Mark 5 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Christ delivering the possessed of the legion of devils, they enter into the swine: he healeth the woman who had the bloody issue, and raiseth from death Jarius's daughter.

Anno Domini 31.

Because, &c.— For he had often been bound with fetters and chains, and had wrenched his chains, and broken his fetters, and nobody could tame him. Respecting this miracle, see the notes on Matthew 8:28; Matthew 8:34 and Luke 8:26; Luke 8:56.

Crying—stones— Howling—flints.

What at have I, &c.— What hast thou to do with me? Campbell.

What is thy name?— See Luke 8:30-31.

Choked— Stifled.

Was possessed— Had been possessed.

How it befell, &c.— How it had befallen the demoniac.

He that had been possessed, &c.— The late demoniac prayed, &c.

There cometh one of the rulers—Jairus— The rulers of the synagogue were three persons chosen out of ten, who were obliged constantly to attend the public worship, over which they presided, and determined such disputes as happened in the synagogue. The synagogue over which this ruler presided was perhaps at Capernaum. Generally speaking, the rulers were Christ's bitterest enemies; yet there were some of them of a different character, John 12:42. In particular this ruler must have had a very favourable opinion of Jesus, and a high notion of his power, or he would not have applied to him for help in the present extremity; and by publicly acknowledging his power, have done him so much honour. His faith may have been built on the miracles which he knew Jesus had performed; for our Lord had by this time resided at Capernaum several months.

Lieth at the point of death— St. Luke agrees with St. Mark in this circumstance; but St. Matthew seems to add another. According to the latter, Jairus said (Matthew 9:18.), my daughter is even now dead, αρτι ετελευτησεν; but he might utter both the expressions: for as his daughter lay expiring when he came away, he might think she could not live many minutes; and therefore, having told Jesus that she was lying at the point of death, he added, that in all probability she was dead.

Nevertheless,if this solution seem inconsistent with the ruler's petition, Come, and lay thine hands on her, that she may be healed and with the dejection that appeared in his countenance, when his servants told him that his daughter had actually expired, we may fully remove the difficulty, by translating the clause in St. Matthew, My daughter is almost dead, a sense which, according to the analogy of the Greek language, it will easily bear. See a similar expression, Luke 5:7. We may just observe further, that αρτι does not only signify what is now come to pass, but what is just at hand; and so it may imply no more than that she was considered as just dead, and that there was no hope of her recovery, but by a miracle. See Gerhard, and Doddridge.

Which had an issue of blood— Who had had a bloody flux. The circumstances in the next verse are mentioned by the Evangelist, to shew that the woman's disease was incurable, and that she herselfknew it to be so—circumstances, which at one and the same time demonstrate the greatness of the miracle. See Dr. Friend's History of Physic, page 37.

The press—and touched his garment— The throng, &c. and so Mark 5:30. Her disease being reckoned unclean, she was ashamed to mention it before the multitude; and having formed the highest idea of Christ's power, she resolved to try this method of cure, believing that no more was necessary to effect it: however, because her distemper was of such a nature as to render them whom she touched unclean, she durst not handle the person of so great a prophet, nor any part of his garment, but its border or hem (see Matthew 23:5.), shewing at the same time both the strength of her faith, and the greatness of her humility. I shall be whole, is in the original σωθησομαι, I shall be saved; and there are many other places in which the word is used in the same sense; as certainly it may also with great propriety be applied to a rescue from any imminent danger, or pressing calamity, especially in an extraordinary way. Compare Mark 5:23. Ch. Mark 6:56. Luke 8:36; Luke 17:19; Luke 18:42. John 11:12 and Acts 4:9.

And—she was healed of that plague— Μαστιγος,— of that washing and dangerous distemper, with which she had been chastised for so long a time. It was necessary that the ministry of the Son of God should be rendered illustrious by all kinds of miracles, and that all the people of the country where he lived should have both the highest idea, and the firmest persuasion of his power; it was for advancing these great ends, as well as for the sake of the immediate object of his mercy, that the success of this woman's attempt equalled the faith and humility by which she was guided.

