Scripture · Mark 1:29-31
Mark 1:26 · Jesus frees a man in the synagogue
Jesus Chases a Possessed Man from the Synagogue
At this, the unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions and came out with a loud shriek.
A raised hand answers a body bent in distress. Around Jesus and the man, faces turn and figures draw back. Tissot makes the synagogue a crowded place of witness: the interruption is happening in front of everyone.
What does Jesus Chases a Possessed Man from the Synagogue show?
Jesus stands in pale clothing near the center, his arm lifted toward the man at the right. The man’s body arches beside the steps. Men in head coverings look down from the wooden rail, while others watch from close beside the encounter.
Latticework, hanging lamps, patterned cloth, and tightly packed figures give the room a dense setting. These details belong to Tissot’s visualization. Despite the painting’s title, Mark describes Jesus commanding an unclean spirit to leave the man; the man himself is the recipient of that release.
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What does Mark 1:26 mean?
Mark 1:21–28 begins with Jesus teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum on the Sabbath. A man with an unclean spirit cries out, and Jesus commands the spirit to be silent and come out. Verse 26 describes the convulsion and cry at its departure.
The congregation responds to the authority of Jesus’ teaching and command. The passage presents the spirit’s recognition of Jesus alongside its resistance to him. Its focus is the man’s deliverance and the question raised among the witnesses: who speaks with this authority?
Tissot places the man’s distress before the watching congregation; Mark’s verse locates that distress at the moment the spirit leaves him.
Sources
Brooklyn Museum — Jesus Chases a Possessed Man from the Synagogue. Current collection record gives the date, medium, and image-and-paper dimensions.
Brooklyn Museum — museum-contributed photograph. Full photograph supplied by the museum, used to identify this composition.
Mark 1 — Berean Standard Bible. The synagogue encounter in verses 21–28.
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