Chapter # 1 Paragraph # 7 Study # 6
March 12, 2019
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(056)
1901 ASV
26 And the unclean spirit, tearing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.
27 And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What is this? a new teaching! with authority he commandeth even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.
28 And the report of him went out straightway everywhere into all the region of Galilee round about.
- I. The Outcomes of Jesus' Response to the Unclean Spirit.
- A. The reaction of the unclean spirit.
- 1. He strenuously resisted Jesus' demand that he come out of his 'host'.
- a. The first verb Mark used [Aorist Active Participle] indicates a violent epileptic-like seizure with convulsions, rolling on the ground, foaming at the mouth, and gnashing his teeth (Mark 9:17-27 is an extended record using the same verb).
- b. The second verb Mark used [Aorist Active Participle] indicates the making of a "sound" (probably without any understandable words), but it was "having sounded a great sound" -- a very loud vocalization.
- c. The "unclean spirit" did these things to signal the strength of his displeasure toward Jesus' demand. It was "proof" of his claim that he had nothing in common with Jesus Who was motivated by "Love" because his behavior is extremely "hateful".
- d. The final verb Mark used [Aorist Active Indicative] simply records the historical narrative in terms of Jesus' demand (exelthe in the demand recorded in 1:25, and exelthen in the record of the "obedience" in 1:26), using the same basic verb.
- e. Mark's "point" is that Jesus was confronted by a "humanly terrifying" display of "spiritual power". It raises the bar on the audience's shock.
- 2. But he did "come out".
- B. The reaction of the people in the synagogue.
- 1. They were mentally stunned.
- a. This verb is only found in four New Testament texts according to a search of Strong's concordance. Three of the four are Mark's (1:27; 10:25 and 32). There are a few other New Testament texts that use variants of this word, but they all seem to point to a kind of "startled mental confusion" that produces a serious challenge to previously "believed" doctrine.
- 1) In this context, the people call Jesus' "teaching" a "new doctrine".
- 2) In the context of 10:25, the disciples are simply "blown away" by Jesus' contradiction of the legal "doctrine" that rich folks have an almost automatic "in" with God.
- b. The only other text that uses this particular form of this term is Saul's own reaction to discovering, on the road to Damascus, that his "theology" was completely wrong-headed (Acts 9:6).
- 2. They sought each others' reactions because of their recognition that they were being exposed to "new doctrine" in a setting of undeniable "authority".
- 3. Their reactions were consistent: Jesus possessed "authority".
- a. Mark says, in effect, "they put their heads together to try to find an answer to what they had both heard and seen" (suzetein).
- b. They all admitted that what Jesus had "taught" and "done" was a "new teaching according to the standard of authority".
- 1) The word "commandeth" is used in the New Testament to refer to "settled and insistent commands" that carry the weight of "power" behind them.
- 2) They all saw the "unclean spirit's" extreme displeasure, followed by obedience (upakouousin Present Active Indicative Plural, an extrapolation from one "unclean spirit" to all "unclean spirits"). The "unclean spirit", doing what Jesus demanded, is described as, literally, "putting himself under (upo) what he heard (akouo)". This verb is regularly translated "obey", but actually communicates "a faithful submission to the thing(s) heard". This "unclean spirit" knew and "believed in" his relative status and position in comparison to Jesus' status and position so that he could not "help" doing what he had heard.
- C. The impact of this "event".
- 1. The "immediately" does not mean "immediately" (it took days, weeks, maybe even months).
- a. Consistent with Mark's other uses of the word, "immediately" means that Mark wanted his readers to "focus" on this result.
- b. The groundwork has been laid.
- 2. All Galilee was exposed to the "authority" issue.
