Mark 5: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Jesus crosses the lake to the region of the Gadarenes, where he frees a man tormented by many unclean spirits, which then enter a herd of pigs that drowns in the sea. The local people ask him to leave, and the healed man goes off telling the Decapolis what Jesus did for him. Back on the other side, Jairus, a synagogue leader, begs Jesus to come heal his dying daughter. On the way a woman with twelve years of bleeding is healed by touching his clothes, and when word comes that the girl has died, Jesus goes to the house and raises her.

Claim by Claim

1. 5:1
   • They came over to the other side of the sea.
   • They came into the country of the Gadarenes.
2. 5:2
   • Jesus came out of the boat.
   • Immediately a man met him.
   • The man came out of the tombs.
   • The man had an unclean spirit.
3. 5:3
   • The man had his dwelling among the tombs.
   • No one could bind him any longer.
   • No one could bind him even with chains.
4. 5:4
   • He had often been bound with fetters and chains.
   • He had pulled the chains apart.
   • The fetters had been broken in pieces.
   • No one was strong enough to tame him.
5. 5:5
   • Continually, night and day, he was in the tombs and in the mountains.
   • He was crying out.
   • He was cutting himself with stones.
6. 5:6
   • The man saw Jesus from far off.
   • The man ran to him.
   • The man bowed down before him.
7. 5:7
   • The man cried out with a loud voice.
   • The man asked what Jesus had to do with him.
   • The man addressed Jesus as Son of the Most High God.
   • The man adjured Jesus by God.
   • The man asked Jesus not to torment him.
8. 5:8
   • Jesus had said to him, Come out of the man, unclean spirit.
9. 5:9
   • Jesus asked him what his name was.
   • He answered that his name was Legion.
   • He said this was because they were many.
10. 5:10
    • He begged Jesus much not to send them out of the country.
11. 5:11
    • There was a great herd of swine there near the mountains.
    • The herd was feeding.
12. 5:12
    • All the devils begged Jesus.
    • They asked him to send them into the swine.
    • They asked this so that they might enter into the swine.
13. 5:13
    • Jesus at once gave them permission.
    • The unclean spirits went out.
    • The unclean spirits entered into the swine.
    • The herd rushed down a steep place into the sea.
    • They were about two thousand.
    • They were drowned in the sea.
14. 5:14
    • Those who fed the swine fled.
    • They reported it in the city.
    • They reported it in the country.
    • People went out to see what had happened.
15. 5:15
    • They came to Jesus.
    • They saw the man who had been possessed with the devil.
    • The man had had the legion.
    • The man was sitting.
    • The man was clothed.
    • The man was in his right mind.
    • They were afraid.
16. 5:16
    • Those who had seen it told them how it happened to the man possessed with the devil.
    • They also told them concerning the swine.
17. 5:17
    • They began to beg Jesus to depart out of their region.
18. 5:18
    • Jesus was getting into the boat.
    • The man who had been possessed with the devil begged Jesus that he might be with him.
19. 5:19
    • Jesus did not permit him.
    • Jesus told him to go home to his own people.
    • Jesus told him to tell them how great things the Lord had done for him.
    • Jesus said the Lord had had mercy on him.
20. 5:20
    • The man departed.
    • The man began to proclaim in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him.
    • All marveled.
21. 5:21
    • Jesus crossed over again by boat to the other side.
    • A large crowd gathered to him.
    • He was beside the sea.
22. 5:22
    • One of the rulers of the synagogue came.
    • His name was Jairus.
    • He saw Jesus.
    • He fell at Jesus' feet.
23. 5:23
    • He begged Jesus greatly.
    • He said his little daughter was at the point of death.
    • He asked Jesus to come and lay his hands on her.
    • He asked this so that she might be healed.
    • He said she would live.
24. 5:24
    • Jesus went with him.
    • A large crowd followed Jesus.
    • The crowd pressed close around him.
25. 5:25
    • There was a woman who had a flow of blood.
    • She had had it for twelve years.
26. 5:26
    • She had suffered many things from many physicians.
    • She had spent all that she had.
    • She was not helped at all.
    • She rather grew worse.
27. 5:27
    • She had heard about Jesus.
    • She came up in the crowd behind him.
    • She touched his garment.
28. 5:28
    • She said that if she touched even his clothes she would be made whole.
29. 5:29
    • Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up.
    • She felt in her body that she was healed of that affliction.
30. 5:30
    • Jesus immediately knew in himself that power had gone out of him.
    • Jesus turned around in the crowd.
    • Jesus asked who touched his clothes.
31. 5:31
    • His disciples said to him that he saw the crowd pressing around him.
    • They asked why he said, Who touched me?
32. 5:32
    • He looked around to see the woman who had done this.
33. 5:33
    • The woman was afraid and trembling.
    • The woman knew what had happened to her.
    • The woman came and fell down before him.
    • The woman told him all the truth.
34. 5:34
    • Jesus called her Daughter.
    • Jesus said her faith had made her whole.
    • Jesus told her to go in peace.
    • Jesus told her to be whole of her affliction.
35. 5:35
    • Jesus was still speaking.
    • People came from the house of the ruler of the synagogue.
    • They said his daughter was dead.
    • They asked why he troubled the Teacher any further.
36. 5:36
    • Jesus heard the word that was spoken.
    • Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue not to be afraid.
    • Jesus told him only to believe.
37. 5:37
    • He allowed no one to follow him along.
    • He allowed Peter.
    • He allowed James.
    • He allowed John the brother of James.
38. 5:38
    • They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue.
    • Jesus saw the tumult.
    • Jesus saw people weeping and wailing greatly.
39. 5:39
    • Jesus went in.
    • Jesus asked them why they made this commotion and wept.
    • Jesus said the child was not dead.
    • Jesus said the child was sleeping.
40. 5:40
    • They laughed him to scorn.
    • He put them all out.
    • He took the father of the child.
    • He took the mother of the child.
    • He took those who were with him.
    • He entered in where the child was lying.
41. 5:41
    • He took the child by the hand.
    • He said to her, Talitha cumi.
    • That means, Little girl, I say to you, arise.
42. 5:42
    • Immediately the girl arose.
    • The girl walked.
    • She was twelve years old.
    • They were astonished with a great astonishment.
43. 5:43
    • He charged them strictly that no one should know of it.
    • He commanded that something be given her to eat.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

