Mark 5:1

And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

V.

(1-20) See Notes on Matthew 8:28-34.

(1) The country of the Gadarenes.—The better MSS. give “Gerasenes,” some “Gergesenes.”

MacLaren's Expositions

Mark

THE LORD OF DEMONS

Mark 5:1 - Mark 5:20.

The awful picture of this demoniac is either painted from life, or it is one of the most wonderful feats of the poetic imagination. Nothing more terrible, vivid, penetrating, and real was ever conceived by the greatest creative genius. If it is not simply a portrait, Ƴchylus or Dante might own the artist for a brother. We see the quiet landing on the eastern shore, and almost hear the yells that broke the silence as the fierce, demon-ridden man hurried to meet them, perhaps with hostile purpose. The dreadful characteristics of his state are sharply and profoundly signalised. He lives up in the rock-hewn tombs which overhang the beach; for all that belongs to corruption and death is congenial to the subjects of that dark kingdom of evil. He has superhuman strength, and has known no gentle efforts to reclaim, but only savage attempts to ‘tame’ by force, as if he were a beast. Fetters and manacles have been snapped like rushes by him. Restless, sleepless, hating men, he has made the night hideous with his wild shrieks, and fled, swift as the wind, from place to place among the lonely hills. Insensible to pain, and deriving some dreadful satisfaction from his own wounds, he has gashed himself with splinters of rock, and howled, in a delirium of pain and pleasure, at the sight of his own blood. His sharpened eyesight sees Jesus from afar, and, with the disordered haste and preternatural agility which marked all his movements, he runs towards Him. Such is the introduction to the narrative of the cure. It paints for us not merely a maniac, but a demoniac. He is not a man at war with himself, but a man at war with other beings, who have forced themselves into his house of life. At least, so says Mark, and so said Jesus; and if the story before us is true, its subsequent incidents compel the acceptance of that explanation. What went into the herd of swine? The narrative of the restoration of the sufferer has a remarkable feature, which may help to mark off its stages. The word ‘besought’ occurs four times in it, and we may group the details round each instance.

I. The demons beseeching Jesus through the man’s voice.

He was, in the exact sense of the word, distracted-drawn two ways. For it would seem to have been the self in him that ran to Jesus and fell at His feet, as if in some dim hope of rescue; but it is the demons in him that speak, though the voice be his. They force him to utter their wishes, their terrors, their loathing of Christ, though he says ‘I’ and ‘me’ as if these were his own. That horrible condition of a double, or, as in this case, a manifold personality, speaking through human organs, and overwhelming the proper self, mysterious as it is, is the very essence of the awful misery of the demoniacs. Unless we are resolved to force meanings of our own on Scripture, I do not see how we can avoid recognising this. What black thoughts, seething with all rebellious agitation, the reluctant lips have to utter! The self-drawn picture of the demoniac nature is as vivid as, and more repellent than, the Evangelist’s terrible portrait of the outward man. Whatever dumb yearning after Jesus may have been in the oppressed human consciousness, his words are a shriek of terror and recoil. The mere presence of Christ lashes the demons into paroxysms: but before the man spoke, Christ had spoken His stern command to come forth. He is answered by this howl of fear and hate. Clear recognition of Christ’s person is in it, and not difficult to explain, if we believe that others than the sufferer looked through his wild eyes, and spoke in his loud cry. They know Him who had conquered their prince long ago; if the existence of fallen spirits be admitted, their knowledge is no difficulty.

The next element in the words is hatred, as fixed as the knowledge is clear. God’s supremacy and loftiness, and Christ’s nature, are recognised, but only the more abhorred. The name of God can be used as a spell to sway Jesus, but it has no power to touch this fierce hatred into submission. ‘The devils also believe and tremble.’ This, then, is a dark possibility, which has become actual for real living beings, that they should know God, and hate as heartily as they know clearly. That is the terminus towards which human spirits may be travelling. Christ’s power, too, is recognised, and His mere presence makes the flock of obscene creatures nested in the man uneasy, like bats in a cave, who flutter against a light. They shrink from Him, and shudderingly renounce all connection with Him, as if their cries would alter facts, or make Him relax His grip. The very words of the question prove its folly. ‘What is there to me and thee?’ implies that there were two parties to the answer; and the writhings of one of them could not break the bond. To all this is to be added that the ‘torment’ deprecated was the expulsion from the man, as if there were some grim satisfaction and dreadful alleviation in being there, rather than ‘in the abyss’-as Luke gives it-which appears to be the alternative. If we put all these things together, we get an awful glimpse into the secrets of that dark realm, which it is better to ponder with awe than flippantly to deny or mock.

