twofold, but it was complete it was finished. How is it with us in regard to our human helpings and healings? We speak thus, and not inaccurately or unwisely, namely, “The doctor did me much good; the physician did me some good; the medical advice was in some degree just what I wanted; the relief was palpable, and I was glad of it.” Do you ever find that word recorded of Christ? Did he ever almost heal a man? It is a curious thing of those unlearned and ignorant men who wrote his life, to have set down this, so consistently, as if they had been working upon a plan of mutual and collusive deceit and fraud. Did he ever come into contact with a devil-ridden one and say, “I can almost heal thee, but not wholly”? His disciples have come into conflict with such a possessed individual, but Jesus was not there. He came down and found the crowd around the disciples and said, “What is it?” It ennobles us to see him in that hour; his face has a transfiguring effect upon our commonness. “What is it?” and a voice said, “I brought my child to thy disciples that they might cast out the devil that has seized and ruined him, and they could not.” Did his face darken with fear? Did his person contract with shame? Did he postpone the controversy? He said, “Bring him unto me,” and he said, “I command thee come out of him,” and he came out like a scourged hound that knew the master’s voice, a voice that fell upon him like a thong of scorpions, and he came out.

Did Jesus Christ ever almost heal the halt? did he ever open the eyes of the blind almost? did he ever give a little relief to the deaf? He said, “Go, tell John the things ye see and hear; the blind receive their sight, the deaf hear, the dumb speak, the lame walk, and unto the poor the gospel is preached.”

Yet he who can work omnipotently in all these directions which are indicated by demon possession and direful disease, cannot work faster in your heart than you will let him. It is there that he must work partially, and incompletely. He would make us without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but we will not let him. We know our power and we use it. He can drive out the devil but how to bring the angel in? He can banish our disease and restore our bodily health but how to make the soul well? “Behold I stand at the door and knock.” It hath pleased him to make us so, that we can keep him knocking. There is no force in the moral direction: God works by consent of the human heart. “Behold I stand at the door and knock.” No other god dare take upon him such humility. We keep our mythological gods in courtly pomp, we keep them well up in the smoke and the cloud. It takes truth to search in the mud, to light a candle and seek for the lost man: it takes God to die that man may live. Let us give our hearts to him.

Jesus Christ’s work was continual. We have been impressed with this as we have come along the story. It presents him with opportunities, and he accepts them as they come. The multitudes were gathered he opened his mouth and taught them. There came a leper he said, “I will, be thou clean.” He entered into Capernaum, and there came unto him a centurion, and he healed the centurion’s servant. He came into Peter’s house and found a fever-stricken woman he touched her hand and the fever fled from that touch. When the even was come, they brought unto him devils, and he healed all that were sick. Jesus Christ’s ministry was a great effort; it was a great life. O thou preaching man, do not spend thy time in preparing thy sermon, but in preparing thyself, and the sermon will be right, not perhaps artistically and technically, and according to the wooden standards of the self-made schools, but there will be in it subtle flame, subtle sympathy, magnetism, divine flashings and gleamings that will help men to the mountains. The Saviour never gathered himself together for a great occasion he was the great occasion. He created the opportunity, he ennobled the chance of the day, he found a wilderness and built a tabernacle in it; he found a needy humanity, and he left the blessing of heaven where he found the trace and signature of the devil.

Apply all this to ourselves. Jesus, go home with us and see what a shadow is there; go upstairs with us and see the daughter who has not been well these twenty years, and the son whose life is an almost daily weakness, and often a sharp and crying pain; come and see the child-grandmother that has been groping for heaven’s gate many a day, because in her heart there is a longing to go home; come and see all of us, upstairs and down: the birds will sing the blither for thy coming in, they will find their cages enlarged in thy presence; come and look into the poor man’s cupboard and turn his one loaf into five and his little dinner into a feast for a king. Come into the shop, the counting-house, the bank, the market-place, the office, and see how we have huddled things together, and straighten out these crooked things for us. Come into our hearts, and see how we have devils in them, devils of ambition, devils of falsehood, devils of vanity, all kinds of devils, and cleanse the defiled heart. We are all sick; there is not a life that has not its pain, not a hope that has not its shadow, not a prayer that has not its fierce temptation. O thou Healer, thou Father and Mother of us all, dear Jesus, a Woman thou art, a Man, a God, Son of Mary, Son of Man enter every heart and make it beautiful as heaven!

