Matthew 4:24

Matthew 4:24. The report. ‘Fame' has changed its meaning.

Syria, the name of the largest Roman province north and east of Palestine, sometimes including it. Probably used here in its widest extent.

They brought to him all that were sick. Those who had heard of Him and believed in his power to heal were numerous enough to justify this expression.

Holden, i.e., under the continued power of the maladies.

Torments, painful bodily afflictions, such as the three specified in the next clause (‘and' is to be omitted).

Possessed with demons, lit, ‘demonized.' All the Gospel statements in regard to this affliction imply that in those days evil spirits actually invaded the bodies of men, producing fearful effects. Every such possession was a sign of Satan's hostility, as every dispossession was a triumph over him. We cannot explain how such possession took place. This passage distinguishes demoniacal possession from every kind of sickness.

Lunatics, or ‘epileptics.' The latter sense is probable, since the word has this meaning in chap. Matthew 17:15 (the only other place where the term occurs). The Greet word had originally the same reference to the influence of the moon which is found in ‘lunatic.'

And paralytics. The original word corresponds exactly. Those afflicted with morbid relaxation of the nerves, as in paralysis and apoplexy.

He healed them. Whatever the form, He did not fail to cure.