Virtue - Healing power. See the notes at Mark 5:30.

And the whole multitude sought to touch him,.... That is, the multitude of those that were sick and possessed; for they were persuaded, and they found it true by experience, that if they could but touch any part of his body, or his garments, they should be cured of their diseases:

for there went virtue out of him; in great abundance, as water from a fountain; without his speaking a word, or using any gesture, such as laying his hands on them:

and they were healed; in this secret and private way, of whatsoever disease they were afflicted with.

Sought - went out (ἐζήτουν - έξήρχετο)

Both imperfects. The A. V. and Rev. lose in vividness by not rendering them accordingly. The multitudes were all the while seeking to touch him, for virtue was going out of him.

Healed (ἰᾶτο)

Compare Matthew 14:36; Mark 6:56, where διεσώθησαν, were thoroughly saved, and ἐσώζοντο, were saved, are used. Luke is more technical, using the strictly medical term, which occurs twenty-eight times in the New Testament, seventeen of these in Luke. Luke also uses the two words employed by Matthew and Mark, but always with some addition showing the nature of the saving. Thus Luke 7:3, where διασώσῃ (A. V., heal) is explained by Luke 7:7, ἰαθήσεται, the technical word, shall be healed, and by Luke 7:10, "found the servant whole (ὑγιαίνοντα, another professional word - see on Luke 5:31) that had been sick." Compare, also, Luke 8:35, Luke 8:36, Luke 8:44, Luke 8:47, Luke 8:48. Medical writers do not use σώζειν or διασώζειν, to save, as equivalent to ἰᾶσθαι, to heal, but in the sense of escaping from a severe illness or from some calamity. Luke employs it in this sense - Acts 27:44; Acts 28:1.

And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all.

6:17-19 Came down with them, and stood in the plain. We now come to Luke's report of the Sermon on the Mount, given much more fully in Mt 5:1-7:29, on which see notes. Luke only states that the sermon was preceded by the healing of the diseased in the vast multitudes which had assembled from all parts of the country.

19. healed-kept healing, denoting successive acts of mercy till it went over "all" that needed. There is something unusually grand and pictorial in this touch of description.

6:12-19 We often think one half hour a great deal to spend in meditation and secret prayer, but Christ was whole nights engaged in these duties. In serving God, our great care should be not to lose time, but to make the end of one good duty the beginning of another. The twelve apostles are here named; never were men so privileged, yet one of them had a devil, and proved a traitor. Those who have not faithful preaching near them, had better travel far than be without it. It is indeed worth while to go a great way to hear the word of Christ, and to go out of the way of other business for it. They came to be cured by him, and he healed them. There is a fulness of grace in Christ, and healing virtue in him, ready to go out from him, that is enough for all, enough for each. Men regard the diseases of the body as greater evils than those of their souls; but the Scripture teaches us differently.