And behold here also serves to draw attention to a new participant in the narrative (see verse 18).
A hemorrhage may be spoken of in less technical language as a “severe bleeding” (Good News Translation). New English Bible is good because it suggests habitual but not constant bleeding: “had suffered from haemorrhages.” If her hemorrhaging was from her womb, as seems quite likely to many scholars, then according to Leviticus 15.25-30 she was ritually unclean during those twelve years.
One way to translate this sentence is to say “during twelve years she had a frequent problem because of bleeding” or “very often she would suffer from bleeding. This had been going on for twelve years.”
Touched is the meaning given the Greek verb by most translations. However, in other contexts the verb may mean “take hold of.” It would not be correct to use a word that meant she accidentally brushed past Jesus. Her action was deliberate.
Fringe (so New Jerusalem Bible) or “edge” (Good News Translation, New English Bible) may be understood as a specific reference to the “tassel” (New American Bible, Barclay) which Jewish men were obligated to wear on the four corners of their outer garments (see Num 15.37-41; Deut 22.12). The problem of interpretation is complicated by two factors. First, we do not know how precisely Jesus followed the ceremonial rules of his religion. And second, we cannot determine with any degree of certainty the way that the writer of the Gospel and the original readers may have understood the term. In light of these complications, it appears best not to give the term too specific a meaning, and it is probably best translated as “edge.”
Garment is the same word used in verse 16; it may refer to a piece of clothing in general, or more specifically to an outer garment. Many translations use “cloak,” and in verse 16 Good News Bible had “coat.” One should not follow the example of Anchor Bible (“the hem of his himation”), which is a transliteration of the Greek. If in a culture men wear some type of outer cloak as part of their clothing, that can certainly be used for garment here. But many translators will use a very general term like “clothing.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .