At this, the unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions and came out with a loud shriek.
Mark 1:26 When the unclean spirit had torn him Luke uses a milder phrase, when the devil had thrown him down: but they agree perfectly as to the meaning; for the design of both was to show, that the devil went out of the man in a violent manner.
As soon as Christ began to preach, he began to work miracles for the confirmation of his doctrine; and they were such as intimated the design and tendency of his doctrine, which were to conquer Satan, and cure sick souls. In these verses, we have, I. Christ's casting the devil out of a man that was possessed, in the synagogue at Capernaum.
Commenting on Mark 1:23-28
And when the unclean spirit had torn him,.... Not that he had torn any limb from him, or had made any wound in any part of his body; for Luke says, Luk 4:35, that he "hurt him not", but he shook him; and as Luke there says, "threw him in the midst", of the people, or synagogue; and so the Syriac, Persic, and Ethiopic versions...