A particular malady of body inducing a deadness in the part affected. We read, (Mark 2: 1 - 13.) of an interesting cure the Lord Jesus wrought on a poor man labouring under this disease; and the complaint of this cripple in body gave occasion to our Lord to manifest thereby his sovereign and almighty power in healing the crippled state of the souls of his people. The palsy is one of the most striking emblems of the dead and helpless state of our fallen nature. Every sinner, until healed by Christ, is palsied in all his faculties; sothat in all the instances of palsy we behold in the present day, we see living evidences before our eyes of the effects both of original and actual sin. The sinner is no more able in himself to give health and activity to his soul, than the man of palsy to rise up and use the limbs which are benumbed. Oh! that a sense of this most unquestionable truth were but fully incorporated in our nature, that the Lord Jesus, beholding the faith which he alone can give, might say to the paralytic in soul as to this sick of the palsy in body, Son,be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee."
See DISEASES.
Or paralysis, strikes sometimes one side or portion of the body, and sometimes the whole; affecting the power of motion, or the power of sensation, or both. It is one of the least curable of diseases; but the Savior healed it with a word, Mat 4:24 ; 12:10; Mar 2:3-12 . The "withered hand," Mar 3:1, was probably an effect of the palsy. There is also a palsy of the soul, which the Great Physician can heal, and he alone.\par
Palsy. (contracted from paralysis). The loss of sensation, or the power of motion, or both, in any part of the body. The infirmities included under this name, in the New Testamen, t were various: --
1. The paralytic shock affecting the whole body, or apoplexy.
2. That affecting only one side.
3. Affecting the whole system below the neck.
4. Catalepsy, caused by the contraction of the muscles in the whole, or a part, of the body. This was very dangerous and often fatal. The part affected remains immovable, and diminishes in size and dries up. A hand thus affected was called "a withered hand." Mat 12:10-13.
5. Cramp. This was a most dreadful disease caused by the chills of the nights. The limbs remain immovably fixed in the same position as when seized as it, and the person seems like one suffering torture. It is frequently followed, in a few days, by death. Several paralytics were cured by Jesus. Mat 4:24; Mat 8:13 etc.
Paralysis affecting part of the body. The "grievously tormented" (Mat 8:6) refers to the convulsions, foamings, and heavy breathings of the sufferer, giving the appearance of torment, whether himself conscious of pain or not.
The Greek word,
PALSY.—See Paralysis.
PALSY.—The modern form of this word is ‘paralysis.’ See Medicine, p. 599a.
The more common word is ‘paralysis.’ Only two instances are reported in the Act_8:7 (many) and Act_9:33 (aeneas). The condition referred to is marked by loss of muscular control, caused by cerebral or spinal lesion, or by local disease or disorder of nerves and muscles. Whether the paralytics who were healed by Philip in Samaria were brought to him on beds, were visited by him, or were able to come to him with others who were suffering from bodily disturbance, we are not told. aeneas was for eight years bed-ridden, and thus appears to have been in a desperate plight. In the absence of competent and explicit medical testimony, it would be idle to conjecture whether any of these cases was organic rather than functional, or how large a part suggestion played in their cure. The healings by Philip brought to an end the practice of sorcery by Simon and led to his conversion; the healing of aeneas showed anew the power which resided in ‘the name of Jesus’ (cf. Act_3:6, Act_4:10). The recovery of all these paralytics followed the customary order of NT cases: no sooner was the word spoken than the cures took place.
C. A. Beckwith.