When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do.
Parallel translations
- KJV But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.
- BSB On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
- NKJV When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
- NASB But when Jesus heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.
- NLT When Jesus heard this, he said, “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 for those who recognize their need, not the self-sufficient.
Overview
Using a simple proverb, Jesus likens himself to a doctor who goes to those who are ill. Sinners aware of their spiritual sickness are the very ones he came to heal. The saying gently exposes the Pharisees' false sense of health, for all are sick and need the Great Physician.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Luke 5:31Jesus answered them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do.
- Rev 3:17–18Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;’ and don’t know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked;
- Jer 33:6‘Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them; and I will reveal to them abundance of peace and truth.
- 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.”
- Luke 9:11But the multitudes, perceiving it, followed him. He welcomed them, and spoke to them of God’s Kingdom, and he cured those who needed healing.
- Jer 17:14Heal me, O Yahweh, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for you are my praise.
- Ps 147:3He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds.
- Hos 14:4“I will heal their waywardness. I will love them freely; for my anger is turned away from him.
- Jer 30:17For I will restore health to you, and I will heal you of your wounds,” says Yahweh; “because they have called you an outcast, saying, ‘It is Zion, whom no man seeks after.’”
- Ps 6:2Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am faint. Yahweh, heal me, for my bones are troubled.
- Luke 8:43A woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her living on physicians, and could not be healed by any,
- Ps 41:4I said, “Yahweh, have mercy on me! Heal me, for I have sinned against you.”
- Luke 18:11–13The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself like this: ‘God, I thank you, that I am not like the rest of men, extortionists, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
- Rom 7:9–24I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Matthew presents Jesus as the promised King — son of David, son of Abraham — the new Moses and true Israel in whom every prophecy reaches 'that it might be fulfilled.'
How Matthew 9:12 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
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