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Raising of Jairus's daughter

Matt 9:18–26; Mark 5:21–43; Luke 8:40–56 · Later ministry in Galilee

Scripture

Matthew 9:18–26

hile he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live. 19And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples. 20And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: 21For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. 22But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour. 23And when Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, 24He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. 25But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose. 26And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land.

King James Version · public domain

Mateu 9:18–26

ek po u fliste ay atyre këto, ja tek erdhi një i-parë, edhe i falej ati, dyke thënë, Se ime bijë vdiq tashti; po eja edhe vërë dorënë t’ënde mbi atë, edhe dotë rronjë. 19Edhe Jisuj ungrit e vate prapa ati, bashkë me nxënësit’ e ti. 20Edhe ja një grua që i rrithte gjak nga vetë-heja dy-mbë-dhjetë vjet, uafërua së-prapësmi, edh’ e preku anën’ e rrobës’ s’ati. 21Sepse thosh-te me vetëhen’ e saj, Vetëmë ndë prekça rrobën’ e ati, dotë shëronem. 22Edhe Jisuj kur ukthye, e pa atë, tha, Kij zëmërë, o bijë; besa jote të shpëtoj. Edhe gruaja shpëtoj që mb’atë herë. 23Edhe Jisuj passi erdhi ndë shtëpit të të-parit, edhe pa ata që u bininë fyejvet edhe gjindjenë dyke bërë gjëmë, u thot’ atyre, 24Ikëni; sepse vashëza s’ka vdekurë, po po fle. Po ata e përqeshnin’ atë. 25Edhe gjindja si unxuar jashtë, hyri edhe e zuri prej dore; edhe vashëza ungrit. 26Edhe ky zë dolli ndëpër gjith’atë dhe.

Kristoforidhi, Dhiata e Re Toskërisht 1879 · zotërim publik

Summary

"The girl is not dead but sleeping," for to Christ, who is about to wake her, death is no more than a sleep. The Fathers hear in this not a denial of her death but a measure of His power, since He holds the keys of life. When the mourners laugh Him to scorn, they unwittingly testify that she was truly dead, so that the wonder cannot be doubted. He puts the unbelieving crowd outside and raises her privately, with only the parents and the three disciples, taking her by the hand. The tradition notes His restraint: He does not court a spectacle but heals where faith is present, and by His touch He shows the life-giving power of His own flesh, which sanctifies rather than being defiled by the dead.

The two miracles are interwoven on purpose, so that the faith of the synagogue-ruler and the faith of the hemorrhaging woman illumine one another. The delay that seems to cost the girl her life becomes the occasion of a greater wonder, and the Fathers read Jairus on his hard road, from a sick child to one already dead, as taught not to despair but to "fear not, only believe."

Beneath the literal sense the Fathers, and Ambrose especially, find a figure of the soul. The girl raised within the house and the woman healed in the open road are read as Israel and the nations, or as the body and the soul that Christ restores. The death of the girl becomes the death of the soul in sin, from which the Word raises us by His word and His hand, commanding that she be given food, since the life He gives is to be nourished and kept. So the miracle preaches the general resurrection: He who calls a sleeper from her bed will one day call all the dead from the grave.

In their own words

Thus He waited also on purpose for death to come on, and that then He should arrive; in order that the proof of the resurrection might be distinct.

St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew, Homily XXXI (on Matt. ix. 18), section 2 — NPNF1 Vol. 10

The Raising of Jairus's Daughter (Matthew 9:18–26; Mark 5:21–43; Luke 8:40–56)

Public-Domain Patristic Commentary

Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, falls at Christ's feet and begs Him to come, for his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, is dying. As Christ goes with him, the crowd presses, and a woman with an issue of blood is healed by touching His garment (that miracle is treated separately). While He is still speaking, word comes from the house: "Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master." Christ answers, "Fear not, only believe, and she shall live." At the house He puts out the mourners, saying, "She is not dead but sleepeth," and they laugh Him to scorn. Taking only Peter, James, and John and the child's parents, He takes her by the hand and says, "Maid, arise"; her spirit returns, she rises at once, and He commands that she be given something to eat. The texts below are quoted verbatim from public-domain translations. Chrysostom's commentary on Matthew is primary; Cyril treats this raising chiefly by cross-reference, within his sermons on the neighbouring miracles; the remaining Fathers are drawn from the Catena Aurea on Matthew (St. Thomas Aquinas, trans. J. H. Newman, 1841). Nothing is paraphrased.

