“And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.”
Then Jesus asked him, what is your name? My name is Legion, he replied, for we are many — the name-question is part of the ancient exorcism pattern: knowing the name of a spiritual being was believed to give power over it. The answer is devastating in its scale: Legion is a Roman military unit of six thousand soldiers. The grammatical shift from singular (my name) to plural (we are many) reflects the reality of multiple demonic possession — the man speaks in the plural because the possession is collective. The name Legion also carries an involuntary political overtone: the most powerful military force of the occupied territory (Roman legions) is named as the enemy within this man.
Church Fathers on Mark 5:9
Those who were in the ship enquired among themselves, 'What manner of man is this?' and now it is made known Who He is by the testimony of His enemies. For the demoniac came up confessing that He was the Son of God. Proceeding to which circumstance the Evangelist says, 'And they came over unto the other side, &c.'
Geraza is a noted town of Arabia, across the Jordan, near mount Galaad, which the tribe of Manasseh held, not far from the lake of Tiberias, into which the swine were precipitated.
Though Matthew says that there were two, Mark and Luke mention one, that you may understand that one of them was a more illustrious person, concerning whose state that country was much afflicted.
Read all 23 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
Publish a reflection on this verse
No reflections on this verse yet. Be the first to write one!