‘And immediately there was in their Synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out saying, “What have we in common with you, you Jesus of Nazareth? Are you come to destroy us? I know you, who you are, the Holy One of God”.'
‘A man with an unclean spirit.' The term ‘unclean spirit' was used by the Pharisees to refer to evil spirits. It was in contrast with the ‘cleanness' and purity of God. The point is that these spirits were not wholesome. They were seen as excluded from God's presence by their uncleanness, their lack of moral fitness. We should note that in Matthew 4:24 a clear distinction is made between those who are diseased, those who are lunatic and those who are possessed with devils. It is wrong to think that in those days men necessarily saw all disease and madness as resulting from evil spirits. But we do well to beware before we dismiss the idea of the existence of evil spirits (although we must beware of those who see such spirits everywhere). Examples of modern day spirit possession, including the crying out and rending of individuals, although happily fairly rare in countries with a strong Christian background (as in Old Testament days among Israel), have been clearly authenticated as having genuinely occurred by men of high reputation even in such countries. And so has the ability of such spirits to remain unrecognised until something disturbs them. Thus the man who entered the synagogue may not even have been aware that he was possessed until ‘he' was forced to cry out (I say ‘he' because the spirit uses the person's lips).
‘And he cried out saying, “What have we in common, you Jesus of Nazareth? Are you come to destroy us? I know you, who you are, the Holy One of God”.' The holy aura that surrounded Jesus, largely unnoticed by man but clearly obvious to the ‘unclean' spirit, was unbearable to it, forcing it to ‘cry out' in fear (the word indicates strong emotion) and acknowledge His unique holiness, saying ‘You are the Holy One of God.' For the awareness that it had of His power and authority, and of His unique position with God, made it afraid as it considered the possibility of its own destruction along with its fellows. They must have thought, ‘why else should such a One have come to earth if not to destroy us?'. We know the answer to that, but they may not have believed it or even known it. The plurals ‘we' and ‘us' reflect the fact that it is speaking on behalf of its fellows.
‘What have we in common?' Literally ‘what is there to us and to you?' They are saying - ‘we have nothing to do with each other. Keep away.' Note the plural ‘us'. He may be including himself with the spirit, indicating the fact that a spirit possessed person can move quickly from speaking normally to being spoken through by different spirits using different voices, or the spirit may be referring to the whole ‘unclean spirit' world.
‘The Holy One of God' is the title by which Simon Peter would later address Jesus in John 6:69. Perhaps such instances as these established the idea in Peter's mind. It was not a known Messianic title. But we are not dealing with Messiahship here. Whatever men thought, the evil spirits were aware of Jesus' special powers and authority, and of His unique holiness. They knew that they were dealing with One Who had a supernatural background, totally separated to and infilled by God, even if they were not aware of His full deity. Compare the use of ‘holy ones' for the Watchers in Daniel 4:13; Daniel 4:17; Daniel 4:23, and of angels in Psalms 89:7; Hosea 11:12; Zechariah 14:5. Here was One Who was greater than those ‘holy ones'. He was the supreme Holy One, God's Holy One.
The title ‘Holy One of Israel' was a title regularly used of God in the Old Testament (2 Kings 19:22; Psalms 71:22; Psalms 78:41; Psalms 89:18 (where He was also seen as ‘our King') and in Isaiah 24 times, and once as the ‘Holy One of Jacob', and God as incomparable is called ‘the Holy One' in Isaiah 40:25; Isaiah 43:15; Isaiah 49:7; Hosea 11:9; Habakkuk 1:12; Habakkuk 3:3. In Isaiah 57:15 His ‘name is Holy'. So such a title has close connections with God and makes the One so uniquely designated to be of divine rank, the title being almost the equivalent of ‘Son of God'.
‘Your Holy One', which is the equivalent of ‘the Holy One of God', is found in Psalms 16:10 where it refers firstly to David as the anointed of God. It could therefore even better be applied to the coming greater David, the Messiah as evidenced by Acts 2:25-28, but this latter application may have arisen from this very title used of Jesus here and in John 6:69.
Israel is also called ‘His Holy One' (Isaiah 10:17), possibly as a purified Israel who would burn up Assyria (compare Obadiah 1:18), but it may be that we are to see there ‘the Light of Israel' as God Himself. And ‘holy ones' (saints) is a title sometimes applied to the people of God when thought of as living in obedience, especially in the Psalms. In all cases it denotes special, unique relationship. But Jesus is not just one of the holy ones. He is the Holy One.
It has been suggested that the spirit was here trying to use Jesus ‘name' in order to control Him, for it was believed in Jesus' day that obtaining a person's name gave some kind of control over that person. But it is more likely that this was the reaction of the spirit in its uncleanness towards One Whose supreme holiness it had to acknowledge. It was aware from the start that it had no means of controlling Him because of Who He was.