Matthew 17:21 BSB — MannaFest

Matthew 17:21

BSB

Parallel translations (2) ▾

ASV

KJV

Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.

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A note on the manuscripts

Most scholars agree

Prayer and fasting, a verse that is missing from Matthew

Matthew's verse 21, "this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting" — is absent from the earliest manuscripts and looks like a copy of Mark 9:29 that a scribe wrote into the margin.

What it changes: No doctrine. Fasting is commanded and assumed all through Scripture, Jesus teaches on it in Matthew 6:16-18, and the church in Acts 13:2-3 fasts before sending out Barnabas and Saul.

The manuscripts, and the case each way →

Commentary

1 voice

Origen of Alexandria

Catena Aurea by Aquinas (253)

If then we shall ever be required to be employed in the healing of those who are suffering any thing of this sort, we shall not adjure them, nor ask them questions, nor even speak, as though the unclean spirit could hear us, but by our fasting and our prayers drive away the evil spirits.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)

This kind of devils - goeth not out but by prayer and fasting - What a testimony is here of the efficacy of fasting, when added to fervent prayer! Some kinds of devils the apostles had cast out before this, without fasting.

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

"This kind of faith (which removeth mountains) doth not proceed, is not obtained, from God, nor is it carried up to its full growth, nor drawn out into act and exercise, but by earnest prayer." [3.] Fasting and prayer are proper means for the bringing down of Satan's power against us, and the fetching in of divine power to our assistance.

The Nineteenth Century3 voices

Albert Barnes

1798–1870

Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

Howbeit, this kind ... - This kind means this kind of devils - this species of possession. Where they have had long possession where they produce such painful, fixed, and alarming effects, they can be expelled only in connection with prayer and fasting. Goeth not out but by prayer and fasting - That is, in order to work miracles of this kind to cast out devils in cases so obstinate and dreadful as this, faith of the highest kind is necessary.

Charles Spurgeon

1834–1892

The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2454: “The Secret of Failure” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) (1896)