Mark 1:26

1:26 The screams and convulsions caused by the evil (literally unclean; also in 1:27) spirit were its parting cries of defeat (5:13; 9:26; cp. 15:37).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mar 1:26. Σπαράξαν, having torn) Our enemies, when they have possessed the inmost recesses of the soul, withdraw unwillingly; in fact, they are driven out.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mar 1:26 . σπαράξαν , convulsing, throwing into a spasm. This reveals a characteristic of the malady under which the man suffered. He appears to have been an epileptic. The Gadarene demoniac was a madman. This was the final fit before recovery.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

See also Mark 9:20.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

And when the unclean spirit had torn him--Luke (Luk 4:35) says, "When he had thrown him in the midst." Malignant cruelty--just showing what he would have done, if permitted to go farther: it was a last fling!

and cried with a loud voice--the voice of enforced submission and despair.

he came out of him--Luke (Luk 4:35) adds, "and hurt him not." Thus impotent were the malignity and rage of the impure spirit when under the restraint of "the Stronger than the strong one armed" (Luk 11:21-22).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 26. And when the unclean spirit had torn him] And had thrown him down in the midst, Lu 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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(26) He came out of him.—St. Luke adds the fact “and hurt him not.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

26. had torn him] i. e. thrown him into strong convulsions, and according to St Luke’s account, into the midst (Luk_4:35), comp. Mar_9:26. The first miracle recorded by St Matt. is the healing of a leper by a touch (Mat_8:1-4); the first miracle which St John records is the changing water into wine (Joh_2:1-11); the first miracle recorded by St Mark and St Luke (Luk_4:33-37) is this casting out of a demon in the synagogue of Capernaum.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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, Luk 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.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

26 And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him.

Ver. 26. And when the unclean spirit had torn him] So he will serve all that he is now at one with, as Bradford hath it. You are the devil’s birds (saith he to all wicked ones), whom, when he hath well fed, he will broach you, and eat you, chew you, and champ you, world without end, in eternal woe and misery.

And cried with a loud voice] But said nothing, according to Mar 1:25.

He came out of him] With as ill a will goes the worldling’s soul out of his body. God tears it out, as Job somewhere hath it; death makes forcible entry, Job 27:8.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Tearing him: not that the devil tore the poor man’s limbs or body; for St. Luke (iv. 35.) expressly tells us, that the devil hurt him not. It means no more, than that he shook him with violent agitations. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

26. Had torn him — Rather, had convulsed him. Luke says he left the man without doing him any permanent injury. Cried with a loud voice — In this respect he hardly disobeyed the command to hold his peace; for he did not speak any more or utter any further testimony to the divinity of Jesus. But with a cry of despair, rage, and fear, he surrenders his place and departs.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And when the unclean spirit had torn him; and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him (kai sparaxan auton). The Greek word sparassw may be rendered in the passive to be convulsed. It is so used by medical writers, as Galen. It could hardly here mean physically "laceration," for St. Luke (Luk_4:35) is careful to say that "when the devil had thrown him down in the midst, he came out of him, having done him no hurt." At all events, the expression indicates the close union of the evil spirit with the possessed man"s consciousness and with his physical frame. And the manner in which he departed showed his malignity, as though, being compelled by the supreme authority of Christ to leave the man, he would injure him as far as he was able to do so. But the power of Christ prevented him from doing any real injury. And all this was done

(1) that there might be clear evidence that the man was actually possessed by the evil spirit;

(2) that the anger and malice of the evil spirit might be shown; and

(3) that it might be manifest that the unclean spirit came out, not of his own accord, but constrained and vanquished by Christ. We may observe also that the power of Christ restrained him from the use of any articulate words. While he was in possession he used the possessed man"s organs of speech; but when he came out there was no articulate speech it was nothing but a cry.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A loud noise - For he was forbidden to speak. Christ would neither suffer those evil spirits to speak in opposition, nor yet in favour of him. He needed not their testimony, nor would encourage it, lest any should infer that he acted in concert with them.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

26. He came out of him. At the command. The whole account shows that there was a real possession by an evil spirit.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

26. σπαράξαν … φωνῆσαν. Accumulation of participles; see on Mar 1:15. Convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out. “Tearing him” suggests that there was permanent injury, and Lk. tells us that there was none; cf. Mar 9:20, where [192] has ἐτάραξεν for συνεσπάραξεν. Here, for σπαράξαν (discerpens, Vulg.), Lk. has ῥίψαν εἰς τὸ μέσον (cum projecisset in medium), and Syr-Sin. has “threw him down” in Mk. Dan 8:7, where LXX. has ἐσπάραξεν, Theod. has ἔριψεν. The adverbial φωνῇ μεγάλῃ is much more freq. in Lk. (Luk 4:33; Luk 8:28; Luk 19:37; Luk 23:46) than in Mk (Mar 5:7, Mar 15:34).

[192] Codex Bezae. 6th cent. Has a Latin translation (d) side by side with the Greek text, and the two do not quite always agree. Presented by Beza to the University Library of Cambridge in 1581. Remarkable for its frequent divergences from other texts. Contains Mark, except Mar 16:15-20, which has been added by a later hand. Photographic facsimile, 1899.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

26. σπαράξ.] having convulsed him, see reff. Luke adds, that he did not injure him at all.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

26. σπαράξαν—having convulsed him. It is used in medical writers of the convulsive action of the stomach in retching. And it is evidently in this secondary sense of convulsing that the word is used here, not of actual tearing or lacerating. φωνῆσαν φωνῇ μεγάλῃ—having cried with a great cry.

Tisch. Treg. WH. RV. א BL 33, etc. φωνῆσαν instead of κράξαν.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Had torn (σπαράξαν)

Rev., tearing, convulsions in margin. Luke has had thrown him down in the midst. Mark adds the crying out with a loud voice.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.