("madness".) The Easterners regard madmen with a superstitious reverence, as idolatrous worshippers seemed, and true worshippers were really, rapt out of themselves by divine inspiration (1Ki_18:26; 1Ki_18:28; 1Sa_19:21-24). Hence arose the contemptuous sneer as to Jesus (Joh_10:20), "He hath a devil and is mad"; also the designation "mad fellow" applied to the prophet who anointed Jehu (2Ki_9:11), and to Jeremiah (Jer_29:26), and to Paul (Act_26:24-25). David availed himself of this half reverential, half-contemptuous forbearance toward madmen, to save himself at Achish's court by feigning madness (1Sa_21:13-15).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.