Satanic possession a destruction of personal identity. I. INSTANCES AND ILLUSTRATIONS . II. IMPORTANCE OF PERSONALITY FOR TRUE RELIGIOUS AND MORAL LIFE . III. THE RESTORATION OF THIS THE GREAT WORK OF CHRIST .—M. Mark 5:10 ; Mark 12:1-44 , Mark 13:1-37 ; 17- 19 Prayers granted and denied. No caprice visible in our Lord's decisions. On the contrary, great moral principles are revealed. The whole conduct of Christ on this... read more
See this account of the demoniacs fully explained in the notes at Matthew 8:28-34.Mark 5:4He had been often bound with fetters and chains - Efforts had been made to confine him, but his great strength - his strength increased by his malady - had prevented it. There often appears to be a great increase of strength produced by insanity, and what is here stated in regard to this maniac often occurs in Palestine and elsewhere now. Dr. Thomson (“The Land and the Book,” vol. i. p. 213) says... read more
Mark 5:1-17. They came into the country of the Gadarenes Called Gergesenes, Matthew 8:28. Gadara and Gergasa being towns near each other, and their inhabitants, and those of the country adjacent, taking their name indifferently from either. There met him a man with an unclean spirit Matthew mentions two. Probably this, so particularly spoken of here, was the most remarkably fierce and ungovernable. This whole story is explained at large, Matthew 8:28-34. My name is Legion, for we are many... read more
58. Demon power overcome at Gadara (Matthew 8:28-34; Mark 5:1-20; Luke 8:26-39)Another place that Jesus visited was the district to the east and south of the Lake of Galilee known as Gadara. The people were mainly Gentiles and were known as Gadarenes (sometimes as Gerasenes, after the chief town of the district, or even Gergesenes, after another local town) (Matthew 8:28; Mark 5:1). Jesus was met there by a man whose body had been cruelly taken over by demons. To release the man from his... read more
Legion . A Roman legion was about 6,000 men. read more
And he asked him, What is thy name? And he saith unto him, My name is Legion; for we are many.What kind of believers are those who represent Christ as attempting here, by interrogation, to discover the demon's name, in order to be able through such knowledge to cast the demon out? Can they really mean that God in Christ needed to ask anything like that? No. Christ asked THE MAN his name, not because the Lord did not know it, but because he sought thereby to bring the man back to a sense of his... read more
Mark 5:9-10. What is thy name?— See Luke 8:30-31. read more
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 ( :-) "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... read more
The deliverance of a demoniac in Gadara 5:1-20 (cf. Matthew 8:28-34; Luke 8:26-39)Even though Mark had already reported that Jesus had exorcized many demons, this case was extraordinary."Christ, Who had been charged by the Pharisees with being the embodiment and messenger of Satan [Matthew 12:24; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15], is here face to face with the extreme manifestation of demoniac power and influence. It is once more, then, a Miracle in Parable which is about to take place. The question,... read more
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The Pulpit Commentary - Mark 5:8-9
For he said unto him, Come forth, thou unclean spirit, out of the man ; literally, for he was saying ( ἔλεγε ). The unclean spirit endeavored to arrest, before it was spoken, that word of power which he knew he must obey. So in what fellows, He was asking him ( ἐπηρώτα ), What is thy name? Why does our Lord ask this question? Clearly to elicit from him an answer that would reveal the multitude of the evil spirits, and so make his own power over them to be fully known. And he... read more