Sunday 14th June 2026 Proper 6 (11)
Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7)
The call of Abraham and Sarah
18:1 The LORD appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day.
18:2 He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them and bowed down to the ground.
18:3 He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant.
18:4 Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.
18:5 Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.”
18:6 And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.”
18:7 Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it.
18:8 Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared and set it before them, and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
18:9 They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.”
18:10 Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him.
18:11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.
18:12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I be fruitful?”
18:13 The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’
18:14 Is anything too wonderful for the LORD? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.”
18:15 But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “Yes, you did laugh.”
21:1 The LORD dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as he had promised.
21:2 Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him.
21:3 Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him.
21:4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.
21:5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
21:6 Now Sarah said, “God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.”
21:7 And she said, “Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
[1] ΩΦΘΗ δὲ αὐτῷ ὁ Θεὸς πρὸς τῇ δρυΐ τῇ Μαμβρῇ, καθημένου αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τῆς θύρας τῆς σκηνῆς αὐτοῦ μεσημβρίας.
2 ἀναβλέψας δὲ τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς αὐτοῦ εἶδε, καὶ ἰδοὺ τρεῖς ἄνδρες εἱστήκεισαν ἐπάνω αὐτοῦ· καὶ ἰδὼν προσέδραμεν εἰς συνάντησιν αὐτοῖς ἀπὸ τῆς θύρας τῆς σκηνῆς αὐτοῦ καὶ προσεκύνησεν ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν.
3 καὶ εἶπε· κύριε, εἰ ἄρα εὗρον χάριν ἐναντίον σου, μὴ παρέλθῃς τὸν παῖδά σου·
4 ληφθήτω δὴ ὕδωρ, καὶ νιψάτωσαν τοὺς πόδας ὑμῶν, καὶ καταψύξατε ὑπὸ τὸ δένδρον·
5 καὶ λήψομαι ἄρτον, καὶ φάγεσθε, καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο παρελεύσεσθε εἰς τὴν ὁδὸν ὑμῶν, οὗ ἕνεκεν ἐξεκλίνατε πρὸς τὸν παῖδα ὑμῶν. καὶ εἶπαν· οὕτω ποίησον, καθὼς εἴρηκας.
6 καὶ ἔσπευσεν ῾Αβραὰμ ἐπὶ τὴν σκηνὴν πρὸς Σάρραν καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῇ· σπεῦσον καὶ φύρασον τρία μέτρα σεμιδάλεως καὶ ποίησον ἐγκρυφίας.
7 καὶ εἰς τὰς βόας ἔδραμεν ῾Αβραὰμ καὶ ἔλαβεν ἁπαλὸν μοσχάριον καὶ καλὸν καὶ ἔδωκε τῷ παιδί, καὶ ἐτάχυνε τοῦ ποιῆσαι αὐτό.
8 ἔλαβε δὲ βούτυρον, καὶ γάλα, καὶ τὸ μοσχάριον ὃ ἐποίησε, καὶ παρέθηκεν αὐτοῖς, καὶ ἔφαγον· αὐτὸς δὲ παρειστήκει αὐτοῖς ὑπὸ τὸ δένδρον.
9 Εἶπε δὲ πρὸς αὐτόν· ποῦ Σάρρα ἡ γυνή σου; ὁ δὲ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν· ἰδοὺ ἐν τῇ σκηνῇ.
10 εἶπε δέ· ἐπαναστρέφων ἥξω πρὸς σὲ κατὰ τὸν καιρὸν τοῦτον εἰς ὥρας, καὶ ἕξει υἱὸν Σάρρα ἡ γυνή σου. Σάρρα δὲ ἤκουσε πρὸς τῇ θύρᾳ τῆς σκηνῆς, οὖσα ὄπισθεν αὐτοῦ.
11 ῾Αβραὰμ δὲ καὶ Σάρρα πρεσβύτεροι προβεβηκότες ἡμερῶν, ἐξέλιπε δὲ τῇ Σάρρᾳ γίνεσθαι τὰ γυναικεῖα.
