The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 101

11oods to giv<' a deb,ilcd ac!'onnt of the w11y as possessed by devils whioh really hru:I no in which one •Rbb11th dRy w11e spent, no existence BRVe in im11gination-is not only doubt intending ne to understand it as R quite foreign to the tr11nspare11tly trnthful specimen of the ('Tdin11ry e11bbath-d11y work chl\racter of all the Master's words and of the ]\faster. We meet with here, for the works, but is perfectly incompatible with flrat time in our Goepel, one of those un- the narratives given us by the evangelista hRppy .pon,ons described as either "h11ving of the cures in question. In these, in several a spirit of an unclean devil," or I\S "pos- instances, the devils are not only spoken to, ecsseci with a devil" or "devils," or in but they speak themselves-they answer !!lmilu terms, generally signifying "de- questions, they even prefer requests. Jesus, mnnil\CS," men or women-pparently a class too, gives his own power to cast out devils b, tliemselves, directlv nuder the influence ( oh. ii:. I), and to tread on all the power of of some evil spirit. ·who, now, were the&e the enemy (eh. x. 19). He even, in St. Mark unhappy beings with whom Jesus in hie (ix. 29), is represented as distinguishing a ministry or mercy seems often to have come spocial class of devils over whom a mastery in contact ? Many of these "demoniacs" could be obtained alone through prayer and mentioned in the Gospels would nowadays fa.sting. Evidently the Holy Spirit, who certainly be olassed under the ordinary guided the writers of those memoirs of the category of the "sick." They seem to have apostles we oall the Gospels, intended that been simply atllil'ted with disease of one a marked distinction should be impressed kind or other; for instance, the epil,eptio upon the readers of the apostolic memoirs as chi/,/ mentioned by St. Luke (ii:. 39), existing between ordinary maladies of the or dumbMllB again (Matt. ix. 32), blifld.. flesh and those terrible and various scourges M,<• (Matt. xii. 22), and insanity, among which the presence of devils infiioted upon other instances, are ascribed to demoniac those hapless beings in whose bodies, for ogency. Are we, then, simply to rege.rd these some mysterious reason, they had been per- cases, not as exceptional displays of dia- mitted to take up their habitation. The bolical power, but as instances of sickness whole question is fraught with difficulties. and disease which still exist among us? Dean Plumptre suggests that perhaps we and to suppose that our Lord, in speo.king possess not the du.tu. for an absolutely cei-tain of de-.ils possessing these sick ones, accom- and exhaustive answer. It seems, on the modated himself to the popular belief. and whole-while not denying the possible pre- spoke of these e.filicted persons in the way sence of these evil spirits at different times men were e.ble to understand? for it is in- of the world's history occupying the bodies disputable that J ndaism in the days of Jesus and distracting the souls of men-best to of Nazareth a.scribed to "demons," or assume that these devils possessed special "-ie,ils," muoh of the suffering and woe and peculiar power over men at that period with which men are afflicted under the when Jesus walked among us. By this common name of disease. The Talmud, means, as Godet well says, Jesus could be which well represents the Jewish teaching proclaimed externally and visibly as the of that time, bas endless allusions to evil Conqueror of the enemy of men (and of his spirits, or de,ils, who were permitted to legions of evil messengers). That period, work e'l"il and mischief on the bodies and when the Lord taught among us, was a even on the Houls of men. • Josepbne, the time when, it is generally conceded, moral contemporary historian, narrates that a lamb and social evil had reached its highest point grew at Machmrus, the wool of which had of de,elopment. Since that age the power the power of expelling devils ; and he t.ells of these unhappy spirits of evil has been, if how he was the eye-witness of the cure of a not destroyed, at least restrained by the man possessed of a devil by means of a ring influence-greater, perhaps, thon men choose containing a root which had similar pro- to acknowledge-of the Master's religion perties ; this, he eays, took place in the or by the direct command of the Mast.et' presence of the Emperor Vespasian (' Ant.,' himself. viii. 2. 5; • Bell. Jud.,' vii 6. 3). Many be- Ver. 34.-Let us alone; what have we to li,-ved that these demons, or devils, were the do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth t art suuls of the wicked who returned to earth thou come to destroy us 1 This man, with after death, and sought a new home for his evil spirit, would ha. ve been looked on thvrusel ves in the bodies of the living. as unclean, and would not have been ad- This popular belief in demoniacal agency mitted within the synagogue walls; he had is mentioned by Justin Martyr (' Apol.,' i.), probably crept in unseen. Something in and even seems to have lingered in some the nearness to the holy Teacher we know par Ls as late as ChryHostom. But such a compelled the demon to cry aloud. It i11 theury-wliich repreHents Jesus in his mi• strange, this presence of God causing/aiu. raculous cures accommodating himself to It is the impossibility of the wounde eye 1,opnle.r belief, ...nd speaking of the su1f'ereJ11 bearing light. The ory rendered, " Let 1111 on. ,v. 1-(4,] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. 93