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chapter 8
1. After Yeshua had come down from the hill, large crowds followed him.
2. Then a man afflicted with tzara‘at came, kneeled down in front of him and said, “Sir, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
By the first century Judaism had developed a list of major signs the true Messiah could be expected to give as proof of his identity (see 16:1-4). Healing a leper was one of them. Another was casting out a deaf, dumb and blind demon (12:22-23&N). Other Messianic signs and references to them are found at 11:2-6 and Yn 6:25-33, 9:1—41, 11:1-52.

Sir. Greek kurios; see 1:20N, 7:21 N.
Make me clean, not only free of the repulsive skin disease called "leprosy" in many translations (but probably not Hansen's Disease, which is what "leprosy" means today); but also ritually clean (Hebrew tahor), so that I will not have to be separated from the community. The rules applicable to "lepers" are specified in Talmud tractate N'ga'im, based on Leviticus 13-14.

3. Yeshua reached out his hand, touched him and said, “I am willing! Be cleansed!” And at once he was cleansed from his tzara‘at.
4. Then Yeshua said to him, “See that you tell no one; but as a testimony to the people, go and let the cohen examine you, and offer the sacrifice that Moshe commanded.”
Tell no one. In the early part of his ministry Yeshua did not publicize the fact that he was the Messiah, because the people expected a Messiah who would liberate Israel from Rome and rule in glory, not one who would die a criminal's death. Had he been publicly identified as the Messiah, the people would have tried to make him king then and there, as they did soon after (Yn 6:15). Had the attempt succeeded, with Yeshua ruling in glory, he would not have fulfilled Isaiah 53's prophecy of a Messiah who must suffer and die. Only at his Second Coming will Yeshua fulfill the prophecies concerning the Messianic Age of world peace.

Go and let the cohen examine you, and offer the sacriGce that Moshe commanded in Leviticus 14:1-32. In other words, do what the Torah commands after recovery from such a skin disease. This sends a message to the religious establishment that the Messiah has come and is at work, doing what only the Messiah can do (vv. 1-4N). The testimony to the people is to go "through channels" — initially to the leadership.

5. As Yeshua entered K’far-Nachum, a Roman army officer came up and pleaded for help.
6. “Sir, my orderly is lying at home paralyzed and suffering terribly!”
7. Yeshua said, “I will go and heal him.”
8. But the officer answered, “Sir, I am unfit to have you come into my home. Rather, if you will only give the command, my orderly will recover.
9. For I too am a man under authority. I have soldiers under me, and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes; to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes; to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.”
10. On hearing this Yeshua was amazed and said to the people following him, “Yes! I tell you, I have not found anyone in Isra’el with such trust!
11. Moreover, I tell you that many will come from the east and from the west to take their places at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven with Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov.
12. But those born for the Kingdom will be thrown outside in the dark, where people will wail and grind their teeth!”
13. Then Yeshua said to the officer, “Go; let it be for you as you have trusted.” And his orderly was healed at that very moment.

Replacement theologians (5:5&N) and antisemites might conclude that God is excluding the Jews from his Kingdom (v. 12). However, the point of this story is not exclusion but inclusion: here Yeshua states clearly that Gentiles from all over (from the east and from the west), even an army officer of the hated Roman conquerors, can. by virtue of trusting in God (v. 10), join (not replace) God's people Israel and take their places at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven with Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya'akov (v. 11). Verse 12, like many statements of the Tanakh prophets pertaining to the Jewish people, is a warning against lack of trust but not an irrevocable prediction. Those born for the Kingdom, Jews, will be thrown outside in the dark, where people will wail and grind their teeth, only if they fail to heed the warning.

14. Yeshua went to Kefa’s home and there saw Kefa’s mother-in-law sick in bed with a fever.
15. He touched her hand, the fever left her, and she got up and began helping him.
16. When evening came, many people held in the power of demons were brought to him. He expelled the spirits with a word and healed all who were ill.
17. This was done to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet Yesha‘yahu, “He himself took our weaknesses and bore our diseases” (Isaiah 53:4).
This is the first citation in the New Testament from Isaiah 52:13-53:12, the Tanakh passage that most clearly portrays the Messiah as a servant of Adonai who suffers for the sins of the people. For more on this passage, see Ac 8:34N.

18. When Yeshua saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake.
19. A Torah-teacher approached and said to him, “Rabbi, I will follow you wherever you go.”
Rabbi (Hebrew, literally, "my great one") here renders Greek didaskalos, "teacher." See 23:7N. Teaching talmidim was, and sometimes still is, the chief task of a rabbi.

20. Yeshua said to him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds flying about have nests, but the Son of Man has no home of his own.”
Son of Man. One of the titles of the Messiah, based on Daniel 7:13-14, where the text has "bar-enosh" (Aramaic). "Bar-enosh," like Hebrew ben-adam, can also mean "son of man," "typical man," "one schooled to be a man," or simply "man" (see 1:1N on "son of"). Yeshua is all of these: the Messiah, a typical (ideal) man, and one schooled both in heaven and on earth to be a man. Yeshua refers to himself by this title frequently, stressing his full identification with the human condition, as taught in Ro 5:12-21, 8:3-39; 1С 15:21-49; Pp 2:5-11; MJ 2:5-18, 4:15. Compare 4:3N on "son of God."

21. Another of the talmidim said to him, “Sir, first let me go and bury my father.”
22. But Yeshua replied, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
First let me go and bury my father. Don't suppose this would-be talmidk traveling around with Yeshua while his father's corpse is waiting at home, stinking in the sun. The father is not dead yet! If he had been, the son would have been at home, sitting shiv'ah (see Yn 1 l:19-20&N). The son wishes to go home, live in comfort with his father till his death perhaps years hence, collect his inheritance and then, at his leisure, become a disciple. On this and other excuses see Lk 9:57-62&N. Let the spiritually dead, those concerned with the benefits of this world, including inheritances, remain with each other in life and eventually bury their own physically dead. The true talmid must get his priorities straight. Note the consequences of not doing so at 13:7, 22; 19:16-26; Lk 14:15-24.

23. He boarded the boat, and his talmidim followed.
24. Then, without warning, a furious storm arose on the lake, so that waves were sweeping over the boat. But Yeshua was sleeping.
25. So they came and roused him, saying, “Sir! Help! We’re about to die!”
26. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? So little trust you have!” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and there was a dead calm.
Little trust See Hasidic story cited in Lk 15:1 SN. Rebuked the wind and the waves.
See Psalm 107:28-29 and Appendix, p. 931.

27. The men were astounded. They asked, “What kind of man is this, that even the winds and sea obey him?”
28. When Yeshua arrived at the other side of the lake, in the Gadarenes’ territory, there came out of the burial caves two men controlled by demons, so violent that no one dared travel on that road.
29. They screamed, “What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?”
The appointed time. At the end of history the demons are to be punished eternally by being thrown into the lake of fire (25:41, Rv 20:9-15).

30. Now some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding.
Pigs. The Gadarenes were presumably not Jewish and had no compunctions about raising pigs. See Mk 5:11-17&N, Lk 15:1N.

31. The demons begged him, “If you are going to drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.”
32. “All right, go!” he told them. So they came out and went into the pigs, whereupon the entire herd rushed down the hillside into the lake and drowned.
33. The swineherds fled, went off to the town and told the whole story, including what had happened to the demonized men.
34. At this, the whole town came out to meet Yeshua. When they saw him, they begged him to leave their district.