12 ἐγέλασε δὲ Σάρρα ἐν ἑαυτῇ, λέγουσα· οὔπω μέν μοι γέγονεν ἕως τοῦ νῦν, ὁ δὲ κύριός μου πρεσβύτερος.
13 καὶ εἶπε Κύριος πρὸς ῾Αβραάμ· τί ὅτι ἐγέλασε Σάρρα ἐν ἑαυτῇ, λέγουσα· ἆρά γε ἀληθῶς τέξομαι; ἐγὼ δὲ γεγήρακα.
14 μὴ ἀδυνατήσει παρὰ τῷ Θεῷ ρῆμα; εἰς τὸν καιρὸν τοῦτον ἀναστρέψω πρὸς σὲ εἰς ὥρας· καὶ ἔσται τῇ Σάρρᾳ υἱός.
15 ἠρνήσατο δὲ Σάρρα λέγουσα· οὐκ ἐγέλασα· ἐφοβήθη γάρ. καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῇ· οὐχί, ἀλλὰ ἐγέλασας.
16 ᾿Εξαναστάντες δὲ ἐκεῖθεν οἱ ἄνδρες κατέβλεψαν ἐπὶ πρόσωπον Σοδόμων καὶ Γομόρρας. ῾Αβραὰμ δὲ συνεπορεύετο μετ᾿ αὐτῶν συμπροπέμπων αὐτούς.
17 ὁ δὲ Κύριος εἶπεν· οὐ μὴ κρύψω ἐγὼ ἀπὸ ῾Αβραὰμ τοῦ παιδός μου, ἃ ἐγὼ ποιῶ.
18 ῾Αβραὰμ δὲ γινόμενος ἔσται εἰς ἔθνος μέγα καὶ πολύ, καὶ ἐνευλογηθήσονται ἐν αὐτῷ πάντα τὰ ἔθνη τῆς γῆς.
Comments
The episode recalls two themes familiar to classicists: First, the notion, which recurs in literature and inscriptions from Homer to the end of Greek antiquity, that (in the words of Antinoos, one of Penelope’s suitors), ‘All sorts of gods in the likeness of foreign strangers range through men’s cities, watching over their insolence and orderly behaviour’ (Odyssey 17. 485-7). Second, the pericope recalls at first sight— in some of its superficial details— the ‘international tale type’ (as folklorists call it) Hospitality Rewarded (AT [=Aarne-Thompson] 750B), on which see W. Hansen, Ariadne’s thread, A guide to international tales found in classical literature, Ithaca & London, 2002, pp. 211-23. The tale in nuce: ‘One or more supernatural beings (gods, angels, fairies, saints, etc.) in the guise of mortals visit a household where, being hospitably received, they reward their hosts or, being inhospitably received, they punish the inhabitants.’ (Hansen op. cit., p. 211.) A variant tale type, AT 750*, is Hospitality Blessed, which subsumes tales of reward and punishment that do not quite fit the main pattern. A Greek and Roman congener of the predominant tale type is Hellenistic but traces back to Homer, namely the tale about the ‘reception of a great personage in a humble dwelling’ (E. J. Kenney), of which Ovid’s tale of Philemon and Baucis (Metamorphoses 8. 616-725) is just one example. Gen. 18: 1-15 may be diffusely indebted to the generic tale-types mentioned, but it is divergent in that a) it features not one but three passersby; b) it does not present the promise (Isaac’s birth) as a reward (this is the fourth in a series of promises of a son to Abraham and Sarah); and c) one of the strangers promises to return.
[1] ΩΦΘΗ δὲ αὐτῷ ὁ Θεὸς: ὤφθη, aor. mid., ‘appeared/ let himself be seen’ < ὁρῶμαι (άομαι). ὤφθη is a technical term in LXX for theophanies, as here, and angelophanies. In Greek myth, gods mingled with mortals, esp. heroes, but as a rule they were in disguise. (In Homer Achilles could see his mother Thetis, a sea-nymph, and Odysseus once saw Athena. When Tiresias saw Athena bathing, he was struck blind.)
