Luke 8:29

παρήγγελλεν. ‘He commanded.’

πολλοῖς χρόνοις usually means ‘for a long time.’ Comp. Plut. Thess. VI. πολλοῖς χρόνοις ὕστερον, ‘long afterwards.’

Φυλασσόμενος. ‘Being kept under guard.’ The A. V[180] misses this curious point in the narrative, preserved by St Luke only,—namely, that ‘he was bound in manacles and fetters, being under guard.’ The omission is corrected in the R. V[181], comp. Luke 4:10.

[180] A. V. Authorised Version.
[181] R. V. Revised Version.

ὑπὸ τοῦ δαιμονίου. The other reading δαίμονος (of A and other MSS.) is very remarkable, for it is the only place in the Gospel in which δαίμων occurs, and δαίμονες only in the parallel places (Matthew 8:31; Mark 5:12). On the other δαιμόνιον occurs 45 times, and πνεῦμα 27 times.

εἰς τὰς ἐρήμους. ‘Into the deserts,’—regarded as a peculiar haunt of Azazel and other demons. Matthew 12:43; Tob 8:3; see on Luke 4:1. (There are obvious allusions to the Gospel narrative of this demoniac and the demoniac boy in Lucian, Philopseudes, 16.)