St. John Chrysostom (c. 347–407)

Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, Homily 31 (on Matthew 9:18–26) Source: trans. in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 10. Public domain. Full text: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/200131.htm

On the ruler's terrible affliction, and the deed that overtook the words:

While He spoke these things unto them, behold, there came in a ruler, and worshipped Him, saying, My daughter is even now dead; but come and lay Your hand upon her, and she shall live. The deed overtook the words; so that the mouths of the Pharisees were the more stopped. For both he that came was a ruler of the synagogue, and his affliction terrible. For the young damsel was both his only child, and twelve years old, the very flower of her age; on which account especially He raised her up again, and that immediately.

On the ruler's weak faith, corrected beforehand by the woman:

Moreover the ruler of the synagogue, who was on the point of thorough unbelief, and so of utter ruin, He corrects by the woman. Since both they that came said, Trouble not the Master, for the damsel is dead; and those in the house laughed Him to scorn, when He said, She sleeps; and it was likely that the father too should have experienced some such feeling. Therefore to correct this weakness beforehand, He brings forward the simple woman.

On the word He spoke to that ruler of the grosser sort:

For as to that ruler being quite of the grosser sort, hear what He says unto him: Fear not, do thou believe only, and she shall be made whole.

On why He waited for death to come, that the proof of the resurrection might be unmistakable:

Thus He waited also on purpose for death to come on, and that then He should arrive; in order that the proof of the resurrection might be distinct. With this view He both walks more leisurely, and discourses more with the woman; that He might give time for the damsel to die, and for those to come, who told of it, and said, Trouble not the Master. For His will was that her death should be believed, that her resurrection might not be suspected. And this He does in every instance. So also in the case of Lazarus, He waited a first and a second and a third day.

St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376–444)

Commentary on the Gospel of Luke (by cross-reference, in the sermons on the neighbouring miracles) Source: trans. R. Payne Smith, 1859. Public domain. On the widow's son of Nain (Luke 7): https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_on_luke_03_sermons_26_38.htm On faith and unbelief (Luke 9): https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_on_luke_05_sermons_47_56.htm

On Jairus's coming, and the reply that meets the news of death (within his treatment of faith):

For Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue of the Jews, when his only daughter was now breathing her last, being caught, so to speak, in the meshes of death, besought Jesus to deliver the damsel from what had happened: and Christ accordingly promised so to do upon arriving at the house of the supplicant. But as He was on His way, a man met Him from the relatives of the ruler of the synagogue, saying, "Thy daughter is dead: trouble not the Teacher." And what was Christ's reply? "Fear not: only believe, and she shall live."

On Jairus's daughter set among the proofs of the resurrection (within his sermon on the widow's son of Nain):

Those persons therefore who were restored to life by the power of Christ, we take as a pledge of the hope prepared for us of a resurrection of the dead: and these were, this young man, and Lazarus of Bethany, and the daughter of the chief of the synagogue.

St. Jerome (c. 347–420)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain.

On how, as Christ goes to heal one, another is cured by the way:

This woman that had the flux came to the Lord not in the house, nor in the town, for she was excluded from them by the Law, but by the way as He walked; thus as He goes to heal one woman, another is cured.

On the tense of His word, "hath made thee whole":

He said not, Thy faith shall make thee whole, but, "hath made thee whole;" for in that thou hast believed, thou art already made whole.

On the mockers shut out from the mystery of the revival:

They that had mocked the Reviver were not worthy to behold the mystery of the revival.

On the synagogue still lying dead, until the fulness of the Gentiles:

To this day the damsel lays dead in the ruler's house; and they that seem to be teachers are but minstrels singing funeral dirges. The Jews also are not the crowd of believers, but of "people making a noise." But when the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in, then all Israel shall be saved.

