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1 When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.

2 And, behold, there came a leper[w] and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

3 And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

4 And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

5 And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,

6 And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.

7 And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.

8 The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.

9 For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.

10 When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

11 And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.

12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

13 And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.

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.

18 Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave commandment to depart unto the other side.

19 And a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.

20 And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.

21 And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.

22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.

23 And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him.

24 And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep.

25 And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish.

26 And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.

27 But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!

28 And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.

29 And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?

30 And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding.

31 So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.

32 And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.

33 And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils.

34 And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts.

[2w] A leper came - Leprosies in those countries were seldom curable by natural means, any more than palsies or lunacy. Probably this leper, though he might not mix with the people, had heard Jesus at a distance. Mark 1:40 ; Luke 5:12.

[4w] See thou tell no man - Perhaps Jesus only meant here, Not till thou hast showed thyself to the priest - who was appointed to inquire into the case of leprosy. But many others he commanded, absolutely, to tell none of tho miracles he had wrought upon them. And this he seems to have done, chiefly for one or more of these reasons:

• To prevent the multitude from thronging him, in the manner related (Mark 1:45).
• To fulfil the prophecy (Isaiah 42:1) that he would not be vain or ostentatious. This reason St. Matthew assigns (Mat. 12:17, &c).
• To avoid the being taken by force and made a king (John 6:15). And,
• That he might not enrage the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees, who were the most bitter against him, any more than was unavoidable (Matthew 16:20,21).
• For a testimony - That I am the Messiah; to them - The priests, who otherwise might have pleaded want of evidence. Leviticus 14:2.

[5w] There came to him a centurion - A captain of a hundred Roman soldiers. Probably he came a little way toward him, and then went back. He thought himself not worthy to come in person, and therefore spoke the words that follow by his messengers. As it is not unusual in all languages, so in the Hebrew it is peculiarly frequent, to ascribe to a person himself the thing which is done, and the words which are spoken by his order. And accordingly St.Matthew relates as said by the centurion himself, what others said by order from him. An instance of the same kind we have in the case of Zebedee's children. From St. Matthew (Matthew 20:20), we learn it was their mother that spoke those words, which (Mark 10:35-37), themselves are said to speak; because she was only their mouth. Yet from ver. 13 (Matthew 8:13), Go thy way home, it appears he at length came in person, probably on hearing that Jesus was nearer to his house than he apprehended when he sent the second message by his friends. Luke 7:1.

[5] Here and in v.8, etc. Wesley himself notes that essentially the messenger is often called by the name of him who sent him. Ref. angels in scripture (see commentary).

[8w] The centurion answered - By his second messengers.

[9] For I am a man under authority - I am only an inferior officer: and what I command, is done even in my absence; the parallel is that Jesus was considered by him to have a similar authority in spiritual terms.

[10w] I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel - For the centurion was not an Israelite. [So the note here is that no israelite would have believed Jesus was the messiah.]

[11w] Many from the farthest parts of the earth shall embrace the terms and enjoy the rewards of the Gospel covenant established with Abraham. But the Jews, who have the first title to them, shall be shut out from the feast; from the Christian ideas of grace and glory (Luke 13:29).

[12w] The outer darkness - Jesus here alludes to the custom the ancients had of making their feast in the night time. Probably while he was speaking this, the centurion came in person.

[14w] Peter's wife's mother - St. Peter was then a young man, as were all the apostles. Mark 1:29, Luke 4:38.

[28w] The country of the Gergesenes - Or of the Gadarenes - Gergesa and Gadara were towns near each other. Hence the country between them took its name, sometimes from the one, sometimes from the other. There met him two demoniacs - St. Mark and St.Luke mention only one, who was probably the fiercer of the two, and the person who spoke to our Lord first. But this is no way inconsistent with the account which St. Matthew gives. The tombs - Doubtless those malevolent spirits love such tokens of death and destruction. Tombs were usually in those days in desert places, at a distance from towns, and were often made in the sides of caves, in the rocks and mountains. No one could pass - Safely. Mark 5:1, Luke 8:26.

[29w] What have we to do with thee - This is a Hebrew phrase, which signifies. Why do you concern yourself about us? (16:10 – unknown reference)

Before the time - The great day.

