Mark 5

Glorious Cure of the Gadarene Demoniac

(Mr 5:1-20).

1. And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country

of the Gadarenes.

2. And when he was come out of the ship, immediately--(see

Mr 5:6).

there met him a man with an unclean spirit--"which had devils

[demons] long time"

(Lu 8:27).

In Matthew

(Mt 8:28),

"there met him two men possessed with devils." Though there be no

discrepancy between these two statements--more than between two

witnesses, one of whom testifies to something done by one person, while

the other affirms that there were two--it is difficult to see how the

principal details here given could apply to more than one case.

3. Who had his dwelling among the tombs--Luke

(Lu 8:27)

says, "He ware no clothes, neither abode in any house." These tombs

were hewn out of the rocky caves of the locality, and served for

shelters and lurking places

(Lu 8:26).

4. Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains,

&c.--Luke says

(Lu 8:29)

that "oftentimes it [the unclean spirit] had caught him"; and after

mentioning how they had vainly tried to bind him with chains and

fetters, because, "he brake the bands," he adds, "and was driven of the

devil [demon] into the wilderness." The dark tyrant-power by which he

was held clothed him with superhuman strength and made him scorn

restraint. Matthew

(Mt 8:28)

says he was "exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way."

He was the terror of the whole locality.

5. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the

tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones--Terrible as he was

to others, he himself endured untold misery, which sought relief in

tears and self-inflicted torture.

6. But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped

him--not with the spontaneous alacrity which says to Jesus, "Draw

me, we will run after thee," but inwardly compelled, with

terrific rapidity, before the Judge, to receive sentence of

expulsion.

7. What have I to do with thee, Jesus, Son of the most high God? I

adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not--or, as in

Mt 8:29,

"Art Thou come to torment us before the time?" (See on

Mr 1:24).

Behold the tormentor anticipating, dreading, and entreating

exemption from torment! In Christ they discern their destined

Tormentor; the time, they know, is fixed, and they feel as if it were

come already!

(Jas 2:19).

8. 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.

9. And he asked him, What is thy name?--The object of this question

was to extort an acknowledgment of the virulence of demoniacal power by

which this victim was enthralled.

And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many--or, as

in Luke

(Lu 8:30)

"because many devils [demons] were entered into him." A legion, in the

Roman army, amounted, at its full complement, to six thousand; but here

the word is used, as such words with us, and even this one, for an

indefinitely large number--large enough however to rush, as soon as

permission was given, into two thousand swine and destroy them.

10. And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of

the country--The entreaty, it will be observed, was made by one

spirit, but in behalf of many--"he besought Him not

to send them, &c."--just as in

Mr 5:9,

"he answered we are many." But what do they mean by

entreating so earnestly not to be ordered out of the country? Their

next petition

(Mr 5:12)

will make that clear enough.

11. Now there was there, nigh unto the mountains--rather, "to the

mountain," according to what is clearly the true reading. In

Mt 8:30,

they are said to have been "a good way off." But these expressions, far

from being inconsistent, only confirm, by their precision, the minute

accuracy of the narrative.

a great herd of swine feeding--There can hardly be any doubt that

the owners of these were Jews, since to them our Lord had now come to

proffer His services. This will explain what follows.

12. And all the devils besought him, saying--"if thou cast us out"

(Mt 8:31).

Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them--Had they spoken

out all their mind, perhaps this would have been it: "If we must quit

our hold of this man, suffer us to continue our work of mischief in

another form, that by entering these swine, and thus destroying the

people's property, we may steel their hearts against Thee!"

13. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave--In Matthew

(Mt 8:32)

this is given with majestic brevity--"Go!" The owners, if Jews, drove

an illegal trade; if heathens, they insulted the national religion: in

either case the permission was just.

And the unclean spirits went out--of the man.

and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently--rushed.

down a steep place--down the hanging cliff.

into the sea (they were about two thousand)--The number of them

is given by this graphic Evangelist alone.

and were choked in the sea--"perished in the waters"

(Mt 8:32).

