Mark 5:9

‘And he asked him, “What is your name?” '

By now Jesus had recognised that He was dealing with an unusual situation of a plurality of evil spirits and His request was therefore in order to discover exactly with whom or what He was dealing. He directed His question to the man but it was essentially to the evil spirits.

It is not likely that Jesus was using a technique for obtaining power over them. He already had that power. For the question ‘what is your name?' compare Genesis 32:27; Judges 13:17. It can hardly be true that God needed Jacob's name in order to get power over him and certain that Jacob did not ask God's name for that reason. And Manoah's request was in order to honour his visitor. The asking of the name in the latter two cases was in order to find out who or what they were dealing with. The whole point about Jesus was that He did not need to use the usual exorcising techniques (Mark 1:27). What He did want to know, however, was whom He was dealing with.

‘And he says to him, “My name is legion, for we are many”.

Knowing, in the face of His authority, that they were forced to speak, they replied evasively and probably with the aim of intimidating Jesus into leaving them alone. They were aware that His exertions of power were exhausting to His human frame (Mark 5:30; Luke 6:19), and they wanted Him to realise that this particular exorcism would require much power. Godly men who have engaged in exorcism have testified to the fact that it was very exhausting, and they had never had to face anything like this. But the spirits were underestimating Jesus.

‘My name is legion.' Was the man giving Legion as a name because he was in a state of confusion, aware of the forces possessing him, or was he simply indicating the multiplicity of names of the evil spirits (Mark 5:15), hinting that they could not give them all for they were so many, and at the same time indicating how long it would take to deal with them. For we must recognise that the evil spirits were not omniscient, and probably thought that they could somehow forestall Jesus. Possibly they could see He was still exhausted. The word ‘legion' was the name given to a Roman regiment of between four thousand and six thousand men. Strictly it indicated six thousand, but it was unusual for a legion to have its full complement. Thus the indication here is of possession by a great number of evil spirits.