The Time of the Gospel January 15
Mark 1:15 …and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
“The time is fulfilled….” The future of prophecy became the now of Israel. The future has a way of slipping into the now unnoticed as we continue to overlook the present in favor of gazing into the future.
In retrospect, we can see the reasons why God might have chosen for Jesus to come at the time He did come. The prophets had spoken of the coming of the Messiah, but only Daniel (Daniel 9:24-27) had put a time frame to his prophecy. And the time was approaching.
Some reasons for Jesus’ birth at what we call the beginning of the first century A.D. (Anno Domini, the year of the Lord) might include the following:
That the time was fulfilled is evident simply because the Son of God did come, bringing with Him the kingdom of God (or the kingdom of heaven, as Matthew expresses it).
This is good news, and part of the Good News for those who believe. Yesterday we saw the progression from thoughts to character. With the character of the citizen of the kingdom of God, the believer experiences the peace of that kingdom regardless of circumstances.
The phrase “good news” (or “glad tidings”) was common in the ancient world. The phrase often signaled a military victory. Or this phrase might be used to announce the peaceful succession of the next king or emperor.
The future is with us, as is the past, in this moment of now. Turn back to God. Believe the gospel. Belief is the beginning of thought and provides the foundation upon which all else is built. Believe now and it is done.
Calling the First Disciples January 16
Mark 1:16 And as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 17 Then Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” 18 They immediately left their nets and followed Him.
The first chapter of the Gospel of John records Jesus’ baptism and His introduction to Andrew and John, the young man who became one of Jesus’ inner circle of disciples. Andrew goes and gets his brother, Simon, saying, “We have found the Messiah!” (John 1:40).
The excitement of those who witnessed the Baptist’s identification of Jesus as Messiah must have been immense. The double baptism, of water and Spirit, further enhanced the drama of the moment.
And then Jesus disappears for forty days. His preparation must come before His ministry. We can only wonder how the witnesses to the revelation of Jesus’ identity felt during the period of His absence.
Perhaps the time was very similar to the interval between Jesus’ appearances to the disciples in Jerusalem after His burial but before He appeared again to them at the Sea of Galilee. On that occasion, while they waited, Simon Peter said, “I am going fishing” (John 21:3).
Here at the beginning of Mark, Jesus appears to Simon and Andrew again, after His temptation in the wilderness. Simon (later called Peter) is a man of action, not one content to wait. He will be employed in useful activity. He goes fishing. Being practical, they must earn their living.
Jesus shows up. The brothers are at work, fishing. Jesus says, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”
Jesus speaks their language. He will rechannel their efforts from fish to men, from the waters of a lake to the nations of the world. He says, “Follow Me.”
In Israel of that day, teachers often had men come to them and desire to be their disciples. Jesus reversed the process. He called to Him those who would be His disciples.
Jesus taught multitudes the way back to God, to a personal relationship with their Maker. He taught a chosen few how to carry on His teaching after His death. Jesus fished for those who would continue to fish in all nations.
“Follow Me” is the precursor, the foundation of the Great Commission.
More Fishers of Men January 17
Mark 1:19 When He had gone a little farther from there, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the boat mending their nets. 20 And immediately He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went after Him.
Jesus next calls the sons of Zebedee, James and John, to His ministry, two more fishermen. These are the sons of thunder, as Jesus later calls them.
Jesus has called four working men to be His disciples. His ministry does not begin with those educated in the religion of the day. He is looking for workers whose skills can be remolded into His service.
Like Simon and Andrew, these men have returned to their work while Jesus has completed His transformation in the wilderness. While Simon and Andrew are using their nets to catch fish, John and James are repairing their nets in order to catch fish.
Repairing the nets is no less useful than casting the nets. Nets that are torn will not hold fish.
Bringing people into the flock to follow Christ is vital work. Those who will tend to the sheep and keep them in the fold are vital, as well. How many have come into a church only to find there is nothing to hold them there?
