Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 17:15
Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatic, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.
15. for he is lunatick ] This is the only special instance of cure in the case of a lunatic. They are mentioned as a class, ch. Mat 4:24. The word literally means “affected by changes of the moon.” There appears to be some truth in the notion that there is an access of mania at the time of lunar changes. See Belcher, Our Lord’s Miracles of Healing, p. 131.
St Mark describes the child as foaming, gnashing with his teeth, and pining away. St Luke mentions that he “crieth out.” All these were epileptic symptoms; “the child was a possessed epileptic lunatic.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Lord, have mercy – The word Lord here means Sir, a title of civility, not implying divinity.
My son – This was an only son (Luke). He was possessed with a devil. This calamity was attended with the following symptoms: he was lunatic (see the notes at Mat 4:24); he was sore vexed; that is, he suffered greatly, or was greatly afflicted; he fell often suddenly, in the manner of persons having epileptic fits; he was dumb – that is, he was mute except when the seizure was coming upon him, for Luke says that when the spirit took him he cried suddenly out; he foamed and gnashed with his teeth, and wasted away, or became poor and emaciated. Luke Luk 9:39 adds of the evil spirit, it teareth him that he foameth again, and, bruising him, hardly departeth from him; that is, scarcely departed from him, or he had only short intervals of reason, for so the passage in Luke, bruising him, hardly departeth from him, should be translated.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 15. My son – is lunatic] . One who was most affected with this disorder at the change and full of the moon. See Clarke on Mt 4:24. But this lunacy was occasioned by a demon, see Mt 17:18, and Mr 9:17; Lu 9:38. In this case, the devil intended to hide himself under the appearance of a natural disorder, that no supernatural means might be resorted to for his expulsion. See a remarkable account on Lu 9:39.
Falleth ofttimes into the fire, and oft into the water.] The paroxysms of his disorder frequently recurred; and among his numerous falls, some were into the fire and some into the water: so that, on this account, his life was in continual danger. Those who are under the influence of the devil are often driven to extremes in every thing. Such are often driven into the fire of presumption, or the waters of despair. Satan takes advantage of our natural temper, state of health, and outward circumstances, to plague and ruin our souls.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Lord, have mercy on my son,…. He addressed him with great marks of honour and respect, not only by gesture, but by words; he craves mercy, pity, and compassion; for the case he had to present, was a miserable one; and his earnestness and importunity he hoped might be excused, since it was for a child of his own. Luke adds “for he is mine only child”; and therefore his affection for him must be thought to be very strong, and he greatly concerned for its grievous affliction, and earnestly desirous of its health and life.
For he is lunatic: not a mad man, but troubled with the epileptic disease; upon which, as on madness or lunacy, the changes and full of the moon have an influence: hence the next clause,
and sore vexed, is rendered in the Arabic version, “and sore vexed at the beginning of full moons”; at which times, he had very grievous and frequent fits of his disorder:
for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water: which shows it to be the “epilepsy”, or “falling sickness”, he was afflicted with; which, whenever it seized him, whether by the fireside, or by the side of a river or brook, or any place of water, or in any other dangerous situation, he fell into it, not being able to help himself, or avoid any danger to which he was exposed. A larger account of this child’s disorder, and of the circumstances of his cure, are related by Mr 9:17 where this case will be more fully considered. [See comments on Mr 9:17].
[See comments on Mr 9:18].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Epileptic (). Literally, “moonstruck,” “lunatic.” The symptoms of epilepsy were supposed to be aggravated by the changes of the moon (cf. 4:24).
He has it bad ( ) as often in the Synoptic Gospels.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Is lunatic [] . Rev., epileptic. The A. V. preserves the etymology of the word (selhnh, the moon), but lunatic conveys to us the idea of demented; while the Rev. epileptic gives the true character of the disease, yet does not tell us the fact contained in the Greek word, that epilepsy was supposed to be affected by the changes of the moon. See on Mt 4:24.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
(15) Lunatick.See Note on Mat. 4:24. The other Gospels add some further touches. The boy had a dumb spirit. When the spirit seized him it tore him, and he foamed at the mouth, and gnashed with his teeth. Slowly, and as with difficulty, the paroxysm passed off, and the sufferer was wasting away under the violence of the attacks. The phenomena described are, it need hardly be said, those of epilepsy complicated with insanity, a combination common in all countries, and likely to be aggravated where the seizure, which the very word epilepsy implies, was the work of a supernatural power. A prolonged melancholy, an indescribable look of sadness, a sudden falling, and loss of consciousness, with or without convulsions, or passing into a tetanic stiffness, a periodical recurrence coinciding often with the new or full moon (hence probably the description of the boy as lunatick), grinding the teeth, foaming at the mouth, are all noted by medical writers as symptoms of the disease. The names by which it was known in the earlier stages of medical science were all indicative of the awe with which men looked on it. It was the divine, the sacred disease, as being a direct supernatural infliction. The Latin synonym, morbus comitialis, came from the fact that if a seizure of this kind occurred during the comitia, or assemblies of the Roman Republic, it was looked upon as of such evil omen that the meeting was at once broken up, and all business adjourned. Whether there was in this case something more than disease, viz., a distinct possession by a supernatural force, is a question which belongs to the general subject of the demoniacs of the Gospel records. (See Note on 8:28.) Here, at any rate, our Lords words (Mat. 17:21) assume, even more emphatically than elsewhere, the reality of the possession. (See Mar. 9:25.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. Lunatic Insane, and deprived by the evil spirit of his reasoning faculties. Mark gives a vivid description of the power of the demon and the sufferings of the victim. The terrible convulsions to which he had been subjected had rent and torn him “from a child.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is epileptic, and suffers grievously, for regularly he falls into the fire, and regularly into the water.”