How striking is Christ’s unmoved calm in the face of all this fury! He is always laconic in dealing with demoniacs; and, no doubt, His tranquil presence helped to calm the man, however it excited the demon. The distinct intention of the question, ‘What is thy name?’ is to rouse the man’s self-consciousness, and make him feel his separate existence, apart from the alien tyranny which had just been using his voice and usurping his personality. He had said ‘I’ and ‘me.’ Christ meets him with, Who is the ‘I’? and the very effort to answer would facilitate the deliverance. But for the moment the foreign influence is still too strong, and the answer, than which there is nothing more weird and awful in the whole range of literature, comes: ‘My name is Legion; for we are many.’ Note the momentary gleam of the true self in the first word or two, fading away into the old confusion. He begins with ‘my,’ but he drops back to ‘we.’ Note the pathetic force of the name. This poor wretch had seen the solid mass of the Roman legion, the instrument by which foreign tyrants crushed the nations. He felt himself oppressed and conquered by their multitudinous array. The voice of the ‘legion’ has a kind of cruel ring of triumph, as if spoken as much to terrify the victim as to answer the question.

Again the man’s voice speaks, beseeching the direct opposite of what he really would have desired. He was not so much in love with his dreadful tenants as to pray against their expulsion, but their fell power coerces his lips, and he asks for what would be his ruin. That prayer, clean contrary to the man’s only hope, is surely the climax of the horror. In a less degree, we also too often deprecate the stroke which delivers, and would fain keep the legion of evils which riot within.

II. The demons beseeching Jesus without disguise.

There seems to be intended a distinction between ‘he besought,’ in Mark 5:10, and they ‘besought,’ in Mark 5:12. Whether we are to suppose that, in the latter case, the man’s voice was used or no, the second request was more plainly not his, but theirs. It looks as if, somehow, the command was already beginning to take effect, and ‘he’ and ‘they’ were less closely intertwined. It is easy to ridicule this part of the incident, and as easy to say that it is incredible; but it is wiser to remember the narrow bounds of our knowledge of the unseen world of being, and to be cautious in asserting that there is nothing beyond the horizon but vacuity. If there be unclean spirits, we know too little about them to say what is possible. Only this is plain-that the difficulty of supposing them to inhabit swine is less, if there be any difference, than of supposing them to inhabit men, since the animal nature, especially of such an animal, would correspond to their impurity, and be open to their driving. The house and the tenant are well matched. But why should the expelled demons seek such an abode? It would appear that anywhere was better than ‘the abyss,’ and that unless they could find some creature to enter, thither they must go. It would seem, too, that there was no other land open to them-for the prayer on the man’s lips had been not to send them ‘out of the country,’ as if that was the only country on earth open to them. That makes for the opinion that demoniacal possession was the dark shadow which attended, for reasons not discoverable by us, the light of Christ’s coming, and was limited in time and space by His earthly manifestation. But on such matters there is not ground enough for certainty.

Another difficulty has been raised as to Christ’s right to destroy property. It was very questionable property, if the owners were Jews. Jesus owns all things, and has the right and the power to use them as He will; and if the purposes served by the destruction of animal life or property are beneficent and lofty, it leaves no blot on His goodness. He used His miraculous power twice for destruction-once on a fig-tree, once on a herd of swine. In both cases, the good sought was worth the loss. Whether was it better that the herd should live and fatten, or that a man should be delivered, and that he and they who saw should be assured of his deliverance and of Christ’s power? ‘Is not a man much better than a sheep,’ and much more than a pig? They are born to be killed, and nobody cries out cruelty. Why should not Christ have sanctioned this slaughter, if it helped to steady the poor man’s nerves, or to establish the reality of possession and of his deliverance? Notice that the drowning of the herd does not appear to have entered into the calculations of the unclean spirits. They desired houses to live in after their expulsion, and for them to plunge the swine into the lake would have defeated their purpose. The stampede was an unexpected effect of the commingling of the demonic with the animal nature, and outwitted the demons. ‘The devil is an ass.’ There is a lower depth than the animal nature; and even swine feel uncomfortable when the demon is in them, and in their panic rush anywhere to get rid of the incubus, and, before they know, find themselves struggling in the lake. ‘Which things are an allegory.’