Jesus calls those who can do the various tasks required in the building of a following. Four fisherman are the foundation, solid workers skilled in the art of casting whole nets in the right places to draw in the greatest number. Head knowledge is helpful, but a heart for the work is required for success.
That James and John have hired servants remaining to help their father is interesting. This implies that they are financially well off. But they have found something – someone – better.
Like Simon Peter and Andrew, these brothers know of Jesus from the time of His baptism by John the Baptist. They have had their time to consider what they experienced with Jesus. During the time when Jesus was in the wilderness, perhaps they recognized where they were. When He called, they came out of their own wilderness.
James and John are like the bookends of the faithful disciples. James was the first of the 11 to die (the betrayer, Judas Iscariot, was the first of the 12 to die). He died by sword at the order of King Herod Agrippa. John was the last to die, and the only one of the 12 to die a natural death.
Regenesis January 18
Mark 1:21 Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught. 22 And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
Mark has given no specifics on His early teaching. Matthew has Jesus repeating the text of John the Baptist’s message, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand” (Matt. 4:17). John includes the teaching of being born from above to Nicodemus (John 3). Note that Strong’s G509 might be more accurately translated as born “from above” rather than born “again.”
Speculation about the specific teaching of Jesus is not helpful. We can imagine that he spoke of the Scripture already given to the nation of Israel and its application for the people who heard Him.
If He spoke of those things recorded in Matthew, the substance of His message would not be far from what we have read in Mark’s account: Regenesis, or regeneration, or being born from above; the message is the same regardless of the words.
That the people were astonished at His teaching is not surprising. Jesus offered a new perspective on God, on the individual, and on the relationship of the two.
His teaching was itself a regeneration, the rebirth of the messages of God’s identity and of mankind’s relationship with Him as intended from the beginning. He taught an old truth, but it was new to those who heard Him speak.
Traveling the road of life, there are not only impediments, but divergent paths that turn us away from our intended destination. When a vision of the correct path is seen again, what is seen is so very different from the present surroundings as to seem unreal, irrelevant to the place we find ourselves.
And yet there is a familiarity in this path of old that speaks to us, speaks to the soul that has at one time been at One with the Creator. The message is at one time both foreign and familiar, unreasonable and inevitable. The contradiction demands resolution.
We choose to continue the current path, or retrace our steps back to the original way. The people listening to Jesus in the synagogue find themselves at a point of decision: to continue forward and away, or backward to return.
And this is a decision point at which we all find ourselves time and again.
Having Authority January 19
Mark 1: 21Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught. 22 And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
The scribes had a very large responsibility. They transmitted religious and legal thought within the Jewish culture and from one generation to the next. Originally, scribes were religious leaders. Ezra was a scribe and a Levitical priest (Ezra 7:1-6). By Roman times, many were from the secular culture.
Their work must be accurate and literal. They were responsible for every jot and tittle of the Scripture. A jot, the smallest Hebrew letter “yod,” looks like an apostrophe. The Greek letter iota is the smallest Greek letter. A tittle is a mark that changes a letter, like the line through an “O” that makes it a “Q.”
They were often consulted as to what was written in the holy writings, including the words of many interpreters of the Scripture. They had the written law, and had put in writing the oral law. Their authority was limited to the literal written word rather than the intent or figurative meaning.
Observant Jews often wore a tefillah (sometimes called a phylactery) on their forearm or forehead. The small black case contained verses from Scripture. This seems to have been a literal interpretation of four different verses in the Books of Moses. As an example:
6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. Deuteronomy 6:6-8 NKJV
That they are placed on the arm (empowering work of the hand) and the forehead (mind) rather than on the chest (heart) seems to speak to the human tendency to put obedience in the class of work rather than of love.
Jesus took the same words that had been studied for centuries and cast them in a new light. He aligned them with the intent of God based on God’s character. And Jesus spoke this truth with power and conviction. He changed no words of Scripture, but He changed their understanding completely.
