Mark 5:1-20

B. THE FIERCE DEMONIAC. 5:1-20.

TEXT 5:1-20

And they came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes. And when he was come out of the boat, straightway there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling in the tombs: and no man could any more bind him, no, not with a chain; because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been rent asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: and no man had strength to tame him. And always, night and day, in the tombs and in the mountains, he was crying out, and cutting himself with stones. And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshipped him; and crying out with a loud voice, he saith, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the Most High God? I adjure thee by God, torment me not, For he said unto him, Come forth, thou unclean spirit, out of the man. And he asked him, What is thy name? And he saith unto him, My name is Legion; for we are many, And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. Now there was there on the mountain side a great herd of swine feeding. And they besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. And he gave them leave. And the unclean spirits came out, and entered into the swine: and the herd rushed down the steep into the sea, in number about two thousand; and they were choked in the sea. And they that fed them fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they came to see what it was that had come to pass. And they come to Jesus, and behold him that was possessed with devils sitting, clothed and in his right mind, even him that had the legion: and they were afraid. And they that saw it declared unto them how it befell him that was possessed with devils, and concerning the swine. And they began to beseech him to depart from their borders. And as he was entering into the boat, he that had been possessed with devils besought him that he might be with him. And he suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go to thy house unto thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and how he had mercy on thee. And he went his way, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS 5:1-20

211.

Please locate on a map the country of Gerasenes.

212.

It would seem the demons would run from Jesusnot to Himexplain.

213.

What is a demon? Why are they called unclean.

214.

State five facts about the demoniac?

215.

What distinction is there in fetters and chains.

216.

Was there more than one demon in the man? How many?

217.

Why ask his name?

218.

What torment did the demon expect from Jesus?

219.

Why did not the demon wish to leave the country?

220.

Why would demons wish to enter swine?

221.

Wasn-'t it wrong to destroy the property of another?

222.

Why ask Jesus to depart?

223.

Why did the man who was healed wish to be with Jesus? Why did Jesus refuse?

224.

Give two facts added by Matthew and Luke.

COMMENT

TIMEAutumn, A.D. 28. The morning after the stilling of the tempest on the Sea of Galilee, which followed the parables.
PLACEThe country of the Gadarenes, on the southeastern shores of the Sea of Galilee. It was in the country of the Gergesenes (so named from Gergesa, the modern Gersa, directly across the lake from Tiberias), which was a portion of the larger region of the Gadarenes (so named from their capital, Gadara, a large city seven or eight miles southwest of the southern point of the lake). The demoniac may have belonged to Gadara, but have met Jesus in the vicinity of Gergesa. Gadara was one of the ten confederated Gentile cities which, with the district in which they were located, were called Decapolis (The Ten Cities). Though they were located in Palestine, yet in the time of Christ they had a Gentile instead of Jewish population. Matthew speaks in the parallel passage of the Gergesenes. The Gadarenes and Gergesenes were simply two different names for the same people. Gadara and Gergesa were in the same district. Mark and Luke, in this account, speak of the Gadarenes, while Matthew calls the people the Gergesenes. This difference for a long time caused a difficulty to biblical students and caused rationalists to throw a doubt over the whole narrative. Gadara is three hours-' journey south of the lake and it is not likely that the miracle was wrought there. The discovery of Gergesa, now called Gersa, on the eastern shore of the lake and on the borders of the district of Gadara, has made all plain. This discovery, made by Dr. Thompson (Land and Book, Vol, II, pp. 34, 35), reconciles every difficulty. Two of the writers, writing for Gentiles, mention Gadara, one of the best known Gentile cities of Palestine, in the territories of which it occurred, while Matthew, a tax-gatherer on the shores of the lake and familiar with every locality upon its borders, mentions the obscure village, right on the shores, where it took place. The modern Gersa, or Chersa, is within a few rods of the shore. A mountain rises immediately above it, so near the shore that the swine rushing madly down could not stop, but would be inevitably driven into the sea and drowned; the ruins of ancient tombs are still found on this mountain side, and Capernaum was in full view over against it (Luke 8:26) on the other side. See map of Sea of Galilee.