III. The terrified Gerasenes beseeching Jesus to leave them.

They had rather have their swine than their Saviour, and so, though they saw the demoniac sitting, ‘clothed, and in his right mind,’ at the feet of Jesus, they in turn beseech that He should take Himself away. Fear and selfishness prompted the prayer. The communities on the eastern side of the lake were largely Gentile; and, no doubt, these people knew that they did many worse things than swine-keeping, and may have been afraid that some more of their wealth would have to go the same road as the herd. They did not want instruction, nor feel that they needed a healer. Were their prayers so very unlike the wishes of many of us? Is there nobody nowadays unwilling to let the thought of Christ into his life, because he feels an uneasy suspicion that, if Christ comes, a good deal will have to go? How many trades and schemes of life really beseech Jesus to go away and leave them in peace! And He goes away. The tragedy of life is that we have the awful power of severing ourselves from His influence. Christ commands unclean spirits, but He can only plead with hearts. And if we bid Him depart, He is fain to leave us for the time to the indulgence of our foolish and wicked schemes. If any man open, He comes in-oh, how gladly I but if any man slam the door in His face, He can but tarry without and knock. Sometimes His withdrawing does more than His loudest knocking; and sometimes they who repelled Him as He stood on the beach call Him back, as He moves away to the boat. It is in the hope that they may, that He goes.

IV. The restored man’s beseeching to abide with Christ.

No wonder that the spirit of this man, all tremulous with the conflict, and scarcely able yet to realise his deliverance, clung to Christ, and besought Him to let him continue by His side. Conscious weakness, dread of some recurrence of the inward hell, and grateful love, prompted the prayer. The prayer itself was partly right and partly wrong. Right, in clinging to Jesus as the only refuge from the past misery; wrong, in clinging to His visible presence as the only way of keeping near Him. Therefore, He who had permitted the wish of the demons, and complied with the entreaties of the terrified mob, did not yield to the prayer, throbbing with love and conscious weakness. Strange that Jesus should put aside a hand that sought to grasp His in order to be safe; but His refusal was, as always, the gift of something better, and He ever disappoints the wish in order more truly to satisfy the need. The best defence against the return of the evil spirits was in occupation. It is the ‘empty’ house which invites them back. Nothing was so likely to confirm and steady the convalescent mind as to dwell on the fact of his deliverance. Therefore he is sent to proclaim it to friends who had known his dreadful state, and amidst old associations which would help him to knit his new life to his old, and to treat his misery as a parenthesis. Jesus commanded silence or speech according to the need of the subjects of His miracles. For some, silence was best, to deepen the impression of blessing received; for others, speech was best, to engage and so to fortify the mind against relapse.

Benson Commentary

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 — But all these seem to have been under one commander, who accordingly speaks, all along, both for them and for himself. They that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city — The miracle, issuing in the destruction of the swine, was immediately reported in the town and country by the affrighted keepers, who as they fled had fallen in, it seems, with Jesus and his company, and learned from them the cause of what had happened. And they went out to see what was done — Thus the whole people had ocular demonstration of the power of Jesus, and were rendered inexcusable in not believing on him; and they see him that was possessed of the devil sitting — At the feet of Jesus, to receive his instructions; and clothed — With the raiment that had been given him; and in his right mind — Perfectly composed and restored to the use of his reason; and they were afraid — Instead of rejoicing that a human being was delivered from so great an evil as had long afflicted him, they were thrown into the utmost consternation, and, being conscious of their wickedness, dreaded the further effects of Christ’s power, which, probably, if they had not done, they would have offered some rudeness, if not violence, to him.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