Blessed Augustine (of Hippo) (354–430)

On the Harmony of the Evangelists (De Consensu Evangelistarum) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain.

On how the father looked rather to her being called back to life than to her mere recovery:

He looks not at the words of the father respecting his daughter, but rather his mind. For he had so far despaired of her life, that he made his request rather for her to be called in life again, thinking it impossible that she, whom he had left dying, should be found yet alive.

On the rule that we must regard a man's meaning, not merely his words:

Hence we learn a thing of the highest necessity, that we should look at nothing in any man's words, but his meaning to which his words ought to be subservient; and no man gives a false account when he repeats a man's meaning in words other than those actually used.

St. Hilary of Poitiers (c. 310–367)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain.

On how His power was not confined by the body it took:

Herein is to be observed the marvellous virtue of the Lord, that the power that dwelt in His body should give healing to things perishable, and the heavenly energy extended even through the hems of His garments; for God is not comprehensible that He should be shut in by a body. For His taking a body unto Him did not confine His power, but His power took upon it a frail body for our redemption.

On the ruler figuratively understood as the Law:

Figuratively, this ruler is to be understood as the Law, which prays the Lord that He would restore life to the dead multitude which it had brought up for Christ, preaching that His coming was to be looked for.

On the multitude put forth, and the few who are the elect:

But that the number of the elect might be known to be but few out of the whole body of believers, the multitude is put forth; the Lord indeed would that they should be saved, but they mocked at His sayings and actions, and so were not worthy to be made partakers of His resurrection.

St. Ambrose of Milan (c. 339–397)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain.

On the minstrels and the ancient custom of mourning the dead:

For by the ancient custom minstrels were engaged to make lamentation for the dead.

St. Gregory the Great (c. 540–604)

Morals on the Book of Job (Moralia in Iob) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain.

On the crowd of worldly cares that must be banished before the soul can rise:

The multitude are put forth that the damsel may be raised; for unless the multitude of worldly cares is first banished from the secrets of the heart, the soul which is laid dead within, cannot rise again.

St. Bede the Venerable (c. 673–735)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain.

On how she who is dead to men sleeps only before God:

As though He had said, To you she is dead, but to God who has power to give life, she sleeps only both in soul and body.

Note on other Fathers

These voices fit together as commentary on one event seen across the Gospels. Chrysostom, reading Matthew, fixes on the father: a ruler of the synagogue whose only child, "twelve years old, the very flower of her age," is dead, and whose faith is "quite of the grosser sort," asking Christ to come and lay His hand rather than simply to speak the word. So Christ "corrects this weakness beforehand" by the woman healed on the way, and meets the news of death with "Fear not, only believe." His sharpest observation is about the timing: Christ "waited on purpose for death to come on," walking slowly and lingering with the woman, "that the proof of the resurrection might be distinct" and her death "be believed, that her resurrection might not be suspected," exactly as He later waited three days for Lazarus. Cyril supplies the wider frame, narrating Jairus's coming and the same reply, and setting the daughter alongside the widow's son of Nain and Lazarus as "a pledge of the hope prepared for us of a resurrection of the dead." Jerome reads the whole scene figuratively: the synagogue still "lays dead in the ruler's house" until "the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in," and dwells on the tense of "hath made thee whole." Augustine, on the harmony of the Evangelists, vindicates Matthew's shorter telling by the rule that we must regard a man's meaning and not merely his words. Hilary marvels that the divine power "took upon it a frail body for our redemption" without being confined by it, and reads the ruler as the Law that preached Christ's coming. Ambrose notes the ancient custom of the hired mourners; Gregory the Great draws the moral that "the multitude of worldly cares" must be cast out before the soul "laid dead within" can rise; and Bede gives Christ's own measure of death, that she who is dead to men "sleeps only" before God. Other Catena names on this passage (Remigius, Rabanus, and the Gloss) are largely later Western compilation and are not quoted here. For verbatim public-domain English, the works above are the principal sources.

Patristic sources

Read the sources: Chrysostom on Matthew (CCEL)