[30w] There was a herd of many swine - Which it was not lawful for the Jews to keep. Therefore Jesus permitted them to be destroyed. [This answers the concern that Jesus may have damaged someone's property. However, the point is then made in v.33-34 that the whole city had falled into Sin or at least so many that the 'whole city' had complained.]

[31w] He said, Go - A word of permission only, not command.

[33] Some people were keeping herds of pigs; this would be somewhat unusual in Israel and suggests the people were corrupt.

[34] The insinuation Matthew is making here is the people were more concerned about their pigs than their souls (see v.30-34).

[2] Mark 1:40, Luke 5:12.

[4] Lev 14:2

[19] Luke 9:57

[23] Mark 4:35, Luke 8:22.

In v.5 here Wesley notes that in Hebrew and Greek the messenger is often called by the name of his sender. There are a multitude of examples in Hebrew, for example, where an Angel is called by the name of God; in any case this admission by Wesley should lay to rest any incorrect notions of Angels in the Hebrew scriptures.

Examples of use of the Hebrew term מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה are found in the following verses, here given in the King James Version translation:

• Genesis 16:7–14. The angel of the Lord appears to Hagar. The angel speaks as God in the first person, and in verse 13 Hagar identifies “the LORD that spake unto her” as “Thou God seest me”.
• Genesis 22:11–15. The angel of the Lord appears to Abraham and refers to God in the first person.
• Exodus 3:2–4. The angel of the Lord appears to Moses in a flame in verse 2, and God speaks to Moses from the flame in verse 4.
• Numbers 22:22–38. The angel of the Lord meets the prophet Balaam on the road. In verse 38, Balaam identifies the angel who spoke to him as delivering the word of God.
• Judges 2:1–3. An angel of the Lord appears to Israel.
• Judges 6:11–23. An angel of the Lord appears to Gideon, and in verse 22 Gideon fears for his life because he has seen an angel of the Lord face to face.
• Judges 13:3–22. The angel of the Lord appears to Manoah and his wife and, in verse 16, tells them to offer to the LORD if they are to make an offering (“And the angel of the LORD said unto Manoah […] if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the LORD. For Manoah knew not that he was an angel of the LORD.”). Later Manoah thought he and his wife will die for they “have seen God”
• Zechariah 1:12. The angel of the Lord pleads with the Lord to have mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah.
• Zechariah 3:4. The angel of the Lord takes away the sin of the high priest Joshua.

The Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint translates the Hebrew phrase מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה as ἄγγελος Κυρίου, “angel of the Lord” or as ὁ ἄγγελος Κυρίου, “the angel of the Lord”. “Owing to the Hebrew idiom, this may mean no more than 'an angel of God', and the Septuagint renders it with or without the article at will.”[5]

The KJV and NKJV capitalize “Angel” in the Old Testament references to “the Angel of the Lord”, while using lower-case “angel” in the Old Testament references to “an angel of the Lord” (and in the New Testament references). Most versions, including NASB, RSV, ESV, etc., do not capitalize “angel” in the mentions of “angel of the Lord”.

The term “angel of God” (Heb. mal'akh 'Elohim) occurs 12 times (2 of which are plural). The following are examples:

• Genesis 31:11. The angel of God calls out to Jacob in a dream and tells him “I am the God of Bethel”.
• Exodus 14:19. The angel of God leads the camp of Israel, and also follows behind them, with the pillar of fire.
• Judges 13:9. The angel of God approached Manoah's wife after the Lord heard Manoah.

In addition, there are mentions of God “sending an angel”, of which the following are examples:

• Exodus 23:20–21. The LORD says he will send an Angel before the Israelites, and warns them to obey the Angel's voice, and that the Angel “will not pardon transgressions” because the LORD's “name is in him”.
• Exodus 33:2. God says he will send an angel before the Israelites, and that God will drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
• Numbers 20:16. The LORD sent an angel and brought the people of Israel forth from Egypt.
• 1 Chronicles 21:15. God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem, but then repented and told the angel to stay his hand.
• 2 Chronicles 32:21. The LORD sent an angel, which cut off all the mighty men of valour and the leaders and captains in the camp of the king of Assyria.