ἐπὶ τῆς θύρας: θύρα (f.) = ‘door’; fig., ‘entrance’. Cf. Engl. thyroid.
μεσημβρίας: gen. of time; μεσημβρία (f.) means ‘midday’. The Engl. tr. over-translates: ‘in the heat of the day’. In ancient Greece, the witching hour and generally the time of supernatural happenings, such as epiphanies of Pan or the nymphs, was midday.
[2] ἀναβλέψας δέ τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς αὐτοῦ: ἀναβλέπω, a cl. Gk compound, means ‘look up (wards)’. τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς αὐτοῦ, ‘with his eyes’, is redundant (pleonastic).
ἐπάνω αὐτοῦ: the compound ἐπ- +άνω is here a prep., meaning ‘over’. The three men stood ‘over him’, since, as Muraoka notes (s.v., p. 260), Abraham is seated.
προσεκύνησεν ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν: < προσκυνῶ (έω), ‘prostrate myself’ (Muraoka, s.v., p. 596)—something a democratic Greek would not do before a mortal.
[3] κύριε: voc. of κύριος, which when used as a subst. in cl. Gk means ‘lord, master’ (LSJ). κύριος in v. 12 means ‘husband’.
In koine κύριε is a respectful address, ‘Sir’, as here and in the NT. Although three men are present, Abraham addresses one—a discrepancy best left to theologians.
μὴ παρέλθῃς τὸν παῖδά σου: aor. subj., 2nd pers. sg. < παρέρχομαι, here c. acc. pers., ‘I move past without taking notice of’ (Muraoka, s.v., p. 534), a meaning close to that found in Homer & cl. Gk. In v. 5, παρελεύσεσθε (fut.) εἰς τὴν ὁδὸν ὑμῶν, the verb means ‘to depart and move on’ (cf. Muraoka, s.v.). The compound παρ-έρχομαι (‘come/go past’) brings out the fact that the three newcomers are passersby.
τὸν παῖδά σου: παῖς here means ‘servant’ (Muraoka, s.v., p. 520), a meaning also found in cl. Gk. Cf. vv. 5 and 7 for ‘servant’.
[4] ληφθήτω δὴ ὕδωρ, καὶ νιψάτωσαν τοὺς πόδας ὑμῶν: ‘let water be brought, and let them [the servants] wash your feet’; the Engl. version slightly differs: ‘Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet.’
καταψύξατε ὑπὸ τὸ δένδρον: aor. imper., 2nd pers. pl. < καταψύχω, intr., ‘cool off’, a koine meaning. The Engl. version is different: ‘and rest yourselves under the tree.’
[5] οὗ ἕνεκεν ἐξεκλίνατε πρὸς τὸν παῖδα ὑμῶν: οὗ ἕνεκεν = ‘on the ground that’ (Muraoka, s.v. ἕνεκεν, p. 237). ἐξεκλίνατε, aor., 3rd pers., pl. < ἐκκλίνω, intr., ‘to deviate from the set or right course’ (Muraoka, s.v., p. 210). Again, the three are en route, they are passing travellers.
[6] καὶ ἔσπευσεν Ἀβραὰμ: σπεύδω, intr., ‘Ι hasten’, already in Homer. In the same verse Abraham urges Sarah to hurry (σπεῦσον) in her preparations. In Homer and myth a good host or his servants will bustle about offering hospitality: in Ovid Baucis (see below) tended the two visiting gods ‘in busy haste’ (tr. A.D. Melville). In v. 7, the host will run to his herd of cattle (ἔδραμε Ἀβραάμ) to select a calf, and his servant will ‘be quick, hurry’ (ἐτάχυνε, aor. ταχύνω, intr., cl. Gr) to cook it.
[10] κατὰ τὸν καιρὸν τοῦτον εἰς ὥρας: καιρός in cl. Gk = ‘right time’; ὥρα in cl. Gk can mean ‘season’. Cf. Engl. hour. κατὰ τὸν καιρὸν τοῦτον = ‘at this opportune moment’. εἰς ὥρας = ‘on time, in good time’ (Muraoka, s.v. ὥρα, p. 747). Cf. v. 14.
