Mark 9:25

When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(25) When Jesus saw that the people came running together.—This fact and the words of the rebuke to the “deaf and dumb spirit” are found only in St. Mark.

Enter no more into him.—We may note in these words, used by our Lord in this case only, a tender adaptation to the weak faith of the father. He had seen so many relapses, the last state worse than the first, that it was hard for him to take in the thought that the cure would be complete and permanent.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:14-29 The father of the suffering youth reflected on the want of power in the disciples; but Christ will have him reckon the disappointment to the want of faith. Very much is promised to our believing. If thou canst believe, it is possible that thy hard heart may be softened, thy spiritual diseases may be cured; and, weak as thou art, thou mayest be able to hold out to the end. Those that complain of unbelief, must look up to Christ for grace to help them against it, and his grace will be sufficient for them. Whom Christ cures, he cures effectually. But Satan is unwilling to be driven from those that have been long his slaves, and, when he cannot deceive or destroy the sinner, he will cause him all the terror that he can. The disciples must not think to do their work always with the same ease; some services call for more than ordinary pains.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Said with tears - The man felt the implied rebuke in the Saviour's language; and feeling grieved that he should be thought to be destitute of faith, and feeling deeply for the welfare of his afflicted son, he wept. Nothing can be more touching or natural than this. An anxious father, distressed at the condition of his son, having applied to the disciples in vain, now coming to the Saviour; and not having full confidence that he had the proper qualification to be aided, he wept. Any man would have wept in his condition, nor would the Saviour turn the weeping suppliant away.

I believe - I have faith. I do put confidence in thee, though I know that my faith is not as strong as it should be.

Lord - This word here signifies merely "master," or "sir," as it does often in the New Testament. We have no evidence that he had any knowledge of the divine nature of the Saviour, and he applied the word, probably, as he would have done to any other teacher or worker of miracles.

Help thou mine unbelief - Supply thou the defects of my faith. Give me strength and grace to put "entire" confidence in thee. Everyone who comes to the Saviour for help has need of offering this prayer. In our unbelief and our doubts we need his aid, nor shall we ever put sufficient reliance on him without his gracious help.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

24. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe: help thou mine unbelief—that is, "It is useless concealing from Thee, O Thou mysterious, mighty Healer, the unbelief that still struggles in this heart of mine; but that heart bears me witness that I do believe in Thee; and if distrust still remains, I disown it, I wrestle with it, I seek help from Thee against it." Two things are very remarkable here: First, The felt and owned presence of unbelief, which only the strength of the man's faith could have so revealed to his own consciousness. Second, His appeal to Christ for help against his felt unbelief—a feature in the case quite unparalleled, and showing, more than all protestations could have done, the insight he had attained into the existence of a power in Christ more glorious them any he had besought for his poor child. The work was done; and as the commotion and confusion in the crowd was now increasing, Jesus at once, as Lord of spirits, gives the word of command to the dumb and deaf spirit to be gone, never again to return to his victim.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Mark 9:17"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

When Jesus saw that the people came running together,.... "to him", as the Syriac version adds, and so the Persic; upon hearing the vehement cry of the father of the child, and the earnest solicitations he made, expecting that something would be done:

he rebuked the foul spirit; that brought this disorder on the child, had continued it so long, and with so much violence. Matthew calls this foul spirit, "the devil"; see Gill on Matthew 17:18,

saying unto him, thou dumb and deaf spirit; so calling him, not because the spirit was dumb and deaf, but because he had been the cause of dumbness and deafness in the child: he had at times taken away both his speech and hearing:

I charge thee come out of him, and enter no more into him. Christ, in an authoritative way, ordered the unclean spirit to leave his possession, and never attempt to regain it more. This he said, partly with regard to the devil, who would be desirous of repossession; and partly with respect to the disease, which had its intervals, and returned at certain times; and also with respect to the father of the child, to confirm his faith in the cure, and that he might be in no pain about the return of the disorder.

Geneva Study Bible

When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Mark 9:25-29. The cure.—ἐπισυντρέχει (ἅπ. λεγ.) indicates that the crowd was constantly increasing, so becoming a new crowd (ὄχλος without art.); natural in the circumstances. Jesus seeing this proceeds to cure without further delay. The spirit is now described as unclean and, with reference to the boy’s symptoms, both dumb and deaf.—μηκέτι εἰσέλθῃς, enter not again. This was the essential point in a case of intermittent possession. The spirit went out at the end of each attack, but returned again.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

25. I charge thee] Notice the words of majestic command, I charge thee, I, whom thou darest not to disobey, and against whom it is vain for thee to struggle.

Bengel's Gnomen

Mark 9:25. Δὲ, but) Jesus everywhere avoided a din.—ἀκαθάρτωò—ἄλαλον—κωφόν, unclean—dumb—deaf) The spirit made the wretched boy be so, or else even the spirit itself was so [unclean, dumb, and deaf].—ἐγὼ σοὶ ἐπιτάσσω, I charge thee) I, in antithesis to the disciples, who had not been able to cast out the demon: the disciples themselves say, we, Mark 9:28 [Why could not we cast him out?]. This illustrates the great power of the Lord. The spirit was only the more exasperated to fury by the inability of the disciples.—μήκετι, no more any longer) Those who in the beginning of life have undergone continued adversities, sometimes receive, as it were, a greater privilege as to the rest of their life.—εἰσέλθῃς, enter into) The spirit would have wished to enter again into him.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 25-29. - The multitude had been much excited by the dispute between the scribes and our Lord's disciples. And now, when they noticed that he had taken the father apart, as no doubt he had done, to question him they came running together (the word is ἐπισυντρέχει, an unusual word, meaning "they ran together to the place") where he was, crowding upon him. Then he came forward, and with a voice of sublime authority he said, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I command thee, come out of him and enter no more into him. The rest of the narrative shows how malignant and powerful this evil spirit was, who dared so to resist and defy Christ that, in his departure out of the afflicted boy, he almost robbed him of life. "Most unwillingly," says Archbishop Trench, "does the evil spirit depart, seeking to destroy that which he can no longer retain." And he quotes Fuller, who says that he is "like an outgoing tenant, that cares not what mischief he does to the house that he is quitting." Some have supposed that this was an evil spirit possessed of more than ordinary power as well as malignity, and that this was the reason why our Lord's disciples could not cast him out; so that this expulsion needed the mighty arm of One stronger than the strong. The words in the Greek are powerful, severe, and authoritative: "He rebuked (ἐπετίμησε) the unclean spirit, ... Thou dumb and deaf spirit (τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἄλαλον καὶ κωφὸν), I command thee (ἐγώ σοι ἐπιτάσσω), come out of him, and enter no more into him." This explains our Lord's words when the disciples remarked afterwards, We could not out it out... This kind can come out by nothing, save by prayer; that is, this particular kind of malicious spirit. For there are different degrees of malice and energy in evil spirits as in evil men. The words "and fasting" are added in many ancient authorities. Mark 9:25