The words in red are often examples of Jesus casting the words of God in a new light, putting them in terms that we are meant to apply to life.
If we must have a doctrine, let it be the words in red.
An Unclean Spirit January 20
Mark 1:23 Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 24 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”
The unclean spirits of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are something of a mystery. That we do not see them elsewhere gives reason to think about the term.
Unclean is a Greek compound word, akathartos, literally meaning, “not clean.” The Greek prefix “A” means “no” or “not”, and “kathartos” means clean (from which we get catharsis, an emotional cleansing). The word translated as “spirit” is G4151, pneuma, the same word used in Holy Spirit.
What if an unclean spirit simply means that it is not the pneuma, not the Spirit that God breathed into us at Creation?
An unclean spirit is one that substitutes someone else, perhaps the self, for God. This manifests in actions inconsistent with having the Holy Spirit.
Picture a “self” in the synagogue. The self is not there to worship God. He is there for selfish reasons, not to give glory to God. He must have betrayed his motives in some obvious way, perhaps putting on a show of great religious fervor inconsistent with his daily life. Or perhaps he is sowing discontent, undermining faith, or otherwise is against what is good.
Is the command for the evil spirit to come out of the person the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Is it a call for the person to repent and release the ungodly spirit that inhabits and controls the person?
The unclean spirits in this verse resist. They ask Jesus to leave them alone.
There is a part of this man that fears because he knows Jesus’ identity.
Another part of this man hopes because he knows Jesus’ identity.
Think about being addicted to a thought rather than a substance. For instance, being addicted to abuse (giving or receiving) or rage or despair or another negative state. Each is an example of possession by an unclean spirit, a spirit not intended for us. Such a spirit is not of the kingdom of God.
Even as we are addicted, drawn to repeat the same sin over and over again, we wish that we would not do it, that we could be free from it.
Here is a man divided against himself. Is there a space between his two halves for the light to get inside?
Be Quiet January 21
Mark 1:25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” 26 And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him.
“Be quiet, and come out of him!” Did Jesus say no more than this? This seems too simple, too easy. But Jesus did not make things complicated.
Was it only because the Son of God spoke? Jesus is the Word, the sacred or pure spirit, pneuma. He also describes Himself as truth and light.
Mark has told us already that Jesus spoke “as one having authority, and not as the scribes” (vs.22). He speaks truth and light, not reason and logic.
Rebirth: a change to a new life lived without a particular unclean spirit, one that has become part of the person’s identity. Losing even an “unclean” pert of self is too much of a change, more than one is willing to endure. Made whole, a person might be able to repent, to change.
Neither Jesus nor God will force a person in any regard, not even for the person’s own good.
In this verse, the man with the unclean spirit may have been conflicted. He was addicted to some state of mind that was not good – anger, fear, violence, or whatever fruit of the flesh. And yet he also wanted to be free from this bondage, desiring the fruit of the Spirit.
The man’s spirit was willing, but his spirit was weaker than his flesh. He required the entrance of the Holy Spirit, the power of Jesus to overcome the power of the unclean spirit.
The man allowed the light of Jesus to enter between his divided halves. Jesus spoke the Spirit, and the man received it willingly.
The unclean spirit did not leave peacefully or quietly. The Greek word translated as “convulsed” is a violent word, along the lines of “mangled,” or as in “convulsed with epilepsy.”
As the spirit came out, it “cried out with a loud voice.” The word translated as “voice” can be human, bestial, or artificial. Since Jesus has commanded “quiet,” the unclean spirit can say nothing. The cry is not a human voice, for it has been separated from humanity. It is but a hollow gasp.
Perhaps it is something of a miracle when a person changes their mind, their way of thinking. A change of heart is an even greater miracle.
Next day
Mark 1:15 …and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
“The time is fulfilled….” The future of prophecy became the now of Israel. The future has a way of slipping into the now unnoticed as we continue to overlook the present in favor of gazing into the future.
