Verse 5
Crying and cutting himself with stones - In this person's case we see a specimen of what Satan could do in all the wicked, if God should permit him; but even the devil himself has his chain; and he who often binds others, is always bound himself.
Verse 6
Worshipped him - Did him homage; compelled thereto by the power of God. How humiliating to Satan, thus to be obliged to acknowledge the superiority of Christ!
Verse 7
What have I to do with thee - Or, What is it to thee and me, or why dost thou trouble thyself with me? See on [Mar 1:24] (note), and [Mat 8:29] (note), where the idiom and meaning are explained.
Jesus - This is omitted by four MSS., and by several in [Luk 8:28], and by many of the first authority in [Mat 8:29] (note). See the note on this latter place.
Verse 9
Legion: for we are many - Could a disease have spoken so? "No, there was no devil in the case; the man spoke according to the prejudice of his countrymen." And do you think that the Spirit of God could employ himself in retailing such ridiculous and nonsensical prejudices? "But the evangelist gives these as this madman's words, and it was necessary that, as a faithful historian, he should mention these circumstances." But this objection is destroyed by the parallel place in Luke, [Luk 8:30], where the inspired writer himself observes, that the demoniac was called Legion, because many demons had entered into him.
Verse 10
Out of the country - Strange that these accursed spirits should find it any mitigation of their misery to be permitted to exercise their malevolence in a particular district! But as this is supposed to have been a heathen district, therefore the demons might consider themselves in their own territories; and probably they could act there with less restraint than they could do in a country where the worship of God was established. See on [Mar 5:1] (note).
Verse 11
A great herd of swine - See the notes on [Mat 8:30].
Verse 12
All the devils - Παντες, all, is omitted by many MSS. and versions; Griesbach leaves it out of the text. Οἱ δαιμονες is omitted also by several: Griesbach leaves it doubtful. Probably it should be read thus, And they besought him, saying.
Verse 13
Gave them leave - For επετρεψεν, DH, three others, and three copies of the Itala have επεμψεν, sent them.
Verse 14
The swine - Instead of τους χοιρους, BCDL, three others, Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Vulgate, and Itala, read αυτους, them - And they that fed Them fled. Griesbach has adopted this reading.
Verse 15
That - had the legion - This is omitted by D, and two others, Ethiopic, Persic, Vulgate, and all the Itala but one. Mill, Bengel, and Griesbach, think it should be omitted.
Verse 19
Suffered him not - Ὁ δε Ιησους, Howbeit Jesus, is omitted by ABKLM, twenty-seven others, both the Syriac, both the Persic, Coptic, Gothic, Vulgate, and one of the Itala. Mill and Bengel approve of the omission, and Griesbach leaves it out of the text.
Go home to thy friends, etc. - This was the cause why Jesus would not permit him to follow him now, because he would not have the happiness of his relatives deferred, who must exceedingly rejoice at seeing the wonders which the Lord had wrought.
Verse 20
Decapolis - See on [Mat 4:25] (note).
Verse 23
My little daughter - Το θυγατριον μου, that little daughter of mine. The words express much tenderness and concern. Luke observes, [Luk 8:42], that she was his only daughter, and was about twelve years of age.
At the point of death - Εσχατως εχει, in the last extremity, the last gasp.
See on [Mat 9:18] (note).
Verse 25
A certain woman - See [Mat 9:20].
Verse 26
Had suffered many things of many physicians, - and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse - No person will wonder at this account, when he considers the therapeutics of the Jewish physicians in reference to hemorrhages, especially of the kind with which this woman was afflicted.
Rabbi Jochanan says: "Take of gum Alexandria, of alum, and of crocus hortensis, the weight of a zuzee each; let them be bruised together, and given in wine to the woman that hath an issue of blood. But if this fail, "Take of Persian onions nine logs, boil them in wine, and give it to her to drink: and say, Arise from thy flux. But should this fail, "Set her in a place where two ways meet, and let her hold a cup of wine in her hand; and let somebody come behind and affright her, and say, Arise from thy flux. But should this do no good, "Take a handful of cummin and a handful of crocus, and a handful of faenu-greek; let these be boiled, and given her to drink, and say, Arise from thy flux. But should this also fail, "Dig seven trenches, and burn in them some cuttings of vines not yet circumcised (vines not four years old); and let her take in her hand a cup of wine, and let her be led from this trench and set down over that, and let her be removed from that, and set down over another: and in each removal say unto her, Arise from thy flux." Dr. Lightfoot gives these as a sample, out of many others, extracted from Bab. Shabb. fol. 110.
And from some of these nostrums it is evident the woman could not be bettered, and from some others it is as evident that she must be made worse; and from all together it is indubitably certain that she must have suffered many things; - and from the persons employed, the expense of the medicaments, and the number of years she was afflicted, as she was not a person of great opulence, it is most perfectly credible that she spent all that she had. She was therefore a fit patient for the Great Physician.
The case of this woman was a very afflicting one:
1. Because of the nature of her malady; it was such as could not be made public, without exposing her to shame and contempt.
2. It was an inveterate disorder; it had lasted twelve years.
3. It was continual; she appears to have had no interval of health.
4. Her disorder was aggravated by the medicines she used - she suffered much, etc.
5. Her malady was ruinous both to her health and circumstances - she spent all that she had.
6. She was now brought to the last point of wretchedness, want, and despair; she was growing worse, and had neither money nor goods to make another experiment to procure her health.
7. She was brought so low by her disorder as to be incapable of earning any thing to support her wretched life a little longer.
It has been said, and the saying is a good one, "Man's extremity is God's opportunity." Never could the power and goodness of God be shown in a more difficult and distressful case. And now Jesus comes, and she is healed.