Mark 5

Glorious Cure of the Gadarene Demoniac ( Mark 5:1-20 ).

1. And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.

2. And when he was come out of the ship, immediately--(see Mark 5:6 ).
there met him a man with an unclean spirit--"which had devils [demons] long time" ( Luke 8:27 ). In Matthew ( Matthew 8:28 ), "there met him two men possessed with devils." Though there be no discrepancy between these two statements--more than between two witnesses, one of whom testifies to something done by one person, while the other affirms that there were two--it is difficult to see how the principal details here given could apply to more than one case.

3. Who had his dwelling among the tombs--Luke ( Luke 8:27 ) says, "He ware no clothes, neither abode in any house." These tombs were hewn out of the rocky caves of the locality, and served for shelters and lurking places ( Luke 8:26 ).

4. Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, &c.--Luke says ( Luke 8:29 ) that "oftentimes it [the unclean spirit] had caught him"; and after mentioning how they had vainly tried to bind him with chains and fetters, because, "he brake the bands," he adds, "and was driven of the devil [demon] into the wilderness." The dark tyrant--power by which he was held clothed him with superhuman strength and made him scorn restraint. Matthew ( Matthew 8:28 ) says he was "exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way." He was the terror of the whole locality.

5. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones--Terrible as he was to others, he himself endured untold misery, which sought relief in tears and self-inflicted torture.

6. But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him--not with the spontaneous alacrity which says to Jesus, "Draw me, we will run after thee," but inwardly compelled, with terrific rapidity, before the Judge, to receive sentence of expulsion.

7. What have I to do with thee, Jesus, Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not--or, as in Matthew 8:29 , "Art Thou come to torment us before the time?" Behold the tormentor anticipating, dreading, and entreating exemption from torment! In Christ they discern their destined Tormentor; the time, they know, is fixed, and they feel as if it were come already! ( James 2:19 ).

8. For he said unto him--that is, before the unclean spirit cried out.
Come out of the man, unclean spirit!--Ordinarily, obedience to a command of this nature was immediate. But here, a certain delay is permitted, the more signally to manifest the power of Christ and accomplish His purposes.

9. And he asked him, What is thy name?--The object of this question was to extort an acknowledgment of the virulence of demoniacal power by which this victim was enthralled.
And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many--or, as in Luke ( Luke 8:30 ) "because many devils [demons] were entered into him." A legion, in the Roman army, amounted, at its full complement, to six thousand; but here the word is used, as such words with us, and even this one, for an indefinitely large number--large enough however to rush, as soon as permission was given, into two thousand swine and destroy them.

10. And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country--The entreaty, it will be observed, was made by one spirit, but in behalf of many--"he besought Him not to send them, &c."--just as in Mark 5:9 , "he answered we are many." But what do they mean by entreating so earnestly not to be ordered out of the country? Their next petition ( Mark 5:12 ) will make that clear enough.

11. Now there was there, nigh unto the mountains--rather, "to the mountain," according to what is clearly the true reading. In Matthew 8:30 , they are said to have been "a good way off." But these expressions, far from being inconsistent, only confirm, by their precision, the minute accuracy of the narrative.
a great herd of swine feeding--There can hardly be any doubt that the owners of these were Jews, since to them our Lord had now come to proffer His services. This will explain what follows.