And Jesus, immediately knowing, &c.— It was for the reasons alleged in the last note, that Jesus would by no means allow the opinion which this woman entertained of his power and goodness to pass silent and unapplauded: therefore he immediately turned about in the crowd, and asked who it was that had touched his clothes. He knew the person, for he knew all things; and no virtue or miraculous cure could be derived from him, unless by his own consent; but he spake in this manner, that the woman might, of her own accord, make a confession of the whole matter, by which the strength of her faith and the greatness of her cure would appear, tothe glory of God; and that he might have an opportunity to instruct and comfort her. Accordingly, when the persons nearest to him cleared themselves, and Jesus insisted upon knowing who it was that had done the thing, the woman, finding it impossible to conceal herself any longer, came to him, trembling, and told him all. Perhaps the uncleanness of her distemper was the reason of her fear, thinking that he would be offended with her for touching him: but the divine Physician, far from being angry, spake kindly to her, commending the honesty of her disposition, and the strength of her faith; and telling her that it was on account of her faith he had consented to make her whole. This incidental miracle appears very grand, when the relation which it bears to the principal one is considered. Jesus is going to give a specimen of that Almighty Power, by which the resurrection of allmen to immortality shall be effected at the last day; and behold, virtue little inferior to that which is capable of raising the dead to life, issues from him through his garment, and heals a very obstinate disease, which, having baffled the power of medicine for twelve years, had remained absolutely incurable, till the presence of Jesus, who is the resurrection and the life, chased it away! The cure, though complete, was performed in an instant, and the woman knew it by the immediate easewhich she felt, by the return of her strength, by the cheerfulness of her spirits, and by all the other agreeable sensations which accompany sudden changes from painful diseases to perfect health. St. Mark expresses this shortly and elegantly; εγνω τω σωματι, she felt in her body. See the learned and excellent Ader's 12th Enarration, in his Treatise on Scripture Diseases. We may render the last words of Mark 5:34. Thy faith hath made thee well, or hath cured thee; go in peace, and be healed of thy trouble.

And he suffered no man to follow him, &c.— When Jesus came to the house, though a great many friends and others accompanied him, he suffered none of them to go in with him, except his three disciples, Peter, James, and John, with the father and mother of the maid; and even these perhaps he admitted for no other reason, than that the miracle might have proper witnesses, who should publish it in due time for the benefit of the world. See the note on Matthew 17:1.

And he cometh to the house, &c.— Namely, from the street, for that was the proper time to hinder the crowd from accompanying him. See Luke 8:51. It seems, the mother of the damsel, on seeing that Jesus was nigh, had gone out to the street to conduct him in, or waited for him in the porch of her house to receive him. See on Ch. Mark 2:4. With the attendance above mentioned, Jesus went up stairs where the damsel was lying, for they used to lay their dead in upper rooms. See Acts 9:37. Here he found a number of people in an outer apartment making lamentation for her, according to the custom of the Jews, with music, see Matthew 9:23. The company at theruler'shouse,when Jesus came in, being employed in making such lamentation for the damsel, as they used to make for the dead, it is evident that they all believed she was actually departed: wherefore, when Jesus told them that she was not dead, Mark 5:39 he did not mean that her soul was not separated from her body, but that it was not to continue so, which was the idea the mourners affixed to the word death. Her state he expressed by saying that she slept; using the word in a sense somewhat analogous to that which the Jews put upon it, when in speaking of a person's death they called it sleep, to intimate their belief of his existence and happiness in the other world, together with their hope of a future resurrection to a new life. On this occasion the phrase was madeuse of with singular propriety, to insinuate, that notwithstanding the maid was already dead, she should not long continue so. Jesus was going to raise her from the dead, and would do it with as much ease as they awaked one that was asleep. See John 11:11-13.

