What is the meaning of "My name is Legion, for we are many" (Mark 5:9)?

The power of the evil spirit was frightening. Chains and fetters were superhumanly broken by the man (v.29). The world may attempt to bind the power of Satan by such things as legislation, rehabilitation and moral reform, but these things fail, and Satan drives his victim into a moral wilderness. This case, however, was particularly pathetic. The man confessed his name as Legion, because he was possessed by many demons, enough to infest 2000 pigs!

He was drawn to run to the Lord Jesus in spite of the satanic power within him. It is a strange enigma that he worshiped Him. But it was the evil spirit that spoke within him, virtually disclaiming anything to do with the Lord Jesus, whom he calls, "Jesus, Son of the Most High God." But the evil spirit was tormented by the very presence of the Lord. The power of God in drawing the man was infinitely stronger than the power of Satan.

The demon-possessed man has been drawn by the sovereign power of God to face the Lord Jesus. The evil spirit within him is tormented by this very fact, and the Lord gives him the order to come out of the man. However, he first asks the name of the evil spirit. He answered, "My name is Legion, for we are many," but entreated the Lord not to send them out of the country, that is, that particular area. They asked permission to enter a large herd of swine feeding nearby. For some reason it seemed that they wanted a body in which to express their evil character. This did not last long, however, for their presence in the swine impelled them to rush together over a cliff into the sea, the evil spirits being unable to control this, for they would not have wanted the swine to drown. Though Satan deceives and torments men, he does not have absolute control over them, for they have minds of their own too, even though they often do not rise much above the level of the swine.

The sight of the Lord Jesus even from afar arrested him, so that he ran and paid Him homage, and with a loud voice cried, What have I to do with Thee, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure Thee by God, torment me not. For the Lord said, Come forth, unclean spirit, out of the man. Nor was this all: He asked him, What is thy name? and got the answer, My name is Legion, for we are many. There is a fact outside human ken, on the evil side of the spiritual world, beyond measure horrible: a man with such a host of evil spirits in him as could justify the well-known name of a Roman battalion, and a man with a personal consciousness, yet also merging his personality in theirs! — Legion, for we are many!

But mighty as a spirit is, and especially when in such multitudinous and tyrannical force of evil, demons have no sceptical hardihood. They believe and shudder (James 2:19). Therefore did they beseech that He would not command them to depart into the abyss; for their sure doom was before their eyes; and they knew that when He reigns, they will be cast there, which they dreaded even now. Art Thou come hither to torment us before the time? is the cry in the first Gospel. So, when they begged to enter a great herd of swine feeding on the mountain side, the Lord gave them leave; and the swine, about two thousand, no sooner received the unclean spirits, than they rushed down the steep and were choked in the sea. It was the witness, to all that believe scripture, of the Lord's delivering power on the one hand and of Satan's destructive energy on the other. It is idle here, as everywhere, to confound possession by demons with either lunacy or disease. Either or both might be also, or neither be, and yet that possession of evil spirits. The reality was thus transparent. The effect on the swine made the objective fact undeniably plain, and the suggestion of a physical or mental derangement inexcusably false.

Soul. The language the demoniac used to the Lord showed that he had abandoned his own personality. His own will and his individual responsibility were lost, so that the demons speak and act in and by him: "My name is Legion; for we are many," was his reply to the question of Jesus.

254 And note, we have a fresh instance here of the "possessed by an unclean spirit," and how the Legion of spirits identified themselves so with the man, that he speaks as himself though it be them. If the reading be right we have: "he besought him that he would not send them away." It is called, though many are confessed to be there, and therefore his name, Legion. "And he said to him … because we are many"; "And they besought him, saying." It is deeply and solemnly instructive this, and shows the power and complete possession, where Satan has possession. They are his goods, not the saints, though the latter may be tempted, and delivered to him "that they may learn," etc., and their spirit be saved. But he is in the world, and his power, as we see in the Gadarenes, is just as great though it be quiet; so we see in the unhappy Jews. He may, as in Legion, terrify to make men think that is all and remain quiet in their supposed difference (and perhaps just that one be the delivered one, though with the only effect on the world, to cry "Jesus"), therefore to go away and prove themselves the same as the first, only more open confession in him to whom Jesus was, because it was not their deception but "torment me not but I know thee." Look at the Jews, unwilling to go into the judgment hall when they had been accusing the Son of God before Pilate, and the name and nominal righteousness of God just blasphemed before a notoriously bad heathen by such pretence; they had bought His blood, knowing really the sin, seeing too and hating Him, and ready even to kill Lazarus, that the proof might not exist. But they could not go into the undefiling judgment hall to accuse Him. How horrible is the mind of man under this influence! So Judas - he was no Legion, no untamed madman, evil as he was before the Lord. "One of you is a devil," said the Lord.

