Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 5:2
And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,
2. out of the tombs ] These tombs were either natural caves or recesses hewn by art out of the rock, often so large as to be supported with columns, and with cells upon their sides for the reception of the dead. Such places were regarded as unclean because of the dead men’s bones which were there (Num 19:11; Num 19:16; Mat 23:27). Such tombs can still be traced in more than one of the ravines on the eastern side of the Lake. Thomson’s Land and the Book, p. 376.
a man ] St Matthew (Mat 8:28) mentions two demoniacs, St Luke (Luk 8:27), like St Mark, only speaks of one. Probably one was better known in the country round than the other, or one was so much fiercer that the other was hardly taken any account of. “Amid all the boasted civilisation of antiquity, there existed no hospitals, no penitentiaries, no asylums; and unfortunates of this class, being too dangerous and desperate for human intercourse, could only be driven forth from among their fellow-men, and restrained from mischief by measures at once inadequate and cruel.” Farrar’s Life of Christ, i. p. 334.
no, not with chains ] This is a general expression for any bonds confining the hands or feet. Comp. Act 21:33; Eph 6:20; Rev 20:1; fetters were restricted to the feet.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 2. A man with an unclean spirit] There are two mentioned by Matthew, who are termed demoniacs. See Clarke on Mr 1:23.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
2. And when he was come out of theship, immediately(see Mr5:6).
there met him a man with anunclean spirit“which had devils [demons] long time”(Lu 8:27). In Matthew (Mt8:28), “there met him two men possessed with devils.”Though there be no discrepancy between these two statementsmorethan between two witnesses, one of whom testifies to something doneby one person, while the other affirms that there were twoit isdifficult to see how the principal details here given could apply tomore than one case.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And when he was come out of the ship,…. As soon as he was landed,
immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit. The Jews have a notion, that a man by dwelling among the tombs, becomes possessed with an unclean spirit: hence they say of one that seeks to the dead, or a necromancer o, this is he that starves himself, and goes “and lodges in the tombs”;
, “that so an unclean spirit may dwell upon him”: which notion may arise from unclean spirits hurrying persons possessed by them, unto such places; partly for the terror, both of themselves and others; and partly to possess the minds of men with a persuasion, that they have power over the dead, and which is very great in such places. This case is the same with that, which is mentioned in Mt 8:28 as appears partly from its following the storm, from which the disciples had a remarkable deliverance; and partly from the country, in which this affair happened; for the country of the Gergesenes, and of the Gadarenes, is the same, as has been observed; only it is called by different names, from two principal places in it: as also from various circumstances in this relation; as the character of the possessed being exceeding fierce, dwelling among the tombs, and coming out from thence; the expostulation of the devil with Christ, and adjuration not to torment him; his entreaty to go into the herd of swine, and the leave he had; the destruction of the swine in the sea; the fear and flight of the swine herds; the report they made to their masters and others; and the request of the people in general to Christ, that he would depart out of their coasts. And though Matthew makes mention of two that were possessed, and Mark but of one, there is no contradiction in the one to the other; for Mark does not say there were no more than one; had he, it would have been a glaring contradiction to the other evangelist; but as he has put it, there is none, and it creates no difficulty: wherefore the Jew p has no reason to object this as he does, as if the evangelists clashed with one another; and Mark may only take notice of this one, because he was the fiercest of the two, and had the most devils in him, having a legion of them; and because the conversation chiefly passed between Christ and him; and because the power of Christ was more manifestly seen in the dispossession of the devils out of him.
o T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 65. 2. Nidda, fol. 17. 1. & Chagiga, fol. 3. 2. p Jacob Aben Amram, porta veritatia, No. 1028. apud Kidder’s Demonstr. of the Messiah, par. 3. p. 51.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Out of the boat ( ). Straightway () Mark says, using the genitive absolute ( ) and then repeating associative instrumental after . The demoniac greeted Jesus at once. Mark and Lu 9:27 mention only one man while Matthew notes two demoniacs, perhaps one more violent than the other. Each of the Gospels has a different phrase. Mark has “a man with an unclean spirit” ( ), Mt 8:28 “two possessed with demons” ( ), Lu 8:27 “one having demons” ( ). Mark has many touches about this miracle not retained in Matthew and Luke. See on Mt 8:28.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And when He was come out of the ship,” (kai ekselthontas autou ek tou ploiou) “And as He came out of, and away from, the ship,” or boat, or while He was leaving the boat.