And they laughed him to scorn— The mourner, not of understanding Jesus, laughed him to scorn when they heard him say, the damsel is not dead; for having seen all the marks and proofs of death about her, they were absolutely certain that she was dead; and yet, if they had given themselves time to consider, they might have understood that he spake in this manner, to intimate that he was going to raise her from the dead; and the rather, as he had been sent for by her parents to heal her miraculously. But his words were ambiguous; and the mourners naturally enough took them in the wrong sense: thus, while Jesus predicted the miracle, to shew that it did not happen by accident, he delivered himself in such terms, as modestly to avoid the reputation which might have accrued to him from so stupendous a work. The dispositions expressed by the mourners rendered them not worthy to behold the miracle. Jesus therefore put them even out of the antechamber; or hemight have done this to be freed from the noise of their lamentation. After clearing the antechamber, he entered where the corpse was lying, accompanied by none but the disciples above-mentioned, and the father and mother of the damsel; they being, of all persons, the most proper witnesses of the miracle, which in reality suffered nothing by the absence of the rest; for as they were all sensible that the child was dead, they could not but be certain of the miracle, when they saw her alive again, though possibly they might not know to whom the honour of her resurrection was due. It seems Jesus was not solicitous of appropriating itto himself; probably also, they went in thus slenderly attended, that the witnesses might have an opportunity to examine the whole transaction narrowly, and so be able to report it afterwards, upon the fullest assurance, and with every circumstance of credibility. It deserves particular attention, with what perfect decorum our Lord conducted himself on this occasion, and how superior he appeared to any views of human applause. See Lardner's answer to Woolston, p. 89.

And straightway the damsel arose, &c.— The damsel was raised, not in the languishing condition of those who come to life after having fainted away; but she was in a state of confirmedgood health, being hungry: this circumstance effectually shewing the greatness and perfection of the miracle, Jesus brought it to pass on purpose in her resurrection. To make the witnesses sensible of it likewise, he ordered some meat to be given her, which she took, probably, in the presence of the company. Her parents seeing her flesh and colour and strength and appetite returned thus suddenly, with her life, were unmeasurably astonished at the miracle; nevertheless, Jesus ordered them to speak nothing of it: but it was known to all the people in the house that the maid was dead; the women who were hired to make lamentation for her, according to the custom of the country, knew it: even the multitude had reason to believe it, after the ruler's servant came and told him publicly in the street that his daughter was dead: moreover, that she was restored to life again, could not be hid from the domestics, nor from the relations of the family, nor from any having communication with them: wherefore, our Lord's injunction to tellno man what was done, could not, I think, mean that the parents were to keep the miracle a secret; that was impossible to be done; but they were not officiously to blaze it abroad, nor even to indulge the inclination which they might feel to speak of a matter so astonishing. The reason was, the miracle spake sufficiently for itself: accordingly St. Matthew tells us, that it made a great noise, Matthew 9:26. The fame hereof went abroad into all that land: For, as Jesus's miracles were generally done in public, they could not fail to be much spoken of; wherefore, when the fame of any of them in particular is mentioned, it implies, that the reports concerning it spread far abroad, that the truth of it was inquired into by many; and that, upon inquiry, the reality of the miracle was universally acknowledged. This being the proper meaning of the observation, the Evangelists, by thus openly and frequently appealing to the notoriety of the facts, have given us all the assurance possible of the reality of the miracles which they have recorded.

Inferences drawn from the miracle of raising Jairus's daughter. How troublesome did the people's importunities seem to Jairus! He came to sue to Jesus for his dying daughter; the thronging multitude intercepted him; every man is most sensible of his own necessity; there is no straining courtesy, in the challenge of our interest in Christ; there is no incivility in our strife for the greatest share in his presence and benediction.

The only child of this ruler lay dying when he came to solicit Christ's aid, and died while he solicited. There was hope in her sickness; in her extremity there was fear; in her death, despair and impossibility (as they thought) of help: Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master: when we have to do with a mere finite power, this word would be but just. But since thou hast to do with an omnipotent Agent, know, O thou faithless messenger, that death can be no bar to his power: how well would it have be come thee rather to have said, "Thy daughter is dead; but who can tell whether thy God and Saviour will not be gracious to thee, that the child may revive? Cannot he, in whose hands are the issues of death, bring her back again?"

Here was more complaisance than faith; trouble not the Master; infidelity is all for ease, and thinks every good work tedious: that which nature accounts troublesome, is pleasing and delightful to grace. Is it any pain for a hungry man to eat? O Saviour, it was thy meat and drink to do thy Father's will; and his will was, that thou shouldst bear our griefs, and take away our sorrows: that cannot be thy trouble, which is our happiness, that we may still sue to thee.

