Acts 8:7

For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice.—The MSS. present several variations in the structure of the sentence, but they do not affect its meaning. The character of the “signs” agrees with those that are recorded in the Gospels. The “great cry,” partly, it may be, of agony, partly of exultation at deliverance, agrees with Mark 1:26; Luke 4:33.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:5-13 As far as the gospel prevails, evil spirits are dislodged, particularly unclean spirits. All inclinations to the lusts of the flesh which war against the soul are such. Distempers are here named, the most difficult to be cured by the course of nature, and most expressive of the disease of sin. Pride, ambition, and desire after grandeur have always caused abundance of mischief, both to the world and to the church. The people said of Simon, This man is the great power of God. See how ignorant and thoughtless people mistake. But how strong is the power of Divine grace, by which they were brought to Christ, who is Truth itself! The people not only gave heed to what Philip said, but were fully convinced that it was of God, and not of men, and gave up themselves to be directed thereby. Even bad men, and those whose hearts still go after covetousness, may come before God as his people come, and for a time continue with them. And many wonder at the proofs of Divine truths, who never experience their power. The gospel preached may have a common operation upon a soul, where it never produced inward holiness. All are not savingly converted who profess to believe the gospel.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For unclean spirits - See the notes on Matthew 4:24.

Crying with loud voice - See the notes on Mark 1:26.

Palsies - See the notes on Matthew 4:24.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6-8. the people with one accord gave heed to … Philip—the way being prepared perhaps by the fruits of our Lord's sojourn, as He Himself seems to intimate (see on [1963]Joh 4:31-38). But "we may mark the providence of God in sending a Grecian, or a Hellenistic Jew, to a people who from national antipathy would have been unlikely to attend to a native of Judea" [Webster and Wilkinson].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Unclean spirits, crying with loud voice; this is frequently mentioned, as Matthew 8:29 Mark 1:26 3:11 5:8 Luke 4:41, to show how doth these evil spirits are to be forbid and kept from tormenting and destroying of us; and they are called unclean spirits, because they delight in sin, and instigate men unto it, which is spiritual uncleanness, and defile the soul.

Taken with palsies, and other diseases and infirmities: this was promised, Mark 16:17,18, that they which believe should cure in Christ’s name, or by his power.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For unclean spirits,.... Devils, so called because they were unclean themselves, defiled others, add delighted in impure persons and places; See Gill on Matthew 10:1.

crying with loud voice; showing their unwillingness to remove, and the irresistibleness of divine power they could not withstand:

came out of many that were possessed with them; who had for a long time dwelt in them, and had greatly afflicted them:

and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed; by Philip, in the name of Christ, through a word speaking, or by touching them, without making use of any means or medicines.

Geneva Study Bible

For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Acts 8:7. πολλῶν γὰρ κ.τ.λ.: if we accept reading in R.V. (see critical notes above), we must suppose that St. Luke passes in thought from the possessed to the unclean spirits by which they were possessed, and so introduces the verb ἐξήρχοντο (as if the unclean spirits were themselves the subject), whereas we should have expected that ἐθεραπεύθησαν would have followed after the first πολλοί as after the second, in the second clause of the verse. Blass conjectures that ἄ should be read before βοῶντα, which thus enables him, while retaining ἐξήρχοντο, to make πολλοί in each clause of the verse the subject of ἐθεραπ. One of the most striking phenomena in the demonised was that they lost at least temporarily their own self-consciousness, and became identified with the demon or demons, and this may account for St. Luke’s way of writing, as if he also identified the two in thought, Edersheim, Jesus the Messiah, i., 479, 647, ff. As a physician St. Luke must have often come into contact with those who had unclean spirits, and he would naturally have studied closely the nature of their disease. It is also to be noted that πολλοί with the genitive, τῶν ἐχόντων (not πολλοὶ ἔχοντες), shows that not all the possessed were healed, and if so, it is an indication of the truthfulness of the narrative. Moreover, St. Luke not only shows himself acquainted with the characteristics of demoniacal possession, cf. his description in Luke 8:27; Luke 9:38-39, but he constantly, as in the passage before us, distinguishes it from disease itself, and that more frequently than the other Evangelists. Hobart draws special attention to Luke 6:17; Luke 8:4; Luke 13:32, which have no parallels in the other Gospels, and Acts 19:12. To which we may add Luke 4:40, Acts 5:16 (Wendt); see further on Acts 19:12.—βοῶντα, cf. Mark 1:26, Luke 4:33.—παραλελυμένοι: St. Luke alone of the Evangelists uses the participle of παραλύειν, instead of παραλυτικός, the more popular word; and here again his usage is exactly what we should expect from a medical man acquainted with technical terms (Hobart, Zahn, Salmon), cf. Acts 9:33 and Luke 5:18; Luke 5:24 (παραλυτικῷ, W.H[215] margin). Dr. Plummer, St. Luke, Introd., 65, points out that Aristotle, a physician’s son, has also this use of παραλελυμένος (Eth. Nic., i., 13, 15), but he adds that its use in St. Luke may have come from the LXX, as in Hebrews 12:12, where we have the word in a quotation from Isaiah 35:3 (cf. also Sir 25:23). It may be added that the participle is also found in 3Ma 2:22, καὶ τοῖς μέλεσι παραλελυμένον, and cf. 1Ma 9:15, where it is said of Alcimus, καὶ παρελύθη. But the most remarkable feature in St. Luke’s employment of the word is surely this, that in parallel passages in which St. Matthew and St. Mark have παραλυτικός he has παραλελυμένος, cf. Luke 5:18, Matthew 9:2, Mark 2:3; in Luke 5:24 this same distinction is also found in the Revisers’ text (but see W.H[216] above), when this verse is compared with Matthew 9:6 and Mark 2:10.

[215] Westcott and Hort’s The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.

[216] Westcott and Hort’s The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them] There are some variations in the Gk. Text of this clause, but the most authoritative text would give; For from many of them which had unclean spirits they came out crying with a loud voice. On unclean spirits cp. Acts 8:16 note.

Bengel's Gnomen

Acts 8:7. Πνεύματα, spirits) The nominative: the accusative case must be understood after τῶν ἐχόντων, “who were possessed with them.” It is worthy of observation, that Luke in the Acts never employs the term demons (δαιμόνια) in speaking of those possessed; and yet he himself in the Gospel has employed the term oftener than the other Evangelists. From which one may infer, that the power of possession was feebler after the death of Christ. 1 John 3:8; Colossians 2:15; Hebrews 2:14.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - From many of those which had unclean spirits, they came out crying with a loud voice for unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them, A.V.; that were palsied for taken with palsies, A.V. From many of those, etc. The R.T. is represented by the margin, but it is nonsense. The different rendering depends upon whether πνεύματα ἀκάθατα is taken as the subject to ἐξήρχετο, or as the object after ἔχοντα. In one case, πνεύματα or αὐτά must be understood after ἐχόντων, as in the A.V., which inserts with them in italics; in the other, the same word must be understood before ἐξήρχετο, as in the R.V., which inserts they. The latter construction seems right, but the sense is the same, and the A.V. is much the nearest rendering. That were palsied. The purpose and effect of miracles is here clearly shown, to attract attention, and to evidence to the hearers and seers that the workers of miracles are God's messengers, and that the Word which they preach is God's Word. Acts 8:7

Vincent's Word Studies

Taken with palsies (παραλελυμένοι)

Rev., more neatly, palsied. See on Luke 5:18.

Were healed

See on Luke 5:15.