And Jesus answered and said to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.
Parallel translations
- WEB Jesus answered them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do.
- KJV And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.
- BSB Jesus answered, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
- NKJV Jesus answered and said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
- NLT Jesus answered them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jesus replies that the sick, not the healthy, need a physician. He came to heal those who know their need.
Overview
Using the image of a doctor, Jesus explains that his presence among sinners is precisely the point: they are the ones who need him. The saying gently exposes the Pharisees' blindness to their own sickness. It frames Christ as the great physician of souls who comes to the spiritually ill.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- Mark 2:17When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
- Matt 9:12–13When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do.
- Jer 8:22Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? Why then isn’t the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 5:31 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.