The Healing of the Woman Bent for Eighteen Years (Luke 13:10–17)

Public-Domain Patristic Commentary

As Jesus taught in a synagogue on the Sabbath, there was a woman "which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself." He called her, said "Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity," laid His hands on her, "and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God." When the ruler of the synagogue objected that she should have come to be healed on a working day, the Lord answered, "Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?" His adversaries were put to shame, and the people rejoiced. This healing is found only in Luke.

Cyril and Augustine are quoted from their own works; the other Fathers below are preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke (St. Thomas Aquinas, trans. J. H. Newman, 1841). Augustine treats this woman in the same sermon as the barren fig tree. All texts are quoted verbatim from public-domain translations.

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St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376–444)

From his Commentary on Luke (Homily 96, on Luke 13:10–17), trans. R. Payne Smith, 1859. Public domain.

On the ruler who valued his ox above a suffering human being:

Thou wonderest, He says, at Me, Who have loosed a daughter of Abraham; and yet thou givest rest to thy ox and thy ass, loosing them from their labours, and leading them away to watering; but when a human being suffering from sickness is marvellously healed, and God has shown mercy, thou blamest both as transgressors; the One for having healed, and the other for being delivered from her malady. Behold, I pray, the ruler of the synagogue, how a human being is of less account in his sight than a beast, since at least he counts his ox and his ass worthy of care on the sabbath, but in his envy would not have Christ deliver from her infirmity the woman who was bowed together, nor wishes her to recover her natural form.

On the true meaning of the Sabbath rest, which is to free from disease:

It was, thou art told, that thy manservant, and thy ox, and thy horse, and all thy cattle might rest. When, therefore, He gives men rest by freeing them from their diseases, and thou forbiddest it, plainly thou breakest the law of the sabbath, in not permitting those to rest who are suffering under sickness and disease, and whom Satan had bound.

On the healing word, full of the power of God present in His own flesh:

And so He set free the daughter of Abraham from her protracted sickness, calling out and saying, "Woman, thou art loosed from thy infirmity." A speech most worthy of God, and full of supernatural power; for with the kingly inclination of His will He drives away the disease. And He also lays His hands upon her; and immediately, it says, she was made straight. And hence, too, it is possible to see that His holy flesh bore in it the power and activity of God. For it was His own flesh, and not that of some other Son beside Him, distinct and separate from Him, as some most impiously imagine.

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St. John Chrysostom (c. 349–407)

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

On Christ teaching openly in the synagogues:

He teaches indeed not separately, but in the synagogues; calmly, neither wavering in any thing, nor determining aught against the law of Moses; on the Sabbath also, because the Jews were then engaged in the hearing of the law.

On the ruler rightly called a hypocrite:

Well then does he call the ruler of the synagogue a hypocrite, for he had the appearance of an observer of the law, but in his heart was a crafty and envious man. For it troubles him not that the Sabbath is broken, but that Christ is glorified.

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St. Basil the Great (c. 330–379)

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

On the human head made erect toward heaven:

Because the head of the brutes is bent down towards the ground and looks upon the earth, but the head of man was made erect towards the heaven, his eyes tending upward. For it becomes us to seek what is above, and with our sight to pierce beyond earthly things.

On what a hypocrite is:

The hypocrite is one who on the stage assumes a different character from his own. So also in this life some men carry one thing in their heart, and show another on the surface to the world.

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Blessed Augustine of Hippo (354–430)

From Sermon 60 on the New Testament (on Luke 13:6 and following), Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 6, ed. Philip Schaff, 1888. Public domain.

On the eighteen years, and the Lord who alone could make her straight:

What is that "woman who was in an infirmity eighteen years"? In six days God finished His works. Three times six are eighteen. What the "three years" then in "the tree" signified, that do the "eighteen years" in this woman. She was bent down, she could not look up; because in vain did she hear, "Up with your hearts." But the Lord made her straight.

On every soul bent down to the earth, who must call upon God to be raised:

He that is bent down, who looks only on the earth, rejoices in earthly happiness, who thinks this the only happy life, where he may be happy, and who believes no other can be; whosoever he be that is so bent down, let him be made straight; if he cannot by himself, let him call upon God. For was that woman made straight by herself? Woe had it been for her, if He had not stretched out His Hand.

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St. Gregory the Great (c. 540–604)

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

On the eighteen years as six taken three times:

Man was made on the sixth day, and on the same sixth day were all the works of the Lord finished, but the number six multiplied three times makes eighteen. Because then man who was made on the sixth day was unwilling to do perfect works, but before the law, under the law, and at the beginning of grace, was weak, the woman was bowed down eighteen years.

On the sinner who cannot look up:

For every sinner who thinks earthly things, not seeking those that are in heaven, is unable to look up.

On habitual sin that binds the mind:

For habitual sin binds down the mind, so that it cannot rise to uprightness. It makes attempts and fails, because when it has long stood by its own will, when the will is lacking, it falls.

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St. Ambrose of Milan (c. 339–397)

From his Exposition of the Gospel of Luke, as preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On the ten of the Law and the eight of the resurrection:

Nor could this woman be healed except she had fulfilled the law and grace. For in ten sentences is contained the perfection of the law, and in the number eight the fullness of the resurrection.

On the fig tree as the synagogue and the woman as the Church:

The fig tree represents the synagogue; afterwards in the infirm woman there follows as it were a figure of the Church, which having fulfilled the measure of the law and the resurrection, and now raised up on high in that eternal resting place, can no more experience the frailty of our weak inclinations.

On the miracle as a sign of the coming Sabbath:

Now this miracle is a sign of the coming sabbath, when every one who has fulfilled the law and grace, shall by the mercy of God put off the toils of this weak body.

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St. Bede the Venerable (c. 672–735)

From his Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, as preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On the daughter of Abraham as every faithful soul:

But the daughter of Abraham is every faithful soul, or the Church gathered out of both nations into the unity of the faith. There is the same mystery then in the ox or ass being loosed and led to water, as in the daughter of Abraham being released from the bondage of our affections.

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Note on sources and other Fathers

The chain on this Sabbath healing is unusually rich. Cyril is quoted from his own Commentary on Luke (Homily 96) and Augustine from his Sermon 60 on the New Testament; the rest — Chrysostom, Basil, Gregory the Great, Ambrose and Bede — are preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke. The Fathers divide the labour between the body and the soul. Cyril and Chrysostom press the hypocrisy of a man who unties his ox on the Sabbath but begrudges a woman her healing, and Cyril adds a Christological note from his struggle against Nestorius, that the healing flesh "was His own flesh, and not that of some other Son beside Him." Basil sees in the bent body the soul that has forgotten to look heavenward. Gregory and Ambrose then read the eighteen years by number — Gregory as six, the day man was made, taken three times, before the law, under the law, and at the beginning of grace; Ambrose as ten and eight, the ten of the commandments and the eight of the resurrection — so that the woman bowed under the Law is raised in the fullness of grace. This episode follows directly upon the barren fig tree in Luke, the same pairing Augustine preached, and which Gregory too draws together.