Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 9:32
As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil.
And as they went out, behold, they brought unto him – That is, the friends of the dumb man brought him. This seems to have occurred as soon as the blind men which had been healed left him. Possibly it was from what they had observed of his power in healing them.
A dumb man possessed with a devil – That is, the effect of the possession, in his case, was to deprive him of speech. Those possessed with devils were affected in different ways (see the notes at Mat 4:24), and there is no improbability in supposing that if other forms of disease occurred under demoniacal possessions, this form might occur also.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Mat 9:32-33
And when the devil was cast cut, the dumb spake.
The dumb made to speak
Jesus had just touched the eyes of the blind; now a dumb man is brought to Hint. Speech the special gift and privilege of man. It is the revelation of thought; the aqueduct of the soul; the medium of companionship. Dumbness one of the greatest blights of life. The highest privilege of speech is found in the Divine sphere.
I. Spiritual dumbness is a great calamity. Through four thousand years God was approaching a dispensation of tongues for the highest expression of His life to men. From Abraham to Christ was the dispensation of dreams. Not to use the tongue for the propagation of Divine truth is to cut it off from its highest usefulness. Dumbness and deafness are allied: not to speak for Christ is not to be able to hear Christs words to your own soul (Rom 10:9).
II. Spiritual dumbness is occasioned by demoniacal possession. When Christ cast the devil out the dumb spake.
1. Some complain that their intellectual culture is not sufficient to enable them to speak to edification. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings God hath ordained praise. The demon of intellectual pride must be cast out.
2. Some say, I have very little ability, others can do so much better. God does not want ability so much as availability. The demon of selfishness must be cast out.
3. Others say, I cant and I wont use my tongue in the Churchs service, I have not been used to it. The demon of wilfulness must be east out.
III. Christs work amongst bieXr is to cast out demons that possess the human soul. (1Jn 3:8.) (J. F. Clymer.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 32. A dumb man possessed with a devil.] Some demons rendered the persons they possessed paralytic, some blind, others dumb, &c. It was the interest of Satan to hide his influences under the appearance of natural disorders. A man who does not acknowledge his sin to God, who prays not for salvation, who returns no praises for the mercies he is continually receiving, may well be said to be possessed with a dumb demon.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Some think this the same mentioned Luk 11:14, as shortly as it is here. The word in the Greek signifies deaf as well as dumb, for all persons who are deaf from their birth are also dumb. But it is probable this man was only accidentally dumb, from the power of the devil, that had possessed him, and suppressed his speech. It is observed that Christ cured,
1. Some that came on their own accord to him, as the woman with her bloody flux.
2. Others that could not come, but were brought to him, as the paralytic, before mentioned in this chapter, who was willingly brought.
3. Others who neither came nor were willingly brought, but he occasionally met, Luk 7:12; Joh 5:5; 9:1.
4. Others that were brought without their consent, as the demoniac before mentioned, and this in this verse.
His design was, by these operations, to show himself the Son of God, and therefore did not always stay for peoples voluntarily offering him occasions, but sometimes took them when they were not voluntarily offered, to show the freeness of his grace.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
32. As they went out, behold, theybrought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil“demonized.”The dumbness was not natural, but was the effect of the possession.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
As they went out,…. The Syriac version reads it, “when Jesus went out”; to which agrees the Arabic, against all the copies: for not he, but the men who had been blind, and now had their sight restored, went out from the house where Jesus was; which circumstance is mentioned, and by it the following account is introduced, partly to show how busy Christ was, how he was continually employed in doing good, and that as soon as one work of mercy was over, another offered; and partly, to observe how closely and exactly the prophecies of the Old Testament were fulfilled; in which, as it was foretold, that “the eyes of the blind” should “be opened”; so likewise, that “the tongue of the dumb” should “sing”,
Isa 35:5.
Behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil. The word signifies one that is deaf, as well as dumb; as does the Hebrew word , often used by the Jewish writers for a deaf and dumb man; one, they say g, that can neither hear nor speak, and is unfit for sacrifice, and excused many things: and indeed these two, deafness and dumbness, always go together in persons, who are deaf from their birth; for as they cannot hear, they cannot learn to speak: but this man seems to be dumb, not by nature, but through the possession of Satan, who had taken away, or restrained the use of his speech, out of pure malice and ill will, that he might not have the benefit of conversation with men, nor be able to say anything to the glory of God. This man did not come of himself to Christ, perhaps being unwilling, through the power and influence the devil had over him; but his friends, who were concerned for his welfare, and who were thoroughly persuaded of the power of Christ to heal him, by the miracles they had seen, or heard performed by him, brought him to him; and, no doubt, expressed their desire that he would cast out the devil, and cure him, which he did.
g Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Trumot, c. 1. sect. 2. T. Bab. Chagiga, fol. 2. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
A dumb man (). Literally blunted in tongue as here and so dumb, in ear as in Mt 11:5 and so deaf. Homer used it of a blunted dart (Iliad xi. 390). Others applied it to mental dulness.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Dumb [] . The word is also used of deafness (Mt 11:5; Mr 7:32; Luk 7:22). It means dull or blunted. Thus Homer applies it to the earth; the dull, senseless earth (” Iliad, “24 25). Also to a blunted dart (” Iliad,” 11 390). The classical writers use it of speech, hearing, sight, and mental perception. In the New Testament, only of hearing and speech, the meaning in each case being determined by the context.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “As they went out,” (auton de ekserchomenon) “And when they were going out,” not as they entered the house, blind and begging, but rejoicing and witnessing.
2) “Behold, they brought to him a dumb man,” (idou prosenegkan auto kophon)- “Behold they brought a dumb man to him,” a man unable to speak, who perhaps could or would never have come of himself. The dumb man was dumb, not of natural dumbness, but because of deranged possession.
3) “Possessed with a devil.” (dalmonizomenon) “One who was possessed by a demon,” or demon possessed, one who was mentally deranged as a cause of demon influence, within and upon him, keeping him in demon, dumb slavery or bondage, as described Mat 7:22.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
32. They brought to him a dumb man It is probable that this man was not naturally dumb, but that, after he had been given up to the devil, (531) he was deprived of the use of speech: for all dumb persons are not demoniacs He was afflicted in such a manner as to make it evident, by visible signs, that his tongue was held bound by a wicked spirit. The exclamation of the multitudes, on his being cured, that nothing like it had ever been seen in Israel, appears to be hyperbolica1: (532) for God had formerly revealed his glory among that people by greater miracles. But perhaps they look to the design of the miracle, as the minds of all were at that time prepared to expect the coming of the Messiah. They intended, no doubt, to exalt this instance of the grace of God, without detracting any thing from what had formerly happened. Besides, it ought to be observed, that this was not a premeditated statement, but a sudden burst of admiration.
(531) “ Que le diable qui le possedoit luy avoit ost, l’usage de parler;” — “that the devil, who possessed him, had taken from him the use of speech.”
