Mark 1:40-45

Jesus Cleanses a Leper

40 ¹And a leper^[a] came to him, imploring him, and ²kneeling said to him, ³“If you will, you can make me clean. ”

41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean. ”

42 And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.

43 And ⁴Jesus^[b] sternly charged him and sent him away at once,

44 and said to him, ⁵“See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, ⁶show yourself to the priest and ⁷offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, ⁸for a proof to them. ”

45 ⁹But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter ¹⁰a town, but was out in ¹¹desolate places, and ¹²people were coming to him from every quarter.

Mark 1:40-45 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO MARK

This is the title of the book, the subject of which is the Gospel; a joyful account of the ministry, miracles, actions, and sufferings of Christ: the writer of it was not one of the twelve apostles, but an evangelist; the same with John Mark, or John, whose surname was Mark: John was his Hebrew name, and Mark his Gentile name, Ac 12:12,25, and was Barnabas's sister's son, Col 4:10, his mother's name was Mary, Ac 12:12. The Apostle Peter calls him his son, 1Pe 5:13, if he is the same; and he is thought to have wrote his Gospel from him {a}, and by his order, and which was afterwards examined and approved by him {b} it is said to have been wrote originally in Latin, or in the Roman tongue: so say the Arabic and Persic versions at the beginning of it, and the Syriac version says the same at the end: but of this there is no evidence, any more, nor so much, as of Matthew's writing his Gospel in Hebrew. The old Latin copy of this, is a version from the Greek; it is most likely that it was originally written in Greek, as the rest of the New Testament.

{a} Papias apud Euseb. Hist. l. 3. c. 39. Tertull. adv. Marcion. l. 4. c. 5. {b} Hieron. Catalog. Script. Eccles. p. 91. sect. 18.

Cross References

• 1. 1:40 For ver. 40-44, see Matt. 8:2-4; Luke 5:12-14
• 2. 1:40 ch. 10:17; Matt. 17:14; 27:29
• 3. 1:40 [ch. 9:22, 23; Matt. 9:28]
• 4. 1:43 Matt. 9:30
• 5. 1:44 ver. 34; ch. 5:43; 7:36; 8:26; Matt. 9:30; 17:9; See Matt. 12:16
• 6. 1:44 Luke 17:14
• 7. 1:44 Lev. 14:2-32
• 8. 1:44 ch. 6:11; Luke 9:5; James 5:3
• 9. 1:45 ch. 7:36; Matt. 9:31; [Luke 5:15, 16]
• 10. 1:45 2 Cor. 11:26
• 11. 1:45 2 Cor. 11:26
• 12. 1:45 ch. 2:2, 13; 3:7; [John 6:2]

Footnotes

• [a] 1:40 'Leprosy' was a term for several skin diseases; see Leviticus 13
• [b] 1:43 Greek 'he'; also verse 45