And straightway the father of the child cried
out
As soon as ever he found it was put upon his faith, and that the
issue of things would be according to that, he expressed himself
with much vehemency, being in great distress; partly with
indignation at his unbelief, and partly through fear of missing a
cure, by reason of it:
and said with tears;
repenting of his unbelief, and grieved at the present weakness of
his faith; which he very ingenuously confesses, saying,
Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief;
not forward, but out of the way: he found in himself some small
degree of faith in the power of Christ, but it was mixed with
much unbelief, through the greatness of the child's disorder; and
therefore desires it might be removed from him, and he might be
helped against it: he saw it was not in his own power to believe;
nor had he strength of himself to oppose his unbelief; but that
both faith must be given him, and power against unbelief. The
Syriac version renders it, "help", (ytwnmyh twryoxl) , "the defect of my faith": till up
that which is lacking in it, it is very deficient, Lord, increase
it; and the Arabic and Ethiopic translate thus, "help the
weakness of my faith". He found his faith very weak, he desires
it might be strengthened, that he might be strong in faith, and
give glory to God; and in this way belief is helped, or men
helped against it: every believer, more or less, at one time or
another, finds himself in this man's case; and also that it is
necessary to make use of the same petition; for faith is but
imperfect in this life, and often very weak and defective in its
exercise.