(532) “ Il semble que c’est une facon de parler hyperbolique et excessive;” — “it appears to be a hyperbolical and exaggerated way of speaking.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES
Mat. 9:33 Marvelled.This miracle produced a great impression. Why so, we may easily understand. The Jewish Rabbis and teachers practised exorcism. They professed to cast out evil spirits. They did, perhaps, produce effects of a noticeable kind on nervously disturbed persons. But a deaf and dumb possessed person was beyond their reach. They could do nothing with such a case. They could not address the man. He was beyond the scope of any influences which they could bring to bear. Jesus Himself explains to the disciples in another case, where possession is ascribed to a dumb spirit, that such were peculiarly hard even for faith to deal with (Mar. 9:29). Here, then, was an instance of Jesus power specially fitted to impress the people, and it also specially exasperated the hostility of His enemies (Laidlaw).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Mat. 9:32-35
Continuance in well-doing.As the two blind men go out a dumb man is brought in. This is the key of this passage. Whoever may be brought to Him, whatever His enemies say about Him, Jesus goes on as before.
I. The case of the dumb man illustrates this, to begin.It does so, in the first place, by the singularity of its features. There was something about it that pointed at once to a supernatural cause; something, it may be, in the evident sense of oppression on the part of the sufferer; or in the peculiar obstinacy of his dumbness; or in the utter absence of anything in physical organization, or in lack of mental power in other respects, to account for it. What is evident is that no one present doubted its cause; not the multitude who were so unusually impressed by its cure; not the Pharisees, who would only too gladly have ascribed the evil to something else than demoniac possession had they thought that their doing so would be of any avail. All were agreed that it was a true case, and apparently, also, a very marked case of being possessed of the evil one. If the poor man said nothing himself, his very appearance said that. It did so, next, by the completeness of the cure. This was complete in regard to its originthe devil went out. Complete in its issuethe dumb man spake. He has regained his own will. He has regained his old powers. He proves both by his speech. We can well believe that, when he spake at first, no one spake but himself. All ears would listen to hear speech where they had not heard it for so long. But all those ears, and all minds behind them as well, were fully satisfied when they did. There was no doubt of the matter in the judgment of any. The miracle really spoke for itself. However abnormal the case, the treatment of it had been triumphant. And this, yet further, all the more so, because of the manner of action. For the Evangelist, it may be observed, speaks of the process almost as a matter of course; like one who does not think it necessary to describe what he has described so often before, or even to state expressly by whose intervention the result described was effected. His language, in fact, to use a modern expression, was almost casual in its tone. When the devil was gone out, the dumb spake. Nothing else need be said. Not Who did it. Nor how it was done. Nor how well it was done. In this respect the cry of the multitude It was never seen so in Israel, did not apply. On the contrary, very much of the kind had been so seen in Israel in the case of the Saviour. What was so observable here was His doing so now, after having done like it so often before, and in such an exceptional case.
II. The case of the Pharisees illustrates the same point.When those enemies of Jesus saw what was done, and still more, when they saw the effect it produced, their envy and perplexity were equally great. Something must be attempted to stay this effect; some explanation offered; some pretext put forth. What they bethink themselves of is what they often afterwards tried. They ascribe the power displayed against the devils to a source of like kind; in fact, to the highest source of like kind. These minor devils, they said, were cast out by the greatest of all. Passing over for the moment the absurdly impossible and absolutely suicidal character of this explanation, what we would here notice in it more especially is its outrageous spite and ingratitude. There is no token of sympathy with the rescued victim; no word of thankfulness to the God of Israel, as, apparently, on the part of the multitude; only a resolution, while admitting the facts, not to admit their true force, if possible. Anything rather than allow them to be to the credit of Jesus, and in support of His work. How then, we ask next, does He meet this attempt? This ungrateful action? This cruel wrong? Not, as afterwards, by spoken language, and in a singularly telling manner, but by going on with His work. That, indeed, seems to be all that the Evangelist has to tell us at present. As day follows day; as place after place is visited; as He meets with many or few; as He is confronted with this or that kind of malady; in all this variety there is no variation in His own objects and plans. First of all, everywhere He is the Teacher and Preacher. Next, everywhere the Physician and Friend (Mat. 9:35). Not even that contradiction of sinners against Himself, of which we have just heard, prevents Him from going on in that course. Anything less like the works of the devil it is impossible to conceive. Anything more triumphant it is folly to ask. It is like burying darkness under mountains of light!
1. What a pattern of work we have here.Be not weary in well-doing. So the Apostle taught us by word. So the Saviour here by His life.
2. What an incentive to work we have here.What was the incentive to work in Christs case? To recommend the gospel of the kingdom. To rescue men from the power of the devil, however exhibited. To do good to us menus sinnersus lost onesus undeserving ones. Can we do better than imitate Him? Can we do anything less, indeed, and do right?
MAIN HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Mat. 9:33. Spiritual dumbness.I. Some complain that their intellectual culture is not sufficient to enable them to speak to edification. Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings God hath ordained praise. The demon of intellectual pride must be cast out.
II. Some say, I have very little ability, others can do so much better. God does not want ability so much as availability. The demon of selfishness must be cast out.
III. Others say, I cant and I wont use my tongue in the churchs service. I have not been used to it. The demon of wilfulness must be cast out.J. F. Clymer.
Mat. 9:35. Christ the Physician.In Christ we are allied to the highest and the largest ideal of the most disinterested efforts for the physical and moral welfare of man that our earth has ever seen. Times, indeed, there were in His ministry when it might even have seemed that the human body had a greater claim on His attention than the human soul.
I. Now it would be a great mistake to suppose that this feature of our Saviours ministry was accidental or inevitable. Nothing in His work was accident; all was deliberate; all had an object. We may infer with reverence and certainty that Christs first object was to show Himself as the Deliverer and Restorer of human nature as a wholenot of the reason and conscience merely, without the imagination and the affectionsnot of the spiritual side of mens nature, without the bodily; and therefore He was not only Teacher, but also Physician.
II. What is the present function of the human body? We see in it at once a tabernacle and an instrument; it is the tabernacle of the soul and the temple of the Holy Ghost. And thus the human body is, in our idea, itself precious and sacred; it is an object of true reverence, if only by. reason of Him whom it is thus permitted to house and to serve.
III. And again there is the destiny of the body.Canon Liddon,
Christs care of the multitude.
1. Diligence in teaching and preaching the gospel is the proper way to convert and save souls, which Christ Himself hath appointed and practised in His own person.
2. Justly is the gospel called the gospel of the kingdom, both of grace and glory, seeing it is the light which showeth the kingdom, the furnisher of weapons to fight for it, the sceptre whereby the subjects of the kingdom are guided, the rules and law for the subjects life. It containeth the evidences of the subjects right to the kingdom, and being received in a mans heart it bringeth with it a kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy.
3. The best opportunity of peoples convening must be taken for teaching the gospel, and no pains should be spared for that purpose. Christ, the Prince of pastors, went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues.
