Matthew · 34 verses
Matthew 8
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
The demons ask for pigs, the pigs take one look at the sea and perish in a heap, and the whole town’s response is to ask Jesus to leave. It is an unusually decisive vote against an exorcism.
A word, a touch, and a rather full eveningvv. 1–17
Jesus comes down from the mountain with a crowd at his heels, and the first person to reach him is a leper, kneeling and asking whether he is willing to make him clean. Jesus touches him—an arresting detail—and the man is cleansed immediately. Then comes a centurion with a servant in terrible agony. Jesus offers to go, but the centurion says that a command will do; Jesus marvels at this and sends him home to find the servant healed at that very hour. At Capernaum, Peter’s mother-in-law rises from fever and begins serving Jesus, which is a remarkably brisk return to the household rota. By evening, the afflicted are arriving in numbers: spirits are driven out, the sick are healed, and Isaiah’s words are brought in to describe the scene.
The cost of following, and the cost of not panickingvv. 18–27
With the crowd pressing round him, Jesus orders a crossing. A scribe promises to follow wherever he goes and receives no cosy itinerary in reply: foxes have dens, birds have nests, and the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Another disciple asks to bury his father first; Jesus answers with the chapter’s starkest reversal, telling him to follow and let the dead bury their own dead. Then the boat is engulfed by a violent storm while Jesus sleeps. The disciples wake him in a proper panic. He rebukes wind and sea, and calm arrives at once, leaving the men to ask the question that the storm had not permitted them to ask before.
The pigs make their exitvv. 28–34
On the other side, in the region of the Gadarenes, two violent demon-possessed men come out from the tombs. The demons recognise Jesus, object to the timing, and ask to be sent into a nearby herd of pigs. Jesus says, “Go!” The demons do, and the entire herd charges down the steep bank into the sea and dies there. The swineherds flee to the town with the whole account, the townspeople come out, see Jesus, and ask him to leave their region. The chapter ends not with a welcome but with a very large and very deliberate request for departure.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Matt 8:1When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him.
Matt 8:2Suddenly a leper came and knelt before Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”
Matt 8:3Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” He said. “Be clean!” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Matt 8:4Then Jesus instructed him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift prescribed by Moses, as a testimony to them.”
Matt 8:5When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came and pleaded with Him,
Matt 8:6“Lord, my servant lies at home, paralyzed and in terrible agony.”
Matt 8:7“I will go and heal him,” Jesus replied.
Matt 8:8The centurion answered, “Lord, I am not worthy to have You come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.
Matt 8:9For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell one to go, and he goes, and another to come, and he comes. I tell my servant to do something, and he does it.”
Matt 8:10When Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those following Him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.
Matt 8:11I say to you that many will come from the east and the west to share the banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
Matt 8:12But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Matt 8:13Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! As you have believed, so will it be done for you.” And his servant was healed at that very hour.
Matt 8:14When Jesus arrived at Peter’s house, He saw Peter’s mother-in-law sick in bed with a fever.
Matt 8:15So He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she got up and began to serve Him.
Matt 8:16When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to Jesus, and He drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick.
Matt 8:17This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.”
Matt 8:18When Jesus saw a large crowd around Him, He gave orders to cross to the other side of the sea.
Matt 8:19And one of the scribes came to Him and said, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”
Matt 8:20Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”
Matt 8:21Another of His disciples requested, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
Matt 8:22But Jesus told him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
Matt 8:23When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him.
Matt 8:24Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was engulfed by the waves. But Jesus was sleeping.
Matt 8:25The disciples went and woke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!”
Matt 8:26“You of little faith,” Jesus replied, “why are you so afraid?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it was perfectly calm.
Matt 8:27The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the sea obey Him!”
Matt 8:28When Jesus arrived on the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, He was met by two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs. They were so violent that no one could pass that way.
Matt 8:29“What do You want with us, Son of God?” they shouted. “Have You come here to torture us before the appointed time?”
Matt 8:30In the distance a large herd of pigs was feeding.
Matt 8:31So the demons begged Jesus, “If You drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.”
Matt 8:32“Go!” He told them. So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and died in the waters.
Matt 8:33Those tending the pigs ran off into the town and reported all this, including the account of the demon-possessed men.
Matt 8:34Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, they begged Him to leave their region.
01 — Also here
Who else the chapter reaches
Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.
Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.
Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 394 passages were voted onto 34 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 17Isaiah 53:4Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows; yet we considered Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.
- 171 Peter 2:24He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. “By His stripes you are healed.”
- 16Exodus 15:26saying, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, then I will not bring on you any of the diseases I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.”
- 8Psalms 107:20He sent forth His word and healed them; He rescued them from the Pit.
- 4Leviticus 14:2–32“This is the law for the one afflicted with a skin disease on the day of his cleansing, when he is brought to the priest.
- 8Luke 7:6–7So Jesus went with them. But when He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends with the message: “Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy to have You come under my roof.
- 8Psalms 33:9For He spoke, and it came to be; He commanded, and it stood firm.
- 28Luke 8:26–39Then they sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, across the lake from Galilee.
- 28Mark 5:1–20On the other side of the sea, they arrived in the region of the Gerasenes.
- 26Isaiah 41:10–14Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will surely help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.
- 5Luke 7:1–10When Jesus had concluded His discourse in the hearing of the people, He went to Capernaum.
- 8Mark 1:25–27But Jesus rebuked the spirit. “Be silent!” He said. “Come out of him!”
- 26Psalms 65:7You stilled the roaring of the seas, the pounding of their waves, and the tumult of the nations.
- 12Matthew 25:30And throw that worthless servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
- 13Matthew 9:29–30Then He touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you.”
- 17Matthew 1:22All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:
Onward