Luke 4:33-37 And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice,… The superstition which connects demons with a wilderness has been used to explain our Lord's temptation. That explanation has nothing to do with the story given us by the evangelists. They describe the encounter of the Spirit of Christ with the spirit of evil; the test of their veracity lies in the experience of human beings in cities as much as in deserts, in one period as much as another. It seems to me, then, most reasonable, not only for the sake of anything which may have been peculiar to that time, but for the sake of every time, that the evangelist should give these victories over demons a prominent place in the history of Redemption. The impression produced in the synagogue of Capernaum is the simplest testimony to the nature of such a sign. "What a word is this? " they said. There was the sense of One who did not charm 'away evils by a look or a touch. The calm Divine energy with which He declared that the kingdom of God was indeed among men — that God's power was manifesting itself as of old in breaking fetters, in setting captives free — this came forth in the command that the unclean spirit should depart. The evil spirit was not the man's lord. The kingdoms of this world and the glory of them were not his. Holiness was mightier. (F. D. Maurice.) Parallel Verses KJV: And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice, |
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