14. And they that fed the swine fled, and told it--"told everything,

and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils"

(Mt 8:33).

in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was

that was done--Thus had they the evidence, both of the herdsmen and of

their own senses, to the reality of both miracles.

15. And they come to Jesus--Matthew

(Mt 8:34)

says, "Behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus."

and see him that was possessed with the devil--the demonized person.

and had the legion, sitting--"at the feet of Jesus," adds Luke

(Lu 8:35);

in contrast with his former wild and wandering habits.

and clothed--As our Evangelist had not told us that he "ware no

clothes," the meaning of this statement could only have been conjectured

but for "the beloved physician"

(Lu 8:27),

who supplies the missing piece of information here. This is a striking

case of what are called Undesigned Coincidences amongst the

different Evangelists; one of them taking a thing for granted, as

familiarly known at the time, but which we should never have known but

for one or more of the others, and without the knowledge of which some

of their statements would be unintelligible. The clothing which the

poor man would feel the want of the moment his consciousness returned

to him, was doubtless supplied to him by some of the Twelve.

and in his right mind--but now, oh, in what a lofty sense! (Compare

an analogous, though a different kind of case,

Da 4:34-37).

and they were afraid--Had this been awe only, it had been natural

enough; but other feelings, alas! of a darker kind, soon showed

themselves.

16. And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was

possessed with the devil--("the demonized person").

and also concerning the swine--Thus had they the double testimony of

the herdsmen and their own senses.

17. And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts--Was it

the owners only of the valuable property now lost to them that did this?

Alas, no! For Luke

(Lu 8:37)

says, "Then the whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes round

about besought Him to depart from them; for they were taken with great

fear." The evil spirits had thus, alas! their object. Irritated, the

people could not suffer His presence; yet awe-struck, they dared not

order Him off: so they entreat Him to withdraw, and--He takes them at

their word.

18. he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might

be with him--the grateful heart, fresh from the hand of demons,

clinging to its wondrous Benefactor. How exquisitely natural!

19. Howbeit, Jesus suffered him not, &c.--To be a missionary for

Christ, in the region where he was so well known and so long dreaded,

was a far nobler calling than to follow Him where nobody had ever heard

of him, and where other trophies not less illustrious could be raised by

the same power and grace.

20. And he departed, and began to publish--not only among his friends,

to whom Jesus immediately sent him, but

in Decapolis--so called, as being a region of ten cities. (See

on

Mt 4:25).

how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel--Throughout that considerable region did this monument of mercy proclaim

his new-found Lord; and some, it is to be hoped, did more than "marvel."

Mr 5:21-43.

THE

DAUGHTER OF

JAIRUS

RAISED TO

LIFE--THE

WOMAN WITH AN

ISSUE OF

BLOOD

HEALED.

Mt 9:18-26;

Lu 8:41-56).

The occasion of this scene will appear presently.

Jairus' Daughter

(Mr 5:21-24).

21. And when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side--from the Gadarene side of the lake, where He had parted with the healed

demoniac, to the west side, at Capernaum.

much people gathered unto him--who "gladly received Him; for they were

all waiting for Him"

(Lu 8:40).

The abundant teaching earlier that day

(Mr 4:1,

&c., and Mt 13:1-58)

had only whetted the people's appetite: and disappointed, as would

seem, that He had left them in the evening to cross the lake, they

remain hanging about the beach, having got a hint, probably through

some of His disciples, that He would be back the same evening. Perhaps

they witnessed at a distance the sudden calming of the tempest. The

tide of our Lord's popularity was now fast rising.

and he was nigh unto the sea.

22. And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue--of

which class there were but few who believed in Jesus

(Joh 7:48).

