The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 81

we road that he " healed all that were sick," and in St. Luke tha.t "he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them." 3. ProhibitiV/1, of dem<miac testimony. He had already rebuked an unclean spirit tha.t volunteered his unwelcome testimony. He forbids their speaking at all, because they knew him-not as the margin ha.s it, "to say that they knew him," which would require Ary••" instead of """•iv-for one reason, lest he should appear to be in collusion with them, and lest countenance should thus be given to the calumny of the Pharisees, and a.lso lest, if believed when happening to speak truly, they might be more readily credited when uttering the most fatal false- hoods. 4. Origin and history of the name. The history of the name demons is some- what curious, and as follows :-~cz/µc.w-derived from &uf,µ.,,,v, skilful, and so implying superior knowledge, or from 1iczl111, I dispense, as if able to distribute destinies, and so superior in power-was at first nearly synonymous with Be&s, except that the latter signified a particular god or person; while the former meant rather a deity with respect to power; then an inferior deity, or semi-god, an agency intermediate between God and man; in plural, departed spirits of the good, and so tutelary deities or Jares; next, any departed spirits or manes. In the New Testament the term signifies, not the spirits of the departed, but those evil spirits or fallen angels "who kept not their first estate," who are distinguished from the elect angels, and of whom we read that " God spa.red not the angels that sinned." They are subject to Satan, but, like him, they can only act by permission of God, and in their operations they ca.n neither contravene the laws of nature nor interfere with human freedom and responsibility. Powerful for evil as they undoubtedly are, leading men captive or working on the children of disobedience, they, like their head, have only such power over ma.n as men themselves consent to or concede them. Hence Augustine sa.ys truly, "Consentientes tenet, non invitos cogit." Further, the violation of the rule of neuters plural being constructed with verbs singular in 1/liE111czv, comes under the first of the two following exceptions, that is, when neuters imply persons, as -rb..11, magistrates, and so individuality or plurality of persons is signified; or in case of inanimate objects, when individuality or plurality of parts is signified. 5. DevotiV/1, of spirit. To extraordinary diligence in business our Lord added singular devotion of spirit. After a fatiguing day in the synagogue, then with the sick who in such numbers resorted unto him, he at dawn of day next morning retires for secret devotion and spiritual communion with his heavenly Father. At daybreak, or "when it was day," as St. Luke expresses it, or more exactly, according to St. Mark, "early, while it was quite in the night" (1rp111l lvvuxo11 ,\.{av)-a.t that early hour, inter- mediate between night and day, before the light of day ha.s fully dawned or the darkness of the night quite departed-he withdrew to some lone and barren spot in one of the ravines or mountains, or under some sheltering rock in the district of Caperna.um, to be alone with God. There he continued in prayer ('rrpo'"16x•..-o, imperfect). How beauti- fully our Lord instructs us by his practice as well as his precept to enter our closet and shut to the door, and pray to our Father in secret I He further shows us the necessity of prayer to maintain the life of the soul and obtain the help of heaven, to prepare us for our daily duties and for faithful diligence in the discharge of those duties. At the same time he commends the early morning for this exercise of devotion, when the feelings are fresh, the spirits in the fittest frame, s.nd the mind free from the distractions so common in the after-part of the day. 6. Interruption. But, early as was our Lord's ma.tin-hour, he was not secure from interruption. The people (~X""'• crowds) llO\ ght him, as St. Luke informs us, while Peter and his companions, ns St. Mark tells us, with characteristic impetuosity and affectionate eagerness pursued him-actually pur ued him, as though he had fled a.way and escaped from them. The word 1ear•~£.,{cz11 is literally "hunted down" or" for;" that is, they pursued him closely, followed hard upon his tracks. But it is occasionally used in e. good sense, as here; thus it is used in the Se.,tnagint Version of Ps. xxiii. 6, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow (,ccz..-a- i{a,t••) me." II. CmOUIT THROUaH GALILEE. 1. Evangelistic tour. Peter and those with him were evidently proud of their Master's great and increasing popularity, for 'Yhen they had found him they tell him gladly, perhaps with somewhat of exaggeration," All men 1eek for thee;" or, as in St. Luke, "were earnestly seeking ( l-..,(~..-ouv) him, and tried to detain him (Hnixo,,)." 'l'hey evidently wished to keep to themselves or to the city of their habitation a monopoly of their Lord's services. But he, unmoved by praise,  iS THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST, MARK. [oB, L 1-45,.