8:3a
Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man: It is significant that Jesus touched this man. Jews were very careful not to touch someone with this kind of disease because that would make them unclean as well. Sometimes, Jesus healed someone with words only. But here he not only used words, he deliberately touched the unclean man. By doing this, he showed that he had power over these types of diseases.
In some languages, it will be good to include a footnote with some of this information.
This clause means that Jesus extended his arm and touched him with his hand. In some languages, it may not be necessary to translate His hand in this clause. This is because this phrase may already be implied in the verb for reached out. It may not even be necessary to translate reached out. It may be implied in the verb for touched. For example:
Jesus reached out and touched him (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
Jesus put his hand on the man (Contemporary English Version)
8:3b
I am willing: The phrase I am willing means that Jesus was willing to heal the man. In some languages it is more natural or clear to include the implied information. For example:
I am willing ⌊to do as you ask⌋.
-or-
I do want ⌊to heal you⌋.
Be clean!: The command Be clean! indicates that Jesus healed the man. In some languages it may not be natural to use a command to express this idea. It may be necessary to indicate that Jesus himself was doing these actions. For example:
I heal you.
-or-
I cure you of your leprosy.
-or-
Now you are well. (Contemporary English Version)
8:3c
immediately: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as immediately introduces what happened when Jesus spoke to the man. As soon as Jesus spoke, the man was healed.
Here are some other ways to translate this:
At once (Good News Translation)
-or-
At that very moment
-or-
instantly (New Living Translation (2004))
his leprosy was cleansed: As in 8:2b and 8:3b, the verb translated cleansed means “cured” or “healed.”
This clause is passive. Here are some other ways to translate it:
• Use a passive verb. For example:
he was cured of his leprosy (New International Version)
-or-
the man was healed of his disease (Good News Translation)
• Use an active verb. For example:
⌊Jesus⌋ healed him
• Use another type of verb. For example:
He was/became well
© 2023 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.