PARALLEL ACCOUNTSMatthew 8:28-33; Luke 8:26-39.

OUTLINE1. The Gadarene Demoniac. 2. The Legion and the Swine. 3. Christ and the Gadarenes.

ANALYSIS

I.

THE GADARENE DEMONIAC. Mark 5:1-8.

1.

The Lord Crosses to Gergesa. Mark 5:1; Matthew 8:30; Luke 8:26.

2.

The Fierce Demoniacs. Mark 5:2-5; Matthew 8:30; Luke 8:27.

3.

Runs and Appeals to Christ. Mark 5:6-7; Matthew 8:29; Luke 8:28.

II.

THE LEGION AND THE SWINE, Mark 5:9-13.

1.

The Name Legion, Mark 5:9; Luke 8:30.

2.

The Appeal of the Demons. Mark 5:10-11; Matthew 8:31; Luke 8:32.

3.

The Maddened Swine. Mark 5:13; Matthew 8:32; Luke 8:33.

III.

CHRIST AND THE GADARENES. Mark 5:14-20.

1.

The Gadarenes Hear and See, Mark 5:14-16; Matthew 8:33; Luke 8:35.

2.

Desire Christ to Depart. Mark 5:17; Matthew 8:34; Luke 8:37.

3.

A Home Missionary. Mark 5:20; Luke 8:39.

INTRODUCTION

After the discourse in parables, in the evening the Savior with his apostles embarked to the other side of the lake. On the way a great storm arose, which filled the disciples with terror, but was quieted at the voice of the Lord. Crossing over to the southeastern shore of the lake they disembarked in the country of the Gadarenes. On the voyage the Lord quelled the storm of winds and waves; across the sea he quelled a fiercer storm in a human soul. There is something very striking in the connection in which this miracle stands with that other which went immediately before. Our Lord has just shown himself as the pacifier of the tumults and the discords in the outward world. But there is something wilder and more fearful than the winds and the waves in their fiercest moodseven the spirit of man, when it has broken loose from all restraints, and yielded itself to be the organ, not of God, but of him who brings uttermost confusion wheresoever his dominion reaches. And Christ will do here a mightier work than that which he accomplished there: he will speak, and at his potent word this madder strife, this blinder rage, which is in the heart of man, will allay itself; and here also there shall be a great calm.

EXPLANATORY NOTES

I. THE GADARENE DEMONIAC.Mark 5:1. In the country of the Gadarenes. See remarks above on the PLACES. Gadara was a great city which gave name to all the people in the district, while Gergesa was a small village on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

