For he said to him, Come forth, unclean spirit, out of the man.
Mark pauses here to explain the scream in the verse before. Jesus had already ordered the unclean spirit out of the man. One short sentence opens the whole scene: who speaks, who must obey, and what one word of Christ does where every chain has failed.
Jesus had spoken first, and the scream was the answer.
Here is the devil and the man's voice mingled, and in such a way you cannot distinguish them. And how many are like this, to whom the Lord has been saying, as we learn He had been saying here, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit"? How many come to Him, the Deliverer, begging Him "not to torment them"! Their conscience is awake, but they have not seen the meaning of the cross. How natural, then, to think that the holy and just God must be against them!
People had tried every way they knew to hold this man down.
All human methods only proved the greater might of the enemy… What a picture of dreary wretchedness, the companion of desolation and of death!
A moment later the man gives his name: Legion. One writer sees why that name and the Lord's order stand side by side.
This poor man had seen the awful power of the Roman legion, that terrible instrument of oppression. He could not think of any word that described his own state more exactly. So, to say with his own lips what his name was, he uses this word "legion." "My name is legion." … I believe that is the reason why "legion" and "come out of him" are found here together. How wonderfully it brings out the power of our Lord Jesus Christ! He broke that power: "Come out of him."
Jesus does not speak to the man as if he were the evil, nor to the spirit as if it were the man.
The Lord addressed the man as the responsible person, asking him, "What is your name?" He also made a difference between the man who was oppressed and the evil powers that possessed him, saying, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit." The man is seen as a house lived in by the evil spirit.
The Lord had to separate them, because in this man the two had grown together.
It is remarkable how the man is identified with the unclean spirit. In the same way now, in grace, the Holy Spirit joins very closely with the believer. The man cries, "Torment me not," though it was a question of dealing with the spirit.
The spirits never argue with the One giving the order.
But however mighty a spirit is, and especially in such a vast and tyrannical mass of evil, demons are never bold enough to doubt. They believe and shudder (James 2:19). So they begged that He would not command them to depart into the abyss; for their certain doom was before their eyes.
What the demons know about Christ is what drives them out. They go because He says so, and then bargain only over where to go.
We learn that though we are ruined and helpless, in the Person of Christ there is One with power and grace to deliver us from all the power of Satan… But demons have to bow before One whom they know is the Son of God, with all power to send them to their just doom. Men may be ignorant of the glory and authority of Christ, but not so demons. Seeing that at the word of Christ they must come out of the man, they ask that they may be sent into swine.
One writer applies the scene to the present day.
This miserable world is still under the power of Satan and his legion of demons. Demon possessions have not ceased. And the Lord Jesus Christ is still the same.
- Word first. The cry of verse 7 answers a command already given; Christ speaks, and the darkness reacts.
- Word over chains. No human method could hold this man; each one only proved the enemy stronger.
- Word that separates. The order hits the spirit, not the victim. The Lord treats the man as a captive, not as the evil that holds him.
- Word none can doubt. Demons believe and shudder; they beg, because their doom stands before their eyes.
- Word that delivers. The One they fear as Tormentor is in truth the Deliverer — and He is still the same.
And he asked him, What is thy name? And he says to him, Legion is my name, because we are many.
Jesus has crossed the lake and met a man no chain could hold. Before setting him free, He stops to ask the man his name.
The Lord's question is not for His own information. One writer links it to the time God asked Jacob the same question.
Think for a moment about how He set this man free from the terrible bondage on him. He asks him, "What is your name?" ... I have no doubt that this was the intention the blessed Lord had in drawing this man's name out of his own lips. You remember how He asked Jacob, "What is your name?" And I believe the Lord makes us answer that question... He knows, but He will have it from your own lips.
The word was not religious language. It came from the Roman army, and it carried a number.
In the Roman army, a legion was a body of troops of between three and five thousand. The term is also used for a number that is not fixed. The Lord said that if He asked, His Father would send Him more than twelve legions of angels (Matthew 26:53). The demons who possessed the man among the Gadarenes said, "My name is Legion; for we are many."
One writer notes what lay behind the man's choice — and what became of that power.
