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Matthew 8

1When he came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. 2And look, a person with leprosy approached and bowed before him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” 3He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be made clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one, but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

5When he entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him, pleading with him 6and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.” 7He said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy for you to come under my roof. Just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9For I too am a person under authority, with soldiers under me. I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have found no one in Israel with such great faith. 11And I tell you that many will come from east and west and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and grinding of teeth there.” 13Jesus said to the centurion, “Go; let it happen for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that hour.

14Jesus entered Peter's house and saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. 15He touched her hand, and the fever left her. She got up and served him. 16When evening came, they brought him many people possessed by demons. He cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick, 17so that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet would be fulfilled: “He took our weaknesses and carried our diseases.”

18When Jesus saw large crowds around him, he gave orders to go to the other side. 19A scribe approached and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20Jesus said to him, “Foxes have dens, and the birds of the sky have nesting places, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 21Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, first allow me to go and bury my father.” 22But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

23He got into a boat, and his disciples followed him. 24And look, a great upheaval arose on the sea, so that the boat was being covered by the waves; but he was sleeping. 25They came and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” 26He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27The people marveled, saying, “What kind of person is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?”

28When he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two people possessed by demons met him, coming out of the tombs. They were so violent that no one could pass along that road. 29And look, they cried out, “What do you have to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?” 30A herd of many pigs was grazing at a distance from them. 31The demons pleaded with him, saying, “If you cast us out, send us into the herd of pigs.” 32He said to them, “Go.” They came out and went into the pigs. And look, the whole herd rushed down the steep slope into the sea and died in the waters. 33The herders fled, went into the town, and reported everything, including what had happened to the people possessed by demons. 34And look, the whole town came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their territory.

Translation notes 10

8:2–4 — Leprosy; clean. “Leprosy” represents an ancient category of skin disease, not a secure diagnosis of modern Hansen's disease. The cleansing language concerns both healing and eligibility to rejoin communal religious life. The priest and Moses' prescribed gift remain part of the account.

8:2, 6, 8 — Lord. The address can express respectful “sir” as well as the fuller title “Lord.” Retaining the title does not establish that each speaker understood Jesus' identity in the same way.

8:5–9, 13 — Centurion; servant and slave. A centurion was a military officer. The sick person's designation, Greek pais, can mean servant or child; “son” is an alternative. The household-service setting favors “servant.” Verse 9 uses the specific word for “slave.” The text does not explicitly say whether that slave and the sick servant are the same individual.

8:7 — I will come. The Greek can also be punctuated as a question: “Am I to come and heal him?” The statement fits the centurion's response without supplying a refusal or reluctance.

8:11–12 — Table and sons. Reclining was a posture for a meal. “At the table” makes the dining setting explicit. “Sons of the kingdom” keeps the family image for those expected to belong to it; the warning contrasts this expectation with exclusion. “Grinding of teeth,” traditionally “gnashing of teeth,” retains the bodily expression of distress or rage.

8:17 — Weaknesses and diseases. The quotation recalls Isaiah 53:4. Matthew connects it here with healings; the translation does not substitute a theory of how those healings relate to Jesus' death.

8:20 — Son of Man. Jesus' recurring self-designation is retained. The human wording is meaningful, but replacing it simply with “I” or “a human being” would hide its repeated role in Matthew.

8:21–22 — Burying the dead. The repeated “dead” keeps the saying's startling force. “Spiritually dead” is an interpretation, not an adjective in the Greek. The text does not tell us that the father was still alive or describe a second burial of his bones.

8:24–25 — Upheaval; save us. The Greek noun describes a shaking or upheaval, here on the sea amid waves and winds. “Storm” is a natural contextual alternative. “Us” after “save” is supplied for intelligible English; it is absent from the Greek base, though included in other texts.

8:28–29 — Gadarenes; two people. The base names the Gadarenes; other texts have Gergesenes. Matthew's two people are retained. “Before the appointed time” points to an anticipated time of judgment without specifying its date.