Matthew 17:15

Mat 17:15. Ἐλέησόν μου τὸν υἱὸν, have mercy on my son) The lunatic might have said, in the words of David (see Psa 25:16 [Psa 25:16]), both in the Hebrew original and S. V.:[789] “Have mercy upon me, for I am an only son.” And this his father repeats.—τὸ πῦρ—τὸ ὕδωρ, THE fire—THE water) The article implies that the nature of these elements universally[790] is intended: because the lunatic is more liable to fall into the paroxysm when near fire or water: but in Mar 9:22 (see Gnomon) fires and waters are mentioned, and that indefinitely, without the article.

[789] Ps. 24:16, LXX. ἐπίβλεψον ἐπʼ ἐμὲ καὶ ἐλέησόν με, ὅτι μονογενής εἰμι ἐγώ.—ED.

[790] Middleton remarks on this, “Bengel (in Gnom.) has here a note which I do not understand: he says, ‘Articulus UNIVERSE innuit naturam horum elementorum, quod lunaticus apud ignem et aquam proclivior sit in paroxysmum.’ ” Though it savours of presumption to attempt any explanation of that which Middleton did not understand, I would venture to suggest, that Bengel means to say, that the article shows that the element of fire is intended, in the abstract, and consequently every presence of it (universè), in the concrete.—(I. B.)

In Mar 9:22, fire and water are not used in the general sense as here (Oft-times he falleth into a paroxysm, wherever fire is and wherever water is,”—this is the effect which these elements produce on him): but of particular fires and waters. Though the sing. τὸ πῦρ is used there, it stands for the plural, as the accompanying ὕδατα show: also the article τὸ gives the same force, as there is no plur. of πῦρ else τὰ πῦρα would be found. However, BCD abcd reject the τὸ there; but A supports it.—ED.

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

Mat_17:15. The lunatic, whose malady was regarded as the result of demoniacal possession (Mat_17:18; Mar_5:16; Luk_5:39), was evidently suffering from epilepsy, and, according to Mark, deprived of the power of speech as well.

κακῶς πάσχειν] to be ill (opposite of εὖ πάσχ.), is likewise very common among classical writers. Hom. Od. xvi. 275; Plat. Menex. p. 244 B; Xen. Anab. iii. 3. 7; Herod, iii. 146.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 17:15 . σεληνιάζεται , he is moonstruck; the symptoms as described are those of epilepsy, which were supposed to become aggravated with the phases of the moon ( cf. Mat 4:24 ). κακῶς πάσχει ( ἔχει W. H [105] text), good Greek. Raphel ( Annot. ) gives examples from Polyb. = suffers badly.

[105] Westcott and Hort.

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

They that at certain times of the moon are troubled with the falling sickness, or any other kind of disease: but in this place, we must so take it, that besides the natural disease, he had a devilish frenzy.

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

Verse 15. My son - is lunatic] σεληνιαζεται. One who was most affected with this disorder at the change and full of the moon. See Clarke on Mt 4:24. But this lunacy was occasioned by a demon, see Mt 17:18, and Mr 9:17; Lu 9:38. In this case, the devil intended to hide himself under the appearance of a natural disorder, that no supernatural means might be resorted to for his expulsion. See a remarkable account on Lu 9:39.

Falleth ofttimes into the fire, and oft into the water.] The paroxysms of his disorder frequently recurred; and among his numerous falls, some were into the fire and some into the water: so that, on this account, his life was in continual danger. Those who are under the influence of the devil are often driven to extremes in every thing. Such are often driven into the fire of presumption, or the waters of despair. Satan takes advantage of our natural temper, state of health, and outward circumstances, to plague and ruin our souls.

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

(15) Lunatick.—See Note on Mat_4:24. The other Gospels add some further touches. The boy had a “dumb spirit.” When the spirit seized him it “tore him,” and he foamed at the mouth, and gnashed with his teeth. Slowly, and as with difficulty, the paroxysm passed off, and the sufferer was wasting away under the violence of the attacks. The phenomena described are, it need hardly be said, those of epilepsy complicated with insanity, a combination common in all countries, and likely to be aggravated where the “seizure,” which the very word epilepsy implies, was the work of a supernatural power. A prolonged melancholy, an indescribable look of sadness, a sudden falling, and loss of consciousness, with or without convulsions, or passing into a tetanic stiffness, a periodical recurrence coinciding often with the new or full moon (hence probably the description of the boy as “lunatick”), grinding the teeth, foaming at the mouth, are all noted by medical writers as symptoms of the disease. The names by which it was known in the earlier stages of medical science were all indicative of the awe with which men looked on it. It was the “divine,” the “sacred” disease, as being a direct supernatural infliction. The Latin synonym, morbus comitialis, came from the fact that if a seizure of this kind occurred during the comitia, or assemblies of the Roman Republic, it was looked upon as of such evil omen that the meeting was at once broken up, and all business adjourned. Whether there was in this case something more than disease, viz., a distinct possession by a supernatural force, is a question which belongs to the general subject of the “demoniacs” of the Gospel records. (See Note on 8:28.) Here, at any rate, our Lord’s words (Mat_17:21) assume, even more emphatically than elsewhere, the reality of the possession. (See Mar_9:25.)

