◄ Luke 8:29 ►
For Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was bound with chains and shackles, he had broken the chains and been driven by the demon into solitary places.
Study Bible
For Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.

This phrase highlights Jesus' authority over demonic forces, a recurring theme in the Gospels. The term "unclean spirit" refers to a demon, emphasizing its impurity and opposition to God's holiness. Jesus' command demonstrates His divine power, fulfilling prophecies such as Isaiah 61:1, which speaks of liberation for the captives. This act also prefigures the ultimate victory over evil through Christ's death and resurrection.

Mrk 5:8 For Jesus had already declared, “Come out of this man…
Luk 4:35 But Jesus rebuked the demon. “Be silent!” He said.…
Mrk 1:25 But Jesus rebuked the spirit. “Be silent!” He said.…

Many times it had seized him,

The repeated seizures indicate the severe and ongoing nature of the man's possession. This reflects the destructive intent of demonic forces, as seen in John 10:10, where the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. The man's condition underscores the need for divine intervention, which only Jesus can provide.

Mrk 9:18 Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground.…
Mrk 9:22 It often throws him into the fire or into the water,…
Luk 9:39 A spirit keeps seizing him, and he screams abruptly.…

and though he was bound with chains and shackles,

The use of physical restraints suggests attempts by others to control the man's violent behavior, common in ancient practices for dealing with the mentally ill or possessed. Chains and shackles symbolize human efforts to manage spiritual problems, which are ultimately ineffective without God's power.

Mrk 5:3 This man had been living in the tombs and…
Jdg 16:21 Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes…
2Ch 33:11 So the LORD brought against them the military commanders…

he had broken the chains

This demonstrates the extraordinary strength given by the demon, surpassing normal human capabilities. It serves as a reminder of the spiritual battle described in Ephesians 6:12, where believers are called to rely on God's strength rather than their own.

Mrk 5:4 Though he was often bound with chains and shackles…
Psa 107:14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death…
Psa 2:3 “Let us break Their chains and cast away Their cords.”

and been driven by the demon into solitary places.

The demon's influence leads the man into isolation, reflecting the destructive nature of sin and evil, which separates individuals from community and God. Solitary places can also symbolize spiritual desolation, contrasting with the abundant life Jesus offers in John 10:10. This setting foreshadows the restoration and reintegration into community that Jesus brings through healing and deliverance.

Mat 12:43 When an unclean spirit comes out of a man…
Luk 11:24 When an unclean spirit comes out of a man,…
Mrk 5:5 Night and day in the tombs and in the mountains…

Persons / Places / Events
1. Jesus
The central figure in this passage, Jesus is the one who commands the unclean spirit to leave the man. His authority over spiritual forces is a key theme.

2. The Demon-Possessed Man
This man is tormented by an unclean spirit, which has caused him to live in isolation and suffer greatly. His condition illustrates the destructive power of demonic forces.

3. Unclean Spirit
The spirit that possesses the man, causing him to break chains and live in solitary places. It represents the spiritual forces of evil that oppose God's kingdom.

4. Chains and Shackles
These are physical restraints used in an attempt to control the man, symbolizing human efforts to manage spiritual problems without divine intervention.

5. Solitary Places
The places where the man is driven by the demon, representing isolation and separation from community and God.
Teaching Points
Authority of Jesus
Jesus has ultimate authority over all spiritual forces. Believers can trust in His power to deliver and protect them from evil.

The Reality of Spiritual Warfare
This passage reminds us of the reality of spiritual warfare and the need to be vigilant and prayerful.

Human Limitations
The inability of chains and shackles to restrain the man highlights the limitations of human solutions to spiritual problems. We must rely on God's power.

Isolation and Community
The demon drives the man into isolation, but Jesus' intervention restores him to community. Believers should seek to restore and support those who are isolated.