And mark for a moment in connection with the delivering of this man out of the terrible bondage that was upon him; He asks him, "What is thy name?" Look at that for an instant, because it helps to give the word a power, and to throw it into very great prominence; and I have no doubt that was the intention the blessed Lord had in the bringing out from this man's lips his name. You remember how He asked Jacob, "What is thy name?" And I believe the Lord makes us answer that question; and perhaps He may be asking some of you here to-night, "What is thy name?" I am perfectly certain He asks that of every one of us some time or another, "What is thy name?" He knows, but He will have it from your own lips, "What is thy name?" This poor man had seen the awful power of the Roman legion, that terrible instrument of oppression, and he could not conceive any word that would describe more exactly where he was. The word "legion" was a word that struck fear and shame into the heart of the oppressed Jew; the Roman legion, composed of thousands of men, was a great terror to every conquered enemy that came under their power; and so, in order that he might with his own lips convey what his name was, he uses this word "legion." "My name is legion." Now, beloved friends, I believe that is the reason why "legion" and "come out of him" are here found together as it were, how wonderfully it brings out the power of our Lord Jesus Christ; He broke that power; "Come out of him." Verily it is, as we were saying a few weeks past, "He spake and it was done; He commanded and it stood fast." The Lord of creation Himself, the Creator, the One who by His divine power could bring everything into existence out of nothing, by the same word and by the same divine power — though He was down here as the servant of need and distress set free this poor demoniac from that bondage and tyranny which was upon him, brought him into divine liberation.

Now I would call your attention for one moment to the contrast of his former position with what we find now. They come and see this man out of whom the devils were cast, "sitting" — he had never known a moment's rest before — they see him "clothed" he was in nakedness and in the wretchedness of the possession of Satan previously — and they see him "in his right mind" for he had been as one demented — "and they were afraid." I do not know anything more solemn to me than that; man is not afraid of the devil; he is afraid of God in goodness, afraid of Christ in mercy. How striking that men are afraid when God comes near to them! They are not afraid when the devil is at their right hand, they have no fear of evil, sin, or wickedness, or the innate vileness of man; but they are afraid of God, and afraid, as I have said, of God in goodness, that is the most solemn part of it. It was not a display of God in judgment, or in wrath, or in the fiery thunders of His vengeance but here was the most blessed and gracious kindness and goodness that could be conceived, and a mercy that pitied and a compassion that looked with tenderness upon a man that was held in thraldom and bondage, and delivered him from it, and yet the people of the region were afraid. Now how blessed to think of the contrast here, in the delivered man. If there is any person here to-night like that poor man spiritually, may God in His grace bring you into the position spoken of, to "sit" and to be "clothed," and to be in your "right mind." That is what it really is — not merely, beloved friends, with regard to the future: you know people think that the gospel of God's grace only concerns the future; how blessed to know it concerns the present just as much as the future. It is not merely that a man's title is made good, so that when he dies he shall not go to hell, but it puts a person on this earth into a position of unparalleled blessing. But do you say, Is that the gospel? Yes, we gladly reply, it is the gospel that puts us into that position. Can you conceive anything in this world more blessed than that which brings you into rest in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, and fills your soul with the comfort and joy of His own presence? Now you can go through this world, and know that Christ is all things. All that this poor man wanted was to be with Christ; his position at the Saviour's feet is as if he said, "He has won my heart, and I want to be with Him."

On the lake the Lord triumphed over the power of Satan working upon the elements of nature: arrived in the country of the Gadarenes He was confronted by the same power, but much more directly exercised over man by means of demons. Opposition must be expected, but the power of His word was supreme. This man presented a very extreme case of demon possession. It had existed "long time;" it endowed him with super-human strength, so that no ordinary restraints held him; it drove him into deserts and the place of death — the tombs. Moreover he was enslaved not by one demon but by many. For some reason he had become like a fortress, strongly held for Satan by a whole legion of demons; so when Jesus met him there was a trial of strength indeed.

"When he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains." All human appliances but proved the superior might of the enemy. "Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him." What a picture of dreary wretchedness, the companion of desolation and of death! "And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones." Utter degradation, too, weighed him down, the cruelty of degradation such as Satan loves to inflict upon man that he hates. "But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, and cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many." Again the same trait, one may just remark, appears here as before — a most singular identifying of the evil spirit with the man. Sometimes it would seem as if it was but one, sometimes a kind of manifold personality. "He besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country." And the Lord accordingly casts the unclean spirits into the swine, which were destroyed.

It is remarkable, by the way, how the man is identified with the unclean spirit, just as now in grace the Holy Spirit blends most intimately with the believer. The man cries, "Torment me not," though it was a question of dealing with the spirit. So he answers, "My name is Legion: for we are many. And he besought Him much that He would not send them away out of the country." "Them": as D, etc. Edd. read "him," with ℵL, etc., Syrpesch Æth.

Singular Number: (1) By the man to Jesus: "What have I to do with thee?" "Torment me not" ""My name is Legion." (2) By Jesus to the man: "Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit*"; "What is thy name?"

The two forms, singular and plural, are to be seen in close juxtaposition in verses 9 and 10: "And he asked him (sing.), What is thy (sing.) name? And he (sing.) answered, saying, My (sing.) name is Legion; for we (plur.) are many. And he (sing.) besought him much that he would not send them (plur.) away out of the country."

The Lord addressed the man as the responsible person, asking him, "What is thy name?" and He also distinguished between the man who was oppressed and the evil powers which possessed him, saying, "Come forth out of the man, thou unclean spirit." The man is regarded as tenanted by the evil spirit.

This distinction and identification is found in another connection of an opposite nature. As this case was one of a man indwelt by unclean spirits for purposes of evil, so we learn from the Epistles that those who believe the gospel of salvation (Eph. 1) are indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit of God, who is assuredly distinct in His personality from those whom He indwells, bearing witness indeed, as He does, with our spirit that we are the children of God (Rom. 8:16). At the same time He, in a blessed way, identifies Himself with us, helping our infirmities, and making intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. The Lord Himself declared to His followers, referring to their testimony, "It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaks in you" (Matt. 10:20).