I perceive that virtue - Δυναμιν, Divine or miraculous power. This Divine emanation did not proceed always from Christ, as necessarily as odours do from plants, for then all who touched him must have been equally partakers of it. Of the many that touched him, this woman and none else received this Divine virtue; and why? Because she came in faith. Faith alone attracts and receives the energetic influence of God at all times. There would be more miracles, at least of spiritual healing, were there more faith among those who are called believers.

And Jesus said, somebody hath touched me,.... Not in a common and accidental way, but with design, and in the strength of faith:

for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me: for the cure of the person that had touched him, and that not without his knowledge and will; See Gill on Luke 6:19.

Hath touched (ἥψατο) - I perceive (ἔγνων)

Rev. renders the two aorists strictly: did touch, and I perceived, with reference to Jesus' knowledge of the touch at the moment it was applied.

Virtue (δύναμιν)

Rev., power. The evangelists use the word frequently of miracles - mighty works. It is used here in the sense of virtue, according to its use by naturalists and physicians. Still, too much stress must not be laid upon it as a mark of Luke's professional accuracy, as Dean Plumptre in "The Expositor," iv., 139; since Mark uses it in his narrative of the same incident, and in the same sense (Mark 5:30).

And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.

8:41-56 A man named Jairus. For the miracles of raising from the dead of Jairus, and the healing of the woman with the bloody issue, see notes on Mt 9:18-26 Mr 5:22-42. This was the second instance of the Lord raising the dead.

46. Somebody hath touched-yes, the multitude "thronged" and pressed Him-"they jostled against Him," but all involuntarily; they were merely carried along; but one, one only-"Somebody Touched" Him, with the conscious, voluntary, dependent touch of faith, reaching forth its hands expressly to have contact with Him. This and this only Jesus acknowledges and seeks out. Even so, as the Church Father Augustine long ago said, multitudes still come similarly close to Christ in the means of grace, but all to no purpose, being only sucked into the crowd. The voluntary, living contact of faith is that electric conductor which alone draws virtue out of Him.

8:41-56 Let us not complain of a crowd, and a throng, and a hurry, as long as we are in the way of our duty, and doing good; but otherwise every wise man will keep himself out of it as much as he can. And many a poor soul is healed, and helped, and saved by Christ, that is hidden in a crowd, and nobody notices it. This woman came trembling, yet her faith saved her. There may be trembling, where yet there is saving faith. Observe Christ's comfortable words to Jairus, Fear not, believe only, and thy daughter shall be made whole. No less hard was it not to grieve for the loss of an only child, than not to fear the continuance of that grief. But in perfect faith there is no fear; the more we fear, the less we believe. The hand of Christ's grace goes with the calls of his word, to make them effectual. Christ commanded to give her meat. As babes new born, so those newly raised from sin, desire spiritual food, that they may grow thereby.