In retrospect, we can see the reasons why God might have chosen for Jesus to come at the time He did come. The prophets had spoken of the coming of the Messiah, but only Daniel (Daniel 9:24-27) had put a time frame to his prophecy. And the time was approaching.
Some reasons for Jesus’ birth at what we call the beginning of the first century A.D. (Anno Domini, the year of the Lord) might include the following:
- Centuries of domination by foreign powers had humbled Israel
- Roman peace allowed safe travel across large distances
- The commonality of the Greek language helped the Gospel spread
- Greek philosophy and science plus Roman gods had left a spiritual void
- Religion in Israel had become legalistic, leaving a hunger for God
That the time was fulfilled is evident simply because the Son of God did come, bringing with Him the kingdom of God (or the kingdom of heaven, as Matthew expresses it).
This is good news, and part of the Good News for those who believe. Yesterday we saw the progression from thoughts to character. With the character of the citizen of the kingdom of God, the believer experiences the peace of that kingdom regardless of circumstances.
The phrase “good news” (or “glad tidings”) was common in the ancient world. The phrase often signaled a military victory. Or this phrase might be used to announce the peaceful succession of the next king or emperor.
The future is with us, as is the past, in this moment of now. Turn back to God. Believe the gospel. Belief is the beginning of thought and provides the foundation upon which all else is built. Believe now and it is done.
Calling the First Disciples January 16
Mark 1:16 And as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 17 Then Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” 18 They immediately left their nets and followed Him.
The first chapter of the Gospel of John records Jesus’ baptism and His introduction to Andrew and John, the young man who became one of Jesus’ inner circle of disciples. Andrew goes and gets his brother, Simon, saying, “We have found the Messiah!” (John 1:40).
The excitement of those who witnessed the Baptist’s identification of Jesus as Messiah must have been immense. The double baptism, of water and Spirit, further enhanced the drama of the moment.
And then Jesus disappears for forty days. His preparation must come before His ministry. We can only wonder how the witnesses to the revelation of Jesus’ identity felt during the period of His absence.
Perhaps the time was very similar to the interval between Jesus’ appearances to the disciples in Jerusalem after His burial but before He appeared again to them at the Sea of Galilee. On that occasion, while they waited, Simon Peter said, “I am going fishing” (John 21:3).
Here at the beginning of Mark, Jesus appears to Simon and Andrew again, after His temptation in the wilderness. Simon (later called Peter) is a man of action, not one content to wait. He will be employed in useful activity. He goes fishing. Being practical, they must earn their living.
Jesus shows up. The brothers are at work, fishing. Jesus says, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”
Jesus speaks their language. He will rechannel their efforts from fish to men, from the waters of a lake to the nations of the world. He says, “Follow Me.”
In Israel of that day, teachers often had men come to them and desire to be their disciples. Jesus reversed the process. He called to Him those who would be His disciples.
Jesus taught multitudes the way back to God, to a personal relationship with their Maker. He taught a chosen few how to carry on His teaching after His death. Jesus fished for those who would continue to fish in all nations.
“Follow Me” is the precursor, the foundation of the Great Commission.
More Fishers of Men January 17
Mark 1:19 When He had gone a little farther from there, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the boat mending their nets. 20 And immediately He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went after Him.
Jesus next calls the sons of Zebedee, James and John, to His ministry, two more fishermen. These are the sons of thunder, as Jesus later calls them.
Jesus has called four working men to be His disciples. His ministry does not begin with those educated in the religion of the day. He is looking for workers whose skills can be remolded into His service.
Like Simon and Andrew, these men have returned to their work while Jesus has completed His transformation in the wilderness. While Simon and Andrew are using their nets to catch fish, John and James are repairing their nets in order to catch fish.
Repairing the nets is no less useful than casting the nets. Nets that are torn will not hold fish.
