Matthew 9:32-34
32. As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil—"demonized." The dumbness was not natural, but was the effect of the possession.
33. And when the devil—demon.
was cast out, the dumb spake—The particulars in this case are not given; the object being simply to record the instantaneous restoration of the natural faculties on the removal of the malignant oppression of them, the form which the popular astonishment took, and the very different effect of it upon another class. and the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel—referring, probably, not to this case only, but to all those miraculous displays of healing power which seemed to promise a new era in the history of Israel. Probably they meant by this language to indicate, as far as they thought it safe to do so, their inclination to regard Him as the promised Messiah.34. But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils—"the demons through the prince of the demons." This seems to be the first muttering of a theory of such miracles which soon became a fixed mode of calumniating them—a theory which would be ridiculous if it were not melancholy as an outburst of the darkest malignity. (See on Mt 12:24, &c.).
Mt 9:35-10:5. THIRD GALILEAN CIRCUIT—MISSION OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES.
As the Mission of the Twelve supposes the previous choice of them—of which our Evangelist gives no account, and which did not take place till a later stage of our Lord's public life—it is introduced here out of its proper place, which is after what is recorded in Lu 6:12-19.
Third Galilean Circuit (Mt 9:35) —and probably the last.