Little more requires to be added about this incident in one of the Synagogues' of Peræa. Let us only briefly recall the scene. Among those present in this Synagogue had been a poor woman, who for eighteen years had been a sufferer, as we learn, through demoniac agency. It is quite true that most, if not all, such diseases were connected with moral distemper, since demoniac possession was not permanent, and resistance might have been made in the lucid intervals, if there had been moral soundness. But it is ungrounded to distinguish between the spirit of infirmity' as the moral and psychical, and her being bent,' as indicating the physical disease, [4371] or even to describe the latter as a permanent curvature of the spine.' [4372] The Greek word here rendered infirmity' has passed into Rabbinic language (Isteniseyah, {hebrew}), and there means, not any particular disease, but sickliness, sometimes weakliness. In fact, she was, both physically and morally, not sick, but sickly, and most truly was hers a spirit of infirmity,' so that she was bowed together, and could in no wise lift herself up.' For, we mark that hers was not demoniac possession at all - and yet, though she had not yielded, she had not effectually resisted, and so she was bound' by a spirit of infirmity,' both in body and soul.
We recognise the same spirit of infirmity' in the circumstances of her healing. When Christ, seeing her - probably a fit symbol of the Peræans in that Synagogue - called her, she came; when He said unto her, Woman, thou hast been loosed [4373] from thy sickliness,' she was unbound, and yet in her weakliness she answered not, nor straightened herself, till Jesus laid His Hands on her,' and so strengthened her in body and soul, and then she was immediately made straight, and glorified God.'
As for the Archisynagogos, we have, as already hinted, such characteristic portraiture of him that we can almost see him: confused, irresolute, perplexed, and very angry, bustling forward and scolding the people who had done nothing, yet not venturing to silence the woman, now no longer infirm - far less, to reprove the great Rabbi, Who had just done such a glorious thing,' but speaking at Him through those who had been the astounded eye-witnesses. He was easily and effectually silenced, and all who sympathised with him put to shame. Hypocrites!' spake the Lord - on your own admisions your practice and your Law condemn your speech. Every one on the Sabbath looseth his ox or ass, and leads him to the watering. The Rabbinic law expressly allowed this, [4374] and even to draw the water, provided the vessel were not carried to the animal. [4375] If, as you admit, I have the power of loosing' from the bonds of Satan, and she has been so bound these eighteen years, should she - a daughter of Abraham - not have that done for her which you do for your beasts of burden?
The retort was unanswerable and irresistible; it did what was intended: it covered the adversaries with shame. And the Peræans in that Synagogue felt also, at least for the time, the blessed freedom which had come to that woman. They took up the echoes of her hymn of praise, and rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him.' And He answered their joy by rightly directing it - by setting before them the Kingdom,' which He had come both to preach and to bring, in all its freeness, reality, power, and all-pervading energy, as exhibited in the two Parables of the Mustard-seed' and the Leaven,' spoken before in Galilee. These were now repeated, as specially suited to the circumstances: first, to the Miracle they had witnessed; then, to the contention that had passed; and, lastly, to their own state of feeling. And the practical application of these Parables must have been obvious to all. __________________________________________________________________