[11] ῾Αβραὰμ δὲ καὶ Σάρρα πρεσβύτεροι προβεβηκότες ἡμερῶν, ἐξέλιπε δὲ τῇ Σάρρᾳ γίνεσθαι τὰ γυναικεῖα: the comparative form πρεσβύτερος occurs in koine as a subst.= ‘elder’, ‘elderly person’. The abstract τὰ γυναικεῖα, ‘womanly matters’, is a decorous expression for ‘menstruation’.
Abraham and Sarah recall Philemon and Baucis in Ovid’s rendering of the tale type Hospitality Rewarded in the Metamorphoses. The couple entertain Jupiter and Mercury, who travel incognito. They are ‘old and good’— pious—coevals, having ‘grown old together’. They live in poverty. They are childless, but are not rewarded with a son. Their reward is the granting of their twofold wish: to become priests in the shrine of the two gods and to die at the same time. (They are changed into ‘two trees [an oak and a lime] from one twin trunk grown side by side’, tr. Melville.)
Sunday, 7th June 2026
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
9:9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.
9:10 And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples.
9:11 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
9:12 But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
9:13 Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”
9:18 While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.”
9:19 And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples.
9:20 Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak,
9:21 for she said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.”
9:22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” and instantly the woman was made well.
9:23 When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion,
9:24 he said, “Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him.
9:25 But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up.
9:26 And the report of this spread throughout that district.
9 Καὶ παράγων ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐκεῖθεν εἶδεν ἄνθρωπον καθήμενον ἐπὶ τὸ τελώνιον, Ματθαῖον λεγόμενον, καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ· ἀκολούθει μοι. Καὶ ἀναστὰς ἠκολούθησεν αὐτῷ.
10 Καὶ ἐγένετο αὐτοῦ ἀνακειμένου ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ, καὶ ἰδοὺ πολλοὶ τελῶναι καὶ ἁμαρτωλοὶ ἐλθόντες συνανέκειντο τῷ Ἰησοῦ καὶ τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ.
11 Καὶ ἰδόντες οἱ Φαρισαῖοι εἶπον τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ· διατί μετὰ τῶν τελωνῶν καὶ ἁμαρτωλῶν ἐσθίει ὁ διδάσκαλος ὑμῶν;
12 Ὁ δὲ ᾿Ιησοῦς ἀκούσας εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· οὐ χρείαν ἔχουσιν οἱ ἰσχύοντες ἰατροῦ, ἀλλ᾿ οἱ κακῶς ἔχοντες.
13 Πορευθέντες δὲ μάθετε τί ἐστιν ἔλεον θέλω καὶ οὐ θυσίαν. οὐ γὰρ ἦλθον καλέσαι δικαίους, ἀλλὰ ἁμαρτωλοὺς εἰς μετάνοιαν.
18 Ταῦτα αὐτοῦ λαλοῦντος αὐτοῖς ἰδοὺ ἄρχων εἷς προσελθὼν προσεκύνει αὐτῷ λέγων ὅτι ἡ θυγάτηρ μου ἄρτι ἐτελεύτησεν· ἀλλὰ ἐλθὼν ἐπίθες τὴν χεῖρά σου ἐπ᾿ αὐτὴν καὶ ζήσεται.
19 Καὶ ἐγερθεὶς ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἠκολούθησεν αὐτῷ καὶ οἱ μαθηταί αὐτοῦ.
20 Καὶ ἰδοὺ γυνή, αἱμορροοῦσα δώδεκα ἔτη, προσελθοῦσα ὄπισθεν ἥψατο τοῦ κρασπέδου τοῦ ἱματίου αὐτοῦ.
21 Ἔλεγε γὰρ ἐν ἑαυτῇ, ἐὰν μόνον ἅψωμαι τοῦ ἱματίου αὐτοῦ, σωθήσομαι.
