Why Was Healing Found in Jesus' Clothes?
The Hem of His Garment
Many of us are familiar with the account of the bleeding woman found in the Synoptic Gospels. In Mathew chapter 9, Mark chapter 5, and Luke chapter 8, we find Jesus on His way to heal the daughter of Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, when an unnamed woman, plagued with a 12-year bleeding disorder, thought to herself, “If only I may touch the hem of His garment, I should be made well.” Putting her faith into action, she reaches through the crowd and does exactly so. According to Scripture, Jesus realizes her:
Jesus turned around, and when He saw her He said, “Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that hour.
What Matthew describes as “the hem of His garment,” Mark describes as the “edge of His cloak,” and Luke describes as the “fringes of His cloak.” Additionally, Luke and Mark give us background details that add to the significance of this event. After Jesus is made aware that someone had touched Him, He questions the growing crowd, “Who is the one who touched Me?” After the crowd denies the accusation, Luke records a pivotal detail, “Someone did touch Me, for I was aware that power had left Me.” With shame and reverence, after realizing that she could not escape notice;
“She came trembling and fell down before Him, and admitted in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched Him, and how she had been immediately healed.”
As dramatic a scene as this is, this isn’t the only time that this happens. Later, in both Matthew and Mark, we read that multitudes of sick people were placed in the marketplaces, and “they begged Him to let them touch the edge of His cloak.” But what was so significant about the “edge of His cloak”?
Old Testament Insight
As is usual, our 21st-century, Gentile reading of Jewish authors often gets in the way of the deeper meaning behind many of the author’s original and cultural intentions. These two accounts in the Synoptic Gospels, first of the individual woman, then of the multitudes, would have a much richer and deeper significance to Jews of the 1st century and Jews today. To many non-Jewish readers, the “fringes of His cloak” simply means the end of His robe or His garment. However, what would immediately come to mind to a Jewish reader is Numbers 15:37-41. In the 15th chapter of Numbers, the LORD speaks to Moses with a commandment for every Israelite to follow:
Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels (tzitzit) on the corners (kanaph) of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners. And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined, and that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy for your God. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the Lord your God.”
It seems like an odd instruction until you realize that in the Ancient Near East, the corner (kanaph) of a person’s garment represented his identity; it was a symbol of who he was and what he stood for. Therefore, if you wore the tzitzit (tassels) on the kanaph (corner) of your garment, you stood for and represented God’s Law.
The Kanaph
The word kanaph in Hebrew means both corner and wing. Reflect back to Ruth for a moment. If you remember, when Ruth was seeking marriage to Boaz, she asked him to “spread the corner (kanaph) of your garment over me.” The literal translation reads:
“I am Ruth, your maidservant. Take your maidservant under your wing (kanaph), for you are a close relative.”
The translation paints the picture of someone taking another person under their wing, but the original language would have implied, “spread the corner (kanaph) of your garment over me” so as to identify, or in this case marry, with me.
Additionally, we see the same imagery in Ezekiel chapter 16, when God was making a marriage covenant with Israel, described as such:
When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread My wing (kanaph) over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine,” says the Lord God.
Lastly, to clearly paint this Ancient Near Eastern identity found in the corner of one’s garments, we look to 1 Samuel 24:5
Now it happened afterward that David’s heart troubled him because he had cut Saul’s robe.
This troubled David so much because he didn’t just cut off the corner (kanaph) of Saul’s robe but he cut off his dignity and identity.
The Tzitzit
This commandment that the Lord gives to the children of Israel in Numbers was practiced for thousands of years, was certainly practiced in Jesus’ time, and is still practiced today. God commands all Jewish people to make tassels, or in Hebrew, tzitzit, and wear them on the four corners, or kanaph, of their garments. The word tzitzit, literally means fringes, as Luke alludes to, and they are hanging strings connected to the undershirts and prayer shawls of all practicing Jews. On each of the four corners (kanaph) of their garments would be four strings (tzitzit) that are threaded through a hole and looped over, so that there are eight strings hanging down. A series of double knots and coils then join the first few inches of each corner’s tassel into a single cord. The remaining eight threads are then free to hang down. The eight strings and five knots are a physical representation of the Torah's 613 commandments. It works like this: each letter in the Hebrew alphabet has a corresponding numerical value. The numerical values of the five letters that comprise the Hebrew word tzitzit add up to 600. Add the eight strings and five knots of each tassel, and the total is 613. The purpose, according to the Lord, is so that you may look upon it, remember the commandments of the Lord, and follow them so as to not conform to the customs of this world. Jesus, as the perfect follower of the Mosaic Law, would have certainly worn tzitzit on the corners (kanaph) of His garment, as the Synoptic Gospels allude to.
The Prayer of the Tzitzit
The tzitzit have such significance in Jewish tradition that not only are they worn for prayer, but prayer is said while putting them on before the individual's daily prayers:
Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us to enwrap ourselves in Tzitzit.
Subsequently, after the garb is worn, an additional blessing is followed suit:
How precious is Your kindness, O God! The children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. They shall be satiated with the delight of Your House, and You will give them to drink from the river of Your bliss. For with You is the source of life; in Your light we see light. Bestow Your kindness upon those who know You, and Your righteousness on the upright in heart.
The tzitzit are used in prayer similarly to how Catholics would look at Rosary Beads. Moreover, Jesus would have always worn a tallit, or prayer shawl, while praying.
The Gospels in Their Proper Context
As we have noted earlier, the Synoptic Gospels all describe this woman and the multitudes as reaching out for the “hem of His garment” or “the fringes of His cloak,” but how can we be sure that they were speaking of Jesus’ tzitzit? In the original Greek language, the word used here to describe the fringes and hem is kraspedon. The multitudes begged to touch the kraspedon of His garment. So what is this kraspedon? In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament), the translation for the corner (kanaph) of the garment with the fringes (tzitzit) found in the commandment in Numbers is the solitary word, kraspedon. Therefore, we can be certain that the woman who grabbed a hold of the corner (H;kanaph,G;kraspedon) of Jesus' garment was reaching for the corners that held Jesus’ tzitzit. So why is this significant?
The Old Testaments Closing Remarks
If you flip to the last book of the Hebrew Bible, you come across the prophet Malachi. In the 4th chapter of Malachi, he makes a prophecy of the “Great Day of God” that brings to light everything we have just been looking at.
But to you who fear My name, The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With healing in His wings.
As you may have guessed, the word here used for wings is kanaph, the same word as the corner of the garments. Additionally, you may recall Jesus as he laments over His beloved Jerusalem:
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! ....How I longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings (kanaph), but you were not willing!
With that said, let's take another look at Luke’s account and compare it to Malachi's.
Malachi Vs. Luke
In just three lines in Malachi’s prophecy, he mentions three key components; people who fear God’s name, the Sun of Righteousness, and healing wings (corners). In Luke’s account we see three similar images:
Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any, came from behind and touched the fringe of His cloak (Kanaph/Tzitzit). And immediately her flow of blood stopped. And Jesus said, “Who touched Me?” When all denied it, Peter and those with him said, “Master, the multitudes throng and press You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ” But Jesus said, “Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me.” Now when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before Him, she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately.
So we have the woman who came trembling (fearing God’s name), Jesus claiming power was going out from Him (the Sun of Righteousness), and healing in the corner (kanaph) of his garment (healing in His wings, “kanaph”). Like God’s marriage covenant to Israel in Ezekiel and like Ruth’s hope for marriage with Boaz, we see that this unnamed woman in Luke was reaching for much more than physical healing when she reached for the wings of the Messiah, she was looking for identity in and with the Son of Righteousness.