He asked Him to have compassion of his son. Here the son is described as ‘affected by the moon’ (lunatic), translated as epileptic because of the symptoms, and also, some have suggested, because epileptics were seen as ‘moonstruck’. But in Mark it is made clear that he is possessed by a ‘dumb spirit’, and that this was thus no ordinary epilepsy. It is unlikely that the Apostles would have been thwarted by an ordinary case of epilepsy. The presence of this evil spirit is confirmed here by the fact that it is stressed that it tends to cause the son to be cast into either fire or water. The suggestion appears to be that it happened to an abnormal extent, as though the demon had perverse pleasure in being selective, although it may simply be that the father vividly remembered such incidents and was using them to impress on Jesus the seriousness of the situation.
‘Lord.’ This was probably showing due reverence to a recognised prophet.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mat 17:15. For he is lunatic . The English word lunatic always implies madness; but the Greek word is applied to any disease which is under the influence of the moon, such as the epilepsy, which seems to have been the distemper wherewith this man’s son was afflicted by the power of the demon which possessed him. See also for this history the parallel places in St. Mark and Luke, who relate it more circumstantially than St. Matthew.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 17:15 . The lunatic, whose malady was regarded as the result of demoniacal possession (Mat 17:18 ; Mar 5:16 ; Luk 5:39 ), was evidently suffering from epilepsy, and, according to Mark, deprived of the power of speech as well.
] to be ill (opposite of .), is likewise very common among classical writers. Hom. Od . xvi. 275; Plat. Menex . p. 244 B; Xen. Anab . iii. 3. 7; Herod, iii. 146.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
15 Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.
Ver. 15. For he is lunatic ] Or, he hath the falling sickness, as the symptoms show. A common disease, but (besides that) the devil was in it. a The old manslayer makes advantage of our natural diseases (which are therefore the bath of the devil, and the bed of diseases) to exercise his cruelty upon the poor creature by Divine permission; seeking by the infirmities of the body to bring sin upon the soul.
For ofttimes he falls into the fire, &c. ] The devil pushing him in, as it were, to destroy him, but could not. He is limited, and cannot do as he would, else he would soon end us. If God chastise us with his own bare hand, or by men like ourselves, whip us, as it were, privately and at home, let us thank him, and think ourselves far better dealt with than if he should deliver us up to the public officer, to his tormentor, to be scourged with scorpions at his pleasure. The wicked he often casts into the fire of lust and water of drunkenness, and they complain not: like a sleepy man (fire burning in his bed straw), he cries not out, when others haply lament his case that see afar off, but cannot help him. It hath “set him on fire round about, yet he knew it not: and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart,” Isa 42:25 . See Pro 23:34-35 .
And oft into the water ] Urbanus Regius, in a sermon of his at Wittenberg, made mention of a certain maid possessed by the devil; and when she should have been prayed for in the congregation, the devil made as if he had been departed out of her. But before the next public meeting, Satan returned, and drove the maid into a deep water, where she presently perished.
a Lunaticus speculum miseriae humanae, et malitiae Satanae. Pareus.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
15. ] He was an only son, Luk 9:38 . The dmon had deprived him of speech, Mar 9:17 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 17:15 . , he is moonstruck; the symptoms as described are those of epilepsy, which were supposed to become aggravated with the phases of the moon ( cf. Mat 4:24 ). ( W. H [105] text), good Greek. Raphel ( Annot. ) gives examples from Polyb. = suffers badly.
[105] Westcott and Hort.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
mercy = pity.
he is lunatick = moonstruck: i.e. epileptic, because epilepsy was supposed to be caused by the moon. Greek. seleniazomai. Occurs only in Matthew, here, and Mat 4:24.
sore vexed = suffers miserably.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
15.] He was an only son, Luk 9:38. The dmon had deprived him of speech, Mar 9:17.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 17:15. , have mercy on my son) The lunatic might have said, in the words of David (see Psa 25:16 [Psa 25:16]), both in the Hebrew original and S. V.:[789] Have mercy upon me, for I am an only son. And this his father repeats.- – , THE fire-THE water) The article implies that the nature of these elements universally[790] is intended: because the lunatic is more liable to fall into the paroxysm when near fire or water: but in Mar 9:22 (see Gnomon) fires and waters are mentioned, and that indefinitely, without the article.