22 Ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς ἐπιστραφεὶς καὶ ἰδὼν αὐτὴν εἶπε· θάρσει, θύγατερ· ἡ πίστις σου σέσωκέ σε. καὶ ἐσώθη ἡ γυνὴ ἀπὸ τῆς ὥρας ἐκείνης.
23 Καὶ ἐλθὼν ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν τοῦ ἄρχοντος καὶ ἰδὼν τοὺς αὐλητὰς καὶ τὸν ὄχλον θορυβούμενον, λέγει αὐτοῖς·
24 ἀναχωρεῖτε· οὐ γὰρ ἀπέθανε τὸ κοράσιον, ἀλλὰ καθεύδει. καὶ κατεγέλων αὐτοῦ.
25 Ὅτε δὲ ἐξεβλήθη ὁ ὄχλος, εἰσελθὼν ἐκράτησε τῆς χειρὸς αὐτῆς, καὶ ἠγέρθη τὸ κοράσιον.
26 Καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ἡ φήμη αὕτη εἰς ὅλην τὴν γῆν ἐκείνην.
Comments
A classicist will find at least one contrast and two parallels to ancient Greek literature and mentality in the two pericopes. See my comments on vv. 9, 18, and 20 below.
[9] παράγων: παράγω, ‘pass by, pass on one’s way’ (cl. Gk prose), usually intr. (LSJ).
ἀκολούθει μοι: 2nd pers. sg. imperative, pres. tense < ἀκολουθῶ (έω), c. dat. pers., ‘follow, freq. of soldiers and slaves’ (cl. Gk) according to LSJ. Cf. Engl. acolyte. Here the vb refers to discipleship (EDNT, s.v., p. 502).
A pagan parallel to this episode occurs in Diogenes Laertius (prob. early part of 3rd c. AD), in the life of Zeno, the 4th c. BC founder of Stoicism:
‘He [Zeno] went up into Athens and sat down in a bookseller’s shop, being then a man of thirty. As he went on reading the second book of Xenophon’s Memorabilia, he was so pleased that he inquired where men like Socrates were to be found. Crates [the Cynic philosopher] passed by in the nick of time, so the bookseller pointed to him and said, “Follow yonder man.”’
ἀνελθὼν δ᾽ εἰς τὰς Ἀθήνας ἤδη τριακοντούτης ἐκάθισε παρά τινα βιβλιοπώλην. ἀναγινώσκοντος δ᾽ ἐκείνου τὸ δεύτερον τῶν Ξενοφῶντος Ἀπομνημονευμάτων, ἡσθεὶς ἐπύθετο ποῦ διατρίβοιεν οἱ τοιοῦτοι ἄνδρες. 4 [3] εὐκαίρως δὲ παριόντος Κράτητος, ὁ βιβλιοπώλης δείξας αὐτόν φησι, “τούτῳ παρακολούθησον.”
Lives of philosophers 7.2.2 (Perseus text & tr.)
παρακολουθῶ (έω), a compound, is a strengthened form of ἀκολουθῶ.
[10] ἀνακειμένου: gen. abs. < ἀνάκειμαι, mid.-pass., ‘lie at table, recline’ (LSJ), a koine vb, in effect = ‘eat a meal’ (as a guest).
συνανέκειντο τῷ Ἰησοῦ: 3rd pers. pl., impf. < συνανάκειμαι, a double cmpd; c. dat. (required by the preverb συν- , which denotes ‘togetherness, fellowship’). Here the vb means ‘eat together’ (EDNT, s.v., p. 297).
[11] ἐσθίει: ἐσθίω, ‘I eat’ in cl. Gk always refers to human beings. Mt. prefers the cl. Gk vb to the later τρώγω (still used in modern Gk). Cf. Engl. edible.
ἐσθίει explains συνανέκειντο in v. 10 immed. above.
[12] οἱ ἰσχύοντες : < ἰσχύω, ‘I am strong [cf. ἰσχυρός] in body’, i.e. ‘I am healthy’, as here.
οἱ κακῶς ἔχοντες: the opposite of οἱ ἰσχύοντες, lit., ‘those who fare poorly’. κακῶς ἔχω is an idiom (already in Homer).
