Note: there seems no doubt that verse 40-42 are chiastically structured, as in Matthew 8. Verses 35 and 45 both have Jesus in a “solitary” or “desert” place. This suggest that verses 38-39 and verses 43-44 are also in parallel –  linking Jesus’s  preaching in the synagogues of Galilee to the witness of the healed leper to the priests in the temple in Jerusalem.  Is this one reason they came up to Galilee to check what was going on?

 

A. 35 And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. 36 And Simon and they that were with him followed after him. 37 And when they had found him, they said unto him, All men seek for thee.

B. 38 And he said unto them, Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth. 39 And he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and cast out devils.

C. 40 And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him,

D. and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

E. 41 And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him,

D’. and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean.

C’. 42 And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.

B’. 43 And he straitly charged him, and forthwith sent him away; 44 And saith unto him, See thou say nothing to any man: but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

A’. 45 But he went out, and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter, insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city, but was without in desert places: and they came to him from every quarter.