Deliverance and Restoration
Jesus' deliverance of the man demonstrates His desire to restore individuals to wholeness and community. Believers are called to participate in this restorative work.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does Jesus' authority over the unclean spirit in Luke 8:29 encourage you in your own spiritual battles?

2. In what ways do you see the limitations of human solutions to spiritual problems in today's world?

3. How can you actively resist the devil in your daily life, as encouraged in James 4:7?

4. What steps can you take to help restore someone who is isolated or struggling spiritually back into community?

5. How does understanding the reality of spiritual warfare change the way you approach prayer and spiritual disciplines?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Mark 5:1-20
This parallel account provides additional details about the demon-possessed man and Jesus' authority over demons.

Ephesians 6:12
This verse highlights the spiritual battle against evil forces, emphasizing the need for spiritual armor and God's power.

James 4:7
This verse encourages believers to submit to God and resist the devil, promising that the devil will flee.
Sermons
A Group of MiraclesR.M. Edga Luke 8:22-56
A Chinese DemoniacJ. Smith.Luke 8:27-40
A Genuine CaseA. A. Ramsey.Luke 8:27-40
A Saviour and not a TormentorE. J. Hardy.Luke 8:27-40
Destructive PowerJ. Parker, D. D.Luke 8:27-40
Hell on EarthCharles Kingsley.Luke 8:27-40
Insanity is Much Nearer the Kingdom of God than Worldly-MindednessA. B. Bruce, D. D.Luke 8:27-40
LegionCharles Kingsley.Luke 8:27-40
Plain Words with the CarelessC. H. Spurgeon.Luke 8:27-40
Spirits in Possession of a ManA. A. Ramsey.Luke 8:27-40
The Demoniac in the Tombs as He Resembles the Unconverted SinnerJ. J. Rew, M. A.Luke 8:27-40
The Gadarene DemoniacNorman Macleod, D. D.Luke 8:27-40
People
Chuza, Herod, Jair, Jairus, James, Jesus, Joanna, John, Mary, Peter, Susanna
Places
Galilee, Gerasa
Topics
Already, Apart, Asunder, Bands, Bonds, Bound, Brake, Break, Breaking, Broke, Broken, Caught, Chained, Chains, Commanded, Commanding, Control, Demon, Demons, Desert, Deserts, Devil, Driven, Driving, Escape, Evil, Fetters, Foot, Forth, Foul, Frequently, Grip, Guard, Guarded, Held, Impelled, Kept, Often, Oftentimes, Order, Parting, Pieces, Places, Prisoned, Repeatedly, Seized, Shackles, Solitary, Spirit, Though, Unclean, Waste, Wilderness, Yet
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Luke 8:29

     5251   chains
     5933   restlessness

Luke 8:22-33

     5300   drowning

Luke 8:26-29

     4133   demons, possession by

Luke 8:26-37

     2030   Christ, holiness

Luke 8:26-39

     5285   cures

Luke 8:27-29

     4165   exorcism
     8340   self-respect

Library
June 28 Evening
The Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits.--I TIM. 4:1. Take heed therefore how ye hear.--Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.--Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through thy …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

November 24 Morning
My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it.--LUKE 8:21. Both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren: saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren; in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.--In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.--Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.--Blessed are they …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

Seed among Thorns
'And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares, and riches, and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.'--Luke viii. 14. No sensible sower would cast his seed among growing thorn-bushes, and we must necessarily understand that the description in this verse is not meant to give us the picture of a field in which these were actually growing, but rather of one in which they had been grubbed up, and so preparation been made …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

Christ to Jairus
'When Jesus heard it, He answered, saying, Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole.' --LUKE viii. 60. The calm leisureliness of conscious power shines out very brilliantly from this story of the raising of Jairus's daughter. The father had come to Jesus, in an agony of impatience, and besought Him to heal his child, who lay 'at the point of death.' Not a moment was to be lost. Our Lord sets out with him, but on the road pauses to attend to another sufferer, the woman who laid her wasted …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

