Mark 5
Verse 1 Mt 8:28; Lu 8:26. Verse 2 There met him a man with an unclean spirit - St. Matthew mentions two. Probably this, so particularly spoken of here, was the most remarkably fierce and ungovernable. Verse 9 My name is Legion! for we are many - But all these seem to have been under one commander, who accordingly speaks all along, both for them and himself. Verse 15 And they were afraid - It is not improbable they might otherwise have offered some rudeness, if not violence. Verse 18 Mt 9:1; Lu 8:37; Verse 19 Tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee - This was peculiarly needful there, where Christ did not go in person. Verse 20 He published in Decapolis - Not only at home, but in all that country where Jesus himself did not come. Verse 21 Lu 8:40. Verse 22 One of the rulers of the synagogue - To regulate the affairs of every synagogue, there was a council of grave men. Over these was a president, who was termed the ruler of the synagogue. Sometimes there was no more than one ruler in a synagogue. Mt 9:18; Lu 8:41. Verse 25 Mt 9:20; Lu 8:43. Verse 37 John, the brother of James - When St. Mark wrote, not long after our Lord's ascension, the memory of St. James, lately beheaded, was so fresh, that his name was more known than that of John himself. Verse 40 Them that were with him - Peter, James, and John. Verse 43 He charged them that no man should know it - That he might avoid every appearance of vain glory, might prevent too great a concourse of people, and might not farther enrage the scribes and Pharisees against him; the time for his death, and for the full manifestation of his glory, being not yet come. He commanded something should be given her to eat - So that when either natural or spiritual life is restored, even by immediate miracle, all proper means are to be used in order to preserve it.