4. Christs miracles were, all of them, profitable to men.
5. There is no evil or malady of soul or body among people which our Lord is not able and willing to heal in all those that employ Him.David Dickson.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(32) A dumb man possessed with a devil.This narrative also is given by St. Matthew only. Referring to the Note in the Excursus on Mat. 8:28 for the general question as to possession, it may be noted here that the phenomena presented in this case were those of catalepsy, or of insanity showing itself in obstinate and sullen silence. The dumbness was a spiritual disease, not the result of congenital malformation. The work of healing restored the man to sanity rather than removed a bodily imperfection. Comp. the analogous phenomena in Mat. 12:22, Luk. 11:14. The latter agrees so closely with this that but for the fact of St. Matthews connecting our Lords answer to the accusation of the Pharisees with the second of these miracles, we might have supposed the two identical.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
54. TENTH MIRACLE CURING A DUMB DEMONIAC, Mat 9:32-34 .
32. Dumb man possessed with a devil His dumbness was not (like that in Mar 7:31-37) a natural defect, but produced upon him by an evil power. It only required the expulsion of the evil one to relieve the disqualification. Our natural evils spring from sin, and therefore Satan joins with them, when he can, against us. Sin, Satan, and disease are allied enemies of man.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And as they went forth, behold, there was brought to him a dumb man possessed with a demon.’
A man is brought to Jesus who was dumb as a result of a spirit which possessed him. As we have seen kowphos could mean both deaf and dumb. But the man was a picture of Israel, which should have been testifying to God, but had nothing to say (see Isa 32:4).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Healing Of a Man Possessed By a Dumb (and Deaf?) Spirit (9:32-34).
We now come to the final Messianic sign (Mat 11:5), both of the section from Mat 8:1, and the threefold series from Mat 9:18. And yet the fact that it does not tie in exactly with Mat 11:5 indicates the honesty of Matthew’s reporting. He would not change the facts in order to suit what he was trying to say. In Mat 11:5 Jesus said, ‘the deaf (kowphoi) hear’, but Matthew illustrates it here with a kowphos (dumb one) who speaks. (In Isa 35:5 both are mentioned). In fact it was so regularly true that the dumb were often deaf as well that it is little different, and Matthew could have got away with a slight change in his material. But he refused to do so.
The verses are a masterpiece of condensation, and yet they say all that is necessary. They introduce a demon possessed man who by his possession was made dumb. They describe how the demon is cast out, and the reaction of the crowd. And finally they demonstrate the very opposite reaction of the Pharisees. At least at this stage the crowds are on Jesus’ side. But the opposition is growing.
We have here the final Messianic sign (Mat 11:5), the testimony of the crowds, and a contrast with the faith of the centurion. The Gentile centurion had recognised Him as having the very highest authority from God (Mat 8:8-9), those who should have known and who should have been welcoming Him, declare His authority as coming from the prince of demons. Unlike the blind men, their eyes are closed.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The dumb demoniac:
v. 32. As they went out, behold, they brought to Him a dumb man possessed with a devil.
v. 33. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake, and the multitudes marveled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel.
v. 34. But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils. Hardly had the men of the last miracle gone from the room, in fact, while they were leaving the house, another sufferer was brought to the great Healer. In this case the evil spirits had blunted the faculty of speech. There was no apparent physical defect, but the devil’s power held the tongue and took from the man the ability to speak. No sooner, therefore, was the evil spirit cast out than the dumb could speak in connected discourse. Again the crowd present was filled with wonder, which found its expression in the saying: The like was never seen in Israel. It was unheard of that a man should have such unlimited power, even over demons. Never before, also, had the appearance of the final deliverance been so fully realized. The Messianic revelation was gradually entering into the consciousness of the people. The Pharisees tried to weaken the impression of the miracle by a theory which they had formed: In and through the prince of demons He casts out demons. They insinuate that there is intimate relation and fellowship between Christ and the powers of evil, that He is in league with Satan and can therefore command them at will. Christ purposely ignored the remark in this case, though He might easily have put them to silence. Mat 12:24-28.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Mat 9:32-33. A dumb man, &c. A dumb demoniac. Campbell. From the circumstance of the demoniac’s being dumb, Erasmus conjectures, that he was also deprived of the use of his reason: if so, being insensible of his own misery, he had as little inclination as ability to apply for a cure. He could not even make his misery known by signs, and therefore needed to be brought to the Saviour by others; but being cured, he spoke both rationally and fluently, to the astonishment of all who heard him; insomuch that they extolled the author of the miracle above all the prophets that had ever appeared: “It was never so seen even in Israel itself, said they,though it be a people among whom God hath wrought such unparalleled wonders.” This reflection was perfectly just; for no one of the prophets whom we read of in the Old Testament appears to have wrought so many beneficial miracles in his whole life as our Lord did in this one afternoon; when he raised the daughter of Jairus from the dead, healed the woman who had a bloody issue, restored two blind men to their sight, cured a dumb demoniac, &c. &c. See on ch. Mat 15:29-31 and, respecting the calumnies of the Pharisees in the next verse, ch. Mat 12:24.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 9:32-33 . [438] ] Placed first for sake of emphasis, in contrast to the new sufferer who presents himself just as they are going out.
] is impersonal, as in Thucyd. vi. 60. 2 (see Krger in loc. ), so that the general “ it ” is to be regarded as matter for explanation. See by all means Krger, 61. 5. 6. Ngelsbach, note on Ilias , p. 120, Exo 3 . What the matter in question specially is, comes out in the context; Mat 9:33-34 , . Therefore to be taken thus: never has it , viz. the casting out of demons, been displayed in such a manner among the Israelites . According to Fritzsche, Jesus forms the subject; never had He shown Himself in so illustrious a fashion (Rettig in d. Stud. u. Krit . 1838, p. 788 f.). But in that case, how is to be explained? Formerly it was usual to interpret thus: stands for or , like the Hebrew (1Sa 23:17 ). A grammatical inaccuracy; in all the passages referred to as cases in point (Psa 48:6 ; Jdg 19:30 ; Neh 8:17 ), neither nor means anything else than thus , as in 1 Sam., loc. cit. , : and Saul my father knows it thus . That false canon is also to be shunned in Mar 2:12 .