5:1-20 Some openly wilful sinners are like this madman. The commands of the law are as chains and fetters, to restrain sinners from their wicked courses; but they break those bands in sunder; and it is an evidence of the power of the devil in them. A legion of soldiers consisted of six thousand men, or more. What multitudes of fallen spirits there must be, and all enemies to God and man, when here was a legion in one poor wretched creature! Many there are that rise up against us. We are not a match for our spiritual enemies, in our own strength; but in the Lord, and in the power of his might, we shall be able to stand against them, though there are legions of them. When the vilest transgressor is delivered by the power of Jesus from the bondage of Satan, he will gladly sit at the feet of his Deliverer, and hear his word, who delivers the wretched slaves of Satan, and numbers them among his saints and servants. When the people found that their swine were lost, they had a dislike to Christ. Long-suffering and mercy may be seen, even in the corrections by which men lose their property while their lives are saved, and warning given them to seek the salvation of their souls. The man joyfully proclaimed what great things Jesus had done for him. All men marvelled, but few followed him. Many who cannot but wonder at the works of Christ, yet do not, as they ought, wonder after him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See this account of the demoniacs fully explained in the notes at Matthew 8:28-34.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 5

Glorious Cure of the Gadarene Demoniac (Mr 5:1-20).

1. And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.Mark 5:1-20 Christ casteth out the legion of devils, and suffereth

them to enter into the herd of swine.

Mark 5:21-24 He is entreated by Jairus to go and heal his daughter.

Mark 5:25-34 By the way he healeth a woman of an inveterate issue

of blood.

Mark 5:35-43 He raiseth Jairus’s daughter to life.

Ver. 1-20. This famous piece of history hath the testimony of three evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. We meeting with it in Matthew, did not only largely open what passages Matthew hath about it, but what both Mark and Luke have. See Poole on "Matthew 8:28", and following verses to Matthew 8:34. We shall only annex here some short notes. Interpreters judge the country of the Gergesenes, and of

the Gadarenes mentioned here, to have been the same, sometimes receiving the denomination from one city, sometimes from another in it. Why the devils are called unclean spirits, in opposition to the Holy Spirit, &c., we have formerly showed; as also why they delight to be about tombs. We have also showed his power, which (by God’s permission) he exerciseth upon men: some he possesseth, and acteth the part of the soul in them (especially as to the locomotive faculty); these are properly called demoniacs, energoumenoi. Others he afflicts more as a foreign agent, offering violence to them. Others he more secretly influences, by impressions and suggestions: thus he still ordinarily worketh in the children of disobedience, Ephesians 2:2; nor are the people of God free from this impetus, though, being succoured by Christ, they are not so ordinarily overcome. Of the mighty power of the evil angels to break chains and fetters we need not doubt, considering that though fallen from their first righteousness, they yet have their natural power as spirits.

I adjure thee by God, is no more than, I solemnly entreat thee; it hath not the force of, Swear unto me by God, as some would have it. Matthew mentions two (of these demoniacs); Mark and Luke but one: there were doubtless two, but probably one of them was not so raging as the other, and therefore less taken notice of. Some think one of these men was a heathen, the other a Jew:

1. Because the term legion, which the demoniac gives himself, is a heathen term, signifying a squadron of soldiers, about six thousand or more, as some reckon.

2. Christ was now in a country full of heathens.

3. The woman of whose cure we next read was a Syrophenician. It is observable, that a multitude of evil spirits is called by the name of the devil; because, though considered as individual spirits they are many, yet in their malice and mischievous designs against mankind they are as one.

Oh that the people of God were as well united in designs for his glory! Some interpreters start a question here, not very easy to be resolved, viz. What made the devils so desirous that Christ would not send them out of the country. Their answer is not improbable: That it was a paganish, ignorant, sottish place, where usually the devil hath the best markets and the greatest rule. For as it is said of Christ, that he could not do much in some places where he came because of their unbelief; so neither can the devil do much in some places, because of the faith of the gospel received by them. Hence it is observable, that as the devil is not able to play his game in any place amongst Christians, as he doth this day amongst heathens; so he hath much less power at this day in places where the word of God is more generally known, and more faithfully preached, than in other places where people are more ignorant of the Scriptures, and have less faithful and frequent preaching. In the latter he dealeth most by more inward suggestions and impressions. Our learned Dr. Lightfoot observes it probable, that this city or country was generally made up of pagans, or apostatized Jews, because they nourished so many swine, which to the Jews were unclean beasts. For other things relating to the explication of this history;

