Matthew 4:24

24 . throughout all Syria ] The fame passes to the north and east, rather than to the south. Galilee is connected by trade and affinity with Damascus rather than with Jerusalem. torments ] The original Greek word signifies a “touch-stone,” then “torture,” the touch-stone of justice; then a disease that racks and agonizes the limbs like the torture which many a poor Galilean had experienced in the courts of law. possessed with devils ] The possession of the human soul by spiritual powers or beings is distinguished from ordinary diseases here, and also by St Luke, who, as a physician, is exact in his description of the various forms of disease. The distinguishing feature of such demoniacal possession may be described as the phenomenon of double consciousness. The occult spiritual power becomes, as it were, a second self, ruling and checking the better self. The Greek word in the text, lit. subject to a dæmon or dæmonion , has no precise English equivalent. The word “devil” should be confined to the translation of διάβολος , see note, ch. Matthew 4:1 . It is most unhappily used as a rendering of δαιμόνια in 1 Corinthians 10:20-21 . In classical Greek the word is used of the divine voice which warned Socrates, and of the divine power or force which Demosthenes sometimes fancied to be hurrying on the Hellenic race in a fatal course. those which were lunatick ] Lit. affected by the moon ; the changes of the moon being thought to influence mad persons.

The passage is important as distinguishing dæmoniacal possession from lunacy. The only special instance of curing a lunatic is recorded in ch. Matthew 17:14-21 and in the parallel passages. The origin of mental disease may often be traced to licentious living. Observe the frequent instances of unclean spirits met with in these districts. The Christian Church has followed her divine Founder’s example in this tendance of bodily ailment. The founding of hospitals and the care of the sick are distinguishing features of Christianity and among the most blessed fruits of it. A deeper respect for life and a deeper sense of purity have followed as necessary consequences. It is contended by some that the “several house” of 2 Chronicles 26:21 was a hospital. Possibly this was so, but the spirit of Judaism in this respect was not the spirit of Christianity. It may readily be acknowledged, however, that the Jews of the present day are the foremost in works of charity and tender regard for the sick.

And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and {n} torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were {o} lunatick, and those that had the {p} palsy; and he healed them. (n) The word signifies properly the stone with which gold is tried: and by a borrowed kind of speech, is applied to all kinds of examinations by torture, when as by rough dealing and torments, we draw out the truths from men who otherwise would not confess: in this place it is taken for those diseases, which put sick men to great woe. (o) Who at every full moon or the change of the moon, are troubled and diseased. (p) Weak and feeble men, who have the parts of their body loosed and so weakened, that they are neither able to gather them up together, nor do with them as they wish.

Matthew 4:24 . His fame went through all Syria — Of which the country of the Jews and Samaritans was but a small part. Pliny tells us, that Syria contained several provinces, Comagene to the north, Phœnicia to the west, Cœlosyria to the south, Palmyrene, and the province of Seleucia, in the middle part. If, by all Syria, the evangelist means all these different provinces of Syria, our Lord’s fame must at this time have been exceedingly great. Nor is there any thing incredible in the evangelist’s affirmation, taken in the largest sense. For considering the number and greatness of the miracles which he performed, it would not have been beyond belief, had the historian told us that the fame of them reached as far as the communication of the Jews with the rest of the world extended. And they brought unto him those that were possessed with devils, and those lunatic, and those that had the palsy — These are justly reckoned cases of as great misery, and of as little hope, as any to be found among men. The evangelist, therefore, properly instanced these. And he healed them, and thereby wonderfully displayed both his power and his love.

(24) Throughout all Syria. —The word is probably used popularly, rather than with the definite significance of the Roman province with which St. Luke uses it in Luke 2:2 . Our Lord’s ministry, with the one exception of the journey to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon ( Matthew 15:21 ), was confined to what is commonly known as Palestine. Traces of the wider fame are, however, found in the mention of hearers from Idumæa, and Tyre, and Sidon among the crowds that followed Him ( Mark 3:8 ); in the faith of the Syro-Phœnician woman in His power to heal ( Mark 7:26 ); perhaps in the existence of disciples at Damascus so soon after the Ascension ( Acts 9:2 ); perhaps, also, in St. Peter’s appeal to the friends of Cornelius at Cæsarea, as knowing already the broad facts of our Lord’s ministry and miraculous working ( Acts 10:37 ). Possessed with devils. . . . lunatick.—The phenomena of what is called possession, and the theories to which the phenomena have been referred, will best be discussed in dealing with the great representative instance of the Gadarene demoniacs (Matthew 8:28). Here it will be enough to notice (1) that the word rendered “devil” is not the same as that used for the Tempter in 4:1, but “demon” in the sense of an evil spirit, (2) that the possessed with demons are at once grouped with the “lunaticks,” both exhibiting forms of mental disease, and distinguished from them.

The latter term implies in the Greek, as in the Latin and our own, “moonstruck madness”—the belief that the moon exercised a disturbing influence on the brain (a coup de lune being dreaded by Eastern travellers almost as much as a coup de soleil), and that the intensity of the disturbance varied, when the disease had once set in, with the moon’s changes. Those that had the palsy.—Here the word (literally, the paralytics) points, not to a view of the cause of the disease, but to its conspicuous phenomena—the want of muscular power to control motion, and the consequent “looseness,” in popular phraseology, of limbs or head.

24. And his fame went throughout all Syria—reaching first to the part of it adjacent to Galilee, called Syro-Phœnicia (Mr 7:26), and thence extending far and wide. and they brought unto him all sick people—all that were ailing or unwell. Those that were taken—for this is a distinct class, not an explanation of the "unwell" class, as our translators understood it. with divers diseases and torments—that is, acute disorders. and those which were possessed with devils—that were demonized or possessed with demons. and those which were lunatic—moon-struck. and those that had the palsy—paralytics, a word not naturalized when our version was made. and he healed them—These healings were at once His credentials and illustrations of "the glad tidings" which He proclaimed. After reading this account of our Lord's first preaching tour, can we wonder at what follows?