[438] Holtzmann thinks that this story likewise owes its origin merely to an anticipation of Mat 11:5 . According to de Wette, Strauss, Keim, it is identical with the healing mentioned in Mat 12:22 ff. According to various sources “marked as a duplicate” (Keim). The demoniac, ch. 12, is blind and dumb . And see note on Mat 12:22 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Let the Reader, as he beholds the succession of miracles, and remarks the woeful effects of sin, from whence all the maladies of the world are derived, contemplate the glory and loveliness of Him who came to do away sin by the sacrifice of himself! Oh! the awful estate of being possessed with an evil spirit! Such are everlastingly dumb to proclaim the praises of God. Well is it for us that the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil, 1Jn 3:8 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 40
Prayer
Almighty God, thy word is like a great balm upon the wound of our life, full of comforting, give us the feeling of a new hope. Thou hast surely bruised the life of man at every point and given him to know the bitterness of great sorrow and the acuteness of intolerable pain; thou hast followed such visitations with great grace, with consolations greater than the sorrows they would soothe; as where sin aboundeth grace doth much more bound, so where our sorrow multiplies itself, thy solaces, increase in number and their gentleness doth recover our hope. Thou hast made us as a pelican in the wilderness, as an owl in the desert, as a sparrow sitting alone upon the house-top, and then thou hast gathered us into great places, poured thy summer light upon us, and sent thy tender music through our drooping hearts, and with infinite plenteousness of rain hast thou refreshed the thirsty land, and with infinite light hast thou restored the comfort and the hope of man.
We have read thy word, and there is no music so inspiring and uplifting. We feel that we are one with the ages gone, that the saints of the early Church had experience which we reproduce, so that we are all one, and as our sorrow is one, so is the source of our healing and joy. Age after age comes to thee, each with its own cry, each with its own wound, and thou dost multiply thy comforts upon all time, and write the testimony of thy grace upon the rising and dying generations.
We have come each with his own song today. We sing of the blessings at home; thou hast given us light there, and there thou hast set bread before us, morning, noon, and night. Thou hast protected and defended the household, and our family life today is a witness to thy superintending and gracious care. Hear us, then, as heads of houses, fathers and mothers, and households complete, when we sing of thy goodness and mercy and bless thee for our life at home. Thou hast watched us in all the daily commerce of life, in our buying and selling and getting gain, in our endeavours and our failures, in our enterprises and our successes behold the whole is before thee; what came not of thine inspiration do thou utterly destroy; that which came of the motion of thine own Spirit thou wilt establish in imperishable integrity and honour.
Do thou grant unto us daily ministries from Heaven, so that we may know what is the good and acceptable way, so that we may have an increasing love for all that is true, beautiful, and divine, and so that our whole life may move upon an ascending line, never knowing the joy of contentment until that contentment is found in thyself. Give us a strong grip of truth, give us a healthy and honest heart, loving the truth and pursuing that which is holy. As for our trials and difficulties, what are they but the shadow of the time through which we pass? They have a meaning which we cannot read wholly just now; in the hurry and rush of our dying life we have but little time for the deeper and broader reading of life, but we will trust in the Living One all things work together for good to them that love God. This shall be our anchor in the wild sea, this shall be our light in the time of darkness, and here shall we find our peace when the storm is strongest.
We commend one another to thy tender care. There are here broken hearts, men who are wounded in their very life, souls that can see nothing but great gloom, without a star to break its despairing night. There are those whose goblet is full of choice wine, whose life is a daily song, and whose continuance upon the earth is an unbroken health. According to our experience, whether it be this or that, let thy blessing come to every heart amongst us, and send none away untouched, unillumined, unblest. Let all the people praise thee, yea, let all the people praise thee, with songs, feeble or loud, but all coming from the heart, because of thine infinite tenderness and thine immeasurable grace. Comfort the old with surprising light and joy, direct the young man whose purposes are set in the right direction, and give him favour in the sight of the people, that all his honourable plans and purposes may be consummated in a success which thou canst approve. Speak to those whose lives are rounds of monotony, always the same, always hoping, never realizing, always waiting, and never satisfied with the one answer that alone can bring content. The Lord show us the place of patience in our discipline, and help us to wait with the patience that shall itself be as a heroism in thy sight.
Hear any who have special praises to offer thee for life given and for life spared. The Lord hear such family praise and grant unto it confirmation day by day of renewed favour and support. Hear the praise of those who thank thee for returned friends, for absences brought to an end, and for fellowships reunited. Hear the hymn of those who would bless thee in fervent song for guidance and protection on land and water, at home and abroad, and who return to us this day to utter their praises in the common song.
The Lord go out after those who would not come with us, after the prodigal, wanton, wild, desperate man, a fool, a criminal, hard of heart seek for him thyself, thou Shepherd of the heavens and the earth, for our feet are weary, and our eyes fail through searching. The Lord be with those who could not come with us, with the sick, the weak, the aged, those whose next sight will be thyself and whose next worship will be in heaven. The Lord hear every cry, and specially the cry for pardon which is uttered at the Saviour’s cross great cross, wondrous tree, altar of the one sacrifice, scene of the one shedding of blood that can alone touch the malady and the agony of life!
The Lord hear us, and His hearing shall itself be as an answer. Amen.
Mat 9:32-35
Christ Must Be Accounted for
You will find a fuller account of the same matter in the Gospel according to Mark
Mar 3:22-30
22. And the Scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils.
23. And he called them unto him, and said unto them, in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan?
24. And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
25. And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
26. And if Satan rise up against himself and be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end.
27. No man can enter into a strong man’s house and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man, and then he will spoil his house.
28. Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme.
29. But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.
30. Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.
You will see from these words that Christianity has to be accounted for. Men must have some opinion about its origin and about its inspiration, and concerning its whole scope and purpose. It is not, indeed, Christianity that has to be accounted for so much as it is Christ himself. There is a time in the life of every considerable man when his friends begin to wonder how he came to be what he is, and that which constitutes a common theme of inquiry amongst ourselves reaches its very highest point of intensity and significance in the case of Jesus Christ, the Son of Man. Do nothing in the world, and nobody will care who you are or whence you came. You will not be a figure, you will not be a force in society, you do not start any impulses that move other men, you throw no new lights upon the path of life, there never comes into your voice a startling tone; nobody cares, therefore, who you are and whence you came, it is a point of concern to no one to account for you, simply because there is nothing to be accounted for. But challenge the thinking of the time, put truth in new phases and aspects before the intellect of the age, startle the world by challenging its ancient orthodoxies and its most accredited traditions and prejudices, then perhaps people may begin to say, “Who are you? By what authority doest thou these things?”
These questions arose continually in connection with Jesus Christ. “Who is he? Is he not the son of Mary and of Joseph? Are not his brethren and his sisters with us? From whence hath this Man this wisdom and these mighty works? Whence do they come?” Thus Jesus became the problem of his age. He is the problem of all time; he is the secret and the terror of human history; he is the hope and the light of human prophecy, and today men wonder who he is; they reject his claims, and they call him back to ask him further questions. It is, therefore, not so much Christianity that has to be accounted for as Christ Himself, for in very deed Christ is Christianity, Christ is the Gospel. This is a matter of personality, not of abstraction or of metaphysics.
Now there have been various accounts given of Christ, and we have one of these accounts in the text. Ask worldliness what it has to say about Christ and Christianity. The answer will be, “No doubt Christ is a very good man; probably a little fanatical in his methods, with very fine theories, and if they could be carried out it would be a good thing for the world, but we cannot carry them out, they are too fine-spun. No doubt he was a good man, and we have nothing to say against him;” and worldliness passes on, to add another window to its shop and another acre to its estates. Compliment is faint praise: there is no sting or viciousness in it; it is good so far as it goes.