Mark 5:2. There met him out of the tombs. Matthew mentions two demoniacs, while Mark and Luke speak only of one, probably the fiercer of the two. When the Savior and his disciples landed, the demoniac, with his companion, starting from the tombs, which were their ordinary dwelling-place, rushed down to encounter the intruders that had dared to set foot on their domain. Or it may have been that they were at once drawn to Christ by the secret instinctive feeling that he was their helper, and driven from him by the sense of the awful gulf that divided them from him, the Holy One of God. The tombs were caves formed by nature, or cut in the rocks, with cells at the sides for the reception of the dead. They were ceremonially unclean (Numbers 19:11; Numbers 19:16; Matthew 23:27; Luke 11:44), and dwelling in them was of itself a sign of degradation. With an unclean spirit. A demon; called unclean because it produced uncleanness of body and of soul; the exact opposite of pure. It is not easy to answer the question, What was this demoniacal possession? But we may gather from the gospel narrative some important ingredients for our description. The demoniac was one whose being was strangely interpenetrated by one or more of those fallen spirits, who are constantly asserted in Scripture (under the name of demons, evil spirits, unclean spirits, their chief being the devil, or Satan) to be the enemies and tempters of the souls of men. He stood in a totally different position from the abandoned, wicked man, who morally is given over to the devil. This latter would be a subject for punishment, but the demoniac for deepest compassion. There appears to have been in him a double will and double consciousnesssometimes the cruel spirit thinking and speaking in him, sometimes his poor crushed self crying out to the Savior of men for mercy; a terrible advantage taken, and a personal realization, by the malignant powers of evil, of the fierce struggle between sense and conscience in the man of morally divided life. It has been not improbably supposed that some of these demoniacs may have arrived at their dreadful state through various progressive degrees of guilt and sensual abandonment. Lavish sin, and especially indulgence in sensual lusts, superinducing, as it would often, a weakness in the nervous system, which is the especial bond between body and soul, may have laid open these unhappy ones to the fearful incursions of the powers of darkness.Alford. To the frequent inquiry, How comes it that similar possessions do not occur at the present day? it may be answered: (1) It cannot be proved that they do not sometimes occur even now. It cannot be said that in many cases of insanity, and in some cases of spiritualism, the malady may not be traced to the direct agency of demons. (2) But, admitting that such possessions are not common, yet there was a reason in our Savior's day for the external manifestation of Satan's power. The crisis of the moral history of the world was at hand. The devil was allowed to exercise unusual power in temptation on the souls and bodies of men, in order that Christ might meet him openly and manifest his power in his victory over him. When God was manifested in the flesh, then demons may have been permitted to manifest themselves specially among men.Clark.

Mark 5:3. Had his dwelling among the tombs. This implies habitual residence, and long absence from the homes of the living. Evil or unclean spirits are generally represented as haunting waste, desolate places and tombs. The tombs are not infrequently used in Palestine by certain of the poorer classes as dwelling-places. Their character (caves cut in the rock) makes them a perfect shelter. No man could bind him. The better MSS. give, no man could any longer bind him, The attempt had been so often made and baffled that it had been given up in despair.

Mark 5:4. Bound with fetters and chains. The case was probably one of long standing, and repeated efforts had been made to confine him (Luke 8:29). Fetters were for the feet, chains for any other part of the body.Schaff. 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 (or 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.J. F. and B, Chains had been plucked asunder. This is nowise incredible; for there are still some forms of mania in which the sufferer, notwithstanding the constant exhaustion of mind and body, gains a daily increase of muscular strength, and is able to break the strongest bonds and even chains.Kitto.

Mark 5:5. Night and day. in the tombs. It is a sad story that is told of the unfortunate. He wandered about night and day in the solitudes, like a spectre, but crying aloud like a ravenous beast. Cutting himself with stones. There is sometimes a strong propensity in maniacs to wound and even maim themselves. V. Swieten says that he himself saw a maniac who lacerated all the integuments of his body, and who, during the inclemency of a severe winter, lay naked on straw for weeks, in a place rough with stones.

Mark 5:6. Ran and worshipped him, Probably when he saw him land he ran from his lurking place among the tombs on the mountain side. There seems to be a kind of double life in the man; one his own, and the other the overpowering influence of the spirit that possessed him. Olshausen refers the act of going to Jesus, and bowing down before him, to the man in contradistinction to the demon. The man wanted help, and sought it in Jesus; and the will of the demon trying to overpower him made the terrible paroxysms of conflict, Godet says: He felt himself at once attracted and repelled by Jesus; this led to a violent crisis in him, which revealed itself first of all in a cry. Then, like some ferocious beast submitting to the power of his subduer, he runs and kneels, protesting all the time, in the name of the spirit of which he is still the organ, against the power which is exerted over him.

