means he was an epileptic who "suffered terribly". "Those vexed with unclean spirits"

were afflicted or harmed by unclean spirits.

VEXATION.  In the same way, this was a strong term in the sixteenth century for

terror or anguish. "It shall be a vexation to understand the report" is better rendered in

the R.V. ". . . . . it shall be naught but terror to understand the message".

VILE.  Originally this word from the Latin vilis meant lowly, cheap or worthless.

Later on it acquired the meaning of disgusting either morally or physically, but this

meaning is quite absent from this word as used in the Bible. The A.V. translators were

fond of `vile' which they used in order to translate a number of different Hebrew words.

When Job said "I am vile" (Job 40: 4) what he really meant was "I am nothing", "of no

value". In the N.T., Phil. 3: 21 in the A.V. talks about "the vile body", but here the

Greek word means lowly or humble. There is nothing vile in the modern sense with

respect to our bodies. It is rather "the body of our humiliation or humbling".  In

James.ii.2 we have a poor man coming into the synagogue in "vile raiment". This meant

"shabby clothing" because of his poverty. There was nothing disgraceful about it.

VIRTUE. In two of its occurrences in the N.T. the word virtue is misleading in the

A.V. The Lord said "Somebody touched Me; for I perceive virtue is gone out of Me"

(Luke 8: 46). Virtue here and in Luke 6: 19 is dunamis power. The Lord sensed that

power had left Him, not virtue.