Ask mere intellectualism to account for Christ. “A myth, a fable, a dream, a poem not without fascination, often glittering in its sparks of happy suggestion, but a myth, a conception of the mind, a piece of beautiful patchwork. If we cared to go into its discrepancies we could upset the historic credibility of the whole, but we are content to say, a myth, and to pass on.”
Ask prejudice to account for Christ and his work. The bad answer is in the text, “He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils.”
Note the difference in those replies. Worldliness, engaged in its occupations, its brain in the whirl and rush of money-making and business and enterprise, says, “No doubt Jesus Christ was a very good man; we have no fault to find with him, but we have no time to go into all his claims and to settle his place in history.” Cold intellectualism says, “Fable, fantasy, myth very good in its way, nothing more.” Prejudice, with low brow and muffled face, with a mien that indicates everything that can degrade human grandeur, says, “He casteth out devils by the prince of the devils. He is in league with Beelzebub, and learned in Satanic tricks.”
Now observe, every one of those theories has its own peculiar difficulties. The worldly man finds a character in history that stands back from his policies and programmes, that says, “Labour not for the meat which perisheth. A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that he possesseth. Take no thought or the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Have your treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupteth, and where thieves do not break through nor steal;” and worldliness can only say, “Very good; a fine theory, but impracticable.” Still, there stands a man that said these things and that lived them: he is not put down by a compliment, neither is he shattered by an assault. To-day his holy gospel lifts its sweet and serene voice amid all the tumult of conflicting teachings, and says, “Your life is within you: be rather than merely have: live in God seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you;” and worldliness with its little shallow compliment, does not account for, with any adequacy of explanation, the moral grandeur of the man who kept the world under his feet and his heart in the very heaven of God.
And the cold intellect leaves the Christ just where it found him. The intellectualist has to account for a man who was dreamed into being. Then the dreamer must himself be equal to the man he dreamed. You have to account for a man born in the imagination of some other man, and who, as a creature of imagination, has risen to the supreme place in human history, and who today rules innumerable millions of human lives and ministries and destinies. It is easy to call him and his work mythical, romantic, fabulous, but that does not account for the profound moral influence, the beneficent results, and the whole ministry that is represented by the term Christ, or by the phrase the Christian Church.
But what shall we say about the answer of prejudice? What is prejudice who can define it? How it spoils our life, how it takes the bloom off the finest fruits that grow in the garden or human fellowship. Once let prejudice occupy your mind, and the object of that prejudice can never be good, or seem good, of do good, or think good. He may do the noblest works ever done by human energy, but you will not allow him to be crowned because he has accomplished them; yea, he may serve you and your family night and day, but you will find the devil in his prayers, selfishness in his benevolence, and his very light shall be darkness, and all his meaning shall be a piece of self-idolatry. Beware of prejudice. We can answer an argument, we can rebut a charge, but who can find out the root and the issue of irrational and vicious prejudice? There are some men who never can do right in our estimation. They may be gifted with genius, their character may be above suspicion, and all their work may be of a high type, but we hate them, and therefore, when we are called upon to explain their influence or to account for their character, we are willing to accredit the devil with the whole rather than to speak one just word about the man we detest.
Beware of prejudice: it enters the mind very subtly, and once in the mind, it is the most difficult of all its occupants and rulers to dislodge. It is irrational, you cannot get hold of it, it has no centre, it acknowledges no court of appeal, it is invisible. It was from such prejudice that Jesus Christ suffered. When the Pharisees and the Scribes and the most religious men of the day heard the dumb speaking and were made aware that the deaf could hear and the lame could walk and could see all the good works done by Christ and his disciples, they were willing rather to praise the devil than to praise him.
See to what degradation prejudice may drag you; and we are all exposed to the influence of prejudice. Beware of it, it is the worst of the devils, it skulks, it sneaks, it watches in silence, it drops its poison into the cup when nobody is looking. It is the biggest of thieves, it is the most noted of liars, it is the most persistent of persecutors, and yet all the time it can cause those who are its subjects upon the largest scale to disown it. Have we not all heard men who were known to be all but filled with prejudice declare, with a serene innocence, that they were perfectly sure that they were not at all animated by prejudice? It is a horrible devil, it swears and breaks its oath, it will kiss any Bible, and burn the book it kissed, and put the oath into the fire, that they may both go to the same hot ashes. Are there not some men you so bitterly dislike that they can do nothing good in your sight? It was from prejudice that Christ suffered.
Now I want to turn and to consider Christ’s answer to this prejudice. The answer was argumentative. Having heard what the Scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, he called them unto him, and said unto them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? And if a kingdom be divided against itself that kingdom cannot stand, and if a house be divided against itself that house cannot stand, and if Satan rise up against himself and be divided he cannot stand, but hath an end.” That was an argumentative reply. Christianity has an argumentative answer to every assault. Christianity can fight for its position with any weapons that an enemy may choose. Did you ever know a case of the so-called reductio ad absurdum so complete as this? The Scribes thought they had answered the whole case by referring it to a diabolic origin. Jesus said, “How can Satan cast out Satan? And if a kingdom be divided against itself that kingdom cannot stand, and if a house be divided against itself that house cannot stand.”
I ask you to look at that answer in the light of argument, and tell me if it could be improved in its logical construction and force. He confounded the enemy out of his own mouth. He took the sword from the enemy and thrust it into the enemy’s own heart. That is what Christianity can always do. I have heard all the arguments that can be addressed against Christianity, and I have never heard one that could not be triumphantly answered and repelled. This is a specimen of the answers that can be given: it gleams with wit, it strikes like a spear, it burns like a fire. There is no reply possible to that argument. How can Satan cast out Satan? If Satan be divided against himself he cannot stand, if a house be divided against itself it cannot stand, if a man be divided against himself he cannot stand. Division is destruction.
Consider, therefore, that Jesus Christ’s answer was, in the first place, distinctly and broadly argumentative. In the next place it was judicial. Jesus Christ did not stop at the argumentative; having shown his adversaries how their logic limped, and how their accounting for his supremacy was not only a lie but an absurdity, he said, “Verily, assuredly, I say unto you, all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme, but he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation,” because they said, “He hath an unclean spirit.” Christianity is something more than an argumentative contest. This is not a question of whether one point is fifty miles distant from another point, it is a question that involves moral issues, tremendous outgoings, it involves the whole question of personal and universal destiny. In the first part of his answer the tone of Christ was light, trenchant, bright, as became a merely argumentative retort. Suddenly that voice, bright as all the lights of heaven, sobered and broadened into thunder as he said, “This is the kind of sin that never can be forgiven.” When you come with these Christian questions you do not come into an exercise of merely intellectual gymnastics; this is not a question of one man being cleverer than another in the use of mere words, it is not a clash of wooden swords, it is a question of life or death. The Scribes thought they had given an answer sufficient in its contemptuous-ness when they referred Christ and his miracles to the devil. They little knew all they were doing: they were writing on heaven’s own scroll their own unpardonableness.