See Poole on "Matthew 8:28", and following verses to Matthew 8:34.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And they came over unto the other side of the sea,.... Of Galilee, or Tiberias;

into the country of the Gadarenes: in the Evangelist Matthew it is called, "the country of the Gergesenes", as it is here in the Arabic and Ethiopic versions. The Vulgate Latin reads, "of the Gerasenes", and so some copies, from Gerasa, a place in the same country; but the Syriac and Persic versions read, "Gadarenes", as do most copies; so called from Gadara, a city either adjacent to, or within the country of the Gergesenes; which was called by both names, from these different places. It was not far from Tiberias, the place from whence this sea has its name, over which Christ and his disciples passed, John 6:1. Chammath was a mile from (e) Tiberias, and this Chammath was so near to the country of Gadara, that it is often called, , "Chammath of Gadara" (f); unless it should be rather rendered, "the hot baths of Gadara": for so it is (g) said, that at Gadara are the hot baths of Syria; which may be the same with the hot baths of Tiberias, so often mentioned in the Jewish writings (h); hence the town of Chammath had its name, which was so near to Tiberias, that it is sometimes reckoned the same with it (i): Pliny (k) places this Gadara in Decapolis, and Ptolemy (l) in Coelo Syria; and Meleager, the collector of epigrams, who is called a Syrian, is said (m) to be a Gadarene, a native of this Gadara. Mention is made of the whirlpool of Gadara (n), which remained ever since the flood. It appears to be an Heathen country, both from its situation, and the manners of the people.

(e) T. Bab. Megilla, fol. 2. 2. (f) T. Hieros. Erubin, fol. 23. 3. & Trumot, fol. 41. 3. & Sabbat, fol. 5. 4. (g) Eunapius in Vita Iamblici, p. 26. (h) T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 108. 1. T. Hieros. Sabbat, fol. 6. 1.((i) T. Bab. Megilia, fol. 6. 1.((k) L. 5. c. 18. (l) L. 5. c. 15. (m) Fabricii Bibliotheca Grace. T. 2. p. 683. (n) T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 108. 1.

Geneva Study Bible

And {1} they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the {a} Gadarenes.

(1) Many hold the virtue of Christ in admiration, and yet they will not lose even the least thing they have in order to redeem it.

(a) See Geneva Mt 8:30

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Mark 5:1-20. See on Matthew 8:28-34. Comp. Luke 8:26-39. The narrative of the former follows a briefer and more general tradition; that of the latter attaches itself to Mark, yet with distinctive traits and not without obliteration of the original.

Mark 5:2. ἐξελθόντος αὐτοῦ … ἀπήντησεν αὐτῷ] The genitive absolute brings the point of time more strongly into prominence than would be done by the dative under the normal construction. See Dissen, ad Dem. de Cor. p. 307, 135; Pflugk, ad Eur. Med. 910; Winer, p. 186 [E. T. 259].

ἄνθρωπος ἐν πνεύματι ἀκ. See on Mark 1:23.

Mark 5:3. οὐδὲ ἁλύσει οὐκέτι οὐδεὶς κ.τ.λ. (see the critical remarks): not even with a chain could thenceforth any one, etc. So fierce and strong was he now, that all attempts of that kind, which had previously been made with success, no longer availed with him (οὐκέτι). On the accumulation of negatives, see Lobeck, Paralip. p. 57 f.

Mark 5:4. διὰ τὸ αὐτὸν κ.τ.λ.] because he often … was chained. See Matthaei, p. 1259.

πέδαι are fetters, but ἁλύσεις need not therefore be exactly manacles, as the expositors wish to take it,—a sense at variance with the general signification of the word in itself, as well as with Mark 5:3. It means here also nothing else than chains; let them be put upon any part of the body whatever, he rent them asunder; but the fetters in particular (which might consist of cords) he rubbed to pieces (συντετρῖφθαι, to be accented with a circumflex).

Mark 5:5. He was continually in the tombs and in the mountains, screaming and cutting himself with stones.

Mark 5:6. ἀπὸ μακρόθεν] as in Matthew 26:58.

Mark 5:7. ὁρκίζω σε τὸν Θεόν] not inappropriate in the mouth of the demoniac (de Wette, Strauss), but in keeping with the address υἱὲ τ. Θεοῦ τ. ὑψ., and with the desperate condition, in which the πνεῦμα ἀκάθαρτον sees himself to be. On ὁρκίζω as a Greek word (Acts 19:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:27), see Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 361.

