Now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him Yahweh had given victory to Syria: he was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. The Syrians had gone out in bands, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maiden; and she waited on Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “I wish that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would heal him […]
⛓ Read 2 Kings 5 forward — the whole chapter and its afterlife →Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.
Allusion4
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
'Naaman, the Syrian' cleansed of leprosy by Elisha retells 2 Kings 5:1-14. Named figure and event; high Volume, paired with the Zarephath widow to ground Jesus' point that prophets are sent to Gentiles when Israel rejects them.
High confidenceThe Naaman narrative — a leprous Syrian foreigner cleansed who returns to the prophet to confess the God of Israel — is the structural template for the lone Samaritan leper who turns back to give thanks. The distinctive convergence of foreigner + leprosy + cleansing + grateful return gives strong Volume and Coherence, and Luke elsewhere cites Naaman explicitly (4:27), confirming Recurrence.
High confidenceThe healing of a Gentile military officer (Naaman, captain of Aram's army) at a distance through Israel's prophet supplies a strong typological precedent for the centurion whose servant Jesus heals from afar. Naaman's mediated request, his concern about the prophet's coming, and the wonder at faith found outside Israel cohere with Luke's emphasis on the believing Gentile. Recurrence is supported by Luke 4:27, where Jesus himself names Naaman as the paradigm of Gentile favor.
Medium confidenceThe cleansing of a leper evokes Elisha's healing of Naaman, the paradigmatic OT leprosy cure by a prophet. Volume is the shared distinctive event (only Elisha cleanses a leper in the OT narratives) plus Mark's Elijah/Elisha typology; coherence is strong, and Luke 4:27 makes the Naaman link explicit, supporting its availability and recurrence in the tradition.
Medium confidenceEcho1
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
Naaman's leprosy healed by the prophet Elisha is the paradigmatic OT leprosy-cleansing narrative; thematic coherence (prophet's word effecting instantaneous cleansing) supports the echo. Recurrence in the Elijah/Elisha typology Matthew elsewhere develops.
Medium confidence◇ Figural1
A typological pattern re-read in a later text — no verbal quotation, high figural coherence.
Naaman, a Gentile official, is healed at a distance through the prophet's word without the prophet's presence — paralleling the royal official whose son is healed by Jesus' remote command. Coherence good on official-faith-by-word; moderate Volume.
Medium confidence