ye have received, freely give," with many other charges (x. 5-xi. 1). In Luke there is no commission. at all at this point, and nothing is said here (later, however, at ix. 1, 2) of a sending forth; and in Mark, while there is no actual assertion of a commission or a sending forth, there is a subtle suggestion of such to be bestowed in the future (iii. 14, 15): "And he appointed [eroínσev-lit. made] twelve, that ["va] they might be with him, and that [iva] he might send them forth [aπoσTéλλn] to preach, and to have authority [éžovoíav] to cast out demons."1 It seems as if Luke had disintegrated Matthew's account into two; and then Mark, while following Luke in this practice, had allowed the shadow of Matthew's commission and sending forth to fall on his page, and colour his words. However that may be, we conclude that though Matthew records an investment of the Twelve with authority over unclean spirits and to cast out demons, yet the subject has apparently so little interest for him, that we search in vain in all his pages for the return of the Twelve from their mission, or any record of their success or failure. Even if we grant (which we cannot prove from Matthew's account) that Jesus had other disciples than the Twelve, there is not a trace in the

1 Mark reserves the completed development of this purpose till vi. 7, when Luke (ix. 1) relates the actual commission and sending forth of the Twelve. Cf. for a similar development, i. 17 : And I will make [rohow] you to become [yevéσ0a] fishers of men," with Matt. iv. 19 and Mark iii. 14.

First Gospel that any follower of Jesus, commissioned or not, ever cast out a single demon. With Luke and Mark we are on different ground in this respect; but at this stage in the narrative, so far as either is concerned, the evidence is equal; for neither contemplates an actual commission or sending forth till much later in the ministry. There is this conspicuous fact, however, in Luke's account of the choice of twelve disciples as apostles, that, in the presence of these apostles and of "a great multitude of his disciples, and a great number of people from all Judæa and Jerusalem, and the sea-coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear" Jesus," and to be cured of their diseases," "they that were troubled with unclean spirits were healed." Further, that "all the multitude sought to touch him; and Luke adds the reason in his own peculiar phraseology, "for power [Súvaμis] came forth from him, and healed them all." Thus, even while proceeding to give his first account of a formal discourse by Jesus, addressed mainly to His disciples, Luke is careful to mention a demonstration of the power of Jesus before a great concourse of the people, as the magnet by which disciples were attracted to Him.

HEALING OF THOSE TROUBLED WITH UNCLEAN

SPIRITS.

(LUKE vi. 18, 19; MARK iii. 11, 12; cf. MATT. xii. 15, 16.)

The next mention of exorcism in Luke's Gospel is at vi. 18, 19: "And they that were troubled with unclean spirits were healed. And all the multitudes sought to touch him; for power came forth from him, and healed them all." In the parallel passage in

Mark (iii. 11, 12), it is actually accomplished: whensoever they beheld him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God. And he charged them much that they should not make him known." In Matthew, in this context, there is no mention of demoniacs at all (xii. 15, 16): "And many followed him, and he healed them all; and charged them that they should not make him known." The significance to be attached here to Luke's exact statement as to the healing of the possessed is, that the area of country from which they were drawn is much greater than any he has yet sketched. Certainly he does not include either Idumæa or the district beyond Jordan, as Mark does (iii. 8); but the main thing is the actual statement by Luke that Jesus healed those that came to Him. Afterwards (x. 1-24), Luke in

not clear that cures were "And the unclean spirits,

Icludes the whole dominion of heathendom in the

operations of the Seventy.1

JOHN'S MESSAGE TO JESUS.

(MATT. xi. 2-6; LUKE vii. 18-23; unknown to MARK.)

John's message to Jesus now falls to be considered. It is important, as affording another proof of Luke's purpose, in devoting more attention than any other Evangelist to the subject of demonology. The incident is not found in Mark. In Matthew it is narrated immediately after the charge of Jesus to the twelve apostles, at xi. 2-6, in the following words: "Now when John heard in the prison the works of the Christ, he sent by his disciples, and said unto him, Art thou he that cometh, or look we for another? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Go your way and tell John the things which ye do hear and see the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good tidings preached to them [πτωχοὶ εὐαγγελίζονται]; and blessed is he, whosoever shall find none occasion of stumbling in me." Let us now turn to Luke's account, vii. 18-23: "And the disciples of John told him. of all these things. And John, calling unto him

1 Whether we read "seventy" or "seventy-two," the number is very generally understood to refer to the nations of the Gentile, or heathen, world.

two of his disciples, sent them to the Lord, saying, Art thou he that cometh, or look we for another? And when the men were come unto him, they said, John the Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that cometh, or look we for another? In that hour [ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ὥρᾳ] he cured many of diseases and plagues 1 [μαστίγων], and evil spirits [πνευμάτων πоvηρŵv], and on many that were blind he bestowed sight. And he answered and said unto them, Go your way and tell John what things ye have seen and heard [eideTe Kai Kovσaтe]; the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good tidings preached to them [πτωχοὶ εὐαγγελίζονται]. And blessed is he, whosoever shall find none occasion of stumbling in me." A comparison of these two accounts, both as regards position and matter, will afford curious results.

(1.) In Luke it is the first mention made, since the baptism, of any communication or intercourse between John and Jesus. But, according to Matthew (ix. 1417), the disciples of John had already addressed Jesus on the question of fasting,-an occasion which drew from Jesus a discourse on the contrast between the old and the new order of things. This discourse with certain differences is also in Luke (v. 33-39), but there

1 Plague-demons were believed in by the Babylonians. See Sayce's Hibb. Lect., pp. 309-311, 443, 451.