Chapter # 5 Paragraph # 1 Study # 6
December 29, 2020
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(194)
1901 ASV
7 and crying out with a loud voice, he saith, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the Most High God? I adjure thee by God, torment me not.
8 For he said unto him, Come forth, thou unclean spirit, out of the man.
9 And he asked him, What is thy name? And he saith unto him, My name is Legion; for we are many.
10 And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.
11 Now there was there on the mountain side a great herd of swine feeding.
12 And they besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.
13 And he gave them leave. And the unclean spirits came out, and entered into the swine: and the herd rushed down the steep into the sea, in number about two thousand; and they were drowned in the sea.
14 And they that fed them fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they came to see what it was that had come to pass.
15 And they come to Jesus, and behold him that was possessed with demons sitting, clothed and in his right mind, even him that had the legion: and they were afraid.
16 And they that saw it declared unto them how it befell him that was possessed with demons, and concerning the swine.
17 And they began to beseech him to depart from their borders.
18 And as he was entering into the boat, he that had been possessed with demons besought him that he might be with him.
19 And he suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go to thy house unto thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and how he had mercy on thee.
20 And he went his way, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men marvelled.
- I. A Continuation of Mark's Characterization Of The Confrontation of the Demoniac: 5:6-13.
- A. Mark organized his thoughts non-chronologically.
- B. Mark's major point: the unclean spirit(s) recognized Jesus' absolute authority over him/them.
- C. The Particulars of the Demoniac's Loud Cry (indicating emphatic content, needful of 'hearing').
- 1. "What to me and to You?"
- a. This phrase is found in (at least) three places in the New Testament.
- 1) Mark's text.
- 2) Luke's record of the same event: Luke 8:28.
- 3) John 2:4 wherein Jesus says these words to Mary in her importunity.
- b. The words themselves.
- 1) Begin with the interrogative pronoun "What" (ti).
- 2) Proceed with the dative case of the personal pronoun, first person: "to me" (emoi).
- 3) Then the most widely used coordinating conjunction "and" (kai) [Found in 5205 verses].
- 4) And, finally, there is the word "to you" (soi), the dative case of the personal pronoun, second person.
- 5) The most likely meaning: "What is there in common between us?" In all three cases of use in the New Testament the meaning sits within a context where one person wants what another does not, and the inclination is to maintain the difference(s) that exist to keep the lack of "commonality" in place. In all three texts, the one(s) raising the question yield to the one with whom there is no "commonality": an "agenda" is set aside in order to address the competing agenda.
- c. In the case of the unclean spirits, they do not wish for Jesus to interfere with their active pursuits and capacities, and in Mary's case, she wants Jesus to cross over the distance and capitulate to her wishes. The intention of the unclean spirits is, perhaps, best expressed with "Leave us alone".
- 2. "Jesus, Son of The God The Most High".
- a. The demoniac's use of "Jesus", the name specifically assigned before His birth (Matthew 1:21), is indicative of a knowledge of Him that the demoniac would probably not have known without the presence of "Legion". The "name" is powerfully indicative of the reason for the "lack of commonality" that existed and was expressed by the "What to me and to you?" question.
- 1) Jesus' declaration in Mark 2:17 is an example of the distinct "difference" between Him and His adversaries. Those adversaries were totally "into" preserving their own reputations at the expense of any/all who would expose them in some way while Jesus was totally "into" a search of solutions for "the sick" (i.e., "sinners", whose reputations are already destroyed).
- 2) It is a "case" of "whose interests are being served?" with the adversaries seeking their own exaltation over others and Jesus seeking the redemption of others at His own expense.
- b. The descriptive title, "Son of The God", is first found without complications in this precise formulation in 3:11 where it is out of the mouth of "unclean spirits" and it is last found in Mark at the point of 15:39 where the precision is not present (the soldier's claim is that "this Man was truly 'Son of God'").
- 1) There is some discrepancy between the underlying texts of Mark 1:1 as to whether Mark's "title" to his work is "Beginning of The Gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of God" or "Beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ".
- 2) Be that as may be, in his introduction of Jesus, Mark, in 1:11, definitively established "Jesus" as "The Son of Me" where the "Me" is the Possessor of the "voice out of the heavens".
- 3) And, again, there is the same "divine voice" in 9:7 rebukingly declaring that it is "Jesus", as His "beloved Son", in distinction from Moses and Elijah, to Whom the disciples are to pay attention.
- 4) The recognition of Jesus as "this man" as "truly ... Son of God" by a Roman, soldier, witness to His death, is recorded by Mark to deliberately "wrap up" his argument that Jesus is God's "Mighty Coming One" (1:7); "The Son of The God" (The Executor of Power).
- 5) This, the recognition of the unclean spirits within the man, is Mark's argument that this is the reason that they approach Him as they do in the "running/prostrating" form of their human host. There is no "commonality" between them, both in intentions and in the ability to "take effective action": He is the Expression of The Executor of Power and they must conform to His power no matter that they despise such conformation.
- c. The addition of the phrase, "The Most High", is an emphatic elevation of "The God" to the highest of all ranked as "gods".
- 1) The adjective used is only found in Mark at this point and at the point of 11:10 where the praise is directed to "the highest" [place in all of created reality].
- 2) The unclean spirits are emphatic about the Person to whom they must conform when He commands them: This is no "emanation", several degrees of lesser identity lower than "The God The Highest".
- 3. "I implore (in the strongest terms) You to swear by The God...".
- a. The word translated "I implore" is only found in this precise terminology in the New Testament in two places, the other of which is Acts 19:13 where it clearly means "I demand...".
- b. The "unclean spirit" simply cannot set aside his arrogance: he has the temerity to "demand" as if he has any ability to "tell the Son" what to do at all.
- 1) The "power" of the spirit to break chains and shackles has "gone to his head" in such a powerful way that he cannot express himself without "demanding", even though he "knows" he has no such "right".
- 2) It is "out of the abundance of the commitments of the 'heart'" that the words proceed.
- c. The "demand" is that Jesus "swear" to him that He will not "torment" him.
- 1) The concept of "swearing", revealed by this use in this text, is that of 'making a solemn oath'".
- 2) In this case, the "oath" is to be seated upon "The God", Himself.
- 4. "Do not torment me".
- a. The use of "torment" in the twelve places it is found in the New Testament is always a matter of "torment" in the form of having an impossible task placed upon one's shoulders. The degree of "torment" varies according to the "outcomes" involved in failure, but it is always the placement of "impossibility" upon one's sense of necessity so that failure is inescapable.
- b. The unclean spirit's focus is upon the problem of being "disembodied" with, perhaps, a sense of the coming, final, torment of the Lake of Fire.