One would suppose from this that the ruler had been with the multitude

on the shore, anxiously awaiting the return of Jesus, and immediately on

His arrival had accosted Him as here related. But Matthew

(Mt 9:18)

tells us that the ruler came to Him while He was in the act of speaking

at His own table on the subject of fasting; and as we must suppose that

this converted publican ought to know what took place on that memorable

occasion when he made a feast to his Lord, we conclude that here the

right order is indicated by the First Evangelist alone.

Jairus by name--or "Jaeirus." It is the same name as Jair, in the

Old Testament

(Nu 32:41;

Jud 10:3;

Es 2:5).

and when he saw him, he fell at his feet--in Matthew

(Mt 9:18),

"worshipped Him." The meaning is the same in both.

23. And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter--Luke

(Lu 8:42)

says, "He had one only daughter, about twelve years of age." According

to a well-known rabbin, quoted by LIGHTFOOT, a

daughter, till she had completed her twelfth year, was called

"little," or "a little maid"; after that, "a young woman."

lieth at the point of death--Matthew

(Mt 9:18)

gives it thus: "My daughter is even now dead"--"has just expired." The

news of her death reached the father after the cure of the woman with

the issue of blood: but Matthew's brief account gives only the

result, as in the case of the centurion's servant

(Mt 8:5,

&c.).

come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall

live--or, "that she may be healed and live," according to a fully

preferable reading. In one of the class to which this man belonged, so

steeped in prejudice, such faith would imply more than in others.

The Woman with an Issue of Blood Healed

(Mr 5:24-34).

24. And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged

him--The word in Luke

(Lu 8:42)

is stronger--"choked," "stifled Him."

26. And had suffered many things of many physicians--The expression

perhaps does not necessarily refer to the suffering she endured under

medical treatment, but to the much varied treatment which she underwent.

and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather

grew worse--pitiable case, and affectingly aggravated; emblem of our

natural state as fallen creatures

(Eze 16:5, 6),

and illustrating the worse than vanity of all human remedies for

spiritual maladies

(Ho 5:13).

The higher design of all our Lord's miracles of healing irresistibly

suggests this way of viewing the present case, the propriety of which

will still more appear as we proceed.

27. When she had heard of Jesus, came--This was the right experiment

at last. What had she "heard of Jesus?" No doubt it was His marvellous

cures she had heard of; and the hearing of these, in connection with her

bitter experience of the vanity of applying to any other, had been

blessed to the kindling in her soul of a firm confidence that He who had

so willingly wrought such cures on others was able and would not refuse

to heal her also.

in the press behind--shrinking, yet seeking.

touched his garment--According to the ceremonial law, the touch of

anyone having the disease which this woman had would have defiled the

person touched. Some think that the recollection of this may account for

her stealthily approaching Him in the crowd behind, and touching but the

hem of His garment. But there was an instinct in the faith which brought

her to Jesus, which taught her, that if that touch could set her free

from the defiling disease itself, it was impossible to communicate

defilement to Him, and that this wondrous Healer must be above such

laws.

28. For she said--"within herself"

(Mt 9:21).

If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole--that is, if I may

but come in contact with this glorious Healer at all. Remarkable

faith this!

29. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up--Not only

was her issue of blood stanched

(Lu 8:44),

but the cause of it was thoroughly removed, insomuch that by her bodily

sensations she immediately knew herself perfectly cured.

30. And Jesus immediately knowing in himself that virtue--or

"efficacy."

had gone out of him--He was conscious of the forthgoing of His

healing power, which was not--as in prophets and apostles--something

foreign to Himself and imparted merely, but what He had

dwelling within Him as "His own fulness."

turned him about in the press--crowd.

and said, Who touched my clothes?

31. And his disciples said unto him--Luke says

(Lu 8:45),

"When all denied, Peter and they that were with Him said, Master."

Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched

me?--"Askest thou, Lord, who touched Thee? Rather ask who touched Thee

not in such a throng." "And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched Me"--"a

certain person has touched Me"--"for I perceive that virtue is gone out

of Me"

(Lu 8:46).