This poor man had seen the awful power of the Roman legion, that terrible instrument of oppression. He could not think of any word that described his condition better... "Legion" and "Come out of the man" stand here together, and how wonderfully that brings out the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. He broke that power.
The grammar itself is unsettling. "My name" is singular; "we are many" is plural. One writer calls this mixture the horror of the case.
Here is a fact outside human understanding, on the evil side of the spiritual world, and horrible beyond measure. One man held such a host of evil spirits in him that the well-known name of a Roman battalion fitted. He was a man with a personal consciousness, and yet he merges his own personality in theirs — Legion, for we are many!
Another writer shows how the Lord separated the two.
The Lord addressed the man as the responsible person, asking him, "What is your name?" He also made a difference between the man who was oppressed and the evil powers that possessed him. To those powers He said, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit." The man is treated as one in whom the evil spirit lives.
The New Testament letters show the same closeness with a different occupant.
This case was one of a man indwelt by unclean spirits for purposes of evil. The Epistles show us the opposite. Those who believe the gospel of salvation (Ephesians 1) are indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit of God. He is certainly distinct in His personality from those whom He indwells, and He bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God (Romans 8:16). At the same time He, in a blessed way, identifies Himself with us, helping our weaknesses...
The verse names the size of the opposition. One writer sets out what the man faced.
This man was an extreme case of demon possession. It had lasted a long time. It gave him superhuman strength, so ordinary restraints did not hold him. It drove him into deserts and the place of death — the tombs. What is more, not one demon enslaved him but many. For some reason he had become like a fortress, firmly held for Satan by a whole legion of demons. So when Jesus met him there was a real trial of strength.
Chains had already failed. One writer applies that to our own day.
The world may try to bind the power of Satan by things like legislation, rehabilitation and moral reform. But these things fail. Satan drives his victim into a moral wilderness.
- Name asked. Christ draws the confession from the man's own lips, as He did with Jacob — He already knows, but He will hear it said.
- Name given. "Legion" was a Roman military unit of three to five thousand. The man borrowed the most frightening word in his world to describe himself.
- Name divided. "My name... we are many" mixes singular and plural, showing a personality swallowed up in the spirits that possessed him.
- Name held. Even so, the Lord speaks to him as a responsible person. He orders the spirit out of the man — occupant and victim are not the same.
- Name changed. Chains failed, and every human remedy since has failed too. One word from Christ broke that power. The believer is now indwelt not by a legion but by the Spirit of God.
And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.
The man in the tombs has just given his name as Legion, and now the spirits are the ones asking. A power no fallen man could overcome now only pleads — and what it pleads for shows what it fears.
Fallen man cannot overcome the power of Satan. Christ meets that power, and it gives way.
Fallen man has no hope of overcoming the power of Satan. But that power meets in Christ a power it must give way to. In these Gospel accounts the demons never once openly resist Him, even here, where there was a legion of them. They plead against the judgment they foresee, though its time has not yet come, and argue their own case. They beg Him not to send them out of the country, and ask leave to enter the herd of swine.
Their manner of asking is itself a confession about who He is.
These demons feared the time of future torment. They brought their requests to the One they knew and addressed as the Son of the Most High God. They acknowledged His supreme authority, just as Satan did when he came before the LORD about His servant Job.
Luke's account of the same moment names what they wanted to avoid.
Here they begged the Lord not to send them out of the country, and, as Luke states, not to command them to go into the deep, or the abyss.
In Luke's wording they "begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss" (Luke 8:31, ESV). One writer draws out what that instinct reveals:
Jesus asks him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Legion," for many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. They dreaded their hour. There was the instinctive sense in these demons that Jesus would commit them to the abyss.
Scripture uses this word for one definite place:
The abyss is the Scriptural term for the place of confinement of evil spirits. Revelation translates the Greek word as "bottomless pit." From there the "beast" will rise who will make war on the two witnesses and overcome them. The same set of prophecies says Satan will be shut up in the abyss through the thousand years of glorious peace under the reign of Christ.
Notice the grammar of the verse. One man speaks, but he asks about "them." The same blurring runs through the scene.
