Smoodock's Blog

As soon as Jesus entered Peter’s and Andrew’s home with James and John, he was told that Peter’s mother-in-law lay sick of a fever (Mark 1:30); Luke calls it a great fever, which some conclude is a medical term for a high fever. Matthew says Jesus touched her hand, and the fever left her (Matthew 8:15), while Mark tells us he took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her (Mark 1:31). Luke describes the scene more like a physician, saying Jesus stood over her. Then Jesus rebuked the fever, and she rose up immediately (Luke 4:39), and all three Synoptics say she rose up and served them, meaning they reclined at the table, and she laid food before them.

It is interesting, I think, that Mark (remember this is actually Peter’s Gospel narrative written down by Mark for the Roman church) chose to record the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law (Mark 1:31) immediately after Jesus cast out an unclean spirit (i.e. a demon) out of a man, who happened to be in the synagogue at Capernaum (Mark 1:25-26). The very same Greek word that Mark used for Jesus rebuking (G2008) the unclean spirit in Mark 1:25 is also used by Luke to say Jesus rebuked the fever that had debilitated Peter’s mother-in-law (Luke 4:39). If both the spirit and the fever were invisible, except for their effects, should we consider them the same thing but affecting the individuals differently? If Jesus reacted similarly to both, in that the two had to be rebuked, were they both demons, and, if so, perhaps modern Christianity needs to change what it thinks about demons and demonic power over the individual. A disease, deadly or not, has almost complete power over a person, just as the modern doctrine of demonic possession says demons hold over unfortunate souls. Nevertheless, if Jesus treated both alike, why should we believe they are essentially different?

That diseases were in some manner connected to demons is evident from what we read in Josephus’ history. Speaking of a herb that grew near the Herodium that Herod the Great erected south of Jerusalem, Josephus says:

…it is only valuable on account of one virtue it has, that if it be only brought to sick persons, it quickly drives away those called demons, which are no other than the spirits of the wicked, that enter into men that are alive, and kill them, unless they can obtain some help against them.[1]

So, in the context of first century AD thought, diseases were demonic, and Luke has Jesus rebuking the disease as though it were demonic (Luke 4:39). Therefore, unless we wish to conclude that all diseases, today, are the work of demons, and doctors use physical drugs to cast out demons, we really need to reconsider what we think of demons and how we interpret the Biblical account of such things.

As the sun went down, many people from the surrounding community brought their friends and loved ones who were stricken with diseases (Mark 1:32-33). Scholars try to tell us that a distinction is made between “all that were diseased, **and** them that were possessed with demons” (Mark 1:32; emphasis mine). Nevertheless, the Greek word kai (G2532), translated and in verse-32 to show two different groups of people, can also be translated into even, for the sake of emphasis. For example, Paul tells us:

“And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even (kai; G2532) we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23; emphasis mine).

Notice that even we ourselves groan emphasizes the phrase but ourselves also. The word ourselves (used three times in this verse) points to the same group of people, and the word even is used for emphasis, not two groups of people. Likewise, Mark uses the Greek word kai (G2532) to emphasize the fact that the diseased were the same folks who had a demon.

I seems interesting to me, and telling, that Mark begins his record of Jesus’ public ministry on the Sabbath by mentioning that Jesus cast an unclean spirit (demon; Mark 1:23-26) out of a man. Then Jesus cast out the fever of a woman (Mark 1:31) in the afternoon of the Sabbath, and after the Sabbath was past, he went back to casting out demons (Mark 1:32-34). The context of the entire account seems to be casting out demons, which for all practical purposes meant diseases and / or disorders of a person’s mind. Jesus treated both, the fever and the unclean spirits (demons) in the same fashion; he rebuked (G2008) them (Mark 1:25; Luke 4:39, 41). Moreover, many of those having diseases were of the character of a spiritualist, in other words psychics or clairvoyant, and, because they perceived Jesus was the Messiah, he prevented them from speaking, because he didn’t desire their testimony.

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[1] Josephus; Wars of the Jews; 7.6.3 (185)