[18] προσεκύνει αὐτῷ : < προσκυνῶ (έω), ‘ I fall down and worship’ (cl. Gk), see LSJ. In koine, c. dat., as here.
In cl. Gk the vb takes an acc. obj., and properly refers to an image of a god or an eastern potentate. To genuflect or perform some other form of obesisance before a mortal was odious to Athenians of the classical period. One knelt only before a god’s statue. It is interesting that the vb is derived from προς- + κυνῶ (έω), ‘I kiss’.
St Matthew uses the vb to evoke ‘worshipful reverence’ (EDNT, s.v., p. 174).
ἐτελεύτησεν: τελευτῶ (άω), abs., ‘end life, die’, a cl. Gk euphemism used of human beings (cf. τέλος, ‘fulfilment’, ‘end’).
[19] ἐγερθεὶς ὁ Ἰησοῦς: mid. aor. participle < ἐγείρομαι, ‘Ι stand up’; in cl. Gk the vb can mean ‘wake (up)’, mid.-pass., as in v. 25, ἠγέρθη τὸ κοράσιον.
ἠκολούθησεν αὐτῷ: this time it is Jesus who follows (perhaps in humility?).
[20] ἥψατο τοῦ κρασπέδου τοῦ ἱματίου: ἥψατο, 2nd pers. sg., aor., mid. voice, ἅπτομαι c. gen. obj., ‘grasp’ (in Homer, etc.); in koine, as here, ‘touch’. Cf. Engl. haptic.
This particular miracle may be the basis for ‘styptic’ cures effected in the early Christian period through amulets made of hematite. The woman with the Issue of Blood in fact treats Christ (or his garment) as an amulet. This healing ‘in the Gospel account itself comes as close to the essence of Graeco-Roman magic as any in the Bible’: see G. Vikan, ‘Magic and visual culture’, in J. C. B. Petropoulos, ed., Greek magic, ancient, medieval and modern, Abingdon, Oxford, pp.53-7.
[21] Ἔλεγε γὰρ ἐν ἑαυτῇ: Mt. becomes an omniscient narrator.
[22] ἡ πίστις σου σέσωκέ σε: unintentional alliteration of σ (quite natural in Greek, ancient and modern).
ἀπὸ τῆς ὥρας ἐκείνης: lit., ‘from that time, from that hour’.
‘Instantly’ (in the translation) well encapsulates the Greek. The phrase ‘indicates the immediate occurrence of an event…Matthew emphasizes the correspondence between faith and its fulfillment’ (EDNT, s.v. ὥρα, p. 507).
[23] τὸν ὄχλον θορυβούμενον: θορυβοῦμαι (έομαι), ‘be thrown into disorder, become confused’ (cl. Gk, see LSJ). θόρυβος = ‘uproar, clamour’ (LSJ), for example, of a group of rowdy Athenian jurors. According to EDNT s.v., p. 153, θορυβοῦμαι means ‘get excited’ (pretty much as in cl. Gk). More than that, it implies raising a hubbub.
[24] οὐ γὰρ ἀπέθανε τὸ κοράσιον, ἀλλὰ καθεύδει. καὶ κατεγέλων αὐτοῦ: ἀπέθανε, 2nd aor., 2nd pers. sg < ἀποθνήσκω, ‘I die’, an inceptive vb (cl. Gk prose but also attested in Homer).
καθεύδει: ‘sleeps, is sleeping, is asleep’ (already in Homer); here of natural sleep.
κατεγέλων αὐτοῦ: 3rd pers. pl., impf., καταγελῶ (άω), c. gen. , ‘jeer at’ (cl. Gk, see LSJ), a strengthened form of γελῶ (cf. Engl. gelastic). EDNT, s.v., p. 256: ‘of scornful laughter’.
[25] ἐξεβλήθη ὁ ὄχλος: < ἐκβάλλω, ‘send away’ (prob. a koine meaning): EDNT, s.v., p. 406.
[26] ἡ φήμη: ‘report, fame’ < φημί.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 