And Jesus rebuked him, saying,
Hold your peace, and come out of him.
All Commentaries on Mark 1:25 Go To Mark 1
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
And Jesus threatened him; Gr. ×•Ì‰× ×•×¤ï¢“×œ×—×£×•×, i.e, rebuked, chided him with threats. That He would punish him unless he were silent.
Saying, Speak no more: Arab. shut thy mouth. Wherefore? I answer, First, Because it was not fitting that Christ should be commanded by the devil.
Second, That He might not appear to be a friend of the devil, and to hold intercourse with him. For afterwards it was objected to Christ that He cast out devils by the aid of Beelzebub. By acting as He did, Christ has taught us to shun all dealings with the devil; for he is the sworn enemy of God, and is wholly bent upon injuring and destroying us, even when he promises or brings us any corporal aid. Wherefore, as the Scholiast in Chrysostom saith, "Be silent; let thy silence be My praise. Let not thy voice, but thy torments praise Me. I am not pleased that thou shouldst praise Me, but that thou shouldst go forth."
Third, To show that we should resist flattery, that it may not stir up any desire of vainglory in our breast.
Fourth, Euthymius says, "He has taught us never to believe the demons, even when they say what is true. For since they love falsehood, and are most hostile to us, they never speak the truth except to deceive. They make use of the truth as it were a kind of bait." For, liars that they are, they conceal their lies by a colouring of truth. They say certain things that are true at the first, and afterwards interweave with them what is false, that those who have believed the first may believe also the last. For this cause Paul drove out the spirit of Python, who praised him, Acts 16:18.
Fifth, Because the demon in an unseasonable manner, and too speedily, disclosed that Christ was Messiah. For this might have injured Him, and turned the people away from Him. For so mighty a secret should be disclosed gradually, and the people be persuaded of its truth by many miracles; for otherwise they would not at first receive it and believe it. This was why ( Mark 8:30) Christ forbids the Apostles also to say that He was Christ. So Maldonatus and others.
Symbolically: Bede, "The devil, because he had deceived Eve with his tongue, is punished by the tongue, that he might not speak."
