Mark 5:33 Komentář

In this chapter, we have, I. Christ's casting the legion of devils out of the man possessed, and suffering them to enter into the swine (v. 1-20). II. Christ's healing the woman with the bloody issue, in the way as he was going to raise Jairus's daughter to life (v. 21-43). These three miracles we had the story of before (Mat 8:28, etc. and Mat 9:18, etc.) but more fully related here.

And they came over unto the other side of the sea,.... Of Galilee, or Tiberias; into the country of the Gadarenes: in the Evangelist Matthew it is called, "the country of the Gergesenes", as it is here in the Arabic and Ethiopic versions. The Vulgate Latin reads, "of the Gerasenes", and so some copies, from Gerasa, a place in the same country; but the Syriac and Persic versions read, "Gadarenes", as do most copies; so called from Gadara, a city either adjacent to, or within the country of the Gergesenes; which was called by both names, from these different places. It was not far from Tiberias, the place from whence this sea has its name, over which Christ and his disciples passed, Joh 6:1. Chammath was a mile from (e) Tiberias, and this Chammath was so near to the country of Gadara, that it is often called, , "Chammath of Gadara" (f); unless it should be rather rendered, "the hot baths of Gadara": for so it is (g) said, that at Gadara are the hot baths of Syria; which may be the same with the hot baths of Tiberias, so often mentioned in the Jewish writings (h); hence the town of Chammath had its name, which was so near to Tiberias, that it is sometimes reckoned the same with it (i): Pliny (k) places this Gadara in Decapolis, and Ptolemy (l) in Coelo Syria; and Meleager, the collector of epigrams, who is called a Syrian, is said (m) to be a Gadarene, a native of this Gadara. Mention is made of the whirlpool of Gadara (n), which remained ever since the flood. It appears to be an Heathen country, both from its situation, and the manners of the people. (e) T. Bab. Megilla, fol. 2. 2. (f) T. Hieros. Erubin, fol. 23. 3. & Trumot, fol. 41. 3. & Sabbat, fol. 5. 4. (g) Eunapius in Vita Iamblici, p. 26. (h) T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 108. 1. T. Hieros. Sabbat, fol. 6. 1. (i) T. Bab. Megilia, fol. 6. 1. (k) L. 5. c. 18. (l) L. 5. c. 15. (m) Fabricii Bibliotheca Grace. T. 2. p. 683. (n) T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 108. 1.

But the woman fearing and trembling,.... Lest she should be reproved, and suffer the penalties of the law, for appearing in public during the time of her uncleanness, Lev 15:25, or that Christ was displeased with her, for her taking an improper method to obtain her cure; or lest he should recall it, or was angry with her for concealing it, and attempting to go away undiscovered, and without so much as thanking him for it. After conversion, after souls have laid hold on Christ for righteousness and life; after they have had the pardon of their sins, and are cured of their diseases, they are not without their fears and tremblings, though there is no just reason for them: they fear where no fear is; that is, where there is no true cause of fear; which was this woman's ease: they are sometimes afraid they have no interest in Christ, and in his love; that they are hypocrites; that the truth of grace is not in them; that they shall never hold out to the end; that they shall perish, and come short of eternal glory, notwithstanding they know, as this woman did, what has been done in them, and done for them. Knowing what was done in her, and by her; being conscious to herself that she was the person that had touched him, and that upon it the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she was thoroughly healed of her disease: Came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. Christ did not point her out, though he knew her; or call her by her name, though he could have done it, and have ordered her to come to him, and account for her conduct: he had said enough to work upon her, and engage her to come; who came of herself, and with the greatest reverence to his person, and sense of her own unworthiness, threw herself at his feet, and gave him a relation of the whole matter, with the utmost truth and, exactness; what had been her case, what was her faith, and what she had done, and what a cure she had received; and which she acknowledged with the greatest thankfulness. In some copies it is added, "before all"; before Christ and his disciples, and the throng of people that were along with him: she that came behind Christ, and privately took hold of the hem of his garment, her faith secretly going out unto him; now appears openly before him, not being able to hide herself any longer. Nor is she ashamed to tell what she had done, and had been done in her: truth is to be spoken, even all the truth; no one has reason to be ashamed of that, and especially of the truth of grace, truth in the inward parts; this is what God requires, and gives, and delights in. The secret experiences of grace in our souls we should not be ashamed to relate to others; this makes for the glory of divine grace, and the good of others. In some copies it is read, "and told him all her cause before all": her whole affair, how it had been with her, and now was, and what was the cause of her taking such a method she did.

Note the separate stages; mark the progress. As long as she was hemorrhaging, she could not come into his presence. She was healed by faith and then came before him. She fell at his feet. Even then she did not yet dare to look up into his face. As long as she had been cured, it was enough for her to cling to his feet. She “told him all the truth.” Christ himself is the truth. She was giving praise to the truth. She had been healed by the truth.

But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had been done in her, came and fell down before Him, and told Him the whole truth. Behold where the questioning of the Lord was directed, namely that the woman openly confessing the truth of her long-standing infirmity, sudden belief, divine propitiation, and the healing given to her, would herself be more firmly confirmed in faith, and would provide an example of salvation and life to many. Finally, it follows.

But why does the Lord reveal the woman? First, in order to glorify the woman's faith; second, in order to arouse faith in the ruler of the synagogue that his daughter also will be saved; and also in order to free the woman from her great fear, for she was afraid as one who had stolen a healing. Thus the Evangelist also says: "she came in fear and trembling."

For the woman feared because she had stolen health; wherefore there follows, But the woman, fearing and trembling, &c.

The man possessed with a legion of demons cured, vv. 1-20. He raises Jairus's daughter to life, and cures the woman who had an issue of blood, vv. 21-43.

Fearing and trembling - See Mat 9:22.

HEROD THINKS JESUS A RESURRECTION OF THE MURDERED BAPTIST--ACCOUNT OF HIS DEATH. ( = Mat 14:1-12; Luk 9:7-9). (Mark 6:14-29) And King Herod--that is, Herod Antipas, one of the three sons of Herod the Great, and own brother of Archelaus (Mat 2:22), who ruled as ethnarch over Galilee and Perea. heard of him; (for his name was spread abroad); and he said--"unto his servants" (Mat 14:2), his councillors or court ministers. That John the Baptist was risen from the dead--The murdered prophet haunted his guilty breast like a specter, and seemed to him alive again and clothed with unearthly powers, in the person of Jesus.

But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her--alarmed, as a humble, shrinking female would naturally be, at the necessity of so public an exposure of herself, yet conscious that she had a tale to tell which would speak for her. came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth--In Luke (Luk 8:47) it is, "When the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before Him, she declared unto Him before all the people for what cause she had touched Him, and how she was healed immediately." This, though it tried the modesty of the believing woman, was just what Christ wanted in dragging her forth, her public testimony to the facts of her case--the disease, with her abortive efforts at a cure, and the instantaneous and perfect relief which her touching the Great Healer had brought her.