As they went out, behold, a mute man who was demon possessed was brought to him. When the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke. The multitudes marveled, saying, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel!”
The inability to speak is caused by an evil spirit inhabiting a person's body.
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The cited passage
What current science says
Speech disorders have well-understood medical causes: damage to Broca's area in the brain, vocal cord paralysis, neurological conditions like stroke or ALS, psychological trauma (selective mutism), or congenital conditions affecting the vocal apparatus. None of these involve spirits of any kind. Speech-language pathology is an entire medical field dedicated to diagnosing and treating these conditions — and decades of clinical data show that actual therapy works far better than any exorcism.
What the text says
This comes from Matthew 9:32-33. The text attributes a man's muteness to demonic possession and claims his speech was restored once the demon was driven out.
Three honest ways to read this passage
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As history
The text records how its authors understood the world with the knowledge they had. Read this way, a difference from modern science is a window into the ancient mind, not a failure.
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As accommodation
The text speaks to its first audience in their own terms, to make a point that isn't mainly about physics or biology. Read this way, the scientific detail is the vehicle, not the cargo.
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As contradiction
The text makes a claim about the physical world that modern findings dispute. Read this way, the difference is a genuine factual disagreement worth naming.
GEBible doesn't pick one of these for you. Each entry shows the passage, what it says, and what current science says — nothing more.