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

15. for he is lunatick] This is the only special instance of cure in the case of a lunatic. They are mentioned as a class, ch. Mat_4:24. The word literally means “affected by changes of the moon.” There appears to be some truth in the notion that there is an access of mania at the time of lunar changes. See Belcher, Our Lord’s Miracles of Healing, p. 131.

St Mark describes the child as foaming, gnashing with his teeth, and pining away. St Luke mentions that he “crieth out.” All these were epileptic symptoms; “the child was a possessed epileptic lunatic.”

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.

Lord, have mercy on my son,.... He addressed him with great marks of honour and respect, not only by gesture, but by words; he craves mercy, pity, and compassion; for the case he had to present, was a miserable one; and his earnestness and importunity he hoped might be excused, since it was for a child of his own. Luke adds "for he is mine only child"; and therefore his affection for him must be thought to be very strong, and he greatly concerned for its grievous affliction, and earnestly desirous of its health and life.

For he is lunatic: not a mad man, but troubled with the epileptic disease; upon which, as on madness or lunacy, the changes and full of the moon have an influence: hence the next clause,

and sore vexed, is rendered in the Arabic version, "and sore vexed at the beginning of full moons"; at which times, he had very grievous and frequent fits of his disorder:

for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water: which shows it to be the "epilepsy", or "falling sickness", he was afflicted with; which, whenever it seized him, whether by the fireside, or by the side of a river or brook, or any place of water, or in any other dangerous situation, he fell into it, not being able to help himself, or avoid any danger to which he was exposed. A larger account of this child's disorder, and of the circumstances of his cure, are related by Mar 9:17 where this case will be more fully considered. See Gill on Mar 9:17. See Gill on Mar 9:18.

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

15 Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.

Ver. 15. For he is lunatic] Or, he hath the falling sickness, as the symptoms show. A common disease, but (besides that) the devil was in it. {a} The old manslayer makes advantage of our natural diseases (which are therefore the bath of the devil, and the bed of diseases) to exercise his cruelty upon the poor creature by Divine permission; seeking by the infirmities of the body to bring sin upon the soul.

For ofttimes he falls into the fire, &c.] The devil pushing him in, as it were, to destroy him, but could not. He is limited, and cannot do as he would, else he would soon end us. If God chastise us with his own bare hand, or by men like ourselves, whip us, as it were, privately and at home, let us thank him, and think ourselves far better dealt with than if he should deliver us up to the public officer, to his tormentor, to be scourged with scorpions at his pleasure. The wicked he often casts into the fire of lust and water of drunkenness, and they complain not: like a sleepy man (fire burning in his bed straw), he cries not out, when others haply lament his case that see afar off, but cannot help him. It hath "set him on fire round about, yet he knew it not: and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart," Isa 42:25. See Pro 23:34-35.

And oft into the water] Urbanus Regius, in a sermon of his at Wittenberg, made mention of a certain maid possessed by the devil; and when she should have been prayed for in the congregation, the devil made as if he had been departed out of her. But before the next public meeting, Satan returned, and drove the maid into a deep water, where she presently perished.

{a} Lunaticus speculum miseriae humanae, et malitiae Satanae. Pareus.

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.

Lord, have mercy - The word “Lord” here means “Sir,” a title of civility, not implying divinity.

My son - This was an only son (Luke). He was possessed with a devil. This calamity was attended with the following symptoms: he was lunatic (see the notes at Mat 4:24); he was sore vexed; that is, he suffered greatly, or was greatly afflicted; he fell often suddenly, in the manner of persons having epileptic fits; he was dumb - that is, he was mute except when the seizure was coming upon him, for Luke says that when the spirit took him he cried suddenly out; he foamed and gnashed with his teeth, and wasted away, or became poor and emaciated. Luke Luk 9:39 adds of the evil spirit, “it teareth him that he foameth again, and, bruising him, hardly departeth from him;” that is, scarcely departed from him, or he had only short intervals of reason, for so the passage in Luke, “bruising him, hardly departeth from him,” should be translated.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