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

14 And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever.

Ver. 14. He saw his wife’s mother laid, &c. ] A wife, then, Peter had, and if a good wife, she might be a singular help to him in his ministry; as Nazianzen’s mother was to her husband, not a companion only, but in some respects a guide to godliness. a St Ambrose saith that all the apostles were married men, save John and Paul. And those pope holy hypocrites that will not hear of priests’ marriage, but hold it far better for them to have and keep at home many harlots than one wife b (as that carnal Cardinal Campeius defended); they might hear the contrary out of their own canon law, where it is written, Distinct. 29, Siquis discernit Presbyterum coniugatum, tanquam occasione nuptiarum offerre non debeat, anathema esto. And again, Distinct. 31, Siquis vituperat nuptia, et dormientem cum viro suo fidelem et religiosam detestatur, aut culpabilem aestimat, velut quae regnum Dei introire non possit, anathema esto. They might hearken to Paphnutius, a famous primitive confessor; who, though himself an unmarried man, mightily persuaded and prevailed with the Nicene Council, that they should not decree anything against priests’ marriage, alleging, that marriage was honourable in all, and that the bed undefiled was true chastity. They might hear Ignatius, scholar to St John the Evangelist, pronouncing all such as call marriage a defilement, to be inhabited by that old dragon the devil. c But there is a political reason that makes these men deaf to whatsoever can be said to them by whomsoever; and you shall have it in the words of him that wrote the History of the Council of Trent (a Council carried by the pope, with such infinite guile and craft, that the Jesuits, those connubisanctifugae, commeritricitegae, will even smile in the triumphs of their own wits, when they hear it but mentioned, as a master stratagem). The delegates in Trent Council (saith he) were blamed for suffering the article of priests’ marriage to be disputed, as dangerous; because it is plain that married priests will turn their affections and love to wife and children; and by consequence, to their house and country: so that the strict dependence with the clergy hath upon the apostolic see would cease; and to grant marriage to priests would destroy the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and make the Pope bishop of Rome only. (Hist. of Council of Trent.)

a . Naz.

b Honestius est pluribus occulte implicari, quam aperte cum una ligari.

c Siquis coinquinationem vocet commixtionem legitimam, habet inhabitatorem Draconem Apostatam. Ign. Epist. ad Philadelph.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

14 17. ] HEALING OF PETER’S WIFE’S MOTHER, AND MANY OTHERS. Mar 1:29-34 .Luk 4:38-41Luk 4:38-41 . From the other Evangelists it appears, that our Lord had just healed a dmoniac in the synagogue at Capernaum: for they both state, ‘when they were come out of the synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon and Andrew, &c.’ Both Mark and Luke are fuller in their accounts than the text. The expression (of the fever) is common to the three, as is also the circumstance of her ministering immediately after: shewing that the fever left her, not, as it would have done if natural means had been used, weak and exhausted, but completely restored.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Mat 8:14-15 . Cure of a fever: Peter’s mother-in-law (Mar 1:29-31 ; Luk 4:38-39 ). This happened much earlier, at the beginning of the Galilean ministry, the second miracle-history in Mark and Luke. Mark at this point becomes Matthew’s guide, though he does not follow implicitly. Each evangelist has characteristic features, the story of the second being the original.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Mat 8:14 . , coming from the synagogue on a Sabbath day (Mar 1:29 ) with fellow-worshippers not here named. The story here loses its flesh and blood, and is cut down to the essential fact. . . : Peter has a house and is married, and already he receives his disciple name ( Simon in Mark). . It is Peter’s mother-in-law that is ill. , lying in bed, fevered. Had she taken ill since they left to attend worship, with the suddenness of feverish attacks in a tropical climate? is against this, as it naturally suggests an illness of some duration; but on the other hand, it she had been ill for some time, why should they need to tell Jesus after coming back from the synagogue? (Mar 1:30 ). . does not necessarily imply a serious attack, but vide Luk 4:38 .

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 8:14-17

14When Jesus came into Peter’s home, He saw his mother-in-law lying sick in bed with a fever. 15 He touched her hand, and the fever left her; and she got up and waited on Him. 16When evening came, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed; and He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were ill. 17This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: “He Himself took our infirmities and carried away our diseases.”