Mark 5:7. Cried with a loud voice. It was the man's voice that cried out, but it was the controlling spirit that dictated the words. He had not the control of his own organs, just as I have seen those under hypnotic influence who could not control their words or thoughts. It is no uncommon thing in our time for a person to be absolutely under the influence of another will. What have I to do with thee? What have we in common? Why interferest thou with us? Why wilt thou not let us alone? Son of the most high God. The spirits, who had possession of the poor man's body, wielded his organism of speech as if it were their own. These demons knew the Lord and confessed him. The demons believe and tremble. I adjure thee by God. To adjure is to entreat solemnly, as if under oath, or the penalty of a curse. This is the language of the demon, not of the man; not a mere blasphemy, but a plausible argument. Nothing is more common than swearing by God, on the part of the ungodly, the infidel, and even the atheistic. Torment me not. In Matthew, Art thou come hither to torment us before the time? i.e.; we implore thee to deal with us as God himself does; not to precipitate our final doom, but to prolong the respite we now enjoy.Alexander.

Mark 5:8. Come out of the man. Leave him; no more control him.

II. THE LEGION AND THE SWINE.Mark 5:9. What is thy name? The Lord asks this question of the afflicted man. For what purpose? There is nothing so suitable as a calm and simple question to bring a madman to himself. There is no more natural way of awakening in a man who is beside himself the consciousness of his own personality than to make him tell his own name. A man's name becomes the expression of his character, and a summary of the history of his life. The first condition of any cure of this afflicted man was a return to the distinct feeling of his own personality. And he answered. The man was asked, but the demon answered, showing his entire mastery over him. My name is Legion, the unclean spirit answers. The Roman legion consisted of about six thousand. The word had come to signify any large number, with the ideas of order and subordination. It is about equivalent to host, and explained by the unclean spirit himself: For we are many. One chief, superior one, with inferior ones under him.

Mark 5:10. He besought him. not send them out of the country. He is used in the singular because the man speaks, but he speaks under the influence of the spirits, and pleads for them. The petition of the devils may be regarded as equivalent to, Send us anywhere, anywhere but to perdition; send us to the most shattered man; send us to the lowest creature, into man or beast, bird or reptile, anywhere but to hell! The demons knew well that Christ had come to destroy the power of the devil, and had already (Mark 5:7) implored, Torment me not.

Mark 5:11. There was there nigh unto the mountains. The Revision says: Now there was there on the mountain side a great herd of swine feeding. The mountain rises a short distance from the lake. A great herd of swine feeding. They were the property either of Gentiles, or of Jews engaged in a traffic which was unclean according to the Mosaic law.

Mark 5:12. The devils besought him. .. Send us, etc. How could there it is asked, be such a desire on the part of the demons? Why should there not? we would answer. The wish might, on their part, be a mere outburst of wantonness. Or there might be eagerness for anything on which to wreak their evil energy. They might be wishing, as Richard Baxter has it, to play a small game, rather than none. Or there might be cunning malice in their intentmalice toward Christ and toward all the other parties concerned.Morison. They aimed at this, that they might move the owners of the herd, and the rest of the people of the country, to be discontented at our Savior.Petter.

Mark 5:13. Forthwith Jesus gave them leave. The fact is stated, but why he should have granted their request is in part conjecture. The following reasons have been suggested: (1) To show the disciples Christ's control over the movements of the spirits. (2) To test the Gergesenes. (3) To make the miracle more notorious, and thus to enhance the effect of the cured demoniac's preaching. (4) The owners, if Jews, drove an illegal trade; if heathens, they insulted the national religion; in either case the permission was just. Ran violently down a steep place. Not a cliff, but a steep beach. The declivity at the base of the mountain at Gersa is said to be almost perpendicular. The bluff behind is so steep, and the shore so narrow, that a herd of swine, rushing frantically down, must certainly have been overwhelmed in the sea before they could recover themselves. Tristram's Land of Israel. About two thousand. Immense herds of swine were kept in many provinces of the Roman Empire specially for the provisionment of the Army. A heavy loss was certainly recognized by the people of the city.Cook. Why should they have destroyed the herd of swine, and so deprived themselves, so to speak, of a terrestrial abode? Perhaps the act of the swine was the result of panic, and in spite of the evil spirits. It is the very nature of evil thus to outwit itself.