5:1

The "sea" throughout this chapter is the Sea of Galilee, a freshwater lake roughly thirteen miles long and eight across, crossable by fishing boat in a few hours. The "country of the Gadarenes" lay on its eastern shore, territory with a largely non-Jewish population. Ancient manuscripts disagree here, reading Gadarenes, Gerasenes or Gergesenes, three different towns of that general region; the difference cannot be resolved from the evidence.

5:2

The King James "ship" translates a word for an ordinary open boat, of the kind used for fishing on the lake, not a seagoing vessel. Tombs in this region were commonly caves or chambers cut into rock, large enough for a person to shelter in. "Unclean" is ritual vocabulary rather than a comment on dirt: it marks something as belonging outside the sphere of the holy, and under Jewish law contact with graves made a person unclean in exactly that sense.

5:3

Tombs were chambers cut into rock, often with stone ledges where bodies were laid. Under Jewish law, contact with a corpse or a grave made a person ritually unclean, so a man living among the tombs was cut off from the community in the strictest sense the law had.

5:4

"Fetters" are iron shackles for the ankles, and "plucked asunder" means torn apart. Chaining someone violent was the only restraint anyone had; there were no hospitals or institutions for a person in this condition.

5:6

In 1611 English "worshipped" covered any act of prostrating oneself before a superior, human or divine. The Greek word means to fall to the ground in homage, which is what the man does.

5:7

"What have I to do with thee" is a word for word carryover of a Hebrew and Greek idiom meaning roughly "what business do you have with me?" or "leave me alone." "I adjure thee" means to put someone under oath; it is the formal language of binding a spirit, and here the spirit uses it against Jesus. "Most high God" was a title outsiders, including Gentiles, commonly used for the God of Israel.

5:9

A legion was the largest unit of the Roman army, nominally around five or six thousand men. The name says two things at once: an overwhelming number, and the vocabulary of a foreign occupying force.

5:10

"Besought" is an old word for begged.

