Gospel of Mark Chapter 1 Vs. 32

 Jesus Heals Many

Mark 1:32 “And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils.”

when the sun... An additional detail to Mat. 8:16. The sabbath was now past so it was not such a sin to be healed, as they thought in Mark 3:2; Luke 6:7; 13:10-16; John 5:9-18; 9:14, 9:16. Marking the close of the Sabbath and the easing of the restrictions associated with it. Specifically, rabbinic law prohibited carrying any burdens such as stretchers, on the Sabbath.

At even, when the sun did set.

An instance of Mark's habit of coupling similar words or phrases.

they brought unto... The report of Jesus’ healing of the demon-possessed man in the synagogue and Peter’s mother-in-law created a sensation in Capernaum and aroused the hopes of other sufferers.

That were sick.

, Mat. 4:24

Sickness, Disease, Torments, Taken, Lunatic

The description of the ailments to which our Lord's power was applied gains in vividness by study of the words in detail. In Mat. 4:23, the Rev. rightly transposes sickness and disease; for νόσος A. V., sickness carries the notion of something severe, dangerous, and even violent compare the Latin noceo, to hurt, to which the root is akin. Homer always represents νόσος as the visitation of an angry deity. Hence used of the plague which Apollo sent upon the Greeks (Iliad, 1:10). So, Sophocles (Antigone, 421) calls a whirlwind θείαν νόσον a divine visitation. Disease is, therefore, the more correct rendering as expressing something stronger than sickness or debility. Sickness, however, suits the other word, μαλακίαν. The kindred adjective, μαλακος, means soft, as a couch or newly ploughed furrow, and thus easily runs into our invidious moral sense of softness, namely, effeminacy or cowardice, and into the physical sense of weakness, sickness. Hence the word emphasizes the idea of debility rather than of violent suffering or danger.

In Mat. 4:24 we have, first, a general expression for ailments of all kinds: all that were sick lit., all who had themselves in evil case; πάντας τοὺς κακῶς ἔχοντας. Then the idea of suffering is emphasized in the word taken συνεχομένους , which means literally held-together or compressed; and so the Rev. holden is an improvement on taken, in which the A. V. has followed Wyc. and Tynd. The word is used of the multitude thronging Christ (Luke 8:45). Compare, also, how am I straitened (Luke 12:50); and I am in a strait (Phlp. 1:1-3). Then follow the specific forms of suffering, the list headed again by the inclusive word νόσοις, diseases, and the καὶ following having the force of and particularly. Note the word torments βασάνοις. Βάσανος originally meant the Lydian stone, or touchstone, on which pure gold, when rubbed, leaves a peculiar mark. Hence, naturally, a test; then a test or trial by torture. Most words, says Professor Campbell on the Language of Sophocles have been originally metaphors, and metaphors are continually falling into the rank of words, used by the writer as mere vehicles of expression without any sense of the picturesque or metaphorical element at their core. Thus, the idea of a test gradually passes entirely out of Βάσανος leaving merely the idea of suffering or torture. This is peculiarly noticeable in the use of this word and its derivatives throughout the New Testament; for although suffering as a test is a familiar New Testament truth, these words invariably express simply torment or pain. Wycliffe renders, they offered to him all men having evil, taken with divers sorrows and torments; and Tyndale, all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and gripings. Lunatic, or moon-struck, σεληνιαζομένους, is rendered by Rev. epileptic, with reference to the real or supposed influence of the changes of the moon upon the victims of epilepsy.

We see that the fame of Jesus had spread rapidly. By that evening a large group of sick and those possessed with devils had gathered to be healed. These that were brought were almost assuredly the ones whom the physicians had given up on.

When you are sick and there seems no hope, it is time to locate someone with great healing power, and that is just what these people did. Perhaps one reason they came late in the evening was so that they might not be seen by their neighbors.

Now here is a curious example of the peril of pressing too eagerly our inferences from the expressions of an evangelist. St. Mark tells us that they brought all their sick and them that were possessed with devils. And He healed not all, but many that were sick, and cast out many devils. How easily we might distinguish between all who came, and the many who were healed. Want of faith would explain the difference, and spiritual analogies would explain the difference, and spiritual analogies would be found for those who remained unhealed at the feet of the good Physician. These lessons might be very edifying, but they would be out of place, for St. Matthew tells us that He healed them all.

But who can fail to contrast this universal movement, the urgent quest of bodily health, and the willingness of friends and neighbors to convey their sick to Jesus, with our indifference to the health of the soul, and our neglect to lead others to the Savior. Disease being the cold shadow of sin, its removal was a kind of sacrament, an outward and visible sign that the Healer of souls was nigh. But the chillness of the shadow afflicts us more than the pollution of the substance, and few professing Christians lament a hot temper as sincerely as a fever.

The Healing of Many People at Sunset

This summary portrays the excitement in Capernaum generated by the miracles on that Sabbath. The double time reference, that evening after sunset, made it clear that the people of Capernaum waited until the Sabbath Day was over sunset before moving the sick lest they break the Law (cf. Exo. 20:10) or Rabbinic regulations which prohibited burden-bearing on that day (cf. Mark 3:1-5).

The townspeople brought lit., kept carrying, imperf. to Jesus all the physically sick and demon-possessed not possessed with devils, KJV, since there is only one devil. Again, a clear distinction is maintained between physical sickness and demon possession (cf. Mark 6:13).