Matthew 4:24 . Ἀπῆλθεν , went out thence ) sc. afar.— ἀκοὴ , fame ) The LXX. frequently render שמעה [162] by ἀκοὴ .— Συρίαν , Syria ) The province of which Palestine was considered a part.— ΠΡΟΣΉΝΕΓΚΑΝ ΑὐΤῷ , they brought unto Him ) Even the Syrians did so.— τοὺς κακῶς ἔχοντας , those who were ill )[163] The miracles of Jesus Christ were performed for the good[164] of men.—See John 6:2 ; Matthew 11:5 ; Acts 10:38 .— δαιμονιζομένους , possessed with devils ) The sick and the possessed are frequently mentioned together.—See Acts 5:16 . [162] שְׁמוּעָה and שְׁמֻעָה prop. that which heard: hence (1) a message, tidings, whether joyful or sorrowful, especially a message sent from God: hence (2), i.q. instruction, teaching doctrine; (3), rumour.—GESENIUS.—(I. B.) [163] “ Male habentes .”—(I. B.) [164] Salutem , health or salvation— i.e , they were [with rare exceptions] miracles of mercy, the effect of which was to improve the condition of those on whom they were performed.—(I. B.)

Syria is said to be bounded on the north by Cilicia, by Egypt on the south, on the west with the sea, and on the east with Euphrates, and to comprehend within it all Judea, Bethany, Galilee, Decapolis, Samaria, Idumea, Palestina, Syrophoenicia, Syria of Damascus, and Syria of Antioch. Christ’s fame spread very far doubtless, because of the good he did, and the miracles he wrought, and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases: ‘all’ here again can signify no more than very many that were indisposed and ill affected as to their bodily health, those that were sick of, or detained in their beds or houses by, divers diseases. Though Christ showed his power in curing some diseases which physicians judge incurable, yet he showed his kindness also in relieving others not so fatally sick. And torments; such as were troubled with great pains, as if they were upon racks, or in the hands of tormentors, that set themselves to torture them. And those which were possessed with devils: of these sorts of persons we shall read often in the gospel: this is the first time we meet with the term. It is observed that in the Old Testament we read little of any such persons; (we read only of Saul’s being vexed with an evil spirit); we read much of them in the New Testament, and in ecclesiastical history for some years after Christ: they called them energumeni.

Some think God, in those first times of the gospel, permitted the devil to this degree, that the power of our Saviour might be the more seen in casting them out, and in giving authority to his disciples to cast them out, which was a great demonstration of his Divinity. Others think that God did it for a demonstration of the error of the Sadducees, who held there were no spirits. The gospel seemeth to hint two sorts of these persons: some upon whom the devil had power no further than to rack and torture them, Mark 5:3-5 Luke 9:39 ; others in whom he dwelled bodily, and divined and prophesied in them, Acts 16:16 . And those which were lunatic; affected with such diseases as use to increase in some times of the moon, or at such times to seize persons: of this nature we know divers, more particularly the falling sickness and dropsy. And those that had the palsy, a disease caused by the resolution of the nerves. Those diseases are mentioned which men account hardest to be cured, if capable of cure by men: Christ, to show his Divine power, healed them. Christ did not only cure these bodily distempers, but he also preached the gospel of the kingdom to heal their soul distempers. We read of many who came to him for bodily cure, but of none that said to him: What shall we do to be saved? How sensible are men and women of their bodily pains and diseases, more than of their soul’s wants!

Matthew 4:24 . Εἰς ὅλην τὴν Συρίαν ] His reputation spread from Galilee into the whole province. πάντας τοὺς κακῶς ἔχοντας ] all the sufferers that there were. The following ποικίλ . νόσοις belongs not to κακῶς ἔχοντας (Syriac, Euth. Zigabenus), but to συνεχομένους . νόσοις κ . βασάνοις ] Sicknesses and torments . The first is general, the last special. καὶ δαιμον . καὶ σελην . κ . παραλυτ .] makes prominent three special kinds of what had previously been described in a general manner, so that the first καί is to be rendered: especially also, particularly also . δαιμονιζομένους ] according to the popular view, shared by the evangelist: possessed by demons ( Matthew 9:34 , Matthew 12:26 ), whose bodies had become the seat and organ of demoniacal working; δαιμόνιον is not a diminutive form, little devil (Ewald, Keim), but the neuter of δαιμόνιος as substantive. See Stallbaum, ad Plat. Ap. Socr . p. 27 f.

They were real sick persons with diseases of a peculiar character (mania, epilepsy, delirium, hypochondria, paralytic condition, temporary dumbness), whose sufferings, being apparently inexplicable from physical causes, were believed to have their foundation not in an abnormal organization, or in natural disturbances of the physical condition, but in diabolical possession—that is, in the actual indwelling of demoniac personalities, very many of which might even be counted in one sick person ( Mark 5:9 ; Mark 16:9 ).[394] This belief, which is conceivable from the decay of the old theocratic consciousness and of its moral strength, which referred all misfortune to God’s sending, is, however, a belief which rendered healing possible only through the acceptance of the existing view leaving the idea itself untouched, but made it all the more certain for the Messiah, who has power over the kingdom of devils, and who now, in the pure manifestation of Jesus, accompanied with miraculous working, stood victoriously opposed to all diabolic power. Comp. Ewald, Jahrb . VII. p. 54 ff., also Bleek, Neander, p. 237 ff.