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14. καὶ αὐτὸς παρήγγειλεν αὐτῷ μηδενὶ εἰπεῖν. He personally charged him to tell it to no one. The use of αὐτὸς for Jesus (He—the Master) is chiefly found in St Luke. Comp. Aristoph. Nub. 218. These injunctions to reticence marked especially the early part of the ministry. See Luk 4:35, Luk 5:14, Luk 8:56. The reasons were probably (i) personal to the healed sufferer, lest his inward thankfulness should be dissipated by the idle and boastful gossip of curiosity (St Chrys.); but far more (ii) because, as St Matthew expressly tells us, He did not wish His ministry to be accompanied by excitement and tumult—in accordance with the prophecy of Isa 42:2 (Mat 12:15-50; comp. Php 2:6-7; Heb 5:5; Joh 18:36); and (iii) because He came, not merely and not mainly, to be a great Physician and Wonder-worker, but to save men’s souls by His Revelation, His Example, and His Death.
It is evident however that there was something very special in this case, for St Mark says (Luk 1:43), “violently enjoining him (ἐμβριμησάμενος αὐτῷ), immediately He thrust him forth, and said to him, See that you say no word to any one” (ὅρα μηδενὶ μηδὲν εἴπῃς) (according to the right reading and translation). Clearly, although the multitudes were following Christ (Mat 8:1), He was walking before them, and the miracle had been so sudden and instantaneous (ἰδοὺ … εὐθέως) that they had not observed what had taken place. Probably our Lord desired to avoid the Levitical rites for uncleanness which the unspiritual ceremonialism of the Pharisees might have tried to force upon Him.
On other occasions, when these reasons did not exist, He even enjoined the publication of an act of mercy, Luk 8:39.
ἀλλὰ ἀπελθὼν δεῖξον σεαυτὸν τῷ ἱερεῖ. We find similar instances of transition from indirect to direct narration, in Act 23:22; Psa 74:16. See my Brief Greek Syntax, p. 199. The priest alone could legally pronounce him clean.
προσένεγκε περὶ τοῦ καθαρισμοῦ σου. The student should read for himself the intensely interesting and symbolic rites commanded by Moses for the legal pronunciation of a leper clean in Leviticus 14. They occupy fourteen chapters of Negaîm, one of the treatises of the Mishnah.
καθὼς προσέταξεν Μωϋσῆς. A reference to Lev 14:4-10 will shew how heavy an expense the offering entailed.
εἰς μαρτύριον αὐτοῖς, i.e. that the priests may assure themselves that the miracle is real. In Luk 9:5; Mar 6:11 the words mean ‘for a witness against them;’ and although St Luke’s phrase is not very definite, it may imply ‘for an evidence to the priests that I do not neglect the Mosaic Law’ (Mat 5:17). It is evident from St John that this suspicion had excited hostility against Him from the first. The impetuous phrase of St Mark εὐθέως ἐξέβαλεν αὐτόν perhaps paints the agitation of Jesus as He recalled the suspicion and thwarting hatred which might arise from His having touched this leper, and so broken the letter of the Law, which, in such cases, even when accidentally violated, involved the necessity for a Levitical quarantine.