When Jesus saw that the people
came running together, he rebuked the soul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb
and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.
And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one
dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead. (Mark 9:25-26)
In this passage, there is a numerical distinction of person
between the demonized person and the "foul spirit." The Greek has
Jesus address the unclean spirit, as seen in the use of the dative in the
phrase ἐπετίμησεν τῷ πνεύματι τῷ ἀκαθάρτῳ λέγων αὐτω. Jesus also speaks to
"τὸ ἄλαλον καὶ κωφὸν πνεῦμα" (the evil/unclean spirit) and commands
such a spirit to come out (εισερχομαι) the demonized person. As with Luke
433-35, 40-41, this passage only makes sense if the biblical authors
believed in the ontological existence of demons (contra Christadelphians
and others).
Commenting on this text, Adela Yarbro Collins noted that:
Jesus’ statement, “I command you
… and from now on, do not enter into him” (ἐγὼ ἐπιτάσσω σοι … καὶ μηκέτι εἰσέλθῃς εἰς αὐτόν), is
similar to Josephus’s account of an exorcism performed by a certain Eleazar,
“he made him swear that he would never come back into him” (μηκέτʼ εἰς αὐτὸν ἐπανήξειν ὥρκου). Such commands appear to be a technique designed to prevent a
relapse.
The departure of the spirit (v.
26) is described in terms similar to those of Jesus’ first exorcism (1:26). In
both cases, the spirit “convulses” (σπαράσσω) the possessed person, although here “greatly” (πολλά) is added. In both cases, the
spirit “cries out,” although different terms are used. Even if the cry is
inarticulate, this element is an indication that the spirit itself is not mute;
rather, it causes its victim to become mute (cf. T. Sol. 12:2). Distinctive here is the result of the departure of
the spirit: the young man “became like a corpse” and the bystanders thought
that he had died. Jesus then “raised him up and he rose” (ἤγειρεν αὐτὸν καὶ ἀνέστη). Although the story does not imply
that the boy was actually dead, the dual expression in v. 27 attracts the
attention of the audience and may call to mind the raising of the daughter of
Jairus who had died. Jesus also grasped her hand; he asked her to “wake up” or
“rise up” (ἔγειρε); and she
also rose (ἀνέστη) (5:41–42).
In both stories the extraordinary power of Jesus is gloriously
manifested. (Adela Yarbro Collins and Harold W. Attridge, Mark: A Commentary on the Gospel of Mark
[Hermeneia—a Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible; Minneapolis:
Fortress Press, 2007], 439; the reference to Josephus comes from Antiquities
of the Jews 8.47)
