Mark 5:8
in Mark 5For Jesus had already declared, “Come out of this man, you unclean spirit!”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For he said unto him, Come forth, thou unclean spirit, out of the man.
KJV
For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.
⋯
This verse in Mark 5
Commentary
11 notes on this verse(non occ.) Consider the unconquerable power of Christ; He makes Satan shake, for to him the words of Christ are fire and flame; as the Psalmist says, The mountains melted at the presence of the Lord, (Ps. 97:5) that is, great and proud powers. There follows, And he asked him, What is thy name?
This site's exposition
When the man saw Jesus from a distance
on Mark 5:6-10
Asked his name, the spirit answers My name is Legion and adds for we are many. Legion is the Roman word for a force of thousands.
This site's exposition
Come out of this man, you unclean spirit
Mark explains the outcry of verse 7 after the fact. John Gill takes the command as spoken when the man arrived, drawing out the demon's confession. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that obedience usually came at once, but here a delay was allowed to show Christ's power more clearly.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church3 voices
(ubi sup.) Who dwelt in the tombs, because they delighted in dead works, that is, in sins; who were ever raging night and day, because whether in prosperity or in adversity, they were never free from the service of malignant spirits: again, by the foulness of their works, they lay as it were in the tombs, in their lofty pride, they wandered over the mountains, by words of most hardened infidelity, they as it were cut themselves with stones. But he said, My name is Legion, because the Gentile people were enslaved to divers idolatrous forms of worship. Again, that the unclean spirits going out from man enter into swine, which they cast headlong into the sea, implies that now that the people of the Gentiles are freed from the empire of demons, they who have not chosen to believe in Christ, work sacrilegious rites in hidden places.
Here again the demoniac is the people of the Gentiles, in a most hopeless case, bound neither by the law of nature, nor of God, nor by human fear. Or they are choked in hell without any touch of mercy by the rushing on of an early death; which evils many persons thus avoid, for by the scourging of the fool, the wise is made more prudent.
(ubi sup.) For it is a great torment for a devil to cease to hurt a man, and the more severely he possesses him, the more reluctantly he lets him go. For it goes on, For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
For he said unto him,.... Or he had said unto him, as soon as he came up to him, and fell before him; even before he had confessed, and adjured him; and which indeed drew out the confession from him, that he was superior to him, and therefore became his supplicant: come out of the man, thou unclean spirit; which was said with so much authority and power, that there was no withstanding it: the devil knew he was not a match for him; that he must, at his command, quit his possession, and therefore fell to confession and entreaty.
Here is an instance of the power and authority with which Christ commanded the unclean spirits, and they obeyed him, ch. i. He said, Come out of the man. The design of Christ's gospel is to expel unclean spirits out of the souls of people; " Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit, that the Holy Spirit may enter, may take possession of the heart, and have dominion in it." IV.
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
For he said unto him--that is, before the unclean spirit cried out. Come out of the man, unclean spirit!--Ordinarily, obedience to a command of this nature was immediate. But here, a certain delay is permitted, the more signally to manifest the power of Christ and accomplish His purposes.
A commentator
J.C. Ryle1816–1900
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition) (1857)
proposed
These verses describe one of those mysterious miracles which the Gospels frequently record — the casting out of a devil. Of all the cases of this kind in the New Testament, none is so fully described as this one. Of all the three evangelists who relate the history, none gives it so fully and minutely as Mark. We see, in the first place, in these verses, that the possession of a man's body by the devil, was a real and true thing in the time of our Lord's earthly ministry . It is a painful fact, that there are never lacking professing Christians who try to explain away our Lord's miracles. They endeavor to account for them by natural causes, and to show that they were not worked by any extraordinary power. Of all miracles, there are none which they assault so strenuously as the casting out of devils. They do not scruple to deny Satanic possession entirely. They tell us that it was nothing more than lunacy, or frenzy, or epilepsy, and that the idea of the devil inhabiting a man's body is absurd. The best and simplest answer to such skeptical objections, is a reference to the plain narratives of the Gospels, and especially to the one before us at this moment. The facts here detailed are utterly inexplicable, if we do not believe Satanic possession. It is notorious that lunacy, and frenzy, and epilepsy are not infectious complaints, and at any rate cannot be communicated to a herd of swine! And yet men ask us to believe, that as soon as this man was healed, two thousand swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, from a sudden impulse, without any apparent cause to account for their so doing! Such reasoning is the height of credulity. When men can satisfy themselves with such explanations, they are in a pitiable state of mind. Let us beware of a skeptical and incredulous spirit in all matters relating to the devil.
A commentator
J.C. Ryle1816–1900
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition) (1857)
proposed
These verses describe one of those mysterious miracles which the Gospels frequently record — the casting out of a devil. Of all the cases of this kind in the New Testament, none is so fully described as this one. Of all the three evangelists who relate the history, none gives it so fully and minutely as Mark. We see, in the first place, in these verses, that the possession of a man's body by the devil, was a real and true thing in the time of our Lord's earthly ministry .
The words behind it
11 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ἔλεγεν | elegen | He was saying | G3004 → | 1325 times |
| γὰρ | gar | for | G1063 → | 1039 times |
| αὐτῷ· | auto | to him; | G846 → | 5565 times |
| ἔξελθε | exelthe | do come forth | G1831 → | 216 times |
| τὸ | to | you | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| πνεῦμα | pneuma | spirit | G4151 → | 378 times |
| τὸ | to | <the> | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| ἀκάθαρτον | akatharton | unclean | G169 → | 32 times |
| ἐκ | ek | out of | G1537 → | 911 times |
| τοῦ | tou | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| ἀνθρώπου.¶ | anthropou | man! | G444 → | 549 times |
ἔλεγενHe was saying
elegenG3004 →1325 times
γὰρfor
garG1063 →1039 times
αὐτῷ·to him;
autoG846 →5565 times
ἔξελθεdo come forth
exeltheG1831 →216 times
τὸyou
toG3588 →19766 times
πνεῦμαspirit
pneumaG4151 →378 times
τὸ<the>
toG3588 →19766 times
ἀκάθαρτονunclean
akathartonG169 →32 times
ἐκout of
ekG1537 →911 times
τοῦthe
touG3588 →19766 times
ἀνθρώπου.¶man!
anthropouG444 →549 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Mark 1:25But Jesus rebuked the spirit. “Be silent!” He said. “Come out of him!”
it leads to
- Mark 1:34
And He healed many who were ill with various diseases and drove out many demons. But He would not allow the demons to speak, because they knew who He was.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Luke 4:41
Demons also came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But He rebuked the demons and would not allow them to speak, because they knew He was the Christ.
- Mark 9:25
When Jesus saw that a crowd had come running, He rebuked the unclean spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” He said, “I command you to come out and never enter him again.”
- Acts 16:17
This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation!”
- Mark 1:34
Through
Acts 16:18She continued this for many days. Eventually Paul grew so aggravated that he turned and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” And…
it leads to
- Mark 16:17
And these signs will accompany those who believe: In My name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues;
- Luke 10:17–19
The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in Your name.”
- Acts 19:12–17
so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and the diseases and evil spirits left them.
- Acts 9:34
“Aeneas,” Peter said to him, “Jesus Christ heals you! Get up and put away your mat.” Immediately Aeneas got up,
- Mark 16:17
Where this verse is studied
About Mark
This page draws on Bede, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Cyril of Alexandria, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Pseudo-Jerome, Catena Aurea by Aquinas.