The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 78

we are considering. It may be observed tbat in some copies of the Italic Version the ••and" in the clause" and not as the scribes" is omitted, but erroneously, for the copula. tive is used of things different rather than of opposites. In case of thino-s not merely different, but opposite or contrary, the omission of the copula is adntlssible, as in the next chapter at ver. 27, "The sabbath was made for man, [and] not man for the sabbath," though the English Version inserts "and," and Tregelles reads the clause with ,c..!, On this occasion, then, of our Lord's teaching in the synagogue, the healing of the demoniac was effected. IV. REALITY OF DEMONIACAL POSSESSION. The subject of demoniacal possession has bee.n so fully and frequently discussed that little remains to be said on it. Certain. it is that, to any unprejudiced reader of the Gospels, such possession must appear a.n undeniable reality. This man in the power (Iv) of a.n unclean spirit addresses Jesus "What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth?" literally, "What i; common [ ,cow&v understood] to us and to you?" In oh. v. Jesus commands the unclean spirit to come out of the man; and in the Gospel of St. Matthew (viii. 32) he suffers the demons to go away into the herd of swine. There can be no reasonable denial then, of the actual personality of these evil spirits. Their presence a.nd personality a.r; distinctly a.nd decidedly recognized in such Scriptures a.s those just mentioned. V. NATURE OF THIS POSSESSION. The poor demoniac had, it would seem, a sort of double consciousness. His own will was dominated by a superior internal agent, who held him in terrible thrall. There was the human personality of the ma.n possessed, as in the case of the Gadarene demoniac, who, when he had descried Jesus afar off, ran and worshipped him; there was the demoniac personality, or personality of the evi: spirit, at the same time, which, employing the instrumentality of the man's organs of speech, cried with a loud voice, "I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not." This possession was not disease, nor was it madness; it was not physics.I alone, nor mental alone; it was not corporeal merely, nor spiritual merely; but a strange and shocking combination of both. VJ. ,VHY WAS DEMONIAC POSSESSION CONFINED TO OUB SAVIOUR'S TIME OF SOJOURN ON EARTH? The most perplexing question perhaps in relation to this matter is, Why was it that ruch possession occurred just at the time of our Lord's ministry on earth- apparently neither before nor since? Several answers have been given to it, such as the prevalence of certain diseases, whether bodily or spititual, at particular periods of the world's history; the climactic pitch which moral disintegration and social disorgan- ization bad reached at the time of Christ's appearance on earth; the check given to such possession by the introduction of Christianity; our ignorance of cases of the kind that may still exist. There may be an element of truth in each of these; still they are each and all inadequate as an answer to the difficult question propounded, and we must seek for a more satisfactory solution in some other direction. VIL SATAN'S POWER. The discrowned archangel, called now Diabolos the accuser, again Satan the adversary, is the acknowledged head of these daimonia or daimones. He is still, as we have seen in connection with the temptation, the prince of the power of the air, and the prince of this world to a lamentable extent. His knowledge is immense, yet be is not omniscient; his power is enormous, yet he is not almighty; his presence is little short of ubiquitous-" going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it "-yet he is not omnipresent; his resources for evil and for injury are amazing, yet they are not absolute. Happily, he is limited to some extent and restricted in some ways; he is not by any means infinite. VIII. .AN IMITATOR. With all his knowledge and power and resources, he is only an imitator at the best, and a destroyer at the worst. What God ma.de he marred, as far as permitted to do so; what the Saviour does, he imitates. Accordingly, when the Son of God became incarnate, Satan or his subject-demons became incarnate too-at least, to the extent of entering and taking possession of the bodies of men. Again, when the dispensation became distinctly spiritual-when, after the Saviour's ascension, the Spirit was sent down-Satan confined himself also more to spiritual influences j that is to say, such influences as he still exercises over the spirits and minds of men. IX. RECOGNITION AND CONFESSION OF THE !:iA VIOUR BY SATAN'S BUBJEOTB. It need be no matter of surprise that, in person or by proxy, he is here found in the houso of God, for such has been his practice from days of old. In the ancient time, wheu the OH, I, 1-45.) THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. 75