Ten Lepers Cleansed, One Returned

While Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem he met ten lepers on the road who asked him to heal them. Here is the story from Luke 17:11-19:

¹¹ On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. ¹² And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance ¹³ and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” ¹⁴ When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. ¹⁵ Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; ¹⁶ and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷ Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? ¹⁸ Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” ¹⁹ And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” (ESV)

It is interesting that Jesus sent them to see the priest before they were healed. This was a test of their faith, and because they started on their way before they were healed they passed the test. They believed they would be healed before they got to the priest and they were.

One of the men, a Samaritan, went back to Jesus to show gratitude for the healing. The narrative states that the Samaritan turned back upon realizing he was healed, implying that he didn’t make it to the priest. He was so grateful he turned around immediately, praised God and fell face down at Jesus’ feet (an act of worship) and thanked him.

(There is a lesson here about being grateful to, and thanking God, for all that he has done for us, but that is not the subject of today’s post…)

Cleansed VS Made Well

At this point Jesus asked the man, “were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?” He then tells the man that his “faith has made you well.” This is where the story gets interesting to me because all ten men had demonstrated faith. Wasn’t it their faith that made them well also?

Notice that Jesus asked if the others were cleansed before telling this man that his faith has made him well. Jesus using the word cleansed to describe the nine, versus using the word well to describe the one seems to signify something in addition to the healing he had in common with the other nine.

So with this in mind I decided to look up the word being translated as “well” and found something interesting.

σώζω

The Greek word being translated as well is σώζω.

The NET Full Notes Edition Bible states that an alternative rendering is “delivered you.” It also states that σώζω can be translated as “saved you.”

The ESV, NASB, and NLT Bible translations have a footnote that says an alternative rendering is “has saved you.”

The ESV Key Word Study Bible says the word can also mean “saved” or “delivered.” While the LSB, NAB, CSB, and The Message actually translate σώζω as “has saved you” in the main text.

And, for what it is worth, when you type σώζω into Google Translate and ChatGPT the English word they render is “save.”

What Does This Mean?

We don’t know what happened to the other nine lepers. All we know about them is that they were cleansed. We do know that one man went back to Jesus, praised God, fell at his feet, worshiped him, and thanked him.

We know that Jesus said the man was giving glory to God in this act of worshiping him. And we also know that the word being translated as well in many Bibles can also be translated as saved.

Knowing this it would appear that while all ten men were cleansed of their leprosy, the one who returned to worship and thank Jesus was made spiritually well in addition to being made physically well. He was saved.

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