Mat 8:14 “Peter. . .his mother-in-law” Peter was married (cf. 1Co 9:5). This speaks of the normalcy of marriage among the Jews. The rabbis said that marriage was an obligation because of the command in Gen 2:24. We never hear of his wife; maybe she had died. The Gospels were not written to satisfy our curiosity.

Mat 8:16 “when evening came” The end of the Sabbath had come (Mar 1:32) and the Jews who were taught that healing was not allowed on the Sabbath were now coming to Peter’s front door. The Sabbath began at twilight on Friday and ended at twilight on Saturday. This follows the order of the days of creation in Gen 1:5; Gen 1:8; Gen 1:13; Gen 1:19; Gen 1:23; Gen 1:31.

“many who were demon-possessed. . .healed all who were ill” There was always a distinction made between demon possession and physical disease in the NT. Sometimes demons cause physical problems, but certainly not always. Physical ailments, injuries, and diseases do not necessarily have demonic causes. See Special Topic: The Demonic (Unclean Spirits) at Mat 10:1.

Mat 8:17 This is a quote from Isa 53:4, but not from the Masoretic Text (Hebrew) nor the Septuagint (Greek translation). This is the only place in the NT this verse is quoted. This is used by many modern groups to affirm that physical healing is inherent in the Atonement. God is a supernatural God who acts in the lives of people for good. There is not enough Scriptural evidence based on this verse to affirm that all diseases on all occasions are out of the will of God and will be cured if we just respond with enough faith or prayer (cf. 2Co 12:8-10; 2Ti 4:20).

Psa 103:3 b is also often quoted in connection with this subject. There is a Hebrew poetic parallel relationship between Psa 103:3 a and Psa 103:3 b. They both refer to spiritual forgiveness. In the OT physical ailments were used as a symbol for spiritual problems (i.e., Isa 1:5-6). The rabbis saw sin and sickness as related (cf. Jas 5:14-16). See F. F. Bruce, Answers to Questions, pp. 44-45.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

Peter’s house. The Lord was in Capernaum, so that He was probably lodging with Peter. Compare Mar 1:29. See App-169.

laid -laid out for death. A Hebraism.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

14-17.] HEALING OF PETERS WIFES MOTHER, AND MANY OTHERS. Mar 1:29-34. Luk 4:38-41. From the other Evangelists it appears, that our Lord had just healed a dmoniac in the synagogue at Capernaum: for they both state, when they were come out of the synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon and Andrew, &c. Both Mark and Luke are fuller in their accounts than the text. The expression (of the fever) is common to the three, as is also the circumstance of her ministering immediately after: shewing that the fever left her, not, as it would have done if natural means had been used, weak and exhausted, but completely restored.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Mat 8:14. , mother-in-law) Peter had not long before married a wife, and they are guilty of a mistake who paint him with white hair;[370] for all the disciples were young, and had a long course to perform in this world; see Joh 21:18.[371] This must be well kept in mind in every Evangelical History.[372]-, sick of a fever) in the actual paroxysm.

[370] Although it is not improbable that he was older than the other disciples.-B. H. E. p. 257.

[371] You may gather that concerning Judas Iscariot from Psa 109:8-9; Zebedee and Salome, the parents of James and John, were likewise both still living.-B. H. E. p. 258.

[372] For whoever will carefully weigh the youthful age of the disciples, and their original family connections and former condition, will readily make allowances for several errors which were committed by them in their state of discipleship, and, having regard to this consideration of the time, he will not require from them more than is reasonable, and so will find himself extricated from not a few difficulties.-Harm. l. c.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Mat 8:14-17

Jesus Heals Peter’s Mother-in-Law

and Heals many with Demons

Mat 8:14-17

14, 15 And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother lying sick of a fever.-This miracle is also recorded by Mark (1:29-31) and Luke (4:38, 39);both Mark and Luke give a fuller record than does Matthew. Mark tells us that this was the house of Simon and Andrew, his brother; he also records that James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, were present. This miracle was a domestic scene-a miracle in the very home of his earliest disciples, and in the presence of two more. The original home of Peter was in Bethsaida, which was a suburb of Capernaum; it may have been there that the miracle was performed. (See Joh 1:45; Mark 1 29.) “His wife’s mother” shows that Peter was a married man, and that his mother-in-law was living with him; we cannot tell from this whether Peter’s wife was living at this time. She was “lying sick of a fever”; she was confined to bed with a fever; Luke says “a great fever” and that her friends “besought him for her.” They did this as soon as he entered the house according to Mark.