The messenger could not so whisper his ill news, but Jesus heard it; Jairus hears what he feared, and was now dejected with such sad tidings: he that resolved not to trouble the Master, meant to take so much more trouble to himself, and would now yield to a hopeless sorrow: he, whose work it is to comfort the afflicted, rouseth up the dejected heart of the pensive father; fear not, believe only, and she shall be made whole. The word was not more cheerful than difficult. Fear not?—Who can be insensible of so great an evil? Where death has once seized, who can doubt but he will keep his hold? no less hard was it not to grieve for the loss of an only child, than not to fear the continuance of the cause of that grief.

In a perfect faith there is no fear; by how much more we fear, by so much less we believe: well are these two then united, fear not; believe only. O Saviour, if thou didst not command us somewhat beyond nature, it were no thanks to us to obey thee: while the child was alive, to believe that she might recover was no hard talk; but now that she was fully dead, to believe that she should live again, was a work not easy for Jairus to apprehend, though easy for thee to effect; yet must that be believed, else there is no capacity for so great a mercy. As love, so faith is stronger than death. How much natural impossibility is there in the return of these bodies of ours from the dust of the earth, into which, through many degrees of corruption, they are at the last mouldered. Fear not, O my soul, believe only; it must, it shall be done.

The sum of Jairus's first suit was for the health, not for the resurrection of his daughter; now that she was dead, he would, if he durst, have been glad to have asked her life:—And now, behold, our Saviour bids him expect both her life and her health: Thy daughter shall be made whole; alive from her death, whole from her disease. Thou didst not, O Jairus, thou daredst not ask, so much as thou receivedst. How glad wouldst thou have been, since this last news, to have had thy daughter alive, though weak and sickly: now thou shalt receive her, not living only, but sound and vigorous. Thou dost not, O Saviour, measure thy gifts by our petitions, but by our wants, and thine own mercies.

This work might have been as easily done by an absent command; the power of Christ was there, while himself was away; but he will go personally to the place, that he may be confessed the author of so great a miracle. O Saviour, thou lovest to go to the house of mourning; thy chief pleasure is the comfort of the afflicted; what a confusion there is in worldly sorrow? The mother shrieks; the servants cry out; the people make lamentation; the minstrels howl, and strike dolefully; so that the ear might question whether the ditty or the instrument were more heavy: if ever expressions of sorrow sound well, it is when death leads the choir. Soon does our Saviour charm this noise, and dismiss these unseasonable mourners, whether formal or serious. He had life in his eye, and would have them know, that he considered these formal ceremonies as too early, and long before their time. Give place; for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. Had she been dead, she had but slept: now she was not dead, but asleep, because he meant that this nap of death should be so short, and her awakening so speedy. Death and sleep are alike to him, who can cast whom he will into the sleep of death, and awaken when and whom he pleaseth out of that deadly sleep.

Before, the people and domestics of Jairus held Jesus for a prophet; now they took him for a dreamer;—not dead but asleep?—They that came to mourn, cannot now forbear to laugh: "Have we piped at so many funerals, and seen and lamented so many corpses, and cannot we distinguish between sleep and death?—The eyes are set,—the breath is gone,—the limbs are stiff and cold;—who ever died, if she do but sleep?"—How easily may our reason or sense delude us in divine matters! Those who are competent judges in natural things, are ready to laugh God to scorn, when he speaks beyond their comprehension, and are by him justly laughed to scorn for their unbelief. Vain and faithless men! as if that unlimited power of the Almighty could not make good his own word, and turn either sleep into death, or death into sleep, at pleasure. Ere many minutes,—they shall be ashamed of their error and incredulity.

There were witnesses enough of her death; there shall not be many of her restoration, Mark 5:37.—The eyes of those incredulous scoffers were not worthy of this honour; our infidelity makes us incapable of the secret favours and the highest counsels of the Almighty.

But art thou, O Saviour, ever discouraged by the decision and censure of these scorners? Because fools ridicule thee, dost thou forbear thy work? It is enough for thee that thine act shall soon honour thee and convince them.—He took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise; and her spirit came again, and she arose straightway.

How could that touch, that call, be otherwise than effectual? He who made that hand, touched it; and he who shall one day say Arise, ye dead, said now, Maid, arise. Death cannot but obey him, who is the Lord of life: the soul is ever equally in his hand, who is the God of spirits; it cannot but go and come at his command. When he says, Maid, arise, the now unloosened spirit knows its office, its place, and instantly resumes that room which by his appointment or permission it had left.

