Matthew discovers the significance of Jesus’ healing ministry in the words of Isaiah 53.4. Both Mark (1.34) and Luke (4.41) give a different conclusion to this short narrative.

This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah is essentially the same introductory formula used by Matthew in 4.14. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch renders “In this way he did what the prophet Isaiah had said would happen.”

This refers, of course, to casting out spirits and healing people. Some translations can follow Good News Translation, “He did this.” Others will say “He cured people like that because…” or “He did these things for people so that….”

For suggestions on the rest of the formula, what was … Isaiah, see 1.22; 4.14.

He took our infirmities and bore our diseases comes from Isaiah 53.4 and is based on the Hebrew text. This is the only place in the Gospels where there exists an explicit reference to Isaiah 53, and it is noteworthy that it appears in relation to Jesus’ acts of healing rather than to his suffering and exaltation. The Septuagint translators of Isaiah spiritualized the passage by making it refer to sin and hardship. Matthew’s concern, however, is to relate it solely to the healing activity of Jesus. The two clauses are essentially synonymous: took and bore are parallel to one another, as are infirmities and diseases. Therefore Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch can translate “He has taken from us our sickness and our suffering.” Infirmities derives from a root which means “weakness,” but the noun is frequently used in the sense of sickness or disease. This is its only occurrence in the Gospel. The word translated diseases refers specifically to diseases or illnesses; it was first used in 4.23, 24 (“disease”), and see also 9.35; 10.1.

Both took and bore signify here “carried away” or “took away,” for purpose of removal, not merely “took upon himself.” Translators can even say “freed us from.”

Some translators will keep the parallelism of the text, as in “He freed us from our sickness and carried away our diseases.” Others, however, will find it easier to collapse this into one line, as in “He took away all our diseases” or “He freed us from all sickness.”

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 .