Mark 1:44

New Testament

40 Now a leper came to him and fell to his knees, asking for help. “If you are willing, you can make me clean,” he said. 41 Moved with indignation, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be clean!” 42 The leprosy left him at once, and he was clean. 43 Immediately Jesus sent the man away with a very strong warning. 44 He told him, “See that you do not say anything to anyone, but go, show yourself to a priest, and bring the offering that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 45 But as the man went out he began to announce it publicly and spread the story widely, so that Jesus was no longer able to enter any town openly but stayed outside in remote places. Still they kept coming to him from everywhere.

Taanit 23b

Babylonian Talmud
Rabbinic

§ The Gemara relates another story about a descendant of Ḥoni HaMe’aggel. Ḥanan HaNeḥba was the son of Ḥoni HaMe’aggel’s daughter. When the world was in need of rain, the Sages would send schoolchildren to him, and they would grab him by the hem of his cloak and say to him: Father, Father, give us rain. He said before the Holy One, Blessed be He: Master of the Universe, act on behalf of these children, who cannot distinguish between their Father in Heaven, Who can provide rain, and the father who cannot provide rain. The Gemara asks: And why was he called Ḥanan HaNeḥba? Because he would hide [maḥbi] himself in the lavatory so that people would not bestow honor upon him.

 Notes and References

"... The story about Hanan has some points of contact with Jesus' activity. The holy man addresses God as" Abba" - father. The motif of sonship is typical for this kind of Jewish holy man. Even more important is that Hanan used to hide himself, as Honi the Circle Drawer probably did. All who read the Gospels know that Jesus also hid himself from the multitudes and commanded the person who was cured to say nothing about his cure ..."

Flusser, David & Notley, R. Steven Jesus (p. 115) Magnes Press, 1997

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