He cures a leper who comes to him asking for a cure and tells him to show the priests and offer the cleaning sacrifices Moses had commanded (), but not to tell people that Jesus had done it. Jesus here seems to stress the importance of the Mosaic law, see also Expounding of the Law. This episode is also recorded in the Egerton Gospel 2:1-4. People have seen Jesus telling the man to be quiet about what had happened as related to the Messianic Secret, although it could be Jesus just telling the man to immediately go to the priests. Leprosy could mean many skin diseases, such as favus or psoriasis. Mark says Jesus had "compassion" for the man, although a few manuscripts say he was angry, and some have argued that angry was the original word intentionally changed to make Jesus look less angry, as he is described as giving a "stern", "", warning to the man in verse 43. Mark however also shows Jesus' anger in many other places, such as and the incident at the Temple, see also Expounding of the Law#Anger. Bruce Metzger's "Textual Commentary on the Greek NT" postulates a possible "confusion between similar words in Aramaic (compare Syriac ethraham, "he had pity," with ethra'em, "he was enraged")." See also Aramaic primacy. The man then seems to disobey and spreads the news, increasing Jesus' popularity even more. Whether or not he ever made it to the priests Mark does not say. This is the first of many times in Mark that Jesus unsuccessfully tries to conceal his workings by telling people to keep what he has done a secret. Karris argues that one could also read it as Jesus "spreading the news", not the man.