2) “Immediately there met Him out of the tombs,” (euthus hupentesen auto ek ton mnemeion) “Immediately there met or confronted Him out of the tombs,” from among the tombs nearby, from the cemetery of Gadara, or from the tombs cut in rocky hillsides, where some families yet live today.
3) “A man with an unclean spirit,” (anthropos en pneumati akatharto) “A man in (domination of) an unclean spirit,” or in bondage to a demon spirit, causing the man to be emotionally and mentally imbalanced in body, mind, and judgment. Jesus had confronted unclean and evil spirits before and cast them out, Mar 1:23-27; Mar 1:39.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(2) A man with an unclean spirit.The phrase. though not peculiar to St. Mark, is often used by him where the other Gospels have possessed with demons, or devils. St. Mark and St. Luke, it will be noticed, speak of one only; St. Matthew of two.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. With an unclean spirit As this is one of the most unequivocal instances of supernatural possession, it may be properly prefaced by some remarks on this class of phenomena as presented in the New Testament.
1 . No one is said to be possessed by Satan, or the devil; but, in the original, by demons or unclean spirits, or spirits connected with specific diseases, as a deaf or dumb spirit. The whole system of Bible demonology presupposes one arch enemy of God and man, finite yet powerful, an archangel of evil, who is the mightiest finite representative of wickedness revealed to us in the universe. See note on Mat 4:1. He makes his appearance in Eden under the base guise of a serpent, and procures the fall of man. As Belial he is known in Old Testament history, and perhaps as Azazel. He is Satan in the book of Job. He is Satan, Beelzebub, and prince of devils in the New Testament.
2 . Out of the range of the Scripture lands the powers of evil widely and powerfully ruled. Yet it may have been under other names and wearing other guises. The same world of invisible evil powers in its great outlines is dimly disclosed; but the demoniac agencies appear in different specific modes and styles, as the customs and institutes of men admitted them. There were the oracles, revealing apparently more or less of hidden truth, and with their devotees more or less inspired and phrensied. And it is by this very oracular inspiration that the girl in Act 16:16, was said to be filled, namely, by the spirit of PYTHON, which was the name of the god of the oracles. And this maiden exhibited the same peculiar phenomenon as these demoniacs, in showing a supernatural knowledge of the true character of the apostles, proclaiming them to be the servants of the Most High, while she herself only professed to belong to a far inferior opposing power. It is a striking fact, (which we shall again notice,) that the fathers of the Christian Church boasted that the oracles became dumb after the coming of Christ. This brings us also to another striking conclusion of the Church, namely, that the demons of the New Testament, the devils of Scripture, lurked under the guise of much of the mythology of heathendom. And on that view of the case we are at no loss to find an abundance of phenomena in pagan antiquity analogous to the possessions in the New Testament.
3 . To those who maintain that the cases of supposed possession were nothing more than ordinary diseases, it is fairly replied that the New Testament writers, and, evidently, the Jews of that age, generally and fully distinguished between diseases produced by natural causes and the same diseases attended with demoniacal symptoms. All phenomena of the diseases exhibited by the possessed manifest themselves in abundance in that country at the present day. Thus Dr. Thomson says: “In Sidon there are cases of epileptic fits which, in external manifestations, closely resemble that mentioned in Mar 9:18, Mat 17:15, and Luk 9:38. These fits have seized a young man in my own house repeatedly; and lo! the spirit taketh him, and he suddenly crieth out, and foameth at the mouth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and is cast down wherever he may be seized, and pineth away until you would think he was actually dead. Matthew calls him a lunatic; but according to Mark it was a dumb spirit.”
And yet over above these diseases, which were natural, there are, in the cases of the possessed, phenomena which show that, in their case, either the disease is preternaturally produced or aggravated, or attended with evidence of demoniac action in addition. Such is most strikingly the case of the demoniac of Gadara, whose case is now before us. It is impossible to account for his strange consciousness of a wonderful power in Jesus, (see note on Mar 1:24😉 or for the utterance of language which comes, as it were, from a being within the man; or for the language on the part of our Lord clearly recognizing the fact of possession; or for the departure of the devils out of the man into the swine by the express permission of Jesus, on any other hypothesis than the existence of beings superinduced upon men.
