He
asked him, “What is your name?” He said to him, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” He begged him much that he would not send them away out of the country. Now on the mountainside there was a great herd of pigs feeding. All the demons begged him, saying, “Send us into the pigs, that we may enter into them.”
Mark 5:9-12
Mark 5 [1.] They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. When he had come out of the boat, immediately a man with an unclean spirit met him out of the tombs. He lived in the tombs. Nobody could bind him any more, not even with chains, because he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him, and the fetters broken in pieces. Nobody had the strength to tame him. Always, night and day, in the tombs and in the mountains, he was crying out, and cutting himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and bowed down to him, and crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have I to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, don’t torment me.” For he said to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”
Mark 5 [9.] He asked him, “What is your name?” He said to him, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” He begged him much that he would not send them away out of the country. Now on the mountainside there was a great herd of pigs feeding. All the demons begged him, saying, “Send us into the pigs, that we may enter into them.”
Mark 5 [13.] At once Jesus gave them permission. The unclean spirits came out and entered into the pigs. The herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and they were drowned in the sea. Those who fed them fled, and told it in the city and in the country. The people came to see what it was that had happened.
Meaning:
In Mark 5:9-12 Jesus speaks directly to the power that has enslaved the man of the tombs. He asks a simple question, “What is your name?”, and receives a chilling answer: “My name is Legion, for we are many.” The spirits then plead with Jesus, first not to be sent out of the region, and then to be allowed into a herd of pigs. Everything in these verses shows who is really in control. A whole army of demons can only beg.
- “What Is Your Name?”
In the ancient world, people believed that knowing a spirit’s name gave power over it, and exorcists often tried to discover names. Jesus did not need such techniques; he had already commanded the spirit to come out by his word alone (Mark 5:8). His question exposed the full scale of the man’s bondage, for the disciples, for the man himself, and for us.
It is also a deeply personal question. The man had lost his home, his clothes and his place in society (Luke 8:27). Even his name had been swallowed up. The answer did not come in his own voice but in the voice of his oppressors, “we are many.” Jesus came to give him back his own life and identity.
- “My Name Is Legion”
A Roman legion was a unit of about five to six thousand soldiers, the backbone of the occupying army in Judea and Syria. To Jewish ears the word suggested overwhelming, foreign, oppressive force. Interestingly, the Roman Tenth Legion stationed in the region used the wild boar as one of its emblems, which may have given the story an extra edge for its first hearers. The name tells us the man was not troubled by one spirit but by many, organized like an army.
Yet this “army” did not fight. It knew the authority of Jesus, just as the unclean spirits elsewhere “fell down before him” (Mark 3:11). Luke adds that these many demons begged not to be sent “into the abyss” (Luke 8:31).
- “Not Out of the Country”
The spirits begged “that he would not send them away out of the country.” They wanted to stay in the territory where they had held sway. Matthew records their fear of being tormented “before the time” (Matthew 8:29). They knew judgement was coming and wanted to delay it. Their request shows that evil does not willingly give ground; it clings to every place and person it can.
- “Send Us Into the Pigs”
A great herd of pigs was feeding on the hillside. For Jews, pigs were unclean animals that were not to be eaten (Leviticus 11:7), but in this Gentile region they were raised for food and for pagan sacrifices. The demons asked to enter them, perhaps hoping to remain in the area. Unclean spirits seeking unclean animals is a fitting picture, and the destruction that follows shows what they intended all along.
Note the word “begged.” The demons could not move without Jesus’ permission. Even the forces of darkness operate only within limits that God allows.
The Significance of Mark 5:9-12
- Our Battle Is Spiritual, but the Victory Is Christ’s
Paul reminds believers that “our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age” (Ephesians 6:12). We should take evil seriously. But we need not be terrified, because at the cross Christ, “having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them” (Colossians 2:15).
- Jesus Restores a Name and an Identity
Many people today feel that their identity has been taken over by addiction, trauma, shame or fear. Jesus’ question “What is your name?” reminds us that he sees the person beneath the bondage. In Christ believers receive a new identity as children of God, no longer defined by what once controlled them (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Cross-References:
Luke 8:31: "They begged him that he would not command them to go into the abyss." Luke reveals what the demons most feared.
Ephesians 6:12: "For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." The “legion” is a glimpse of the unseen forces behind human suffering.
Colossians 2:15: "having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it." Christ has triumphed over every evil power.
Philippians 2:10: "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth," Even a legion of demons must bow to Jesus.
Conclusion: Mark 5:9-12 pulls back the curtain on the unseen battle behind one man’s misery. A legion of spirits had taken over his life, yet before Jesus they could only plead for terms. The passage warns us that evil is real, organized and destructive, and it comforts us that Jesus is Lord over all of it. He sees the person behind the bondage and has the authority to set that person free.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible