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NASB | Mark 5:28 For she thought, "If I just touch His garments, I will get well." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Mark 5:28 For she thought, "If I just touch His clothing, I will get well." |
Subject: How did she know? |
Bible Note: Hi mbooker, I have written that I thought that this woman was a Jew who was reminded to keep God's commandments. This was simply my thought. Since then I have read from William Barclay's "The Daily Study Bible Series" in Luke and offer to you his thoughts about the account. "This story laid hold on the heart and the imagination of the early church. It was believed that the woman was a gentile from Caesarea Philippi. Eusebius, the great church historian (A.D. 300), relates how it was said that the woman had at her own cost erected a statue commemorating her cure in her native city. It was said that that statue remained there until Julian, the Roman Emperor who tried to bring back the pagan gods, destroyed it, and erected his own in place of it, only to see his own statue blasted by a thunderbolt from God. ...All devout Jews wore robes with fringes on them (Numbers 15:37-41; Deuteronomy 22:12). The fringes ended in four tassels of white thread with a blue thread woven through them. They were to remind the Jew every time he dressed that he was a man of God and committed to the keeping of God's laws. Later, when it was dangerous to be a Jew, these tassels were worn on the undergarments. Nowadays they still exist on the talith or shawl that the Jew wears round his head and shoulders when he is at prayer. But in the time of Jesus they were worn on the outer garment, and it was one of these the woman touched. Luke the doctor is here in evidence again. Mark says of the woman that she had spent her all on the doctors and was no better BUT RATHER GREW WORSE (Mark 5:26). Luke misses out the final phrase, because he did not like this gibe against the doctors!" Barclay had more to say on the passage but I did not want to be remiss in noting that many thought that she was a Gentile. Another thing that came to my mind as I considered this woman and her witness to her community, was the similar witness of the woman at the well. Her witness was that "He told me all the things that I have done." Jesus knew what the woman with the hemorrhage had done also and He said, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace." What I think is important is that even with their witnessing about their experiencing the acceptance of God, the thing that most brings other people to Christ is His word. John 4:41, "And many more believed because of His word; and they were saying to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world." From the heart, Ray |