Article October 5, 1899 Issue

Familiar Texts Explained

BY L. H. JONES

"When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bear our sicknesses" (Matthew, 8 : 16, 17).

The reference is to Isaiah, 53 : 4, which reads: "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows."

Albert Barnes, a good Presbyterian, in his excellent Notes on the Gospels, commenting on these passages, says : "The words translated griefs in Isaiah, and infirmities in Matthew, mean properly, in the Hebrew and Greek, diseases of the body. In neither does it refer to the diseases of the mind, or sin. To bear those griefs is clearly to bear them away, or to remove them . . . The word rendered 'sorrows' in Isaiah means pain, grief, or anguish of mind." In the fifth verse of this chapter of Isaiah we read: "But age only? he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."