Christianity
Matthew
“And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”
← All parallels
ParallelsA comparative study
ChristianityJudaism
On The Outcast Healed
This parallel examines the restoration of the ritually unclean to communal life, a motif where divine or prophetic agency overrides purity boundaries. While the Hebrew Bible and Christian Gospels depict physical healing and ritual cleansing through direct contact or command, the Hindu tradition addresses the metaphysical equality of souls, transcending caste distinctions without necessarily enacting ritual purification. Scholars debate whether the Gita's declaration of equality functions as a social corrective comparable to the narrative healings of the Abrahamic traditions or as a distinct soteriological principle.
What every account tells.
- iThe recognition of a state of separation or impurity that excludes the individual from the community.
- iiThe intervention of a holy figure or divine wisdom to restore the individual's status.
- iiiThe assertion that the sacred is not compromised by contact with the unclean or the outcast.
- ivThe transformation of the subject from a state of exclusion to one of inclusion or spiritual wholeness.
How each tradition tells it.
Christianity
In the Christian narrative, Jesus physically touches the leper, an act that inverts the expected direction of contamination, demonstrating that divine power purifies rather than defiles. This emphasizes immediate, tangible restoration and the breaking of social taboos through embodied compassion.
Judaism
The Jewish account of Naaman focuses on obedience to a prophetic command involving ritual washing, restoring the individual to a state of ritual purity required for community participation. Unlike the immediate touch in the Gospels, the restoration here is mediated through a prescribed process that validates the law rather than suspending it.
Read the passages as one.
Judaism
2 Kings
“Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.”