The miracles of Jesus - Classical Christian Literature by Athleo.net

146 THE DEMONIAC IN THE
effected by the simple word of a direct command.
And immediately, from that hour, the fame of the
new Teacher and Healer spread in every direction
(Mark i. 28 ; Luke iv. 37).
It is impossible to discuss here at length the
difficult subject of demoniacal possession as it meets
us in the Gospels, but one or two points suggested by
the special instance now before us may be noted.
Thus there is a very common tendency nowadays
to argue that as the Jews were in the habit of attributing
all disease, and especially all mental disease,
to the immediate action of evil spirits, it is unnecessary
to see in this particular class of cases anything
more than lunacy, epilepsy, and the like. But without
denying that the Evangelists' language may have
often been coloured by the prevailing beliefs of their
time, no one can study their statements impartially
without feeling that they themselves were thinking of
something more than merely mental or nervous
disease. Thus, in the present instance, St Mark's
words rendered literally are that the man was " in an
unclean spirit " (Mark i.
23), moving in a sphere in
which an unclean spirit held sway ; and though the
exact interpretation of St Luke's unique phrase,
"having a spirit of an unclean devil" (Luke iv. 33), is
uncertain, it equally implies that the man was under
the influence of an alien spirit. And in other cases it
is noteworthy that an express distinction is drawn
between the physical disease and the demoniacal
possession which was often superimposed on it, as
when we read of " a dumb man possessed with a
devil" (Matthew ix. 32), or of "one possessed with a
devil, blind and dumb" (Matthew xii. 22).