It is remarkable how the man is identified with the unclean spirit. In grace the Holy Spirit now blends just as closely with the believer. The man cries, "Do not torment me," though it was a question of dealing with the spirit. So he answers, "My name is Legion, for we are many. And he begged Him earnestly not to send them out of the country."
The spirits plead because they have already lost.
Though we are ruined and helpless, in the Person of Christ there is One with power and grace to deliver us from all the power of Satan. The poor man's body is the dwelling place and instrument of the demon, who acts and speaks through the man. But demons have to bow in the presence of One they know is the Son of God, with all power to consign them to their just doom. Men may be ignorant of the glory and authority of Christ, but demons are not.
What they asked for next shows what they are after, in animals and in people.
At Gadara the fate of the swine is a plain and unmistakable example of what Satan and his demons aim at. The violent end of the animals pictures the final end of those under the direction and power of darkness. The animals lacked the higher nature that man has. So destruction followed at once when the demons entered them. With man the end is the same, though it may come more slowly. Men may be deceived into thinking otherwise. The aim of the evil one is to destroy. The aim of the Holy One of God is to deliver and save.
- Beg, never battle — the spirits never resist Christ. All they can do is plead against a judgment they see coming.
- Beg means bow — to ask Him for anything is to admit His supreme authority. Satan admitted the same when he came before the LORD about Job.
- Beg for delay — they ask to stay in the country because they dread the abyss, the prison where Scripture says Satan will one day be shut up.
- Beg with one voice — one man speaks for a legion. His body had become their dwelling place and instrument.
- Two opposite aims — the evil one aims to destroy; the Holy One of God aims to deliver and save.
Now there was there just at the mountain a great herd of swine feeding;
The herd on the hillside looks like a passing detail. It is the hinge of the whole scene. The demons ask for those animals, and what happens to them proves in public what had been living inside the man. Why were unclean animals grazing here at all, and why did the Lord grant the request?
Pigs were the last thing you would expect to find in Jewish territory. One writer explains the setting from the region's history:
Gadara was the capital of the region it stood in, which may explain why Mark uses this name. It was a Greek city. That explains the presence of swine — animals you would not expect among a Jewish population.
Commentators differ on who owned the herd. Another writer leaves that open, and shows what the animal itself stood for:
The pig was one of the animals classed as unclean, and the Jews are thought to have loathed it as food… No record tells us whether the Gadarenes who lost their swine to the demons were Jews or Gentiles. Swine picture the most defiled and degraded people. Those who fall away from the faith are compared to them, and holy things should not be thrown before them.
Some try to explain the man's condition as mental illness. What happened to the herd makes that reading impossible:
It mattered to give the clearest evidence that demons really do live in a man. That fact is as certain as it is grave. So the Lord listens to their plea to be sent into the great herd of swine feeding nearby… In some cases a man held by demons had a serious disease as well. In this man's case we hear of none. Even if there had been one, it would be absurd to think the disease passed to all the swine, and sent them rushing at once in a frenzy to their death.
The demons had held a man in their grip, yet they could not touch a single pig on that hillside without asking:
They admitted that Jesus had authority to throw them out. Matthew reports their words: "If you cast us out." They wanted to enter the unclean swine, as if to show off and feed their love of destruction… so here the unclean spirits sought permission to enter the herd of unclean swine. "Let us," they said. (The ESV renders their words "Send us to the pigs.") In that plea they owned, as Satan did long ago, that they have no power apart from the supreme will of God.
Unclean spirits found unclean animals, and the two sides of the story end in opposite ways:
The swine, being unclean animals according to the law, ought not to have been there. The spirits were unclean too, so they had a kinship with the swine — a kinship that killed the animals. The demons had led the man toward self-destruction with sharp stones. In the swine the urge was instant and complete. The man went free; the swine died.
The rush down the cliff shows in seconds where these powers take anyone they hold:
The violent end of the animals was only a picture of the final end of all who live under the direction and power of darkness. Animals lack the higher nature that man has. That is the one reason destruction followed at once when the demons entered the swine. They rushed straight to their death. With man the end is the same, though he may reach it more slowly. Men may be fooled about this, but the aim of the evil one is to destroy, while the aim of the Holy One of God is to deliver and save.