The Ministry of Women
'And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, 3. And Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto Him of their substance.' --LUKE viii. 2,3. The Evangelist Luke has preserved for us several incidents in our Lord's life in which women play a prominent part. It would not, I think, be difficult to bring that fact into connection with the main characteristics of his Gospel, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

One Seed and Diverse Soils
'And when much people were gathered together, and were come to Him out of every city, He spake by a parable: 5. A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. 6. And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. 7. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. 8. And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

A Miracle Within a Miracle
'And a woman, having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, 44. Came behind Him, and touched the border of His garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched. 45. And Jesus said, Who touched Me? When all denied, Peter, and they that were with Him, said, Master, the multitude throng Thee and press Thee, and sayest Thou, Who touched Me? 46. And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched Me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

The Sower and the Seed.
"A sower went out to sow his seed."--ST. LUKE viii. 5. It is significant that the first of the Saviour's parables is the parable of the sower, that the first thing to which He likens His own work is that of the sower of seed, the first lesson He has to impress upon us by any kind of comparison is that the word of God is a seed sown in our hearts, a something which contains in it the germ of a new life. It is no less significant that He returns so often to this same kind of comparison for the purpose …
John Percival—Sermons at Rugby

Our Relations to the Departed
"She is not dead, but sleepeth." Luke viii.52 A Great peculiarity of the Christian religion is its transforming or transmuting power. I speak not now of the regeneration which accomplishes in the individual soul, but of the change it works upon things without. It applies the touchstone to every fact of existence, and exposes its real value. Looking through the lens of spiritual observation, it throws the realities of life into a reverse perspective from that which is seen by the sensual eye. Objects …
E. H. Chapin—The Crown of Thorns

Further Journeying About Galilee.
^C Luke VIII. 1-3. ^c 1 And it came to pass soon afterwards [ i. e.,. soon after his visit to the Pharisee], that he went about through cities and villages [thus making a thorough circuit of the region of Galilee], preaching and bringing the good tidings of the kingdom of God [John had preached repentance as a preparation for the kingdom; but Jesus now appears to have preached the kingdom itself, which was indeed to bring good tidings--Rom. xiv. 17 ], and with him the twelve [We here get a glimpse …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Ministry of Love, the Blasphemy of Hatred, and the Mistakes of Earthly Affection - the Return to Capernaum - Healing of the Demonised Dumb -
HOWEVER interesting and important to follow the steps of our Lord on His journey through Galilee, and to group in their order the notices of it in the Gospels, the task seems almost hopeless. In truth, since none of the Evangelists attempted - should we not say, ventured - to write a Life' of the Christ, any strictly historical arrangement lay outside their purpose. Their point of view was that of the internal, rather than the external development of this history. And so events, kindred in purpose, …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

There are Some Things of this Sort Even of Our Saviour in the Gospel...
27. There are some things of this sort even of our Saviour in the Gospel, because the Lord of the Prophets deigned to be Himself also a Prophet. Such are those where, concerning the woman which had an issue of blood, He said, "Who touched Me?" [2431] and of Lazarus. "Where have ye laid him?" [2432] He asked, namely, as if not knowing that which in any wise He knew. And He did on this account feign that He knew not, that He might signify somewhat else by that His seeming ignorance: and since this …
St. Augustine—Against Lying

The Right to what I Consider a Normal Standard of Living
"Have we no right to eat and to drink?"--I Corinthians 9:4 The white-haired mission secretary looked at me quizzically. "Well," he said, "it's all in your point of view. We find that these days in the tropics people may look upon the missionary's American refrigerator as a normal and necessary thing; but the cheap print curtains hanging at his windows may be to them unjustifiable extravagance!" * * * * * My mind goes back to a simple missionary home in China, with a cheap …
Mabel Williamson—Have We No Rights?