O Saviour! if thou do but bid my soul to arise from the death of sin, it cannot lie still: if thou bid my body to arise from the grave, my soul cannot but glance down from her heaven, and animate it.
The maid revives;—not now to languish for a time upon her sick bed, and by some faint degrees to gather an insensible strength; but at once she arises from her death and from her couch; at once she puts off her fever with her dissolution; she finds her life and her feet at once; at once she finds her feet and stomach: He commanded to give her meat.

Omnipotence, when it steps forth in an extraordinary way, does not use to go the pace of nature: all God's immediate works are like himself, perfect. He that raised the damsel supernaturally, could have so fed her; but it was never the purpose of his power to set aside the use of proper and ordinary means.

REFLECTIONS.—1st, What a miserable creature is man, when left to the power of the devil! What a mercy that Jesus is come to destroy the works of the devil, and to take the prey from the mighty. An eminent instance of this we have in the present chapter:

1. The wretched case of a poor demoniac, driven by an unclean spirit to dwell among the tombs; a terror to himself, and to all who approached him; so raging, that none could soothe him; so strong, that no fetters could bind him. Though it had been often attempted, he broke the bands in sunder, and fled; living in the mountains and in the tombs; uttering horrid yellings, and cutting himself with sharp stones, till the blood gushed out. Note; We have here a lively emblem of the natural man; his mind and conscience are defiled; his passions drive him furiously on, and will be restrained by no fetters of God's law: under the power of Satan he is hurried to the excess of riot, madly wounding his own soul by sin, and dangerous to all around him; insensible to every fearful consequence, and wilful in disobedience.

2. No sooner was Jesus disembarked, than the man in whom the devil was, ran and worshipped him; the wicked spirit being awed by his presence, or his power being now suspended. St. Matthew says that there were two; perhaps St. Mark mentions one only, as being the more fierce; and to him the Lord directed his discourse.
3. On beholding so pitiable an object, Jesus bid the unclean spirit depart; but his expostulation or intreaty did not prevail: though in the greatest dread and horror the devil addressed him, acknowledging his divine power and glory; importunately begging, since he could have no interest in him, that he might have nothing to do with him; and that he would not send him into the place of torment, and compel him to retire from the world to the prison of hell before the day of final judgment. Note; (1.) The confession of the devil was orthodox; but it is not a form of sound words, but the work of the Holy Ghost upon the heart, which can avail to our salvation. (2.) When Christ visits our souls, he casts out the unclean spirit, gives a new heart, and puts a right spirit within us.

4. To shew his own power over the fiends of darkness, Christ demanded the name of this evil spirit, and was answered; My name is Legion, for we are many. A legion of Roman soldiers did at this time consist of at least six thousand: this intimates the immense numbers of those fallen spirits which war against the souls of men; their vast power, regular order, and unanimity: what need then have we, who wrestle with these principalities and powers, to put on the whole armour of God, and to be continually looking up for the strength of our God, that we may be able to stand in the evil day!

5. Since they must quit their present hold, the devils earnestly besought him not to expel them from that heathen country, if he dispossessed them from Judaea. And there being a herd of swine feeding near the place, they desired permission to enter those unclean animals; hoping, by destroying them, to prejudice the people against Jesus, and to gratify their own delight in mischief: and for wise and just reasons Christ permitted their request; when instantly the devils seized the whole herd, about two thousand; and, filling them with madness, hurried them down a precipice into the lake, where they perished in the waters.
6. The keepers, who fled affrighted, spread through all the country the amazing account of the cure of the demoniac, and the destruction of the swine. On which a vast concourse of people assembled to see this strange sight; and, to their great surprise, found the man who had been possessed, and a terror to the country, now peaceably sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in the perfect exercise of his reason; and they who had been eye-witnesses of the curse, reported all the circumstances concerning the recovery of the man, and the destruction of the swine. Hereupon afraid lest Jesus should punish them yet more condignly if he continued there, and concerned more for their temporal than eternal interests, they intreated him to depart out of the country. And since they thus sinned against their own mercies, Jesus abandons them to the delusions which they had chosen.
7. Though his countrymen rejected Christ, the poor man who was cured, would fain have followed him; but Jesus bid him rather return, and bear testimony to the miracle of grace that he had experienced, and awaken thereby the concern of his friends to seek after the Lord who had done so great things for him. Accordingly the man obeyed his command; and, transported with gratitude, published every where in that country what Jesus had done for him, to the great astonishment of all who heard him. Note; (1.) They who know the blessing of Christ's presence, long to be ever near him, and cannot but lament if their lot be cast among the tents of Kedar, where his gospel has no place. (2.) They who are restored by Jesus to their right mind, from that moment begin to live to his glory, and to speak his praises. (3.) What the Lord does for the sinful soul are great things indeed, for which we can never enough adore and thank him.