And he touched her hand, and the fever left her.-Jesus usually made some visible sign suitable to the miracle which he wrought. Luke says, “He stood over her, and rebuked the fever”; Mark says, “He came and took her by the hand, and raised her up”; these were all significant actions. The result was that “the fever left her.” She was healed immediately and was able at once to minister unto Jesus. It was evident that the miraculous cure came from Jesus and that it was a complete cure. The proof of the completeness of the cure was that she arose and ministered unto Jesus. Her service probably consisted in supplying food and any other needed attention. A severe fever always leaves a person very weak, but the miraculous healing of Jesus was so complete that the patient was given normal strength at once.

16, 17 And when even was come, they brought unto him many possessed with demons.-Jesus had healed Peter’s wife’s mother on the Sabbath day, but as it was noised abroad, the Jews brought their sick to him “when even was come”; that is, when the Sabbath had ended. The Jewish day was reckoned as beginning and ending at sunset; so they came the moment the Sabbath was past and brought “many possessed with demons.” Matthew had already mentioned that Jesus healed all the demoniacs that were brought to him during this circuit of Galilee. (Mat 4:24.) Those possessed with demons had evil spirits; the evil spirits had taken possession of them; they were prepared in heart for the reception of the demons; oftentimes they were torn and afflicted because of the demon. Jesus “cast out the spirits with a word”; he commanded and the demons obeyed. The possession of demons in that age was very peculiar; we are not told how wicked spirits gain possession of people, neither are we told the condition of mind or body which exposed one to the possession of demons. One thing we are certain of and that is they obeyed the command of Jesus; they sometimes recognized his authority and feared him. Jesus had power over the unseen realm.

That it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah. -The quotation from Isaiah is found in Isa 53:4. In the events that took place here in casting out the evil spirits and in healing “all that were sick,” Jesus fulfilled the prophecy which said, “Himself took our infirmities, and bare our diseases.” Jesus took away the infirmities and the diseases by healing them; the context shows that this is the meaning of this prophecy. Isaiah did not merely mean that Jesus cured all of the bodily and mental diseases, but that he finally suffered for the sins of the world. In his miracles of healing, Jesus seems to have participated in the sufferings of the afflicted, bearing a deep sympathy for those who were suffering. “Infirmities” and “diseases” may mean the same thing; some make “infirmities” refer to chronic disability, while “diseases” include violent disorders of the body. Jesus took upon himself and thus took away from us, all the distresses produced by sin. He bore the sickness of men on his heart and his healing of them with his strong hand fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

into: Mat 8:20, Mat 17:25, Mar 1:29-31, Luk 4:38, Luk 4:39

wife’s: 1Co 9:5, 1Ti 3:2, 1Ti 4:3, Heb 13:4

Reciprocal: Ecc 7:4 – heart Mat 4:24 – all sick Mat 9:28 – come

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

8:14

One-observation we should make here is that Peter had a wife, contrary to the dogma of the church of Rome. Laid means she was prostrated with the fever as if thrown down by the force of the disease.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Mat 8:14. And when Jesus was come into Peters house. At Capernaum (comp. Mar 1:21; Mar 1:29; Luk 4:31; Luk 4:35). Bethsaida, however, is called (Joh 1:45) the city of Andrew and Peter. When or why they removed is unknown. This miracle, together with others in his own city (chap. Mat 9:1), occurred quite early in His ministry.

His wifes mother. Peter was therefore married. Jerome and modem Romanist expositors infer that the wife was dead from the fact that the mother when healed ministered unto them; but were that the case Peter must have married again (comp. 1Co 9:5). Legend says that her name was Perpetua or Concordia.

Lying, prostrate, confined to bed with fever.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

The next miracle which our Saviour wrought, was in curing Peter’s wife’s mother of a fever: the miracle was not in curing an incurable distemper, but in the way and manner of curing: for,

1. It was by a touch of our Saviour;s hand.

2. It was instantaneous and sudden: immediately the fever left her.

3. The visible effects of her recovery presently appeared: She instantly arose and ministered unto them, That she could arise, argued her cure miraculous; that she could and did arise and administer unto Christ, argued her thankfulness, and a great sense of his goodness upon her mind.

