Mark 1:26

And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him. AND WHEN THE UNCLEAN SPIRIT HAD TORN HIM. Luke () says, "When he had thrown him in the midst." Malignant cruelty-just showing what he would have done, if permitted to go further: it was a last fling! AND CRIED WITH A LOUD VOICE - the voice of enforced submission and despair -- HE CAME OUT OF HIM. Luke () adds, "and hurt him not." Thus impotent were the malignity and rage of the impure spirit when under the restraint of "the Stronger One than the strong one armed" (Luke 11:21)....

Mark 1:26_When the unclean spirit had torn him _Luke uses a milder phrase, _when the devil had thrown him down: _but they agree perfectly as to the meaning; for the design of both was to show, that the devil went out of the man in a violent manner. He threw down the unhappy man, as if he had intended to tear him: but Luke says that the attempt was unsuccessful; for _he hurt him nothing _Not that the attack was, in no degree whatever, attended by injury, or at least by some feeling of pain; but that the man was afterwards delivered from the devil, and restored to perfect health....

23-28 The devil is an unclean spirit, because he has lost all the purity of his nature, because he acts in direct opposition to the Holy Spirit of God, and by his suggestions defiles the spirits of men. There are many in our assemblies who quietly attend under merely formal teachers; but if the Lord come with faithful ministers and holy doctrine, and by his convincing Spirit, they are ready to say, like this man, What have we to do with thee, Jesus of Nazareth! No disorder could enable a man to know Jesus to be the Holy One of God. He desires to have nothing to do with Jesus, for he despairs of being saved by him, and dreads being destroyed by him. See whose language those speak, that say to the Almighty, Depart from us. This unclean spirit hated and dreaded Christ, because he knew him to be a Holy One; for the carnal mind is enmity against God, especially against his holiness. When Chr...

Verse 26. _AND WHEN THE UNCLEAN SPIRIT HAD TORN HIM_] _And had_ _thrown him down in the midst_, Luke 4:35, και σπαραξαν, _and convulsed_ him. Never was there a person possessed by an unclean spirit who did not suffer a _convulsion_, perhaps a total _ruin_ of nature by it. Sins of _uncleanness_, as the apostle intimates, are _against the body_; they sap the foundation of life, so that there are very few of this class, whether male or female, that live out half their days: they generally die _martyrs_ to their lusts. When the propensities of the flesh are _most violent_ in a person who is determined to serve God, it is often a proof that these are the _last efforts_ of the impure spirit, who has great rages because he knows his time is but _short_....

See also Luke 4:31. Mark 1:21 AND THEY WENT INTO CAPERNAUM - For the situation of Capernaum see the notes at Matthew 4:13. STRAIGHTWAY - Immediately. On the following Sabbath. THE SYNAGOGUE - See the notes at Matthew 4:23. AND TAUGHT - In the synagogue, the presiding elder, after reading the Scriptures, invited anyone who chose to address the people, Acts 13:15. Though

EXPOSITION MARK 1:1 THE BEGINNING OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST. These words mean, not the title of the book, but the commencement of the narrative; and so they depend upon what follows, namely, "as it is written" (καθῶς for ὠς), "even as it is written." The words "the gospel of Jesus Christ" do not signify the book which St. Mark wrote, but the evangelical teaching of Jesus Christ. St. Mark means that the gospel announcement by Jesus Christ had such a beginning as had been predicted by Isaiah and Malachi, namely, the preaching of John the Baptist, and his testimony concerning Christ, to be fully laid open by the preaching and the death of Christ. The preaching of repentance by the Baptist was the preparation and the beginning of the evangelical preaching by Christ, of whom John was the forerunner. It has been well observed that St. Matthew an

AND WHEN THE UNCLEAN SPIRIT HAD TORN HIM,.... Not that he had torn any limb from him, or had made any wound in any part of his body; for Luke says, Luke 4:35, that he "hurt him not", but he shook him; and as Luke there says, "threw him in the midst", of the people, or synagogue; and so the Syriac, Persic, and Ethiopic versions read here, "he cast him", or "threw him to the ground": he threw him into convulsions, and laid him prostrate on the floor: AND CRIED WITH A LOUD VOICE, HE CAME OUT OF HIM; though sorely, against his will, as his loud cry showed, and being obliged to it by a superior power....

Mark 1:14. _Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,_ When one servant of God is laid aside, it is a call to the rest to be the more earnest. So after John the Baptist was put into prison, «Jesus came into Galilee.» Sometimes a loss may be a gain, and if the loss of John was the means of bringing out Jesus, certainly both the Church and the world were the gainers: «Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,» Mark 1:15. _And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel._ It is clear, from this passage, that our Lord exhorted men to repent, and to believe the gospel. There are some, who profess to be his followers, who will not suffer

PART II. THE SERVANT'S WORK; NOT TO BE MINISTERED UNTO, BUT TO MINISTER -- CHAPTER 1:14-10:52 Chapter 1:14-45. The Ministry in Galilee after John's Imprisonment. _ 1. The Servant in Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. (Mark 1:14 .Matthew 4:12; Luke 4:14 .)_ 2. The Calling of fellow servants. (Mark 1:16. Matthew 4:18; Luke 5:1 .) 3. The Servant in Capernaum. (Mark 1

A SPECIMEN DAY IN CAPERNAUM. With His first followers, Jesus went to Capernaum (p. 29), a border town in the kingdom of Antipas, on the high road from Ptolemais to Damascus (HNT, _ad loc.;_ Matthew 4:13 *). Mk.'s information now becomes more detailed, and he records the events of the first Sabbath as perhaps Simon himself recalled them. MARK 1:21. Jesus visits the synagogue and proclaims His message there. Throughout the earlier period of His Galilean ministry the synagogues seem to have been open to Him (_cf._ Mark 1:39; Mark 3:1; Luke 4:16). Of the content