In Troubles --
The king had before this time noticed a spot of immense military importance on the Seine between Rouen and Paris, the rock of Andelys. Indeed he had once tossed three Frenchmen from the rock. It was, or might be, the key to Normandy on the French side, and he feared lest Philip should seize upon it and use it against him. Consequently he pounced upon it, and began to fortify it at lavish expense. Archbishop Walter of Rouen, and late of Lincoln, in whose ecclesiastical patrimony it lay, was furious, …
Charles L. Marson—Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln

Faith a New and Comprehensive Sense.
…
John Newton—Olney Hymns

Sundry Sharp Reproofs
This doctrine draws up a charge against several sorts: 1 Those that think themselves good Christians, yet have not learned this art of holy mourning. Luther calls mourning a rare herb'. Men have tears to shed for other things, but have none to spare for their sins. There are many murmurers, but few mourners. Most are like the stony ground which lacked moisture' (Luke 8:6). We have many cry out of hard times, but they are not sensible of hard hearts. Hot and dry is the worst temper of the body. Sure …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

Thankfulness for Mercies Received, a Necessary Duty
Numberless marks does man bear in his soul, that he is fallen and estranged from God; but nothing gives a greater proof thereof, than that backwardness, which every one finds within himself, to the duty of praise and thanksgiving. When God placed the first man in paradise, his soul no doubt was so filled with a sense of the riches of the divine love, that he was continually employing that breath of life, which the Almighty had not long before breathed into him, in blessing and magnifying that all-bountiful, …
George Whitefield—Selected Sermons of George Whitefield

The General Observations are These.
There are in these relations proper circumstances of time and place, and the names and characters of persons. Of the miracle on Jairus's daughter, the time and place are sufficiently specified by St. Mark and St. Luke. It was soon after his crossing the sea of Galilee, after Jesus had cured the men possessed with devils in the country of the Gergesenes, Mark v. 21. And when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto him, and he was nigh unto the sea. And behold …
Nathaniel Lardner—A Vindication of Three of Our Blessed Saviour's Miracles

R. W. Begins his Fifth Discourse, P. 1, 2. With Saying, that He is Now
to take into examination the three miracles of Jesus's raising the dead, viz. of Jairus's daughter, Matth. ix. Mark. v. Luke viii. of the widow of Naim's son, Luke vii. and of Lazarus, John xi: the literal stories of which, he says, he shall shew to consist of absurdities, improbabilities, and incredibilities, in order to the mystical interpretation of them. I have read over his examination of these miracles, and am still of opinion, that the histories of them are credible. I. I will therefore first …
Nathaniel Lardner—A Vindication of Three of Our Blessed Saviour's Miracles

The Second Miracle at Cana.
^D John IV. 46-54. ^d 46 He came therefore again [that is, in consequence of the welcome which awaited him] Unto Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine [see page 114]. And there was a certain nobleman [literally, "king's man:" a word which Josephus uses to designate a soldier, courtier, or officer of the king. He was doubtless an officer of Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee. That it was Chuzas (Luke viii. 3) or Manaen (Acts xiii. 1) is mere conjecture], whose son was sick at Capernaum. [The …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Ancient Versions of the Old Testament.
In the present chapter only those versions of the Old Testament are noticed which were made independently of the New. Versions of the whole Bible, made in the interest of Christianity, are considered in the following part. I. THE GREEK VERSION CALLED THE SEPTUAGINT. 1. This is worthy of special notice as the oldest existing version of the holy Scriptures, or any part of them, in any language; and also as the version which exerted a very large influence on the language and style of the New Testament; …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible

General Remarks on the History of Missions in this Age.
THE operations of Christianity are always radically the same, because they flow from its essential character, and its relations to human nature; yet it makes some difference whether it is received amongst nations to whom it was previously quite unknown, either plunged in barbarism or endowed with a certain degree of civilization, proceeding from some other form of religion, or whether it attaches itself to an already existing Christian tradition. In the latter case, it will indeed have to combat …
Augustus Neander—Light in the Dark Places

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