Matthew 17:14-20

Healing of the lunatic (epileptic) (Mark 9:14; Luke 9:37). St. Mark's account is much the fullest. Christ descends from the mount to resume His works of benevolence. He who had communed with God and His prophets in the very atmosphere of heaven, now mingles in the common life of men, and concerns Himself with their troubles. He was full of grace as well as truth. Raphael brings this out in his great picture, which depicts the Transfiguration and the healing of the epileptic boy upon the same canvas.

The scribes had taken advantage of Christ's absence to undermine His influence with the multitude, and their designs had been assisted by the failure of His disciples to heal a peculiarly severe case of epilepsy (Mk). The return of Jesus discomfited the scribes. The epileptic was healed, 'and they were all astonished at the majesty of God' (LK). J. Lightfoot remarks, 'It was very usual with the Jews to attribute the more grievous diseases to evil spirits, especially those wherein either the body was distorted, or the mind disturbed or tossed with a frenzy.' The demon of epilepsy, in the case of infants, was called 'Shibta,' in the case of adults, 'Cordicus.' How far the language of Christ about demons is an accommodation to the ideas of the time is discussed at end of Matthew 4.