4 . It is asked, Why do not demoniacs appear at the present day? and to this we reply: The most profound observers in mental and psychological science have remarked that certain supernaturalisms seem to affect the human system in particular ages, then disappear, and are the subjects of scepticism in a later era. Phenomena of this kind took place in the middle ages which are unknown now. We have elsewhere remarked (note on Mat 1:20) that the coming of our Lord was attended by a series of splendid manifestations of the heavenly world; that the powers of hell should come forth in counteraction is not wonderful. That the battle between supernal and infernal powers then took place on earth more or less manifestly, is plain from the whole scene of the Saviour’s temptation. That victory was on the side of heaven was boasted, as we have before remarked, by the Church in regard to the dumbness of the oracles. The fatal blow was struck to paganism, and the decay of diabolical influence commenced, which is yet to result in the binding of Satan and the casting him down to the abyss, the triumph of the martyr spirits reigning in heaven and over earth with Christ. Revelation 20. Yet still there are cases, especially of men given over to delirium tremens, which exhibit a terrible approximation to possession, and which, if Satanic power were at the present time in the manifest ascendant, would very possibly develop a clear possession by the power of the evil ones. Dr. Trench quotes cases where a double consciousness has shown itself, and we have known cases take strangely a supernatural tendency. How much diabolical mingles with the so-called spiritism of the present day, may be matter of serious consideration. That these phenomena, many of them, may belong to the human organism in a preternatural condition, is probable. But they may belong to that part of the human which is allied to the supernatural; and no one can perhaps draw the line which divides them from the supernatural, or tell when the supernatural is superinduced upon the preternatural in man. This much we are certain: these phenomena belong not to the divine, but to the lower if not to the infernal order of invisible powers. As there is day and night, light and darkness, good and evil, so there is a kingdom of heaven and a kingdom of hell. Let men beware how they join themselves to the power of darkness, and come under the dominion of Beelzebub, prince of devils.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And when he was come out of the boat 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 any more bind him, no, not with a chain. For he had often been bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him, and the fetters broken in pieces. And no man had strength to tame him. And always night and day in the tombs and in the mountains he was crying out and cutting himself with stones.’
Jesus had come over for a rest and now He faced something the like of which He and His disciples had never seen before. This was not just a possessed man, but a man terribly possessed, living a life of misery and torment. Firstly we should note that he lived among the graves. The belief of the time was that graveyards were places where evil spirits lived, which may have been one thing that prompted his distorted mind to take up his dwelling there, but it was also likely that he did so because many tombs were caves which could provide adequate, if unpleasant, shelter (compare Job 30:6), and were generally avoided by men. It was somewhere where he could avoid the human beings who tormented him.
Secondly he had superhuman strength. All attempts to restrain him had failed. Fetters and chains were torn apart like string. And no one was willing, even as part of a group, to try to restrain him. He was a terror to all. (Such uncanny strength has often been noted of people in a similar state).
And thirdly he wandered among the tombs and went up into the mountains, crying out and cutting himself with stones. He was often no doubt seen from afar, a wild and desolate figure, and he would undoubtedly have been a person of wide renown. The cutting of himself with stones may simply have represented self-hatred, a not uncommon feature of such possessed people, or it may have been connected with demon rites (1Ki 18:28; Lev 19:28; Deu 14:1). The fact that he is later described as ‘clothed’ may suggest that he ran around naked. Nakedness is often a feature and consequence of severe clinical depression.
‘A man with an unclean spirit.’ The spirit was ‘unclean’ in contrast with the ‘cleanness’ or purity of the Spirit of God. It was a spirit that hated God and all things to do with God, and shrank from His presence, and wanted nothing to do with Him. And it rendered the man ‘unclean’ in Jewish eyes by his dwelling among the tombs. The man is specifically identified as demon possessed. It is probable that he was a Gentile (Consider Mar 5:20 and his close proximity to pig farms, abhorrent to orthodox Jews).
‘Immediately.’ This does not necessarily mean on landing, but signifies that it was before He had time to do much else. It is a typical Marcan hurrying along of the narrative. On the other hand it was probably still dark on landing, so the man may have been engaged on his nightly wanderings, unwittingly drawn there by God.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The demoniac:
v. 2. And when He was come out of the ship, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,
v. 3. who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains,
v. 4. 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.