Take care how you treat the Bible, the altar, the Church. Words of contempt may easily rise to your lips, but they may mean more than you intend them to mean. You throw a little pebble into the broad lake: you thought it would go straight down and be seen no more. So far you may be right, but the circles are on the surface, and they vibrate and widen and multiply and make the whole lake throb, and who can tell what may come out of a contemptuous criticism of Jesus Christ and his ministry? Beware of clever blasphemers, of those little agile blasphemers who make atheism an easy trick in words, and get rid of the universe and its mysteries by the nod of an empty head. There are moral issues, there are judicial penalties, there are certain ungovernable recoils. A man has not done with his words merely when he has uttered them; they go away from him and are judged and sent back again upon his life, angels that bless him, or shadows that turn his day into night. We have known this in countless instances. The men themselves have not always been able to explain the mystery; but find out men who are suffering in divers ways, not always to be set forth in express words, and it is not impossible, if you trace their history sufficiently back, but that you may find that these practical bitternesses, these black harvests, are the results of early blasphemies or profanities of the heart. Understand, therefore, that the blatant atheist who sells his atheism and pronounces its first little syllable with a vicious emphasis, does not always see or feel at the moment the result of his blasphemies.
Jesus Christ is not short-coming in the matter of his forgiveness, but there is a point at which his pardons are themselves shut out. Say he has an unclean spirit, and you extinguish the sun that makes every day and creates every summer, and having put out the fountain of light, there is no more brightness possible. Consider, therefore, that Jesus Christ’s answer was, in the second place, strictly and solemnly judicial. That reply was more than either argumentative or judicial it was, in the third place, practical. The proof of that you will find in the thirty-fifth verse. “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.” That is the way to answer your enemies: keep on with your work; any fool can resign, it requires no genius and no heroism to give up the pulpit, or to withdraw from the Church, or to throw up what is called vulgarly “the whole thing.” Jesus Christ did not do that; he was sometimes driven out, but he would not be driven out till the first great thunder drops of the storm were splashing on the pavement whose dust had rejected him. Then he said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thee as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not, but now your house is left unto you desolate,” and a great hollow wind roared through the metropolitan streets, and great blotches of black rain fell from the thunderous clouds, and the lightnings looked from every point, and Jerusalem was being swallowed up. Blessed One they told him that he was in league with the devil, and he answered them in witty argument, visited them with judicial penalty and then went about doing good, went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. Let that always be your reply to every wicked assault. They said, “He hath a devil;” he went about teaching, preaching, and healing. Beneficent reply, sharper than wit, more intelligible than judgment. He made life, if possible, more a sacrifice than ever. And who am I that I should resign, when Jesus, my Saviour, might have resigned his care over me every day since I first knew him? I have wounded his right hand and his left, and both his feet, I have thrust a spear into his side, and crushed the thorns into his temples, and I have done it every day, and still he will not give me up. He lets the lifted thunder drop; he pursues me still. Who am I, then, that I because of some rude offence or incivility on the part of man, should run away from the altar and the work and the cross? I have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against any sin, or writhing under any insult. Let us, then, run with patience the race set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, scorning it with a divine heroism, and making it ashamed of itself.
So, then, we stand on rocky foundations. My house is not built upon a gilded cloud; I stand beside Christ, I love Christ, I know whom I have believed. He has been more insulted than any teacher; Pythagoras would have dismissed his school, Socrates would have run away from his mean pupils and vicious critics; this man never gave a lesson without having every word of it turned into a stone and thrown back into his own teeth, and still he teaches on. He was despised and rejected of men, but he shall one day be the desire of all nations. He was a root out of a dry ground, but one day he will be to the world as the Flower of Jesse and the Plant of Renown. He can wait. Falsehood is in a hurry; it may be at any moment detected and punished; truth is calm, serene, its judgment is on high, its King cometh out of the chambers of eternity.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
32 As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil.
Ver. 32. A dumb man possessed with a devil ] Satan still gags many to this day, that they cannot pray to God, profess his name, utter themselves to the good of others. The spirit of faith is no indweller, but sits in the door of the lips. “I believed, therefore have I spoken,” 2Co 4:13 . The Carthusian monks speak together but once a week. It is a shame to Christians that they speak not often one to another, Mal 3:16 , that they come together, not for the better, but for the worse, 1Co 11:17 . Inveniar sane superbus, &c., modo impii silentii non arguar, dum Dominus patitur, saith Luther ( Epist. ad Staup. ): Better I be counted proud than be sinfully silent.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
32 34. ] HEALING OF A DUMB DMONIAC. Peculiar to Matthew . The word , being a present participle, places this miracle in direct connexion with the foregoing. This narration has a singular affinity with that in ch. Mat 12:22 , or still more with its parallel in Luk 11:14 . In both, the same expression of wonder follows; the same calumny of the Pharisees; only that in ch. 12 the dmoniac is said (not in Luk 11:1-54 ) to have been likewise blind. These circumstances, coupled with the immediate connexion of this miracle with the cure of the blind men, and the mention of ‘the Son of David’ in both, have led some to suppose that the account in ch. 12 is a repetition, or slightly differing version of the account in our text, intermingled also with the preceding healing of the blind. But the supposition seems unnecessary, as, the habit of the Pharisees once being to ascribe our Lord’s expulsion of devils to Beelzebub, the repetition of the remark would be natural: and the other coincidences, though considerable, are not exact enough to warrant it.
This was a dumbness caused by dmoniacal possession: for the difference between this and the natural infirmity of a deaf and dumb man, see Mar 7:31-37 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 9:32-34 . The dumb demoniac (Luk 11:14 ). A slight narrative, very meagre in comparison with the story of the Gerasene demoniac, the interest centring in the conflicting comments of spectators which probably secured for it a place in the Logia of Matthew.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Mat 9:32 . : while the two blind men are going out they bring another sufferer to the great Healer; an incessant stream of applicants for aid flowing towards His door. : dumbness the apparent symptom. The word literally means blunt, and in Homer ( Il. , ii. 390) is applied to a weapon. In N. T. it is used with reference to the senses and faculties, here the faculty of speech (Mat 9:33 , ), in Mat 11:5 , that of hearing. : the inferred cause. It was known that the dumbness was not due to any physical defect. Speech seemed to be prevented by some foreign spiritual power; the mental disease, possibly, melancholy.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 9:32-34
32As they were going out, a mute, demon-possessed man was brought to Him. 33After the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke; and the crowds were amazed, and were saying, ” Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.” 34But the Pharisees were saying, “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.”
