4:24 And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and {n} torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were {o} lunatick, and those that had the {p} palsy; and he healed them.
(n) The word signifies properly the stone with which gold is tried: and by a borrowed kind of speech, is applied to all kinds of examinations by torture, when as by rough dealing and torments, we draw out the truths from men who otherwise would not confess: in this place it is taken for those diseases, which put sick men to great woe.
(o) Who at every full moon or the change of the moon, are troubled and diseased.
(p) Weak and feeble men, who have the parts of their body loosed and so weakened, that they are neither able to gather them up together, nor do with them as they wish.
4:24 His fame went throughout all Syria. The great Roman province north and east of Palestine, and, at the time of our Savior, including the latter. The cities of Damascus and Antioch were in the province.
Possessed with devils. Evil spirit. Persons were actually subject to the control of demons. Of this there is the following proof: (1) Supernatural strength (Mr 5:4); (2) Mind is not the source of blindness (Mt 12:22); (3) Insanity cannot divine (Ac 16:17); (4) Demons knew Jesus (Mr 1:24); (5) Jesus addresses the demons (Mt 8:32); (6) Demoniacs confess this control (Mr 5:9); (7) Apostles assert it (Lu 10:17); (8) Jesus admitted it (Mt 12:28); (9) Peter assures use of it (Ac 10:38).
Lunatick. Epileptic in the Revised Version.
4:24 Through all Syria - The whole province, of which the Jewish country was only a small part. And demoniacs - Men possessed with devils: and lunatics, and paralytics - Men ill of the palsy, whose cases were of all others most deplorable and most helpless.
4:23-25 Wherever Christ went, he confirmed his Divine mission by miracles, which were emblems of the healing power of his doctrine, and the influences of the Spirit which accompanied it. We do not now find the Saviour's miraculous healing power in our bodies; but if we are cured by medicine, the praise is equally his. Three general words are here used. He healed every sickness or disease; none was too bad; none too hard, for Christ to heal with a word. Three diseases are named; the palsy, which is the greatest weakness of the body; lunacy, which is the greatest malady of the mind; and possession of the devil, which is the greatest misery and calamity of both; yet Christ healed all, and by thus curing bodily diseases, showed that his great errand into the world was to cure spiritual maladies. Sin is the sickness, disease, and torment of the soul: Christ came to take away sin, and so to heal the soul.
