Mark 5:3

3 Which man had an house in burials [+That had an house in graves, or burials], and neither with chains now might any man bind him.

Mark 5:3 Meaning and Commentary

Mark 5:3

Who had his dwelling among the tombs
Which is one of the characters of a madman among the Jews; who say it is ^F17

``the sign of a madman, that he goeth out in the night, (twrbqh) (tybb Nlhw) , "and lodges among the tombs", and rends his garments, and loses what is given to him.''

The same they say, in the same place, of an hypochondriac, and melancholy man; and of Kordiacus, which they give out ^F18 is a demon that possesses, and has power over some sort of persons:

and no man could bind him, no, not with chains;
so as to hold him for any length of time: not only cords were insufficient to hold, but even chains of iron; so strong was he through the possession; for this could not be by his own natural strength.

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FOOTNOTES:

F17 T. Hieros. Gittin, fol. 48. 3. & Trumot, fol. 40. 2.
F18 Jarchi & Bartenora in Misn. Gittin, c. 7. sect. 1.

Mark 5:3 In-Context

1 And they came over the sea into the country of Gadarenes.

2 And after that he was gone out of the boat, at once [anon] a man in an unclean spirit ran out of the burials to him.

3 Which man had an house in burials [+That had an house in graves, or burials], and neither with chains now might any man bind him.

4 For oft times [For oft] he was bound in stocks and chains, and he had broken the chains, and had broken the stocks to small gobbets, and no man might make him tame [+and no man might daunt him/might tame him].

5 And evermore [And ever], night and day, in burials and in hills, he was crying and beating himself with stones.