Mat 9:32 “a mute, demon-possessed man” A sharp distinction was made in the Gospels between demon possession and physical illness. A good example of this is found in Mar 7:32; Mar 9:25 : a physically dumb man was healed while a demonized man, who was also dumb, was exorcized. Although demonic forces can cause physical illness, not all physical illness is demonic. The NT affirms the presence of demons in our world. Those who have spent much time in Third World countries affirm this reality and see this manifestation much more often and in NT categories. This is not to imply there are more demons in the Third World. The modern western worldview is biased against the supernatural. See special topic at Mat 10:1.
The term “mute” (kphos) can mean
1. deaf (cf. Mat 11:5; Mar 7:32; Mar 7:37; Luk 7:22, so used by Homer)
2. dumb (cf. Mat 12:22; Mat 15:30-31; Luk 1:22; Luk 11:14, so used by Herodotus)
The first could lead to the second. Context is the best clue as to which meaning is intended.
Mat 9:34
NASB, NKJV,
NRSV” He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons”
TEV”It is the chief of the demons who gives him the power to drive them out”
NJB”It is through the prince of devils that he drives out devils”
The “ruler of demons” refers to the chief demon who in Mat 10:25 is called Beelzebul. Both titles are together in Mat 12:24. See full note on this name there.
It is amazing that the Pharisees who saw Jesus’ power and heard His teachings could have rejected Him simply because He violated their traditions. This same account is found in Mar 3:22 and Luk 11:15. This same blasphemy is recorded as coming from the crowd in Joh 7:20. They could not deny the reality of these miraculous events, so they attributed them to the power of the evil one.
Jesus fully answered this charge, which is often called the “unpardonable sin” in Mat 12:22 ff. The unpardonable sin is apparently the continual rejection of faith in Jesus in the presence of great light. These people were so blinded by their preconceived notions that they were unable to see the gospel which was revealed so clearly in the words and actions of Jesus Christ. When your light has become darkness, how great is the darkness (cf. Mat 6:23; 2Co 4:4).
It is interesting that this verse is omitted in the Greek manuscript D (Bezae) and some Old Latin MSS, but present in all the older uncial manuscripts. The verse is present in Mat 12:24 and Luk 11:15. The UBS4 rates its inclusion as “B” (almost certain).
“by the ruler of the demons” The phrase referred to Satan (cf. Mat 12:24-32, Mar 3:22, and Luk 11:15). The attitude of the Pharisees in denying Jesus’ power and authority led them to the unpardonable sin of turning God’s light into darkness!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
As they went = As they were going.
possessed with a devil = a demoniac.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
32-34.] HEALING OF A DUMB DMONIAC. Peculiar to Matthew. The word , being a present participle, places this miracle in direct connexion with the foregoing. This narration has a singular affinity with that in ch. Mat 12:22, or still more with its parallel in Luk 11:14. In both, the same expression of wonder follows; the same calumny of the Pharisees; only that in ch. 12 the dmoniac is said (not in Luk 11:1-54) to have been likewise blind. These circumstances, coupled with the immediate connexion of this miracle with the cure of the blind men, and the mention of the Son of David in both, have led some to suppose that the account in ch. 12 is a repetition, or slightly differing version of the account in our text, intermingled also with the preceding healing of the blind. But the supposition seems unnecessary,-as, the habit of the Pharisees once being to ascribe our Lords expulsion of devils to Beelzebub, the repetition of the remark would be natural:-and the other coincidences, though considerable, are not exact enough to warrant it.
This was a dumbness caused by dmoniacal possession: for the difference between this and the natural infirmity of a deaf and dumb man, see Mar 7:31-37.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 9:32. , …, they brought to Him, etc.) One who could scarcely come of his own accord.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Mat 9:32-34
JESUS HEALS A DUMB MAN
POSSESSED WITH A DEMON
Mat 9:32-34
32-34 And as they went forth, behold, there was brought to him a dumb man possessed with a demon.-This case is not mentioned by any of the other writers; “and as they went forth,” that is, as they “were going” out of the house in which they had been where Jesus healed the two blind men; “they” is slightly emphatic, standing in contrast to the next person who came to be healed. There was “brought to him a dumb man” who was also possessed with a demon. The word for “dumb” in the original also means “deafness” (Mat 11:5; Mar 7:32; Luk 7:22); it means “dull” or “blunted”; in the New Testament the word is used only of hearing and speaking, the meaning in each case being determined by the context. We are not told who brought this afflicted man to Jesus; in addition to being “dumb” he was “possessed with a demon.” It may be that his dumbness was due to the demon which he possessed; those who were possessed of demons were affected in different ways; some were deprived of reason (Mar 5:15); some were deprived of one or more of the senses. Later Matthew mentions one who was possessed of a demon, and “blind and dumb.” (Mat 12:22.)
And when the demon was cast out, the dumb man spake.- Jesus never failed; the demon was cast out and the effect was that “the dumb man spake”; the cause being removed, the dumb man spoke again, to the amazement of the people who had never seen such a case; they said, “It was never so seen in Israel.” The multitude was amazed because they had never seen such before; Jesus was doing in their midst that which they had never seen before; Jesus was the wonder-working prophet among them and hence many are ready to believe on him as the Messiah. Prophets had miraculously healed the sick and raised the dead, but it was a prerogative of the Messiah to cast out demons; the pretended exorcisms of the Jews had never been followed by such results as they now witnessed.
But the Pharisees said, By the prince of the demons casteth he out demons.-They could not deny the miracle; it was evidence of superhuman power; there were only two alternatives for these Pharisees to take: either Jesus cast out demons by the power of God, or he did by the power of the devil. If he exercised the power of God, then God was with him and he was true in making his claim in being the Messiah; if the Jews rejected him, they must reject the power by which Jesus cast out demons; they did this by attributing his power to that of the devil. The devil was “the prince of the demons”; the demons were the agents of the devil. These Pharisees rejected Jesus in their unbelief. Faith in Jesus as the Son of God is the noblest possible attitude of the soul; sneering at that faith is the most ignoble attitude of the soul, and leads the soul into the blackest peril. It seems that Jesus made no reply to these Pharisees at this time; the insulting charge was blasphemy against both Jesus and God.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The King and those possessed with Devils
Mat 9:32. As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil.
As a pair of patients leave the surgery, another poor creature comes in. Note the “behold.” The case is striking. He comes not freely, or of his own accord: “they brought” him: thus should we bring men to Jesus. He does not cry for help, for he is “a dumb man.” Let us open our mouths for the dumb. He is not himself, but he is “possessed with a devil.” Poor creature! will anything be done for him?
Mat 9:33. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake: and the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel.
Our Lord does not deal with the symptoms, but with the source of the disorder, even with the evil spirit. “The devil was cast out”; and it is mentioned as if that were a matter of course when Jesus came on the scene. The devil had silenced the man, and so, when the evil one was gone, “the dumb spake.” How we should like to know what he said! Whatever he said it matters not; the wonder was that he could say anything. The people confessed that this was a wonder quite unprecedented; and in this they only said the truth: “It was never so seen in Israel.” Jesus is great at surprises: he has novelties of gracious power. The people were quick to express their admiration; yet we see very little trace of their believing in our Lord’s mission. It is a small thing to marvel, but a great thing to believe.