2nd, Since the Gadarenes rejected him, Christ crosses the lake to Capernaum, where he expected a more welcome reception. Hereupon,
1. A ruler of the synagogue, with deepest respect, made his application to him, in behalf of his little daughter, who lay dying when he came out from his house, and was even then dead when he addressed our Lord. Note; The state of the sinner, dead in trespasses and sins, may be to human view irrecoverably desperate; but nothing is impossible with God.

2. As Jesus went with the ruler, a poor diseased woman stole a cure. Her malady discouraged her from making an open application to Jesus, and her faith persuaded her that it was needless; the very touch of his garments being, in her apprehension, sufficient for her recovery; even though her disorder had baffled the physicians' skill, and under their hands her little pittance had been wholly expended, and her complaints aggravated. Nor was she mistaken; for no sooner had she through the crowd got near enough to touch his garment, than immediately on so doing her disease was removed, she felt her health perfectly restored, and was retiring with wonder and thankfulness. But Jesus, who perceived the virtue which had gone out of him, for the manifestation of his own glory, and the confirmation of the poor patient's faith, turning himself, demanded who touched him? which the disciples answered with a kind of surprise and rudeness, as if, considering the crowd, such a question was very strange. But Jesus, overlooking their frowardness, and casting his eyes round to discover the person he meant, the poor woman, conscious of what had passed, and trembling lest the Lord should be displeased at the manner in which she had surreptitiously obtained her cure, came and fell at his feet, declaring the whole. Whereupon, far from being angry, Jesus encouraged and comforted her, making honourable mention of her faith; and dismissed her not only with a cure, but with his peace and benediction, which was infinitely better. Note; (1.) All our spiritual diseases can only be removed by the touch of faith; till virtue come out of Christ, we can have no health in ourselves. (2.) Where he works, an universal blessed change appears in all the tempers of the mind, and in the whole outward conduct and conversation. (3.) When we are discouraged with fear, we should lay our burdens at the feet of Jesus, and he will speak peace to our troubled souls.

3rdly, A discouraging message met the afflicted Jairus as Jesus was on the way with him. Tidings were brought that his daughter was dead, and his friends concluded that it was in vain to trouble Christ any farther; supposing that, though he cured the sick, to raise the dead was beyond his power. But,
1. Our Lord encourages the distressed parent, bids him not to give way to despondence, but only believe, and he should still see that death, as well as disease, was under his controul. Note; Faith is the great preservative from all our fears: when those who are nearest and dearest to us in Christ are removed, we have a ground of abiding consolation, that we shall meet them at the resurrection of the just.

2. When he came to the house, he suffered none to enter with him but Peter, James, and John, enough to be witnesses of the miracle, with the father and mother of the child: and rebuking the excessive lamentations of those who were within, he assured them that there was no real cause for them, as the damsel was not irrecoverable, as they apprehended; but though in the arms of death he would awake her. But they, fully assured of her death, treated with derision this suggestion. Unworthy, therefore, to be witnesses of his wondrous power and grace, he put them all out, and permitting only his three disciples, and the parents of the damsel, to be with him, he went in where the child lay, took her by the hand, and, bid her rise; when instantly her spirit returned, she arose, being about twelve years old, and, to the exceeding amazement of her parents, walked about in perfect health; and to shew that she still retained her former animal life, and that her appetite was restored with her health, he bade them give her something to eat. Note; When Christ gives spiritual life, it must be daily fed in the use of those means of grace, whereby he continues to minister strength and nourishment to the soul.

3. He gives them all a strict charge not to divulge this miracle. He knew how his growing fame would exasperate his enemies; and as his hour was not yet come, he used every prudent means to preserve his life, till he had finished the work which was given him to do.