v. 5. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones
Matthew, in relating this story, speaks of two demoniacs, while Mark mentions only one, the speaker of the two, and probably also the fiercer of them. Hardly had Jesus ‘stepped out of the boat when this man came running to meet Him from his home among the tombs in the neighborhood. He was a man in, that is, fully possessed by, an unclean spirit. The power of the devil and his angels is such that it always renders the person whom he gets into his dominion, spiritually unclean. Here the whole person, body, mind, and soul, was possessed of the devil. This demoniac had his dwelling-place in the tombs, probably in some of the burial-places which had been excavated or hewn into the side of the hills. His fierceness was such as to make his confinement by means of fetters and chains absolutely impossible. The piling up of the negatives emphasizes this peculiarity very strongly. All attempts to keep him in constraint by means of foot-guards and with chains had been futile. He tore the chains apart and shattered the foot-guards, whether of metal or rope, and no man was able in any way to keep him in subjection. All the methods employed in the case of wild animals availed nothing in his case. The strength of the devil and his angels in him was too great for human skill and ingenuity. He was given no rest by the tormentors living in him, but always, night and day, he was driven by them through the tombs and through the hills, making it dangerous to travel in that neighborhood. The people that caught sight of him saw that he was usually engaged in striking and mutilating himself with sharp stones, uttering at the same time fierce cries, that might well cause the stoutest heart to quail. It is a terrible thing if the devil gains ascendancy over a person, not one whit less so if this power extends over his mind and soul only than if it includes also the body.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
2 And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,
Ver. 2. A man with an unclean spirit ] Graece, . In an unclean spirit, quod eum spiritus quasi inclusum teneret. (Beza.) So the flesh is called “the old man,” as if it were the whole of a natural man; and the devil is said to “work effectually” in such, Eph 2:2 . See Trapp on “ Mar 1:23 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Mar 5:2 . . ; note the correction of style in Luke. Mark’s incorrectness is to be preferred as emphasising the fact that the meeting with the demoniac took place immediately after leaving the boat. Just on that account the before (omitted in [32] ) is unnecessary. . , from the tombs, as in Mt., in Lk.; the former doubtless the fact . Luke’s phrase probably means that he belonged to the city, not necessarily implying that he came from it just then ( vide Luk 8:27 , last clause).
[32] Codex Vaticanus (sc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
out of. Greek. ek. App-104.
ship = boat.
immediately. See note on Mar 1:12.
met = confronted.
man. Greek. anthropos. App-123. In the earlier miracle there were “two men “(Mat 8:28).
with = in [the power of]. Greek. en, App-104.
spirit. Greek. pneuma. See App-101.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Mar 5:2. , immediately) However, the man was preserved from casting himself into the sea as the swine did.-, in) The particle contains the emphasis of the clause.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
out: Isa 65:4, Luk 8:27
a man: Matthew gives a brief account of two demoniacs who were dispossessed on this occasion; but Mark and Luke omit the mention of one – who was perhaps not so remarkable. That these wretched men were not merely mad, as some suppose, but really possessed of evil spirits, appears clearly from the language employed, as well as from the narrative itself. Matthew expressly affirms that they were “possessed with devils,” or demoniacs, [Strong’s G1139]; Mark says he had “an unclean spirit,” i.e., a fallen spirit; and Luke asserts, that he “had devils (or demons) a long time,” and was called Legion, “because many devils were entered into him.” With supernatural strength the demons burst asunder the chains and fetters with which he was bound; they address Christ as the “Son of the most high God;” they beseech him to suffer them to enter into the swine; and when he had given them leave, they “went out and entered into the swine,” etc.
with: Mar 5:8, Mar 1:23, Mar 1:26, Mar 3:30, Mar 7:25, Luk 9:42
Reciprocal: Mat 4:24 – possessed Mat 8:28 – coming
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
FROM THE POWER OF SATAN UNTO GOD
A man with an unclean spirit.
Mar 5:2
After the storm our Lord landed from the boat at Gerasa, on the east bank of the lake, in the country of the Gerasenes. In the gorge, leading from the water up to the high land on which the town was situated, were numerous tombs in the rocks. From one of them came a man dreadfully afflicted.
I. The demoniacs wretchedness.
(a) Possessed with an unclean spirit. In those days the devil had power to send some of his messengers (demons) into men. This man had many (Mar 5:9), who all belonged to Satans army. When he spoke it was the demons speaking through him.
(b) Lived in the tombs. He had been driven from the town, and lived in some empty tomb.
(c) Violent. So fierce no man might pass by (Mat 8:28). This poor demoniac is like the sinner, led captive by the devil (2Ti 2:26)a slave to sin.
II. His healing.Notice the stages:
(a) He came to Jesus.