Bringing people into the flock to follow Christ is vital work. Those who will tend to the sheep and keep them in the fold are vital, as well. How many have come into a church only to find there is nothing to hold them there?
Jesus calls those who can do the various tasks required in the building of a following. Four fisherman are the foundation, solid workers skilled in the art of casting whole nets in the right places to draw in the greatest number. Head knowledge is helpful, but a heart for the work is required for success.
That James and John have hired servants remaining to help their father is interesting. This implies that they are financially well off. But they have found something – someone – better.
Like Simon Peter and Andrew, these brothers know of Jesus from the time of His baptism by John the Baptist. They have had their time to consider what they experienced with Jesus. During the time when Jesus was in the wilderness, perhaps they recognized where they were. When He called, they came out of their own wilderness.
James and John are like the bookends of the faithful disciples. James was the first of the 11 to die (the betrayer, Judas Iscariot, was the first of the 12 to die). He died by sword at the order of King Herod Agrippa. John was the last to die, and the only one of the 12 to die a natural death.
Regenesis January 18
Mark 1:21 Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught. 22 And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
Mark has given no specifics on His early teaching. Matthew has Jesus repeating the text of John the Baptist’s message, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand” (Matt. 4:17). John includes the teaching of being born from above to Nicodemus (John 3). Note that Strong’s G509 might be more accurately translated as born “from above” rather than born “again.”
Speculation about the specific teaching of Jesus is not helpful. We can imagine that he spoke of the Scripture already given to the nation of Israel and its application for the people who heard Him.
If He spoke of those things recorded in Matthew, the substance of His message would not be far from what we have read in Mark’s account: Regenesis, or regeneration, or being born from above; the message is the same regardless of the words.
That the people were astonished at His teaching is not surprising. Jesus offered a new perspective on God, on the individual, and on the relationship of the two.
His teaching was itself a regeneration, the rebirth of the messages of God’s identity and of mankind’s relationship with Him as intended from the beginning. He taught an old truth, but it was new to those who heard Him speak.
Traveling the road of life, there are not only impediments, but divergent paths that turn us away from our intended destination. When a vision of the correct path is seen again, what is seen is so very different from the present surroundings as to seem unreal, irrelevant to the place we find ourselves.
And yet there is a familiarity in this path of old that speaks to us, speaks to the soul that has at one time been at One with the Creator. The message is at one time both foreign and familiar, unreasonable and inevitable. The contradiction demands resolution.
We choose to continue the current path, or retrace our steps back to the original way. The people listening to Jesus in the synagogue find themselves at a point of decision: to continue forward and away, or backward to return.
And this is a decision point at which we all find ourselves time and again.
Having Authority January 19
Mark 1: 21Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught. 22 And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
The scribes had a very large responsibility. They transmitted religious and legal thought within the Jewish culture and from one generation to the next. Originally, scribes were religious leaders. Ezra was a scribe and a Levitical priest (Ezra 7:1-6). By Roman times, many were from the secular culture.
Their work must be accurate and literal. They were responsible for every jot and tittle of the Scripture. A jot, the smallest Hebrew letter “yod,” looks like an apostrophe. The Greek letter iota is the smallest Greek letter. A tittle is a mark that changes a letter, like the line through an “O” that makes it a “Q.”
They were often consulted as to what was written in the holy writings, including the words of many interpreters of the Scripture. They had the written law, and had put in writing the oral law. Their authority was limited to the literal written word rather than the intent or figurative meaning.
Observant Jews often wore a tefillah (sometimes called a phylactery) on their forearm or forehead. The small black case contained verses from Scripture. This seems to have been a literal interpretation of four different verses in the Books of Moses. As an example:
6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. Deuteronomy 6:6-8 NKJV
That they are placed on the arm (empowering work of the hand) and the forehead (mind) rather than on the chest (heart) seems to speak to the human tendency to put obedience in the class of work rather than of love.
