Matthew 8:4

Matthew 8:4 is the fourth verse of the eighth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. This verse concludes the miracle story of Jesus cleansing a leper, the first of a series of miracles in Matthew.

In the original Greek according to Westcott-Hort this verse is:

και λεγει αυτω ο ιησους ορα μηδενι ειπης αλλα υπαγε σεαυτον δειξον τω ιερει και προσενεγκον το δωρον ο προσεταξεν μωυσης εις μαρτυριον αυτοις

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:

And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

The English Standard Version translates the passage as:

And Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”

One issue with this verse is that Matthew 8:1 has large crowds surrounding Jesus, which seems to contradict the pledge to secrecy. This verse is paralleled at Mark 1:44-45, but Mark does not begin his narrative with crowds present and the author of Matthew may not have reconciled the verses when copying from Mark. The Messianic Secret is an ongoing theme in the Gospel of Mark, but Matthew seems to care less about this issue, dropping several of the commands to secrecy from his narrative.

Leviticus 13 and 14 regulate that it is a priest who may pronounce someone clean or unclean. The visit to a priest is necessary after being cleansed for the leper to be readmitted to society. Local priests were found throughout the Jewish areas, but to make sacrifice the leper would have to travel to the Temple in Jerusalem.

Early commentators, such as John Chrysostom, read the leper providing evidence of the miracle as an attack on the Jewish establishment, defiant proof of Jesus' divinity to the establishment. More likely the verse is meant as positive proof that the leper is healed and that he is following the proper laws.