And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lies at the point of death: I pray you, come and lay your hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live.
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George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
St. Matthew says: my daughter is even now dead. The sense in both is exactly the same. St. Matthew attended rather to the thoughts of Jairus, than to his words; for, as he left her dying, he could not reasonably hope to find her still in the same state; and, as he expected she was already dead, when he spoke this to Jesus, St. Matthew relates what the man thought at that instant, not what he said. (St. Augustine)
Those who are sick do not lay down the conditions of how they are to be cured. They only want to be made well. But this man was a ruler of the synagogue, and versed in the law. He had surely read that while God created all other things by his word, man had been created by the hand of God. He trusted therefore in God that his daughter would be recreated, and restored to life by that same hand which, he knew, had created her…. He who laid hands on her to form her from nothing, once more lays hands upon her to reform her from what had perished.