Note here, 1. That marriage is the mistress of the gospel, yea, even in the apostles themselves and in Peter, the chiefest of them, was neither censured nor condemned by our Saviour. St. Peter had a wife and family, which Christ condescends to visit.

Observe, 2. That the first thing which Christ takes notice of in the house which he condescends to visit, is what aileth any in it; what need they stand in of his help and healing; and accordingly, together with his presence, he affords them relief.

Learn, 3. That when Christ has graciously visited and healed any of his servants, it ought to be their first work and next care to administer unto Christ; that is, to employ their recovered health, and improve their renewed strength in his service; She arose and ministered.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Mat 8:14-15. And when Jesus was come into Peters house As is related Mar 1:29, &c.; he saw his wifes mother laid Peter was then young, as were all the apostles; sick of a fever Fevers are ordinary distempers, and often cured by ordinary means, but this was a great fever, Luk 4:38; and it is probable such means, though used, had proved ineffectual. And he touched her hand, and the fever left her Namely, immediately. The cure was wrought in an instant, and not slowly, like cures produced in the course of nature, or by medicine. For though the length and violence of her distemper had brought her into a weak and languid state, her full strength returned all at once, insomuch, that, rising up immediately, she prepared a supper for them, and served them while at meat, showing hereby that she was perfectly restored.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

XXXII.

HEALING PETER’S MOTHER-IN-LAW

AND MANY OTHERS.

(At Capernaum.)

aMATT. VIII. 14-17; bMARK I. 29-34; cLUKE IV. 38-41.

c38 And he arose out of the synagogue [where he had just healed the demoniac], b29 And straightway, when they were come out of the synagogue, they came {centered} binto the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. [Peter and Andrew had dwelt at Bethsaida ( Joh 1:44). They may have removed to Capernaum, or Bethsaida, being near by, may be here counted as a part, or suburb, of Capernaum. Its name does not contradict this view, for it means “house of fishing” or “fishery.”] 30 Now Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick of {cwas holden with} a great fever. [The Papists, who claim that Peter was the first pope, must confess that he was married at this time, and continued to be so for years afterwards ( 1Co 9:5). Celibacy is unauthorized by Scripture ( Heb 13:4). God says it is not good ( Gen 2:18). Luke speaks as a physician; for Galen, the father of medicine, divided fevers into little and great.] a14 And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother lying sick of a fever. band straightway they tell him of her: cand they besought him for her. [Their interest in her shows the spirit of love and kindness which pervaded the home.] b31 and he came c39 And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever [Though it was an inanimate force, it was still subject to rebuke, as were the winds and waves of Galilee– Mat 8:26]; a15 And he touched her hand, band took her by the hand, and raised her up [thus showing the miracle came from him, and that he felt a tender interest in the sufferer]; cand it {bthe fever} cleft her: and immediately she rose up {aarose,} band she ministered unto them. {ahim.} [Her complete recovery emphasized the miracle. Such fevers invariably leave the patient weak, [170] and the period of convalescence is long and trying, and often full of danger. She showed her gratitude by her ministry.] b32 And at even, awhen even was come, cwhen the sun was setting, {bdid set,} call they that had any sick with divers diseases, brought them unto him; bthey brought unto him all that were sick, and them {amany} bthat were possessed with demons. [Their delay till sundown was unquestionably caused by the traditional law of the Sabbath which forbade men to carry any burden on that day ( Joh 5:10). The Sabbath closed at sundown ( Lev 23:32). The distinction is drawn between the sick and the demon-possessed. Lightfoot gives two reasons why demoniacal possession was so common at that time, viz.: 1, the intense wickedness of the nation; 2, the addiction of the nation to magic, whereby the people invited evil spirits to be familiar with them.] cand he laid his hands on every one of them, aand he cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all cthem athat were sick: 17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet [ Isa 53:4], saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our diseases. [Isaiah’s vision is progressive; he sees, first, a man of sorrows; second, a man sorrowful because he bore the sickness and sorrows of others; third, a man who also bore sin, and healed the souls of others by so doing. Such was the order of Christ’s life. His early years were spent in poverty and obscurity; his days of ministry in bearing, by sympathy and compassion, the sicknesses and sorrows of others ( Joh 11:35, Mar 14:34); and in the hour of his crucifixion, he became the world’s sin-bearer– Joh 1:29, 1Pe 2:24.] b33 And all the city was gathered together at the door. 34 And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many demons; c41 And demons also came out from many, crying out, and saying, Thou art the Son of God. And rebuking them, he suffered them {bthe demons} cnot to speak, bbecause they knew him. cthat he was Christ. [Those who are disposed to frequent spiritual seances and to seek information from mediums should remember that the Son of God permitted his disciples to receive no information from such sources. He forbade demons to speak in the presence of his own, even on the most important of all topics.] [171]

