Why did Christ say Jairus' daughter 'is not dead, but asleep'?
Christ raises Jairus' daughter in secret, revealing his power only to a few chosen witnesses – but does he appear to mislead the others?
Christ raises Jairus’ daughter in secret, revealing his power only to a few chosen witnesses – but does he appear to mislead the others?
Editor’s Notes
In this part on the healings of Jairus’ daughter and the bleeding woman, Fr Coleridge tells us…
How Christ raised Jairus’s daughter in secret, using delay and dismissal to veil divine power.
That His prudence and humility conceal the greatest works from public gaze, yet leave proof enough for faith.
Why He called death “sleep” to deepen the witness of His power and to expose disbelief.
He shows us that divine charity may act most mightily when human hope seems lost and all is hidden.
In response to the first part, we were asked to explain the fact that St Matthew’s Gospel has Jairus say the following:
“Lord, my daughter is even now dead; but come, lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.”
Is this a contradiction between St Matthew, who says that she was dead, and Ss Mark and Luke, who say that she was near death?
First, let’s note that St Matthew doesn’t say she was dead. He says that Jairus says that she was dead. In the Catena Aurea, we find Ss Augustine and John Chrysostom giving the following explanations:
Aug.: “While he spake these things unto them, behold, one of their chief men,” namely, Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, “came to him, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, my daughter is even now dead.” It should be observed, lest there should seem to be some discrepancy, that the other two Evangelists represent her as at the point of death, but yet not dead, but so as afterwards to say that there came afterwards some saying, “She is dead, trouble not the Master,” for Matthew for the sake of shortness represents the Lord as having been asked at first to do that which it is manifest He did do, namely, raise the dead. He looks not at the words of the father respecting his daughter, but rather his mind. For he had so far despaired of her life, that he made his request rather for her to be called in life again, thinking it impossible that she, whom he had left dying, should be found yet alive.
”The other two then have given Jairus’ words; Matthew has put what he wished and thought. Indeed had either of them related that it was the father himself that said that Jesus should not be troubled for she was now dead, in that case the words that Matthew has given would not have corresponded with the thoughts of the ruler. But we do not read that he agreed with the messengers. Hence we learn a thing of the highest necessity, that we should look at nothing in any man’s words, but his meaning to which his words ought to be subservient; and no man gives a false account when he repeats a man’s meaning in words other than those actually used.”
Chrys.: “Or; The ruler says, she is dead, exaggerating his calamity. As it is the manner of those that prefer a petition to magnify their distress, and to represent them as something more than they really are, in order to gain the compassion of those to whom they make supplication; whence he adds, ‘But come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.’”
Cornelius a Lapide refers to Chrysostom, after giving another opinion:
“My daughter, twelve years old, as Luke says, is even now dead, but come. Matthew, studying brevity, relates in substance what was done, rather than the exact historical sequence. For, as is plain from Mark and Luke, the child was not yet dead when her father first came to Christ and said, Come and lay thine hand upon her, and she shall live. As Christ and Jairus were going together, some one ran, and told Jairus that his daughter was dead, and that, the case being now desperate, he should come away from Christ. Then Christ, as it would seem, confirms his wavering faith, and Jairus hopefully leads Him to his house, and then, either by implication, or else in express words, asks Him to raise his daughter from death, as Matthew here relates.
”S. Chrysostom and Theophylact explain differently. She is dead, i.e., she is near death, for in this way those who are wretched, are wont to exaggerate their miseries, that they may more easily obtain the aid for which they seek. S. Austin (lib. 2 de Consens., Evang. c. 28), adds, that the father by reckoning the time which his journey had taken, might suppose that she, whom he had left in her last agony, was now dead.”
In light of this, Our Lord claiming that Jairus’ daughter “not dead, but asleep” takes on an additional significance. Coleridge suggests that this was a way of prompting strong affirmations of the witnesses that she really was dead, and thus proving the miraculous nature of his cure. Others are inclined to see this as a metaphorical comment about the non-finality of death, or as an attempt to hide the miracle that Christ was about to work.
But if Jairus claimed that she was dead while she was only dying, then Our Lord saying that she was not dead, but asleep when she was dead may perhaps be seen as a mild rebuke of Jairus’ initial comments, or as an encouragement of some kind. In any case, the parallelism between these two remarks is striking.
For more context on this episode, see Part I.
Jairus’ Daughter and the Bleeding Woman
The Training of the Apostles, Part III
Chapter XXIII
St. Matt. ix. 18–26; St. Mark v. 22–43; St. Luke viii. 41–56; Story of the Gospels § 66.
Burns and Oates, 1884
(Read at Holy Mass on the Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost)
Why Jesus delayed healing Jairus’ daughter and healed the bleeding woman instead
Why did Christ ask who touched him, if he already knew it was the bleeding woman?
Why did Christ say Jairus’ daughter ‘is not dead, but asleep’?
Death of the daughter of Jairus
All this incident had taken some little time, and all the while, short as the interval may have been, the loving father of the girl whom our Lord was on His way to heal, was standing by, perhaps inwardly fretting even at a moment’s delay.
And then, as it seemed, all his hopes were at once dashed to the ground. Our Lord was still speaking to the lady who had been healed, when the news came that the girl was dead.
‘As He was yet speaking, some come to the ruler of the synagogue, from the ruler of the synagogue’s house, saying to him, Thy daughter is dead, why dost thou trouble Him? trouble Him not.
‘And Jesus, hearing this word, said to the ruler of the synagogue, the father of the maid,’ (as if Jairus had turned to Him in his agony of grief,) ‘Fear not, believe only, and she shall be safe.’
We are told nothing of the state of mind of the father, but we gather from the narrative that he had sufficient faith not to distrust the word of our Lord, coming so soon on that manifestation of His miraculous power which had just been witnessed.
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