So ended that Sabbath in Capernaum: a Sabbath of healing, joy, and true rest. But far and wide, into every place of the country around, throughout all the region of Galilee, spread the tidings, and with them the fame of Him Whom demons must obey, though they dare not pronounce Him the Son of God. And on men's ears fell His Name with sweet softness of infinite promise, like rain upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth.' __________________________________________________________________
[2268] St. Luke v. 21; vi.2; vi. 7.
[2269] The accounts of this given by St. Mark and St. Luke chronologically precede what is related in St. Matt. viii. 14-17. The reader is requested in each case to peruse the Biblical narratives before, or along with their commentation in the chapters of the present work.
[2270] The following are the passages in which the same term is used: St. Matt. vii. 28; xiii. 54; xix. 25; xxii. 33; St. Mark i. 22; vi. 2; vii. 37; x. 26; xi. 18; St. Luke ii. 48; iv. 32; ix. 43; Acts xiii. 12.
[2271] St. Matt. vii. 28.
[2272] Comp. Delitzsch in Riehm's Hand-worter-buch.
[2273] The word spirit' or spirits' occurs twice in St. Matthew, thrice in St. Mark and twice in St. Luke; with the addition evil,' twice in St. Luke; with that of unclean,' once in St. Matthew, eleven times in St. Mark, and four times in St. Luke. The word damon in singular or plural occurs once in each of the Synoptists; while daimnion, in singular or plural, occurs nine times in St. Matthew, three times in St. Mark, fourteen times in St. Luke, and six times in St. John. The expression the spirit of an unclean demon' occurs once in the St. Luke, while the verb to be demonished' occurs, in one form or another, seven times in St. Matthew, four times in St. Mark, once in St. Luke, and once in St. John. Comp. also the careful brochure of Pastor Nanz, Die Besessenen im N.T., although we differ from his conclusions.
[2274] Comp. also Weiss, Leben Jesu i. p. 457.
[2275] St. Matt. x. 8.
[2276] St. Luke x. 17, 18.
[2277] St. Matt. xvii. 21; comp. also xii. 43 &c., also spoken to the disciples.
[2278] This is also the conclusion arrived at by Weiss, u. s.
[2279] The nearest approach to it, so far as I am aware, occurs in Pirqé de R. El. c. 13 (ed. Lemberg, p. 16 b, 17 a), where the influence of Satan over the serpent (in the history of the Fall) is likened to that of an evil spirit over a man, all whose deeds and words are done under the influence of the demon, so that he only acts at his bidding.
[2280] Surely Strauss (Leben Jesu, ii. 10) could not have remembered the expressions in 1 Sam. xvi. 14, 15, &c., when he sees a parallel to demoniacal possessions in the case of Saul.
[2281] Tob. viii. 2, 3, is not a case in point.
[2282] Gfrörer (Jahrh. d. Heils, i. p. 410, 412) quotes Erub. iv. 1 and Gitt. vii. 1; but neither of these passages implies anything like demoniac possession.
[2283] See, for example, Ant vi. 8. 2; 11. 3; viii. 2. 5; War vii. 6. 3.
[2284] The reader will find full references in the Encyclopædias, in Wetstein (Nov. Test. i. pp. 279-284), and in Nanz's brochure.
[2285] See Appendix XVI.: Jewish Views about Demons and the demonised.'
[2286] In St. Mark i. 23.
[2287] I have omitted, on critical grounds, the clause, Let us alone.' The expression, What between us and Thee, Jesu Nazarene,' contains a well-known Hebraism.
[2288] This seems the more correct rendering.
[2289] This is the real meaning of the expression rendered, Hold thy peace.' It stills the raging of the powers of evil just as, characteristically, it is again employed in the stilling of the storm, St. Mark iv. 39.