_Weakness of the back, with a rigidity of the back-bone._
"There was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and
was so bowed together, that she could in no wise lift up herself, and
Jesus laid his hands on her, and she was freed from her infirmity, and
immediately made[137] strait."
[137] _Luke, Chap. xiii. v. 11, &c._
This woman was [Greek: sygkyptousa], that is, _stooping forward_;
being unable [Greek: anakypsai], or _to lift up her head_. Now that
spirit, according to the common way of speaking of the jews, was
satan. For thus Christ himself, answering the ruler of the synagogue,
who was angry that the woman had been cured on the sabbath day, says,
that _satan had held her bound these eighteen years_. And exactly in
the same sense saint Mark employs [Greek: pneuma alalon] for a
_spirit, which obstructed the faculty of speech_.[138]
[138] _Chap. ix. v. 17._
This infirmity often befalls those, who have been very long afflicted
with a disorder of the loins: whence the muscular fibres of that part
become contracted and rigid. Wherefore it is very probable, that this
tedious disease proceeded from that very cause, and was curable by the
divine assistance only.