The demoniac who lived in the tombs is hostile to Jesus’ curing him (.). The demoniac did not want Jesus to send the unclean spirits out of the country (.). The unclean spirits beseeched Jesus to let them enter into the great herd of swine that was there, and Jesus gave permission (.). The unclean spirits entered the swine, about two thousand of them, which thereupon rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and drowned (.). The swineherds ran away, and reported what had happened in the city and country, and people came to find out (.). They saw the demoniac sane, and they were afraid (.). They begged Jesus to leave their territory (.). Jesus was doing so when the former demoniac begged to be with him (.). Jesus refused, and told him to return to his house and his own people and relate what the Lord had done (.). The former demoniac left and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him (.). Among the troubling features are () the horror of the demoniac at the possibility of being cured by Jesus. () The name of the spirits as ‘Legion.’ () The urgent desire of the evil spirits not to be sent out of the country. () The desire of the spirits, about to be outcast, to be sent into the swine. () The spirits rushing into the swine who then drowned themselves. () The fear of the local inhabitants when they saw that the insane man was cured. () Jesus’ harsh refusal to let the former demoniac remain with him. These features demand explanation. 78 See, e.g., C.S. Mann, Mark (Garden City, N.Y.,1986) pp. 277ff.; Larry W. Hurtado, Mark (Peabody, Mass., 1989), pp. 82ff.; John Painter, Mark's Gospel (London, 1997), pp. 89ff.; Bas M.F. van Iersel, Mark: a Reader-Response Commentary (Sheffield, 1998), pp. 197ff. II
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