As the geographical errors show, he also was never there. Now we know why the demoniac believed Jesus had come to torment him; why the unclean spirit said his name was Legion; why the demoniac begged Jesus not to send the unclean spirits beyond their boundaries. We can also understand why the Gerasenes were afraid when they saw the demoniac cured and begged Jesus to leave; and why Jesus would not accept the former demoniac as a disciple. Jesus’ mission in Mark was not to the Gentiles. Still, when he encountered a person needing help he gave it, despite that person’s hostility. The legal issue is underplayed, but is fundamental. There is no distinction in ancient Jewish law between religion and law. Here the stress is on the religious, hence legal, uncleanliness of non-Jews. There is a marked contrast between this episode and the following intermingled Jewish episode of Jesus’ encounter with the hemorrhaging woman and Jairus’ daughter. In the latter Jesus becomes ritually unclean. But here there is no indication of that. The demoniac lives among the tombs, hence is unclean. No sign that Jesus meets him there. The pigs cause uncleanliness, but they are in the hills. No sign that Jesus has contact with them. So far is the text goes, Jesus does not become unclean with this contact, but in the episode the stress is on the uncleanliness of Gentiles. Their uncleanliness comes from swine in this episode, not from women. A different interpretation of the episode appears in various versions.93 Stress is laid on the name of the unclean spirits, ‘Legion’, IX 93 A particularly clear account is by Richard A. Honsley inThe New Oxford Annotated Bible3d ed. (New York, 2001), p. 65 New Testament. Cf.. Daniel J. Harrington, inThe New Jerome Biblical Commentary, ed. Raymond E. Brownet al. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1990), p. 607.
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