“Were Made Perfectly Whole”

Matthew tells the same summary Mark tells, in even fewer words, and adds one that is worth pausing on.

And when the men of that place had knowledge of him, they sent out into all that country round about, and brought unto him all that were diseased; and besought him that they might only touch the hem of his garment: and as many as touched were made perfectly whole.

Matthew 14:35–36

Diesōthēsan — were made perfectly whole, thoroughly saved-through. Matthew uses the strengthened form of the verb, the one carrying the sense of being brought safely and completely through. Here it describes complete bodily healing.

The Setting

This follows immediately on the walking upon the water. The boat lands at Gennesaret; the district recognises Jesus; word runs out across the countryside, and the sick are carried to Him from every direction. As in Mark, there is no single named sufferer. It is a regional scene: a crowd of the diseased, and a general healing.

“Perfectly Whole”

Matthew’s word choice deserves the small weight it carries. He does not say they were improved, or relieved, but made perfectly whole — the compound verb underscoring completeness. The healings were not partial. Those who touched were thoroughly restored.

The word Matthew uses here is the same strengthened verb Luke uses of the sailors and passengers brought safely to land through the shipwreck, and of Paul surviving the viper. It carries the idea of coming through, all the way, to safety. Applied to the sick of Gennesaret, it means the sickness did not merely retreat; the person was brought fully out of it.

The Hem, Again

As in Mark, the crowds ask only to touch the hem, the tasselled border — the least of Him within reach. The instinct traces back to the woman with the issue of blood, whose healing at that same border had become known. A whole district now acts on her example.

The plain sense holds, and the caution with it. The power was real, and the least contact sufficed. Whether every person in that crowd understood where the power lay is not Matthew’s concern here; that the power flowed, and healed completely, is.

What the Word Means Here

Complete bodily healing, for many. Matthew signals no hidden second meaning. The strengthened verb intensifies the completeness of the cure, not the depth of its spiritual reference.

Its value to this gateway is the same as its Markan twin: the saving word doing its most ordinary work, restoring sick bodies by a touch — the same word that, elsewhere, will carry the whole weight of eternal life. The corpus keeps both, because Scripture does.

This study is part of What Does It Mean to Be Saved?, an examination of every New Testament use of saving language in context, within Resource Cluster 3: Life in Christ. 91 of 91 passage studies are complete — see every occurrence.