Section 8:1–4

Jesus healed a man who had leprosy

In this section, Jesus showed his authority by healing a man who had a skin disease called leprosy. Jewish law declared that any person with leprosy was “ritually unclean.” Anyone who touched a person who had leprosy also became unclean. But when Jesus touched the man who had leprosy, Jesus did not become unclean. Instead, he healed the man who had leprosy.

Here are some other possible headings for this section:

Jesus heals a leper
-or-
A man with leprosy

There are parallel passages for this section in Mark 1:40–45 and Luke 5:12–16.

Paragraph 8:1–4

8:1a

When Jesus came down from the mountain: Jesus had gone up a mountain (in 5:1b) to preach the Sermon on the Mount. At some point after finishing his sermon, Jesus came down the same mountain.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

When/As Jesus came down the mountain
-or-
After ⌊he finished speaking to the people⌋, Jesus descended the hill

mountain: You should use the same word for mountain here as in 5:1b. This mountain was where Jesus preached his sermon in 5:3–7:27.

The mountains/hills near Lake Galilee vary in height from about 30 meters (about 100 feet) to as high as 500 meters (1640 feet) above the lake. Use a term in your language that refers to this size of mountain/hill.

Here are some other ways to translate mountain:

hill (Good News Translation)
-or-
mountainside (New Living Translation (2004))

8:1b

large crowds: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as large crowds is more literally “many crowds.” In Greek, the word crowds is plural. This word together with the word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as large refers to a “large number of people.” These were the people who had listened to Jesus’ sermon.

Here, the word crowds does not indicate that there were separate groups of people.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

many people
-or-
a large group of people

followed Him: Here, the verb followed is used in its normal sense. It indicates that the crowd went along with Jesus. Jesus was probably in front leading the crowd, and they followed behind him. The people had gathered on the side of the mountain to listen to Jesus, so they also descended the mountain as they followed Jesus.

In this context, the verb followed does not have the same sense as in 4:20 where Simon and Andrew “followed” Jesus and became his disciples.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

went with him

-or-

descended together/along with him

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