Mark 5:1–20

Verse 2. Ven. Bede gives a beautiful explanation of this miracle. He says that it represents the Gentiles, who were converted to the faith by the apostles. The legion represents the innumerable vices to which they were subject, neither restrained by the laws of God nor man, but breaking through every restraint, and wallowing in all kinds of uncleanness. Ven. Bede.—The three evangelists agree in the expulsion of the legion of devils, except that S. Matt. makes mention of two demoniacs, and SS. Mark and Luke only of one. The difficulty is thus solved by Saint Augustine. Saint Mark and Saint Luke only mention one, as being more generally known, and particularly frightful in the neighbourhood. Saint Augustine

Verse 7. I adjure thee by God. The same is, I earnestly beg of thee not to torment me, by sending me into hell, and confining me in the abyss, there to be more tormented than I am at present. See Saint Luke 8:31. Witham.

Verse 9. My name is Legion. Spirits have no names, only with respect to our language. These devils say their name is Legion, because they are many. Witham.

Verse 13. Jesus Christ permitted the devil to destroy these swine, that from their destruction, the men of that country might take the alarm, and be converted. Ven. Bede.

Verse 17. Astonished at the miracle that had been performed, and displeased with the loss of their herds, they refused the Saviour of the world entrance into their country. Theophy.—It is observed that all Christ’s miracles, except this, and the blasted fig-tree, were of the beneficent kind. We cannot but pity the wretched blindness of the Gerasens, in driving Jesus from their coasts. As a just judgment of God, their city was the first that fell into the hands of the Romans, in the fatal war under Vespasian.

Verse 18. That he might be with him; that is as one of his disciples. Saint Ambrose says Christ did not grant his request, lest they might think that he sought to be glorified by men, in having always in his company a man out of whom he had cast so many devils. Christ himself seems to give us another reason, that the man might go, and publish in his own country the miracles done by Jesus. Witham.

Verse 19. And he admitted him not: By Christ’s conduct on this occasion, he teaches his disciples that they ought sometimes to make known their own good works, when either the glory of God or the edification of their neighbour were likely to be advanced by such a manifestation: otherwise they ought to conceal them, out of a spirit of humility. Dion. Carth.

Verse 20. Decapolis, a territory on the eastern borders of the sea of Tiberias, and is so called, from ten principal towns that compose it. V.