μή με βασανίσ.] is not—as in Matthew, where πρὸ καιροῦ is associated with it—to be understood of the torment of Hades, but of tormenting generally, and that by the execution of the ἔξελθε, Mark 5:8. The possessed man, identifying himself with his demon, dreads the pains, convulsions, etc. of the going forth. Subsequently, at Mark 5:10, where he has surrendered himself to the inevitable going forth, his prayer is different. Observe, moreover, how here the command of Jesus (Mark 5:8) has as its result in the sick man an immediate consciousness of the necessity of the going forth, but not the immediate going forth itself.

Mark 5:8. ἔλεγε γάρ] for he said, of course before the suppliant address of the demoniac. A subjoined statement of the reason, without any need for conceiving the imperfect in a pluperfect sense.

Mark 5:9. The demoniac power in this sufferer is conceived and represented as an aggregate—combined into unity—of numerous demoniacal individualities, which only separate in the going forth and distribute themselves into the bodies of the swine. The fixed idea of the man concerning this manifold-unity of the demoniac nature that possessed him had also suggested to him the name: Legion (the word is also used in Rabbinic Hebrew לגיון, see Buxtorf, Lex. Talm. p. 1123; Lightfoot, p. 612),—a name which, known to him from the Roman soldiery, corresponds to the paradoxical state of his disordered imagination, and its explanation added by the sick man himself (ὅτι πολλοί ἐσμεν; otherwise in Luke), is intended to move Jesus the more to compassion.

Mark 5:10. ἔξω τῆς χώρας] According to Mark, the demons desire not to be sent out of the Gadarene region, in which hitherto they had pleasure; according to Luke (comp. Matt.: πρὸ καιροῦ), they wish not to be sent into the nether world. A difference of tradition; but the one that Luke followed is a remodelling in accordance with the result (in opposition to Baur), and was not included originally also in the account of Mark (in opposition to Ewald, Jahrb. VII. p. 65).

Mark 5:13. ὡς δισχίλιοι] without ἦσαν δέ (see the critical remarks) is in apposition to ἡ ἀγέλη). Only Mark gives this number, and that quite in his way of mentioning particulars. According to Baur, Markusevang. p. 43, it is a trait of his “affectation of knowing details;” according to Wilke, an interpolation; according to Bleek, an exaggerating later tradition.

Mark 5:15. ἦλθον] the townsmen and the possessors of the farms. Here is meant generally the coming of the people to the place of the occurrence; subseqently, by κ. ἔρχονται πρὸς τ. Ἰησοῦν, is meant the special act of the coming to Jesus.

καθήμ.] He who was before so fierce and intractable was sitting peacefully. So transformed was his condition.

ἱματισμένον] which in his unhealed state would not have been the case. This Mark leaves to be presupposed (comp. Hilgenfeld, Markusevang. p. 41); Luke has expressly narrated it, Mark 8:27. It might be told in either way, without the latter of necessity betraying subsequent elaboration on the narrator’s part (Wilke), or the former betraying an (inexact) use of a precursor’s work (Fritzsche, de Wette, and others, including Baur), as indeed the assumption that originally there stood in Mark, Mark 5:3, an addition as in Luke 8:27 (Ewald), is unnecessary.

The verb ἱματίζω is not preserved except in this place and at Luke 8:35.

τὸν ἐσχηκ. τ. Λεγ.] contrast, “ad emphasin miraculi,” Erasmus.

Mark 5:16. καὶ περὶ τ. χοίρ.] still belongs to διηγήσ.

Mark 5:17. ἤρξαντο] The first impression, Mark 5:15, had been: καὶ ἐφοβήθησαν, under which they do not as yet interfere with Jesus. But now, after hearing the particulars of the case, Mark 5:16, they begin, etc. According to Fritzsche, it is indicated: “Jesum statim se sivisse permoveri.” In this. the correlation of καὶ ἐφοβήθησαν and καὶ ἤρξαντο is overlooked.

Mark 5:18. ἐμβαίνοντος αὐτοῦ] at the embarkation.

