A.T. Robertson Commentary Matthew 4:24

"And the report of him went forth into all Syria: and they brought unto him all that were sick, holden with divers diseases and torments, possessed with demons, and epileptic, and palsied; and he healed them." — Matthew 4:24 (ASV)

The report of him went forth into all Syria (απηλθεν η ακοη αυτου εις ολην την Σψριαν). Rumour (ακοη) carries things almost like the wireless or radio. The Gentiles all over Syria to the north heard of what was going on in Galilee. The result was inevitable. Jesus had a moving hospital of patients from all over Galilee and Syria. " Those that were sick " (τους κακως εχοντας), literally "those who had it bad," cases that the doctors could not cure. " Holden with divers diseases and torments " (ποικιλαις νοσοις κα βασανοις συνεχομενους). "Held together" or "compressed" is the idea of the participle. The same word is used by Jesus in Lu 12:50 and by Paul in Php 1:23 and of the crowd pressing on Jesus (Luke 8:45). They brought these difficult and chronic cases (present tense of the participle here) to Jesus. Instead of "divers" say "various" (ποικιλαις) like fever, leprosy, blindness. The adjective means literally many colored or variegated like flowers, paintings, jaundice, etc. Some had "torments" (βασανοις). The word originally (oriental origin) meant a touchstone, "Lydian stone" used for testing gold because pure gold rubbed on it left a peculiar mark. Then it was used for examination by torture. Sickness was often regarded as "torture." These diseases are further described "in a descending scale of violence" (McNeile) as "demoniacs, lunatics, and paralytics" as Moffatt puts it, "demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics" as Weymouth has it, (δαιμονιζομενους κα σεληνιαζομενους κα παραλυτικους), people possessed by demons, lunatics or "moon-struck" because the epileptic seizures supposedly followed the phases of the moon (Bruce) as shown also in Mt 17:15, paralytics (our very word). Our word "lunatic" is from the Latin luna (moon) and carries the same picture as the Greek σεληνιαζομα from σεληνη (moon). These diseases are called "torments."