Mark 5:12
in Mark 5So the demons begged Jesus, “Send us to the pigs, so that we may enter them.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And they besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.
KJV
And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.
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This verse in Mark 5
Commentary
11 notes on this verseThe devils entered not into the swine of their own will, but their asking for this concession, was, that it might be shown that they cannot hurt men without Divine permission. They did not ask to be sent into men, because they saw that He, by whose power they were tortured, bore a human form. Nor did they desire to be sent into the flocks, for they are clean animals offered up in the temple of God.
This site's exposition
a large herd of pigs was feeding
on Mark 5:11-14
At His permission the herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea, a number Mark alone gives. The pigs, unclean under the law, show at scale the destruction that had lived in one man.
This site's exposition
Send us to the pigs
Even the demons must ask. John Gill notes that they come as suppliants out of fear and still bent on doing harm. Tertullian draws the comfort: if the legion had no power over pigs until God gave it, it has far less over the sheep of God.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(de Con. Evan. ii. 24) What Mark here says, that the herd was about the mountain, and what Luke calls on the mountain, are by no means inconsistent. For the herd of swine was so large, that some part were on the mountain, the rest around it. It goes on: And the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.
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.
The demons begged the Lord not to send them out of the country, but to let them into the herd of swine.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
And all the devils besought him,.... The whole legion of them, not only their chief, in the name of the rest, but all of them earnestly entreated him; they were all humble supplicants, not from love, but fear, and with a view to do mischief: though the word "all" is omitted in some copies, as it is in the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Persic versions; neither has the Ethiopic the word devils, but both are retained in the Arabic version: saying, send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
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 .
All the devils - Παντες, all, is omitted by many MSS. and versions; Griesbach leaves it out of the text. Οἱ δαιμονες is omitted also by several: Griesbach leaves it doubtful. Probably it should be read thus, And they besought him, saying.
The words behind it
13 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| καὶ | kai | And | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| παρεκάλεσαν | parekalesan | they begged | G3870 → | 108 times |
| αὐτὸν | auton | Him | G846 → | 5565 times |
| λέγοντες· | legontes | saying; | G3004 → | 1325 times |
| πέμψον | pempson | do send | G3992 → | |
| ἡμᾶς | hemas | us | G3165 → | 1936 times |
| εἰς | eis | into | G1519 → | 1755 times |
| τοὺς | tous | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| χοίρους | choirous | pigs | G5519 → | 12 times |
| ἵνα | ina | so that | G2443 → | 668 times |
| εἰς | eis | into | G1519 → | 1755 times |
| αὐτοὺς | autous | them | G846 → | 5565 times |
| εἰσέλθωμεν. | eiselthomen | let us enter. | G1525 → | 194 times |
καὶAnd
kaiG2532 →9120 times
παρεκάλεσανthey begged
parekalesanG3870 →108 times
αὐτὸνHim
autonG846 →5565 times
λέγοντες·saying;
legontesG3004 →1325 times
πέμψονdo send
pempsonG3992 →
ἡμᾶςus
hemasG3165 →1936 times
εἰςinto
eisG1519 →1755 times
τοὺςthe
tousG3588 →19766 times
χοίρουςpigs
choirousG5519 →12 times
ἵναso that
inaG2443 →668 times
εἰςinto
eisG1519 →1755 times
αὐτοὺςthem
autousG846 →5565 times
εἰσέλθωμεν.let us enter.
eiselthomenG1525 →194 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
1 Peter 5:8Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
it leads to
- Ephesians 6:11
Put on the full armor of God, so that you can make your stand against the devil’s schemes.
- James 4:7
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
- Ephesians 4:27
and do not give the devil a foothold.
- Job 2:2
“Where have you come from?” said the LORD to Satan. “From roaming through the earth,” he replied, “and walking back and forth in it.”
- 1 Peter 1:13
Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober-minded. Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
- Ephesians 6:11
Through
2 Corinthians 2:11in order that Satan should not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.
it leads to
- 1 Peter 5:8
Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
- Ephesians 6:11–12
Put on the full armor of God, so that you can make your stand against the devil’s schemes.
- 2 Corinthians 11:3
I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ.
- 1 Peter 5:8
Where this verse is studied
About Mark
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Gospels; Augustine of Hippo, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Bede, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition); John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Pseudo-Jerome, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Remigius of Rheims, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Tertullian, ON FLIGHT DURING PERSECUTION and Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Mark.