παρεκάλει κ.τ.λ.] entreaty of grateful love, to remain with his benefactor. Fear of the demons was hardly included as a motive (μὴ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ τοῦτον εὑρόντες πάλιν ἐπιπηδήσωσιν αὐτῷ), Euthymius Zigabenus; comp. Victor Antiochenus, Theophylact, Grotius), since after the destruction of the swine the man is cured of his fixed idea and is σωφρονῶν.

Mark 5:19. οὐκ ἀφῆκεν αὐτόν] He permitted him not. Wherefore? appears from what follows. He was to abide in his native place as a witness and proclaimer of the marvellous deliverance, that he had experienced from God through Jesus, and in this way to serve the work of Christ. According to Hilgenfeld, Mark by this trait betrays his Jewish-Christianity, which is a sheer figment.

ὁ κύριος] God.

καὶ ἠλέησέ σε] and how much He had compassion on thee (when He caused thee to be set free from the demons, aorist). It is still to be construed with ὅσα, but zeugmatically, so that now ὅσα is to be taken adverbially (Kühner, II. p. 220). On ὅσος, quam insignis, comp. Ellendt, Lex. Soph. II. p. 377.

Mark 5:20. ἤρξατο] a graphic delineation from the starting-point.

Δεκαπόλει] See on Matthew 4:25.

ἐποίησεν] aorist, like ἠλέησε. On the other hand, in Mark 5:19, πεποίηκε, which is conceived of from the point of time of the speaker, at which the fact subsists completed and continuing in its effects.

ὁ Ἰησοῦς] ὁ μὲν Χριστὸς μετριοφρονῶν τῷ πατρὶ τὸ ἔργον ἀνέθηκεν· ὁ δὲ θεραπευθεὶς εὐγνωμονῶν τῷ Χριστῷ τοῦτο ἀνετίθει, Euthymius Zigabenus.

The circumstance, moreover, that Jesus did not here forbid the diffusion of the matter (see on Mark 5:43; Matthew 8:4), but enjoined it, may be explained from the locality (Peraea), where He was less known, and where concourse around His person was not to be apprehended as in Galilee.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Mark 5:1-20. The Gerasene Demoniac (Matthew 8:28-34, Luke 8:26-39).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Ch. Mark 5:1-20. The Healing of the Gadarene Demoniac

1. they came] to the eastern shore, but not even there was the Lord destined to find peace or rest.

the Gadarenes] All three Gospels which record this miracle vary in their readings between (1) Gadarenes, (2) Gergesenes, and (3) Gerasenes. (α) Gadara, the capital of Peræa, lay S. E. of the southern extremity of Gennesaret, at a distance of about 60 stadia from Tiberias, its country being called Gadaritis, (β) Gerasa lay on the extreme eastern limit of Peraea, and was too far from the Lake to give its name to any district on its borders, (γ) Gergesa was a little town nearly opposite Capernaum, the ruined site of which is still called Kerza or Gersa. Origen tells us that the exact site of the miracle was here pointed out in his day. St Mark and St Luke using the word Gadarenes indicate generally the scene of the miracle, Gadara being a place of importance and acknowledged as the capital of the district. See Thomson’s Land and the Book, pp. 375–378.

Bengel's Gnomen

Mark 5:1. Τῶν Γαδαρηνῶν, of the Gadarenes) Gadara, a city of Grecian origin [or Greek-like], subject to the Jews; wherein it may be inferred that many Jews dwelt, from the fact that our Lord came to them. [Doubtless it had the same port in common with Gerasa or Gergesa.—V. g.]

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 1. - And they came to the other side of the sea. The other side of the sea would be the south-east side of the sea. Into the country of the Gadarenes, or rather, Gera-senes, which is now generally admitted to be the true reading, from Gerasa, Gersa, or Kersa. There was another Gerasa, situated at some distance from the sea, on the borders of Arabia Petraea. The ruins of the Gerasa, here referred to, have been recently discovered by Dr. Thomson, ('The Land and the Book'). Immediately over this spot is a lofty mountain, in which are ancient tombs; and from this mountain there is an almost perpendicular declivity, literally (κρημνός) corresponding accurately to what is required by the description in the narrative of the miracle. Dr. Farrar ('Life of Christ') says that in the days of Eusebius and Jerome, tradition pointed to a "steep place" near "Gerasa" as the scene of the miracle. The foot of this steep is washed by the waters of the lake, which are at once very deep. Mark 5:1