CHAPTER XII.

_Weakness of the back, with a rigidity of the back-bone._

"There was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was so bowed together, that she could in no wise lift up herself, and Jesus laid his hands on her, and she was freed from her infirmity, and immediately made[137] strait."

[137] _Luke, Chap. xiii. v. 11, &c._

This woman was [Greek: sygkyptousa], that is, _stooping forward_; being unable [Greek: anakypsai], or _to lift up her head_. Now that spirit, according to the common way of speaking of the jews, was satan. For thus Christ himself, answering the ruler of the synagogue, who was angry that the woman had been cured on the sabbath day, says, that _satan had held her bound these eighteen years_. And exactly in the same sense saint Mark employs [Greek: pneuma alalon] for a _spirit, which obstructed the faculty of speech_.[138]

[138] _Chap. ix. v. 17._

This infirmity often befalls those, who have been very long afflicted with a disorder of the loins: whence the muscular fibres of that part become contracted and rigid. Wherefore it is very probable, that this tedious disease proceeded from that very cause, and was curable by the divine assistance only.