5:11

Pigs were forbidden food under Jewish law and were not kept in Jewish areas. A herd of two thousand is one of the signals that this territory is Gentile.

5:12

The King James uses "devils" where the Greek has a plural word meaning lesser malign spirits. Modern translations say "demons" to keep them distinct from "the devil," which in the Greek is a separate, singular term.

5:13

"Gave them leave" means gave them permission. "Were choked in the sea" means they drowned; "choke" in 1611 covered suffocation of any kind, including by water.

5:15

The man had been living without clothes. Seeing him dressed and calm is part of what shocks them.

5:16

"Befell" is an old word for happened to.

5:17

"Coasts" in the King James means borders or territory generally, with no implication of a shoreline. They are asking him to leave their district.

5:19

"Suffered him not" means did not allow him; "suffer" in the King James regularly means permit. "Thy friends" translates a phrase meaning your own household and relations, not friends as opposed to family.

5:20

The Decapolis, literally "Ten Cities," was a group of Greek speaking cities mostly east and south of the Sea of Galilee, self governing and culturally Gentile. Sending the man there sends him through territory where Jesus himself is unknown.

5:22

A ruler of the synagogue was a lay official, not a priest. He administered the building and arranged who would read and speak at the assembly, a position of standing in the local community.

5:23

Placing hands on a sick person was the customary physical gesture accompanying a blessing or a healing, so the request is for a specific action, not a vague one.

5:24

"Thronged him" means the crowd pushed in close all around him.

5:25

"An issue of blood" means continuous vaginal bleeding. Beyond the physical toll, Jewish law treated a woman in this condition as ritually unclean for as long as it lasted, and anyone and anything she touched became unclean too. Twelve years of that means twelve years of being unable to touch people freely.

5:26

Doctors in this world charged fees, were unregulated, and had no reliable treatment for this condition. Mark's point is financial and physical: the treatments hurt, they emptied her savings, and they failed.

5:27

"The press" is the crowd, from the crush of bodies. The "garment" is the outer cloak, the loose robe worn over everything else.

5:28

"Whole" in the King James means healthy or intact; "I shall be whole" means I will be well, not I will be complete as a person.

5:29

"The fountain of her blood" means the source of the bleeding. "Plague" in the King James means any affliction or scourge striking a single person, with no sense of an epidemic.

5:30

"Virtue" here has its older sense of power or potency, from the Latin for strength, the same sense preserved in phrases like "the virtue of a medicine." It carries no moral meaning.

5:31

"The multitude" means the big crowd of people.

5:33

Her fear has a specific cause. She has touched a man in public while ritually unclean, and now she has to say so out loud, in front of a crowd and in front of a synagogue official.

5:34

The Greek verb behind "made thee whole" is the ordinary word for rescue or save, used across the New Testament both for physical healing and for deliverance in a wider sense. English has no single word that holds both, so translations must pick one.

5:35

"Master" translates a word meaning teacher, an address for a recognized instructor. It does not mean master as opposed to servant.

5:37

Peter, James and John turn up repeatedly as a smaller circle Jesus takes with him when he leaves the rest behind. James and John were brothers and fishing partners.

5:38

Loud public mourning was the expected response to a death, and in this period a household would often hire professional mourners, wailing women and flute players, who arrived quickly. The "tumult" is therefore an organized noise as much as a spontaneous one, which is also why the mourners can switch to laughter in verse forty.

5:39

"Why make ye this ado" means why are you making this commotion. "Damsel" in 1611 simply meant a girl or young unmarried woman, without the archaic or storybook flavor it now has.

5:40

"Laughed him to scorn" means mocked him, laughed at him with contempt.

5:41

Mark preserves the words in Aramaic, the everyday spoken language of Galilee, and then translates them for readers who did not know it. He does this at several points in his book. "Talitha" is a homely word for a young girl, closer to "little one" than to a formal address.

5:42

"Astonished with a great astonishment" repeats the same root as noun and verb, a Hebrew and Aramaic way of intensifying a statement that Greek writers of this period imitate. It means they were utterly overwhelmed.

5:43

"Straitly" means strictly or tightly, and is unrelated to "straight." The instruction about food is practical: it shows the child is genuinely alive and functioning, not a vision.