Matthew 8:16 “When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with [his] word, and healed all that were sick:”
I found this rather interesting that it was during the daytime Jesus healed Peter’s mother in law of a fever. Such news travels very quickly in little villages in the Middle East. Yet, it was not until the evening that the sick came to Jesus to be healed. Scripture does not say why the people waited until evening. Some have speculated that it was too hot during the day and waited until cool of the evening. I mean when you are sick and have the chance of being healed a hot sunny day is not going to stand in your way of getting a healing.
More than likely this was the end of the Sabbath and the people knew that a holy man could not heal on the Sabbath so they were waiting until the Sabbath ended. It officially ends, according to the Talmud with the appearance of the third star. Once they saw that third star, they were off like the wise to find Jesus and claim their healing.
Many were brought to him that were possessed with devils and he cast out the spirits with his word. Healers and exorcists were pretty common in those days and they were passing through all the time. They had their little herbs and medicines and rituals. Exorcists were particularly entertaining as they would blacken their face, beat on a drum, shake some beads, chant, sing and recite many incantations. Yet Jesus cast these spirits out with a word. The pronoun his is not found in the Greek and indeed most our modern translations will simply render this as a word. That is important because exorcists and divine healers tend to use many words, spoken very dramatically to show power and authority. Jesus simply spoke a word or logos in the Greek. I suppose most people reading this could say more about the Biblical word logos than I could. The word logos is a very important word in Greek used in philosophy, psychology, rhetoric and religion. Aristotle used the word to refer to a reasoned discourse or argument, philosophers used the term as reference to the divine. Hellenistic Judaism around the time of Christ used the word to express that which through all things were made. This is most likely what the people heard when Jesus spoke, if He even spoke at all. It just says the demons took to running with logos. By the time Jesus finished clearing his throat the demon was gone. The Aramaic uses the word malatha which means a mandate or an order. Not many pious, authoritative words, just simply a word, mostly likely a one word command, “go” and the person was delivered from the demonic spirit. That would have been a major disappointment for those expecting a real road show.
Note that the passage say that those who had devils came to him and Jesus cast out the spirits. Why did he not just cast out the devils, why the spirits. I know good journalism, you don’t want to repeat a word. I doubt that. There is a difference between devils and spirits. In the Greek the word for devils is daimonizomenous which means demonized or possessed or controlled by demons. The Aramaic uses the word daivana which is the word for demon but in its Semitic root has the idea of rulership, controlling and making judgments. Basically this is the manifestations of the person who is possessed. Jesus just did not deal with the depression, the erratic behavior or the violence, he spoke to the cause of these manifestations which were the shedehs or the evil spirits. The Greek used the word pneumata or spirits.
Then he healed the sick. Not all were possessed with demons, some just had sickness and/or mental illness. Jesus was able to look into their souls and knew if it was a demon or just a physical affliction and he addressed them both. The word for sickness in Greek is kakos which is used for illness as well as bad behavior. Not all bad behavior stems from demons. The word used in the Aramaic is ‘evad which is a strange word to use because it means labors or working. In its Semitic roots it is a word for a slave. To use that in this context would mean that it was anything that holds you captive. Illness will hold you captive. We recently had a flu outbreak and everyday people were calling saying they could not go to work or school or perform their normal duties because the illness held them captive. I recently had a friend tell me how depression held her captive such that she could not accomplish anything. People didn’t just come to Jesus with broken arms, bad backs, fevers, they also came with anything that was holding them captive like depression, sadness and brokenness.
The Bible says that Jesus healed them. The word used for heal in the Greek is therapeuo where we get our modern word for therapy. It has the idea of caring, serving, attending, restoration and treating. Jesus didn’t just heal these people he cared for them, encouraged them, and uplifted them. Perhaps with the depressed he just imparted peace to them, for a broken arm he restored it. The word for healing used in the Aramaic is asa which means cure in the Aramaic but comes from the root word sata which means to cover and protect. Jesus did more than just heal these people he covered them and protected them. They were not just healed but they joined their hearts with Him and they became his followers. I remember reading an ancient rabbinical text where it said that the soul must be healed before the body can be healed. I believe this passage in Matthew uses the words it did in the original languages to show that Jesus did just that. He spent more time with the spiritual healing than he did with the natural healing. For once the spirit is healed, the physical part is easy.
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