Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 17:18

"And Jesus rebuked him; and the demon went out of him: and the boy was cured from that hour." — Matthew 17:18 (ASV)

Jesus rebuked the devil — Better, the demon, as elsewhere in these cases of possession.

The child was cured — Better, the boy. Mark 9:21 implies, as the Greek does here, that the sufferer had passed beyond the age of childhood. St. Mark gives the words of the rebuke: “You dumb and deaf spirit, I command you, come out from him, and enter no more into him.” This was followed by a great cry and another convulsion; then he fell down, as if dead, and many cried out, “He is dead.” Then Jesus took him by the hand, raised him up, and the work of healing was accomplished.

Calmness, peace, and self-possession were seen instead of the convulsive agony. The spiritual power of the Healer had overcome the force—whether a disease or demonic—which was the cause of his sufferings.

Our Lord’s words, it need hardly be said, assume the cause was demonic. Those who deny the reality of the possession must, in turn, assume either that He shared the common belief of the people or that He accepted it because they were not able to receive any other explanation for the mysterious sufferings they had witnessed. Each hypothesis presents its own difficulties, and we may well be content to confess our inability to solve them (See Note on Matthew 8:28).

Generally speaking, the language of the New Testament seems to recognize an infraction of the divine order not only in all diseases, but especially in all that disturbs the moral equilibrium of human nature. Therefore, it rightly sees in them the work, directly or indirectly, of the great antagonist of that order. All our Lord’s works of mercy are summed up by St. Peter in the words that “He went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil” (Acts 10:38). On this premise, the particular phenomena of each case were logically attributed to demonic forces.