(b) Jesus commanded the spirits to come out, when the demons made him cry out, What have I to do with Thee. These spirits always knew Jesus (see ch. Mar 1:24). St. James (Mar 2:19) says of demons that they believe and shudder (R.V.). After begging our Lord not to send them into the deep they came out of the man.
(c) The change. When the Gerasenes cameprobably next morningwhat did they see? (Mar 5:14-15). The man was sitting, Luke adds, at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind. Jesus did for him what no one else could, for He only had power over the strong man, and could bind him (ch. Mar 3:27). The changed demoniac should represent those who have found deliverance from sins tyranny. They should be found sitting at Jesus feetthe place of learning, love, and lowliness; clothed with the garments of salvation (Isa 61:10); in right mind, i.e. a changed mind.
III. His gratitude.Jesus was about to leave when the man prayed Him that he might be with Him. But Jesus suffered him not, for (a) he must have faith in Jesus power, though absent, and (b) He had other work for him to doto be a missionary among his own people. How? By simply telling what the Lord had done for him. The man accepted the task. See how he discharged it (Mar 5:20).
What an example to all whom Jesus has blessed! Made free from sin we become servants to God (Rom 6:22).
Rev. R. R. Resker.
Illustrations
(1) The ruins right over against the Plain of Gennesaret, which still bear the name of Kersa or Gersa, must represent the ancient Gerasa. This is the correct reading in Marks, and probably in Lukes, perhaps also in Matthews Gospel. The locality entirely meets the requirements of the narrative. About a quarter of an hour to the south of Gersa is a steep bluff, which descends abruptly on a narrow ledge of shore. A terrified herd running down this cliff could not have recovered its foot-hold, and must inevitably have been hurled into the lake beneath. Again, the whole country around is burrowed with limestone caverns and rock-chambers for the dead, such as those which were the dwelling of the demonised.
(2) The whole subject of the demoniacs, or cases of Satanic possession recorded in the New Testament, is unquestionably full of deep mystery. The miserable sufferings of the unhappy people possessedtheir clear knowledge that our Lord was the Son of God, their double consciousness, sometimes the spirit speaking, sometimes the manall these are deep mysteries. And it can hardly be otherwise. We know little of beings that we cannot see and touch. We know nothing of the manner in which a spirit operates on the mind of a creature with flesh and bones like ourselves. We can see plainly that there were many persons possessed with devils during our Lords earthly ministry. We can see plainly that bodily possession was something distinct from possession of heart and soul. We can conjecture the reason of their permitted possessionto make it plain that our Lord came to destroy the works of the devil. But we must stop here. We can go no further. Let us, however, beware of supposing that Satanic possession was entirely confined to our Lords time, and that there is no such thing in our own days. This would be a rash and unwarrantable conclusion. Awful as the thought is, there are sometimes cases in asylums for the insane, which, if they are not cases of Satanic possession, approach as nearly to it as possible. Human nature is not changed since our Lord was on earth. Satan is not yet bound. Satanic possession is therefore neither impossible nor improbable, though limits may be set to the frequency of it through the mercy of God.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
2.
The tombs were caves in the rocks that were used for the burial of the dead. They were generally open so that persons could enter and leave them as occasion suggested. It was at this kind of place that the Lord met the man with an unclean spirit.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mar 5:2. Straightway. Marks favorite word.
A man. Matthew tells of two, being more particular in this respect. Luke speaks of but one.
With, lit., in an unclean spirit. Mark usually prefers this form of describing demoniacal possession.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 2
The tombs. The tombs in the countries around the Mediterranean were very remarkable. They consisted of natural or artificial excavations, often of great extent. In later times, they have often become the dens of robbers.–A man. Matthew mentions two men. (Matthew 8:28.)– Luke 8:26-39; Mark 5:1-20 seem to speak only of the one whose case was most extraordinary.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
5:2 And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man {b} with an unclean spirit,
(b) Literally, “in an unclean spirit”; now they are said to be in the spirit because the spirit holds them tightly locked up, and as it were bound.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Mark gave many more details describing this man than either Matthew or Luke did. This reflects an eyewitness account and Mark’s special interest in demonic activity. Matthew wrote that there were two men, but Mark and Luke mentioned only the more outstanding of the two. Mark stressed this man’s great physical strength that had progressively increased, evidently due to the demons’ increasing hold on him. Now nothing could restrain him. The poor man was miserable in his condition.