One writer reads a further picture in the herd's fate:
The swine appear to represent the state of the Jews after their rejection of Christ. The Lord surely allowed the demons to enter the swine. The swine had no passions of their own, so it was the demons inside them that made them rush to destruction. This shows that it was not merely the evil passions in the men, but wicked spirits holding them, that drove them on to destruction.
- Setting — Gadara was a Greek city, which explains why unclean animals were grazing in a place where Jews would not have kept them.
- Permission — the demons could not touch even a pig without asking. Their plea admits they have no power apart from God.
- Proof — the herd's wild rush shows the man was truly held by demons, not sick or mad.
- Purpose — with no resistance in the animals, the unclean spirits did in seconds what they had done slowly to the man: destroy.
- Contrast — the man went free, the swine died. The evil one aims to destroy; the Holy One of God aims to deliver and save.
and they besought him, saying, Send us into the swine that we may enter into them.
The demons do not fight or flee. They ask. And they ask the One whose word has just ordered them out. Two questions follow: why did they want the pigs, and why did Jesus agree?
They do not demand. They ask for leave. One writer sees in their words an admission of who holds the power — the same admission Satan made in Job.
They admitted that Jesus had authority to eject them, for, as Matthew reports, they said, "If you cast us out" (Matt. 8:31); and their desire was to enter the unclean swine, as if to display and satisfy their love of destruction. So the unclean spirits sought permission to enter the herd of unclean swine. "Allow us," they said, owning, like Satan of old (Job 1), their powerlessness apart from the Supreme Will.
Fear stands behind their plea. One writer notes that they also begged not to be sent to the abyss, because they knew the doom that awaited them.
A spirit is mighty, and even more so in such a vast and tyrannical force of evil. Yet demons have no boldness to doubt. They believe and shudder (James 2:19). So they begged Him not to command them into the abyss. Their certain doom was before their eyes. They knew that when He reigns He will cast them there, and they dreaded it even now. "Have You come here to torment us before the time?" is the cry in the first Gospel.
They also want a body. Leaving the man is not the end of it for them — they must go somewhere.
The poor man is so completely identified with the unclean spirit that his body is the home and tool of the demon. The demon acts and speaks through the man. Seeing that at the word of Christ they must come out of the man, they ask to be sent into swine. Apparently evil spirits need some natural body through which to act.
The animal they chose matters. Two unclean things are drawn together here.
The swine, being unclean animals according to the law, ought not to have been there. The spirits were unclean too, so there was an affinity between them and the swine — an affinity with fatal results for the animals. The demons had led the man toward self-destruction with the sharp stones. With the swine the drive was instant and complete. The man was delivered: the swine were destroyed.
Saying yes served a purpose. It let everyone see what these spirits do when nothing holds them back.
In some cases those with demons also had a serious disease. In this man's case we hear of none. And even if there had been, it would be absurd to think a disease passed to the whole herd and drove them at once into their frantic rush to destruction. But when all the demons came out of the man and took the herd, they had their chance to show their love of destroying, with no mightier hand to control their spiteful malice.
One writer reads the drowned herd as a preview. What took seconds with animals takes longer with people.
The violent end of the beasts was only a picture of the ultimate end of those who are under the direction and power of darkness. The animals lack the higher nature that man has, so destruction followed at once when the demons entered the swine. They at once rushed to their death. In the case of man the end is similar, though it may be reached more slowly. Whatever men may be deceived into thinking, the evil one aims to destroy. The Holy One of God aims to deliver and save.
Was the owners' loss a punishment for keeping pigs? One writer leaves the question open, and answers the complaint about wasted property another way.
The Gospels do not discuss the loss suffered by the keepers of the swine, who were probably unfaithful Jews. Nor do they discuss whether this loss came on them as punishment for keeping the unclean animals, against the law of Moses. Some object that the gracious Saviour should not have allowed this destruction of animal life. That "usefulness" argument is beside the point... Without knowing, faith is confident that all is working for good.
- Permission asked — "Send us" is a plea, not a demand. The spirits own their powerlessness apart from the Supreme Will, as Satan did in Job.
- Permission granted — Christ says yes, and the spirits go only where He allows.