Jesus took the same words that had been studied for centuries and cast them in a new light. He aligned them with the intent of God based on God’s character. And Jesus spoke this truth with power and conviction. He changed no words of Scripture, but He changed their understanding completely.
The words in red are often examples of Jesus casting the words of God in a new light, putting them in terms that we are meant to apply to life.
If we must have a doctrine, let it be the words in red.
An Unclean Spirit January 20
Mark 1:23 Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 24 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”
The unclean spirits of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are something of a mystery. That we do not see them elsewhere gives reason to think about the term.
Unclean is a Greek compound word, akathartos, literally meaning, “not clean.” The Greek prefix “A” means “no” or “not”, and “kathartos” means clean (from which we get catharsis, an emotional cleansing). The word translated as “spirit” is G4151, pneuma, the same word used in Holy Spirit.
What if an unclean spirit simply means that it is not the pneuma, not the Spirit that God breathed into us at Creation?
An unclean spirit is one that substitutes someone else, perhaps the self, for God. This manifests in actions inconsistent with having the Holy Spirit.
Picture a “self” in the synagogue. The self is not there to worship God. He is there for selfish reasons, not to give glory to God. He must have betrayed his motives in some obvious way, perhaps putting on a show of great religious fervor inconsistent with his daily life. Or perhaps he is sowing discontent, undermining faith, or otherwise is against what is good.
Is the command for the evil spirit to come out of the person the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Is it a call for the person to repent and release the ungodly spirit that inhabits and controls the person?
The unclean spirits in this verse resist. They ask Jesus to leave them alone.
There is a part of this man that fears because he knows Jesus’ identity.
Another part of this man hopes because he knows Jesus’ identity.
Think about being addicted to a thought rather than a substance. For instance, being addicted to abuse (giving or receiving) or rage or despair or another negative state. Each is an example of possession by an unclean spirit, a spirit not intended for us. Such a spirit is not of the kingdom of God.
Even as we are addicted, drawn to repeat the same sin over and over again, we wish that we would not do it, that we could be free from it.
Here is a man divided against himself. Is there a space between his two halves for the light to get inside?
Be Quiet January 21
Mark 1:25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” 26 And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him.
“Be quiet, and come out of him!” Did Jesus say no more than this? This seems too simple, too easy. But Jesus did not make things complicated.
Was it only because the Son of God spoke? Jesus is the Word, the sacred or pure spirit, pneuma. He also describes Himself as truth and light.
Mark has told us already that Jesus spoke “as one having authority, and not as the scribes” (vs.22). He speaks truth and light, not reason and logic.
Rebirth: a change to a new life lived without a particular unclean spirit, one that has become part of the person’s identity. Losing even an “unclean” pert of self is too much of a change, more than one is willing to endure. Made whole, a person might be able to repent, to change.
Neither Jesus nor God will force a person in any regard, not even for the person’s own good.
In this verse, the man with the unclean spirit may have been conflicted. He was addicted to some state of mind that was not good – anger, fear, violence, or whatever fruit of the flesh. And yet he also wanted to be free from this bondage, desiring the fruit of the Spirit.
The man’s spirit was willing, but his spirit was weaker than his flesh. He required the entrance of the Holy Spirit, the power of Jesus to overcome the power of the unclean spirit.
The man allowed the light of Jesus to enter between his divided halves. Jesus spoke the Spirit, and the man received it willingly.
The unclean spirit did not leave peacefully or quietly. The Greek word translated as “convulsed” is a violent word, along the lines of “mangled,” or as in “convulsed with epilepsy.”
As the spirit came out, it “cried out with a loud voice.” The word translated as “voice” can be human, bestial, or artificial. Since Jesus has commanded “quiet,” the unclean spirit can say nothing. The cry is not a human voice, for it has been separated from humanity. It is but a hollow gasp.
Perhaps it is something of a miracle when a person changes their mind, their way of thinking. A change of heart is an even greater miracle.
Next day
