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Mar_5:1-20. See on Mat_8:28-34. Comp. Luk_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.
Mar_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 Mar_1:23.
Mar_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.
Mar_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 Mar_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).
Mar_5:5. He was continually in the tombs and in the mountains, screaming and cutting himself with stones.
Mar_5:6. ἀπὸ μακρόθεν ] as in Mat_26:58.
Mar_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 (Act_19:13; 1Th_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 , Mar_5:8. The possessed man, identifying himself with his demon, dreads the pains, convulsions, etc. of the going forth. Subsequently, at Mar_5:10, where he has surrendered himself to the inevitable going forth, his prayer is different. Observe, moreover, how here the command of Jesus (Mar_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.
Mar_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.
Mar_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 ìâéåï , 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.
Mar_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).
Mar_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.
Mar_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, Mar_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, Mar_5:3, an addition as in Luk_8:27 (Ewald), is unnecessary.
The verb ἱματίζω is not preserved except in this place and at Luk_8:35.
τὸν ἐσχηκ . τ . Λεγ .] contrast, “ad emphasin miraculi,” Erasmus.
Mar_5:16. καὶ περὶ τ . χοίρ .] still belongs to διηγήσ .
Mar_5:17. ἤρξαντο ] The first impression, Mar_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, Mar_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.
Mar_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 .
Mar_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.
Mar_5:20. ἤρξατο ] a graphic delineation from the starting-point.
Δεκαπόλει ] See on Mat_4:25.
ἐποίησεν ] aorist, like ἠλέησε . On the other hand, in Mar_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 Mar_5:43; Mat_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.