[789] Ps. 24:16, LXX. , .-ED.
[790] Middleton remarks on this, Bengel (in Gnom.) has here a note which I do not understand: he says, Articulus UNIVERSE innuit naturam horum elementorum, quod lunaticus apud ignem et aquam proclivior sit in paroxysmum. Though it savours of presumption to attempt any explanation of that which Middleton did not understand, I would venture to suggest, that Bengel means to say, that the article shows that the element of fire is intended, in the abstract, and consequently every presence of it (univers), in the concrete.-(I. B.)
In Mar 9:22, fire and water are not used in the general sense as here (Oft-times he falleth into a paroxysm, wherever fire is and wherever water is,-this is the effect which these elements produce on him): but of particular fires and waters. Though the sing. is used there, it stands for the plural, as the accompanying show: also the article gives the same force, as there is no plur. of else would be found. However, BCD abcd reject the there; but A supports it.-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
have: Mat 15:22, Mar 5:22, Mar 5:23, Mar 9:22, Luk 9:38-42, Joh 4:46, Joh 4:47
for: Mat 4:24, Mar 9:17, Mar 9:18, Mar 9:20-22
he is: [Strong’s G4583], from [Strong’s G4582], the moon, one who was affected with his disorder at the change and full of the moon. This is the case in some kinds of madness and epilepsy. This youth was no doubt epileptic; but it was evidently either produced or taken advantage of by a demon or evil spirit.
for ofttimes: Mat 8:31, Mat 8:32, Job 1:10-19, Job 2:7, Mar 5:4, Mar 5:5
Reciprocal: Mat 9:27 – have Luk 6:18 – vexed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
7:15
Being possessed with a devil did not affect all people alike. That could be caused by either of two things; the peculiar condition of the victim at the time or the kind of devil that had entered into him. In the present case it caused the son to become a lunatick according to the Authorized Version. This word is from SELENIAZOMAI which Thayer defines, “To be moon-struck; to be epileptic,” and in commenting on the word be says, “epilepsy being supposed to return and increase with the increase of the moon.” Of course the people named the condition according to their theories as to the causes of disease, not knowing that it was the presence of the devil.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is a lunatic, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.
[He is lunatic.] Luk 9:39; a spirit taketh him; Mar 9:17; hath a dumb spirit.
I. He that is skilled in the Talmudic writings will here remember what things are said concerning a deaf and mad man; concerning whom there is so much mention in their writings.
“There are five who do not pay the Trumah; but if they do, their Trumah is no Trumah: the deaf and dumb, the lunatic;” etc. “Any one is fit to sacrifice a beast, except a dumb and deaf, a lunatic, and a child “: and very many passages of this nature, etc. I have rendered deaf and dumb; according to the sense of the masters, who, in the first place cited, do thus interpret the word; “concerning which the wise men speak, is he who neither heareth nor speaketh.” See there the Jerusalem Gemara, where, among other things, this occurs not unworthy our noting; “That all the sons of R. Jochanan Ben Gudgoda were deaf and dumb.”
II. It was very usual to the Jews to attribute some of the more grievous diseases to evil spirits, specially those wherein either the body was distorted, or the mind disturbed and tossed with a phrensy.
“If any one, vexed with an evil spirit, shall say, when the disease did first invade him; Write a bill of divorce for my wife,” etc.
“If any, whom Kordicus vexeth; say, Write a bill of divorce for my wife,” etc. “Kordicus; say the Glossers, is a demon, which rules over those that drink too much new wine. What is ‘Kordicus?’ Samuel saith, When new wine out of the press hath caught any one.” Rambam, upon the place, hath these words; “Kordicus is a disease, generated from the repletion of the vessels of the brain, whereby the understanding is confounded; and it is a kind of falling-sickness.” Behold the same a demon and a disease! to which the Gemarists applied exorcisms and a diet.
“Shibta is an evil spirit, who, taking hold on the necks of infants, dries up and contracts their nerves.”
“He that drinks up double cups, is punished by the devils.”
From this vulgar opinion of the nation, namely, that devils are the authors of such kind of diseases, one evangelist brings in the father of this child, saying of him he is lunatic; another, he hath a spirit. He had been dumb and deaf from his birth; to that misery was added a phrensy, or a lycanthropy, which kind of disease it was not unusual with the nation to attribute to the devil; and here, in truth, a devil was present.
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Mat 17:15. For he is lunatic, or epileptic. The former phrase is more correct etymologically, the latter best defines the disease in this case, since all the symptoms are those of epilepsy. In chap. Mat 4:24, lunatics are distinguished from those possessed. Many of those possessed had symptoms altogether different. The peculiar difficulty in this case was the combination of this possession and epilepsy. The lad was an only son (Luk 9:38).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
17:15 Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is {g} lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.
(g) They that at certain times of the moon are troubled with the falling sickness, or any other kind of disease: but in this case, we must so understand it, that besides the natural disease he had a demonic derangement.