Yes, the multitude "thronged and pressed Him"--they

jostled against Him, but all involuntarily; they were

merely carried along; but one, one only--"a certain

person--TOUCHED HIM," with

the conscious, voluntary, dependent touch of faith, reaching forth its

hand expressly to have contact with Him. This and this only Jesus

acknowledges and seeks out. Even so, as AUGUSTINE

long ago said, multitudes still come similarly close to Christ in

the means of grace, but all to no purpose, being only sucked into the

crowd. The voluntary, living contact of faith is that electric

conductor which alone draws virtue out of Him.

32. And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing--not

for the purpose of summoning forth a culprit, but, as we shall presently

see, to obtain from the healed one a testimony to what He had done for

her.

33. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in

her--alarmed, as a humble, shrinking female would naturally be, at

the necessity of so public an exposure of herself, yet conscious that

she had a tale to tell which would speak for her.

came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth--In Luke

(Lu 8:47)

it is, "When the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling,

and falling down before Him, she declared unto Him before all the

people for what cause she had touched Him, and how she was healed

immediately." This, though it tried the modesty of the believing woman,

was just what Christ wanted in dragging her forth, her public testimony

to the facts of her case--the disease, with her abortive efforts at a

cure, and the instantaneous and perfect relief which her touching the

Great Healer had brought her.

34. And he said unto her, Daughter--"be of good comfort"

(Lu 8:48).

thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy

plague--Though healed as soon as she believed, it seemed to her a

stolen cure--she feared to acknowledge it. Jesus therefore sets His

royal seal upon it. But what a glorious dismissal from the lips of Him

who is "our Peace" is that, "Go in peace!"

Jairus' Daughter Raised to Life

(Mr 5:35-43).

35. Thy daughter is dead; why troublest thou the Master any further?--the Teacher.

36. he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only

believe--Jesus, knowing how the heart of the agonized father would

sink at the tidings, and the reflections at the delay which would be

apt to rise in his mind, hastens to reassure him, and in His accustomed

style: "Be not afraid, only believe"--words of unchanging preciousness

and power! How vividly do such incidents bring out Christ's knowledge

of the human heart and tender sympathy!

(Heb 4:15).

37. And he suffered no man to follow him, save Peter, and James, and

John the brother of James--(See on

Mr 1:29).

38. And he cometh--rather, "they come."

to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and

them that wept and wailed greatly--"the minstrels and the people

making a noise"

(Mt 9:23)

--lamenting for the dead. (See

2Ch 35:25;

Jer 9:20;

Am 5:16).

39. And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado,

and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth--so brief her state of

death as to be more like a short sleep.

40. And they laughed him to scorn--rather, simply, "laughed at

Him"--"knowing that she was dead"

(Lu 8:53);

an important testimony this to the reality of her death.

But when he had put them all out--The word is strong--"turned them

all out"; meaning all those who were making this noise, and any others

that may have been there from sympathy, that only those might be present

who were most nearly concerned, and those whom He had Himself brought as

witnesses of the great act about to be done.

he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were

with him--Peter, and James, and John.

and entereth in where the damsel was lying.

41. And he took the damsel by the hand--as He did Peter's

mother-in-law

(Mr 1:31).

and said unto her, Talitha cumi--The words are Aramaic, or

Syro-Chaldaic, the then language of Palestine. Mark loves to give such

wonderful words just as they were spoken. See

Mr 7:34; 14:36.

42. And straightway the damsel--The word here is different from that

in

Mr 5:39-41,

and signifies "young maiden," or "little girl."

arose, and walked--a vivid touch evidently from an eye-witness.

And they were astonished with a great astonishment--The language here

is the strongest.

43. And he charged them straitly--strictly.

that no man should know it--The only reason we can assign for this

is His desire not to let the public feeling regarding Him come too

precipitately to a crisis.

and commanded that something should be given her to eat--in token of

perfect restoration.