[FFG 169-170]

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

HEALING OF PETERS MOTHER-IN-LAW

Mat 8:14-17; Mar 1:2-34; & Luk 14:3-35 Mark: And immediately coming out of the synagogue? came into the house of Simon and Andrew and James and John. The mother-in-law of Simon was lying down scorched with a fever; and immediately they speak to Him concerning her; and coming to her and taking her by the hand, He raised her up; and immediately the fever left her, and she continued to minister unto them. And it being evening, when the sun went down, they continued to carry to Him all the sick and the demonized; and the whole city was gathered at the door. And He healed many sick with various diseases, and continued to cast out many demons; and did not suffer the demons to speak, because they knew Him. Matthew gives a wonderful prophecy of Isa 53:4 :

He took our infirmities, and carried our diseases.

That prophecy, corroborated by our Savior, is really wonderful on Divine healing, certainly setting forth our blessed privilege in the atonement to have our bodies healed. We need physical health in order to do the work the Lord has given us, to bless mankind and glorify God in this life; our faith being the measuring-line of blessings for body as well as soul. This case of Peter’s mother-in-law, in his house in Capernaum, was really notable.

Luke says, She was afflicted with a great fever. The healing was so decisive that she got up at once, and proceeded to do her housework. I have seen that very case duplicated repeatedly. Last August, at Scottsville (Texas) Camp-meeting, we prayed for a lady in her tent who was burnt with a terrible fever, at the same time anointing her with oil. The fever left her immediately she got up and went to meeting within fifteen minutes. I saw her in the meetings constantly till the adjournment of the camp, with no sign of fever, and testifying to her healing. We see here that when the sun went down, they continued to bring the sick; as this was midsummer, and the sea of Galilee is seven hundred feet below the Mediterranean and surrounded by highlands, it gets exceedingly hot on the coast. Hence the importance of waiting until sunset, and perhaps in order to command necessary help, as men have more leisure at night than during the day. We see here that Jesus cast out the demons and healed the sick, thus ministering both to soul and body, converting, saving, and sanctifying the soul and healing the body. He is the same, Yesterday, today, and forever. O what a Savior we have! His mercies are boundless and free. It is our glorious privilege, not only to have all the demons cast out of our souls, but to have our bodily ailments healed. We should go to the ends of the earth, as our Lord commissioned us, casting out demons and healing the sick. We see here that, while all of those demons wanted to confess the Christhood of Jesus, His Divine Sonship, He prohibited them. How did they know Him? All these demons were once angels, as God never created a devil. During the bygone ages, before they forfeited their probation and were cast out of heaven, they all beheld the bright glory of the Son of God. Hence they recognized Him; but I am not astonished that He was unwilling for these fallen spirits to become the heralds of His Divinity. He preferred to let His mighty works vindicate His claims to the Messiahship.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Mat 8:14 f. Simons Wifes Mother (Mar 1:29-31*, Luk 4:38 f.).Mt. abbreviates and heightens Mk.the cure is wrought by a mere touch.

Mat 8:16 f. The Sunset Healings (Mar 1:32-34*, Luk 4:40 f.).Not ere the sun was set, as the well-known hymn has it, but Mt. omits this note as he does not say it was on the Sabbath. Note his transposition of Mk.s all brought and many healed; he will not admit the possibility that any were uncured. The unqualified mention of spirits in this connexion is unique in NT.with a word: cf. Matthew 8. For Mt.s omission of Mar 1:34 b, cf. Mat 12:15 (=Mar 3:11).

Mat 8:17 is an adaptation of Isa 53:4; as Mt. uses it, there is no reference to the propitiatory value of the Servants work, no bearing on the doctrine of the Atonement (MNeile).

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

8:14 {3} And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever.

(3) Christ, in healing many diseases, shows that he was sent by his Father, that in him only we should seek remedy in all our miseries.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

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