I brought him to thy disciples. By these words the man here mentioned privately accuses the apostles, though the impossibility of the cure is not always to be attributed to the weakness of God’s servants, but sometimes to the want of faith in the afflicted. (St. Jerome) --- Stand astonished at the folly of this man! how he accuses the apostles before Jesus! But Christ frees them from this inculpation, imputing the fault entirely to the man himself. For it is evident, from many circumstances, that he was weak in faith. Our Saviour does not inveigh against this man alone, not to wound his feelings too sensibly, but against the whole people of the Jews. We may infer, that many of the bystanders entertained false notions of his disciples, from these words of deserved reproach: O! unbelieving and incredulous generation, how long shall I be with you? In which words, he shews us how much he wished for his passion, and his departure hence. (St. John Chrysostom) --- We must not imagine that our Saviour, who was meekness and mildness itself, uttered on this occasion words of anger and intemperance. Not unlike a feeling and tender physician, observing his patient totally disregarding his prescriptions, he says, How long shall I visit you; how long shall I order one thing, and you do the contrary? Thus Jesus is not angry with the man, but with the vices of the man; and in him he upbraids the Jews, in general, for their incredulity and perversity. (St. Jerome) --- The general sentiment is, that these reproaches are limited to the people; some extend them to the apostles. See below, ver. 19. (Bible de Vence)

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).

15. Lunatic — Insane, and deprived by the evil spirit of his reasoning faculties. Mark gives a vivid description of the power of the demon and the sufferings of the victim. The terrible convulsions to which he had been subjected had rent and torn him “from a child.”

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

This verse in the Vulgate is contained in ver. 14. Have mercy on my son. According to St. Luke, the father makes his plea more touching by adding that he was his only son an appeal to which the Saviour"s tender heart was always open, as when he stopped the bier at Nain, and said to the childless widow, "Weep not." He is lunatic (selhniaxetai). The Revised Version most unnecessarily renders the verb, he is epileptic. Doubtless the case in many respects simulated epilepsy, and might have been so described; but it seems inexpedient to conceal the actual word used, which gave the popular and probably correct view of one phase of the complaint. Surely a real fact well known to medical science underlies the term lunacy, in the catalogue of the diseased persons who were brought to Christ to be healed, (Mat_4:24) we find a class called lunatics, distinct from the paralytic and possessed. It is by no means an exploded fallacy that the moon has some mysterious influence on certain constitutions, and produces an aggravation of symptoms in accordance with some of its changes. It was from observation of this phenomenon that this form of insanity was termed seleniasmus or lunacy. In the present instance the disease was complicated and of no ordinary nature. The other synoptists state that the child was possessed by a demon. This was the fact which differentiated the malady from any merely organic sickness. It was in truth epilepsy accompanied by or occasioned by demoniacal possession. St. Matthew does not mention the possession in his introductory account, but he afterwards (ver. 18) speaks of the demon departing. Sore vexed (kakwv pascei); is in evil case; suffers grievously.

He was affected with terrible paroxysms, which are detailed more at length by Mark and Luke. Matthew narrates some of the effects of the mania upon the victim. Ofttimes he falleth into the fire. The fits, coming on suddenly and without warning, brought the sufferer into imminent dangers, perhaps produced suicidal tendencies, which urged him to destroy himself.

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

He is lunatic - This word might with great propriety he used, though the case was mostly preternatural; as the evil spirit would undoubtedly take advantage of the influence which the changes of the moon have on the brain and nerves.

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

15. My son; for he is a lunatic. Epileptic, in the Revision. The symptoms are those of epilepsy, in this case caused by demoniac possession. The son was a child (Luke 9:38). He was dumb as well as epileptic (Mark).

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.

15. σεληνιάζεται. This is the only special instance of cure in the case of a lunatic. They are mentioned as a class, ch. Mat 4:24. The word literally means ‘affected by changes of the moon.’ On the thought underlying the word, that there is an access of mania at the time of lunar changes, see Belcher, Our Lord’s Miracles of Healing, p. 131.

St Mark describes the child as foaming, gnashing with his teeth, and pining away. St Luke mentions that he ‘crieth out.’ All these were epileptic symptoms; ‘the child was a possessed epileptic lunatic.’

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.

15.] He was an only son, Luk 9:38. The dæmon had deprived him of speech, Mar 9:17.

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

15. Lord, have pity on my son: because he is moonstruck, and in evil plight: for often he falls into the fire, and often into the water.] Mk. has: “Teacher, I brought my son to Thee, having a dumb devil; and wheresoever it takes him, it throws him down: and he foams, and gnashes his teeth, and wastes away.” And in v. 22 “And often it cast him into the fire, and into waters, to destroy him.” The symptoms seem to be those of some form of epileptic seizure, described in Mk. under terms of demoniac possession. Mt. omits the references to demoniac possession, except in vv. 18, 20.—κύριε] for Mk.’s διδάσκαλε. A similar change in 8:25.—σελμνιάζεται] only again in 4:24.

(M)

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

Is lunatic [σεληνιαζεται] . Rev., epileptic. The A. V. preserves the etymology of the word (selhnh, the moon), but lunatic conveys to us the idea of demented; while the Rev. epileptic gives the true character of the disease, yet does not tell us the fact contained in the Greek word, that epilepsy was supposed to be affected by the changes of the moon. See on Mt 4:24.

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