O Lord, give the people around us to see such revivals and conversions, as they have never known before!
Mat 9:34. But the Pharisees said, He. casteth out devils through the prince of the devils.
Of course, they had some bitter sentence ready. Nothing was too bad for them to say of Jesus. They were hard pressed when they took to this statement, which our Lord in another place so easily answered. They hinted that such power over demons must have come to him through an unholy compact with “the prince of the devils.” Surely this was going very near to the unpardonable sin.
Mat 9:3 d. And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
This was his answer to the blasphemous slanders of the Pharisees. A glorious reply it was. Let us answer calumny by greater zeal in doing good.
Small places were not despised by our Lord: he went about the villages as well as the cities. Village piety is of the utmost importance, and has a close relation to city life. Jesus turned old institutions to good account: the “synagogues ” became his Seminaries. Three-fold was his ministry: expounding the old, proclaiming the new, healing the diseased.
Observe the repetition of the word “every” as showing the breadth of his healing power. All this stood in relation to his royalty; for it was “the gospel of the kingdom” which he proclaimed. Our Lord was “the Great Itinerant”: Jesus went about preaching, and healing. His was a Medical Mission as well as an evangelistic tour. Happy people who have Jesus among them! Oh, that we might now see more of his working among our own people!
Fuente: Spurgeon’s The Gospel of the Kingdom
possessed, devil
(Greek – ,” demonized). (See Scofield “Mat 7:22”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
a dumb: Mat 12:22, Mat 12:23, Mar 9:17-27, Luk 11:14
Reciprocal: Isa 35:6 – the tongue Mat 4:24 – possessed Mar 7:32 – General Mar 9:25 – thou Luk 13:11 – a spirit
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
9:32
Dumb, possessed with a devil. The reader should consult the long quotation from the lexicons that is given at chapter 8:28. It will there be seen that being possessed with a devil did not always produce the same effect on the people. In the case of our present verse it produced dumbness in the man.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 9:32. As they went forth, i.e., the blind men. This miracle must, therefore, have immediately followed the last.
Behold. Another remarkable case, mentioned by Matthew alone. Both he (Mat 12:22 ff.) and Luke (Luk 6:14 ff.) mention a similar case. Still another is mentioned by Mark (Mar 7:32 ff.)
They brought to him. Probably the friends of the man, but not necessarily meaning more than: there was brought.
A dumb man possessed with a demon, a dumb demoniac, the dumbness being the effect of the possession.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Still our Lord goes about doing good; before, he healed the diseased, here he helps the possessed.
Learn, 1. That amongst the many calamities which sin has rendered human nature liable and obnoxious to, this is one, to be bodily possessed by Satan. This man’s dumbness was caused by the devil’s possession.
Learn, 2. That one demonstration of Christ’s divine power, and a convincing evidence of his being truly and really God, was, his casting out devils by the word of his power.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Mat 9:32-34. As they went out Namely, the men that had been blind; behold, they brought to him a dumb man Whose dumbness was owing to his being possessed with a devil. From the circumstance of this demoniacs being dumb, Erasmus conjectures that he was also deprived of the use of his reason. If so, being insensible of his own misery, he had as little inclination as ability to apply for a cure. He could not even make his misery known by signs, and therefore needed to be brought to the Saviour by others. And when the devil was cast out Namely, by the powerful word of Jesus; the dumb spake Readily, distinctly, rationally, and fluently. And the multitude marvelled Were astonished both at the greatness of the miracle and at the instantaneous manner in which it was wrought, as also at the many other miracles which they had just seen performed. Saying, It was never so seen in Israel Not even in Israel, where so many wonders have been seen. This reflection was perfectly just; for no one of the prophets, that we read of in the Old Testament, appears to have wrought so many beneficial miracles in his whole life, as our Lord did in this one afternoon. Doddridge. But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils Not being able to deny facts that were so notorious, in order to prevent the effect which they saw them likely to produce on the people, (namely, to convince them that Jesus was the Messiah,) being moved with the bitterest spite against him, they impudently, and contrary to all reason and common sense, affirmed that instead of being the Christ, or a prophet, he was a vile magician, who cast out devils by the help of Beelzebub, their prince. A calumny this which the Pharisees frequently uttered, but which our Lord fully confuted, as the reader will see in the notes on Mat 12:22-30.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
THE DEMONIZED DUMMY HEALED
Mat 9:32-34. And they, going out [i.e., out of the house where He had healed the two blind men], behold, they brought to Him a dumb man, who had a demon. And the demon having been cast out the dummy spake. And the multitudes were astonished, saying, Never did it so appear in Israel. And the Pharisees continued to say, He casteth out the demons through the ruler of the demons. This was a most decisive case, as the demon had managed so to paralyze the mans vocal organs as utterly to disqualify him to articulate his voice. The moment Jesus ejected the demon, the mans speech returned to him all right, and he spoke with volubility and ready utterance. O how the dumb Churches of the present day need a visit from the Prophet of Galilee, that He may cast out all of the dumb demons, and untie the tongue of the members, that they may testify to His glory! That demon certainly has legions of coadjutors in the popular Churches of the present day, whose predominant and distressing plague is dumbness, thus turning the Church into a graveyard, whereas it ought to be a battle-field, reverberating the thunders of heavens artillery, commingled with the moans of the wounded and the shrieks of the dying. However, the gospel Church is certainly like a graveyard on the resurrection morn, when millions are leaping into life, with tremendous shouts of victory, while hell is howling under signal and eternal defeat.
These croaking, bigoted Pharisees troop after Him like hell-hounds, barking at all His miracles, bleating out to the multitudes, He casts out the demons through the ruler of the demons, thus having the diabolical audacity to fabricate that silly and senseless exegesis of His stupendous miracles that He has secured the cooperation of Beelzebul i.e., the devil who has command of all these demons, and makes them skedaddle at the rebuke of Jesus; thus plunging headlong into the irretrievable maelstrom of the unpardonable sin.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Mat 9:32-34. A Dumb Demoniac Healed.Mt. only (but cf Luk 11:14); perhaps a doublet of Mat 12:22 f.*
Mat 9:35. A summary of ministry (Mar 6:6 b) almost identical with Mat 4:23. Mar 6:1-6 a is deferred to the end of Matthew 13.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
9:32 {7} As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil.
(7) An example of that power that Christ has over the devil.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The casting out of a spirit that caused dumbness 9:32-34
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The Greek word translated "dumb" (NASB, kophos) refers to deaf people, mutes, and people who were both deaf and dumb. This man’s condition was the result of demonic influence, though that was not the cause in all such cases (cf. Mar 7:32-33). The crowd’s reaction here climaxes their reaction in this entire section of the text. Here was someone with more power than anyone who had ever appeared before. Messiah would heal the dumb (Isa 35:5-6). The natural conclusion was that Jesus was the Messiah.