Possessed with a Devil
R. Glover. Mark 1:23 And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, The devil is always endeavouring to work on us, and seizes every advantage offered, and works through (1) a darkened mind, or (2) disordered nerves, or (3) a depraved heart.In all ages you find him oppressing with his torture all that are so conditioned, especially those with disordered nerves or depraved heart. The time of Christ was an age of wildness and despair. Oppression drove men mad. The man in the synagogue may have merely had disordered nerves, and have been simply a good man plunged into insane melancholy; or he may have had a depraved heart, sinking at last through remorse into despair. For, all badness tends to grow into madness. Some sin lies at the root of five-sixths of all our English madness. Falsehood and selfishness make men madly suspicious; vice softens the brain; drunkenness especially sinks men into madness. "Whomsoever we obey, his servants we are," and if we obey the devil we soon give him the upper hand over us. (R. Glover.) Parallel Verses KJV: And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, WEB: Immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out,