- Permission exposes — with no mightier hand to hold them back, their love of destroying is out in the open.
- Permission proves — no disease could pass to a whole herd and drive it into the sea. What left the man was more than illness.
- Permission warns — the swine died in seconds and a man dies slowly, but the end is the same. The evil one aims to destroy; the Holy One of God aims to deliver and save.
And Jesus [immediately] allowed them. And the unclean spirits going out entered into the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep slope, into the sea (about two thousand), and were choked in the sea.
The demons beg, the Lord permits, and two thousand pigs are gone in moments. Why would Christ allow such destruction? And what did it prove?
The demons do not seize the herd. They ask — and their words give them away.
They admitted that Jesus had authority to eject them, for, as Matthew reports, they said, "If you cast us out" (Matt. 8:31); and their desire was to enter the unclean swine, as if to display and satisfy their love of destruction. Satan disguised himself as the serpent for cunning (Gen. 3). To deceive the unwary, he now disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). So here the unclean spirits asked permission to enter the herd of unclean swine. "Let us go," they said, admitting, like Satan long before (Job 1), that they were powerless apart from the Supreme Will.
The whole chapter turns on that fact. One writer sums it up in a phrase while tracing how each request in the story is answered:
The demons had asked to be allowed to enter the swine (for they could not move one step without His leave) and they were permitted to do that.
Some have tried to explain the man's condition as mental illness or disease. What happens to the pigs rules that out. It also exposes what the spirits had always wanted to do to the man.
It was important to give the clearest evidence that demons really do live in a man, and that this is a most serious thing… In some cases people with demons also had a serious disease. In Legion's case we hear of none. And even if there had been, it would be absurd to suppose a disease passed to all the swine and drove them at once in a frantic rush to destruction. But when all the demons left the man and took the herd, they had a chance to show their love of destroying. A mightier hand no longer held back their spiteful malice.
Pigs were on Israel's forbidden list. The pairing here is not accidental. What happened to the animals was a fast version of what the man had suffered slowly.
The swine, being unclean animals according to the law, ought not to have been there. The spirits were unclean too. So there was an affinity between them and the swine — an affinity with fatal results for the animals. The demons had led the man toward self-destruction with the sharp stones. With the swine the impulse was immediate and complete. The man was delivered: the swine were destroyed.
The stampede down the cliff shows in seconds what the same power does to a human life slowly.
The violent end of the animals pictures the final end of all who are under the direction and power of darkness. The swine lack the higher nature that man has. So destruction followed as soon as the demons entered them, and they rushed at once to their death. In man's case the end is similar, though it may take longer. Men may be deceived into thinking otherwise. But the aim of the evil one is to destroy. The aim of the Holy One of God is to deliver and save.
People have objected that a good Saviour should not have allowed the loss of so much property. One writer sets the objection in a wider frame:
Everything below and above belongs to the Lord. He does not need man's apology to justify what He permits — any more than for sickness and death, plague and famine, storm and earthquake, which He uses in His providence in this fallen world. And to what purposes of grace does He not turn every one of these afflictions, for those who hear His word.
The locals did the sum themselves:
Two men had been delivered from Satan's grip, but at the cost of two thousand swine. Were two souls worth two thousand swine? In their pitiful blindness, they judged not. If this was to be the result of the Son of God's presence, they would rather have Satan as their neighbour. Such behaviour would be unbelievable. But we see men today sacrificing their own souls for things lighter than air.
(Fereday is drawing on Matthew's account, which mentions two men rather than one.)
- Permission. The demons could not touch a single pig until Christ allowed it. Their own words admit they are powerless apart from His will.
- Proof. No disease spreads to two thousand animals. The stampede proves the man's condition was real possession, not illness.
- Purpose. Once free of restraint, the spirits did to the herd in seconds what they had done slowly to the man. Their love of destroying was on open display.
- Picture. The rush over the cliff shows the end of everyone under the power of darkness. The evil one destroys. The Holy One of God delivers and saves.
- Price. The Lord needs no human defence for what He permits. He turns every affliction to grace. But the neighbours weighed a rescued man against their pigs and asked Him to leave.