Legion: An Exegetical Analysis
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Matt Palmer
RS 201 New Testament Lit.
Dec. 11, 2000
Legion: An Exegetical Analysis
In this analysis I will be drawing from five passages found in Mark 5: 9-13, which is the story of the demonic possession by the demon which is called Legion. I will be drawing on the context of the whole passage which is Mark 5: 1-20, but my main focus and purpose of this analysis is to shed light on verses 9-13. I have referenced three different versions of these passages in different Bibles, the KJV, NIV and the NRSV, but I have found no significant difference, so the context in which I will use these references bares no large concern to the analysis, other than to show a harmony of the translations.
While this occurrence is accounted in the other synoptic Gospels, Mark gives us the longest and most detailed account of this occurrence. This is also the longest and most detailed occurrence in the gospel of Mark. This occurrence happens in the country of the Gerasenes, which is stated in verse one of Mark 5, which it is uncertain exactly where this location is, but the herd of swine found in verse eleven of Mark 5 indicates that this is a territory of the Gentiles. Nothing about this land is kosher; everything was unclean; spirits, tombs, swine and the territory, but Jesus still had power just as much as in the land of the Jews. Which will prove to be of significance in my analysis when I start to touch on verses 9-13. The accounts found in Matthew and Luke is more vague than the account in Mark, which is rich with detail. This could mean that Mark may have had access to an eyewitness account of the event.
In verse 5 Jesus asks for the name of the unclean spirit that has possessed the man in which he replies, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” This is characteristic of the ancient belief that knowledge of a name gave you power over your adversaries. This was also evident in verse 7 where the demon already knows who Jesus was and says his name to try and have a somewhat of an upper hand. The fact that he replied with the name Legion which is actually a number rather than a name shows that the demons were trying to get out of a situation in which they felt powerless.
This shows significance in two ways, in that Jesus had power over the demons even though he knew not their names and in the fact that this is not only one demon of Satans work, but a whole army. Jesus had power over these demons despite both their trickery and their numbers.
Verse 10 shows us where the demon Legion was begging Jesus not to send them out of the country. This shows that the demons knew that Jesus had the power to cast them out and power over them. One significance of this is the popular ancient belief that demons were associated with a particular place, thus the reason for them not wanting to have to leave that country.
We now go into verse 11-12 where Legion is begging to be sent into a herd of swine that was feeding on the hillside. This would indicate that this was a mountainous region wherever it was and that this would be Gentile or Pagan Territory.5 The location has some variation throughout the Synoptic gospels.
In verse 13 Jesus allows Legion to enter into the swine and it states that the herd rushed off of the steep bank and into the sea. Now this a new thought that the pigs in panic ran down the steep hillside and died, as studies in the knowledge of psychology would show.5 This is a newer thought, but would compliment why the swine would have done such a thing, out of the shock of something entering in their bodies. I use this because I know my self, I have often wondered about the reason for the swine to cause their own deaths.
One significance in this is that the pigs die in the see, which would represent the abyss from which they came and would be forced to return. This is significant in the fact that it seems as though Jesus has bargained with Legion, but in doing so sends them to their death through the symbolic sea. In this fact Jesus accepts their proposal, but defeats their purpose of trying to find away out, in which his authority prevails.
The fact that all this surrounded Jesus, which signified un-cleanliness,