Exorcising a boy possessed by a demon

Mark's account describes how Jesus is surrounded by a crowd, one of whom asks for help for his son, who 'has a spirit that makes him unable to speak'.

Afterwards, the disciples ask Jesus why they were unable to cure the boy and he explains, 'This kind can come out only through prayer'.

[4] The version in Matthew's gospel is considerably shorter, and drops the reference to a crowd and the need for prayer.

Origen believes these words were spoken to the nine Apostles who remained below, during the transfiguration, and that their faith was weak.

So also Hilary of Poitiers who writes, “Whilst Christ had gone up upon the mountain with three of the Apostles, a kind of torpor of faith crept over the remaining nine, who were left with the people, both because they heard from the father of the lunatic, and saw with their own eyes the magnitude of the evil, and the violence and raging madness of the demon within him.” However Jerome, John Chrysostom, and Theophylact of Ohrid believe these words were spoken to the father, as well as to the Jews and Scribes.