III. CHRIST AND THE GADARENES.Mark 5:14. They that fed the swine. The herdsmen, fled affrighted, in consternation at the loss and the marvel, to the city, to Gergesa or Gadara.

Mark 5:15. They come to Jesus. Matthew says (Mark 8:34), Behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. Note the present come. The Evangelist begins to depict the scene as if he and we were present in the midst of it and looking on. See him that was possessed. And (they) behold the demoniac sitting clothed and in sound mind. Note the word behold. It is more than see. They gaze upon the man. Sitting and clothed. There is a fine harmony between the statement that the demoniac was now clothed, and the statement in Luke that formerly he ware no clothes (Mark 8:27). The contrast of the man's former condition sets off to advantage the marvel of his present state. They were afraid. They felt in the presence of a power which inspired them with awe and alarm. It might, for aught that they could comprehend, be something weird or uncanny. There was, moreover, the terror of a guilty conscience.

Mark 5:16. And also concerning the swine. A notable climax. The people who had witnessed the transaction tell the citizens what had been done for the demoniac and about the swinetheir swine: that settled their minds. They cared far more for the swine, than for the man who had been healed. They would rather have swine than Christ.

Mark 5:17. They began to pray him to depart. Jesus had overcome the rage of the storm that met him when approaching their coast. He had cast out the legion of devils that opposed his entrance into their country. The only thing which could effectually turn away the Savior was the will of man. Christ appears never to have visited the country of the Gadarenes again. He does not abide where he is not wanted.

Mark 5:18. Prayed. that he might be with him. Was it that he feared, lest in the absence of his deliverer the powers of hell should regain their dominion over him, and only felt safe in immediate nearness to him? or merely that out of the depth of his gratitude he desired henceforth to be a follower of him to whom he owed this mighty benefit?Trench.

Mark 5:19. Jesus suffered him not. To be a missionary for Christ, in the region where he was so well known and so long dreaded, was a far nobler calling than to follow him where nobody had ever heard of him, and where other trophies, not less illustrious, could be raised by the same power and grace. Go home to thy friends. The first act God requires of a convert is, Be fruitful. The good man's goodness lies not hidden in himself alone: he is still strengthening his weaker brother. All are not called on to be foreign missionaries. The Lord called upon this man to become a home missionary.

Mark 5:20. In Decapolis (ten cities). The region (of ten cities east of the Jordan) of which this immediate district formed a part. The healed man became a preacher, not only where Christ had been rejected, but where he had not gone. His message was his own experience. How much his preaching effected history does not record, but we know that near forty years later this district of Decapolis became the refuge of the church of Jerusalem when that city was destroyed.

FACT QUESTIONS 5:1-20

237.

Gadara was a great ----. while Gergesa was a small ---- on the shores of the Sea of Galilee

238.

Was there only one demoniac? Explain the reference in Matthew to two.

239.

Why dwell in the tombs?

240.

Why call a demon an unclean spirit?

241.

In what sense did a demon possessed man stand in totally different position from the abandoned, wicked man, who morally is given over to the devil?

242.

How have some imagined that men became demon possessed?

243.

Give two answers to the question, do we have demon possession today?

244.

What had been done to bind this wild one?

245.

Isn-'t it incredible that this one would have such superhuman strength?

246.

Why did he cut himself?

247.

Show how the man was both attracted and repelled by Jesus.

248.

What is meant by I adjure thee by God?

249.

Why ask the man his name?

250.

What is meant by the name Legion?

251.

What is the thought of send us not out of the country?

252.

Why ask to go into the swine?

253.

Show three possible answers as to why Jesus gave permission for the demons to enter the swine.

254.

Show how the traffic in swine was wrong i.e. the raising and selling swine was wrong for both Gentiles and Jews.

255.

Just where did they enter the Sea?

256.

What caused the whole city to come out to see Jesus?

257.

What was the response of the crowd when they saw the former demon possessed man?

258.

What is the only thing that can effectually turn the Savior away?

259.

What was the far nobler calling of the man who was healed?

260.

Where and what was Decapolis?