Matthew 9:32

A dumb man possessed with a devil. — This narrative also is given by St. Matthew only. Referring to the Note in the Excursus on Matthew 8:28 for the general question as to “possession,” it may be noted here that the phenomena presented in this case were those of catalepsy, or of insanity showing itself in obstinate and sullen silence. The dumbness was a spiritual disease, not the result of congenital malformation. The work of healing restored the man to sanity rather than removed a bodily imperfection. Comp. the analogous phenomena in Matthew 12:22; Luke 11:14. The latter agrees so closely with this that but for the fact of St. Matthew’s connecting our Lord’s answer to the accusation of the Pharisees with the second of these miracles, we might have supposed the two identical.