Chapter # 5 Paragraph # 1 Study # 2
December 1, 2020
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(186)
NASB
2 When He got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him,
3 and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain;
4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him.
5 Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones.
6 Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him;
7 and shouting with a loud voice, he *said, "What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!"
8 For He had been saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!"
9 And He was asking him, "What is your name?" And he *said to Him, "My name is Legion; for we are many."
10 And he [
began] to implore Him earnestly not to send them out of the country.
11 Now there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain.
12 [
The demons] implored Him, saying, "Send us into the swine so that we may enter them."
13 Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand [
of them;] and they were drowned in the sea.
14 Their herdsmen ran away and reported it in the city and in the country. And [
the people] came to see what it was that had happened.
15 They *came to Jesus and *observed the man who had been demon-possessed sitting down, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the "legion"; and they became frightened.
16 Those who had seen it described to them how it had happened to the demon-possessed man, and [
all] about the swine.
17 And they began to implore Him to leave their region.
18 As He was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed was imploring Him that he might accompany Him.
19 And He did not let him, but He *said to him, "Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and [
how] He had mercy on you."
20 And he went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.
- I. Jesus And The Man Of The Gerasenes Possessed By Many Unclean Spirits, Continued.
- A. Mark wastes no time: "the next most important thing" (euthus).
- B. "When He had gotten out of the boat...".
- 1. The verb, as an intensified form, is used by Mark in 37 texts and its unintensified form is used in 83. The unintensified form means "to come" and the intensified form means "to exit"/"to come out from".
- 2. A "boat" is in 15 texts of Mark's record. In this text/context, it is a direct reference to that "boat" that was subjected to the raging storm and in danger of sinking. This "boat" is at the beginning of this story and at the end of it, and the verb used at the end, "getting into the boat" (embaino; an intensified verb), is used in 5 texts of Mark and always in reference to "getting into a boat".
- a. In the beginning of the story, Jesus is presented as "exiting" (ex plus erchomai) "out from" (ek plus tou ploiou) the boat; a double focus upon "out from".
- b. At the end of the story, Jesus is "getting into" (embaino) "the boat" (eis plus to ploion), another double focus upon "into".
- c. When added to Mark's use of "the other side" in 5:1 and 21, the record is an "inclusio" surrounded by Jesus' exit and entrance in respect to "the boat". This may well be a deliberate statement by Jesus/Mark that the attempted sinking of the boat and the exorcism of thousands of unclean spirits are definitively linked as a declaration of Jesus' "superiority of might" over all things created, material and spiritual. This is no small issue because the "bottom line" of the entire record of the Bible is that no one can win in a struggle against "The Lord God Almighty". Omnipotence makes resistance ridiculous, and disbelief regarding the stated plans supported by such power foolish.
- d. The lingering question at the end of the record of the "storm" is: "Who, then, is This One?" The "boat's" answer is: The Mighty One. He separates those in the boat from the environs of Death, and acts to fulfill all of the jots and tittles of the Words of God (Matthew 5:18).
- 1) This "boat" thesis is a significant theme in Scripture beginning with the building of the Ark by Noah.
- 2) The "Mighty One" thesis is reinforced by Mark's description of the "power" of the man when possessed by the unclean spirits, which is a matter to which he turns in 5:3-4.
- C. "...a man, in/with an unclean spirit, met Him out of the tombs..."
- 1. The word translated "met" is only used in ten texts of the New Testament (relatively rare) and three of the ten are found in the records of this very event recorded by Mark (Matthew 8:28 and Luke 8:27). There are overtones of conflict in the "meetings" in seven of these texts, but three do not maintain this "conflict"/"confrontation" characteristic.
- 2. This word derives from a combination word made up of a preposition (hupo) and a verb that is not, itself, used in the New Testament (antao). There is the question of why Mark picked this word to express the "meeting". In this text/context, the "meeting" is a "confrontation" (negative overtones of conflict). In all of the texts/contexts, the "meetings" have "contradiction" overtones (a "meeting" that upsets the expectations involved in it, though not always in a negative sense, simply a sense of the "unexpected").
- 3. In our current text, it may well be that Jesus' arrival was "unexpected" by the unclean spirit for some reason. He/it was dismayed by Jesus' "torment" (5:7-8). This is not unlike 1:24 where the issue is the unclean spirit's "Have you come to destroy us?" and Matthew's parallel record where the unclean spirit says, "Have you come to torment us before the time?" (8:29).
- D. This setting sets the readers up for another round of the "Mighty One" evidence since the storm had provided the first part of this "round" -- might over the material universe.
- II. Who Had His Dwelling Among The Tombs.
- A. The double reference in this record to the man's association with "tombs" is significant.
- 1. Mark refers to "tombs" in ten texts of his record; six times as the monuments of the graveyard, and four times as an actual "tomb". Of the six, four are in the record of Jesus' burial and the account of His resurrection, one is in this record, and the last refers to the disciples of John putting him into 'a place with a memorial stone'; and of the four, two are in regard to Jesus and the other two are in our present record.
- 2. That this man "came out from among the monuments" because he "had his dwelling among the graves" indicates that the "unclean spirit" was fixated on death.
- 3. This "fixation" is highly significant in view of God's "Promise" of eternal life. The conflict of the ages is over whether "Life" or "Death" will be the final outcome. Significantly, this is also the issue regarding God's "final purpose" for Creation: Life for those who believe; "the chief end of God for men".