"THE LEGION OF DEVILS."

Before entering upon an exposition of this subject, it is necessary to have before us a corrected translation of the text. This becomes indispensable, because "devils" and "the Devil" do not appear in the original Greek; but are given by the translators as their opinion in the case.

CORRECTED TRANSLATION OF MARK 5: 1-20.

And they came to the farther side of the lake, into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he had landed from the ship, immediately there encountered him from the tombs, a man in a vicious spirit who dwelt among the sepulchres: nor could any one bind him with chains; because that he was oftentimes bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been burst asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: and no one was able to tame him: and he was continually night and day in the mountains and in the tombs, shouting, and wounding himself with stones.

But seeing Jesus at a distance, he ran and fell down before him, and exclaiming with a loud voice, said "What hast tho to do with me, O Jesus, Son of God the Most High? I conjure thee by God, torment me not!" For he said to him, Vicious spirit, from the man begone! And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion, for we are many. And he earnestly entreated him that he would not send them away from the country.

Now there was there near the mountains a great herd of swine feeding; and all the demons entreated* him, saying, Send us unto the swine, that we may break in upon them: and forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And going forth, the vicious spirits broke in upon the swine; and the herd rushed forwards over a precipice into the lake, (they were about two thousand,) and they were choked in the lake. But the swineherds fled, and carried the news into the city and villages, and they came forth to see what had happened: and they come to Jesus, and see the demonised—the malignantly affected one—sitting, and clothed, and he who had the Legion in a right mind: and they were afraid. And the spectators recounted to them how it happened to the demonised, and concerning the swine. And they began to entreat him to depart out of their coasts.

* [Pantes hoi daimones, rendered all the demons, is "a reading," say the best authorities, "which should properly be omitted, although there is not sufficient evidence to justify its removal from the text."]

And having entered into the ship, he that had been demonised entreated him that he might be with him. But Jesus suffered him not, but saith to him, Go to thy house and thy friends, and tell them what great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. And he went away, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all were astonished.

REMARKS UPON THE PASSAGE IN MARK.

Mark in the foregoing text speaks of only one man as issuing forth to meet Jesus. We learn, however, from Matthew, that "two demonised ones met him." Both accounts are correct; for if there were two, there must have been one: and as the conversation of Jesus was held with but one of them, and Mark’s purpose was to record the dialogue as well as the wonderful cure, he confined his narrative to the one who replied, with only an incidental allusion to the other.

Having directed the reader’s attention to one in particular, he tells him what was the matter with him. He says, he was "a man in a vicious spirit," or as we should express it in English, "a man of a vicious spirit." Luke says, he was a man, who had demons; which he afterwards expresses in the singular number, by, "the unclean spirit;" and, "the demon." Matthew then comes in, and in effect tells us why Luke uses the plural first, and then the singular. First, he informs us what a demon is; that is, such demons as afflicted the people whom Jesus cured. In his seventeenth chapter, he says, that a certain man brought his son to Jesus to be cured; and in telling him what sort of disease he was troubled with, says, that hi boy is moonised, (if I may be permitted to Grecise the supposed influence of the moon upon the human brain,) or, as in the common version, "lunatic;" and badly affected. This bad effect of the moon (which planet is styled Selene by the Greeks; hence the verb in the text rendered "moon-ised" in a succeeding verse Matthew styles the demon. One sense of the word demon, therefore, is a morbid affection of the brain and nervous system, from whatever cause, and characterised by different effects. In this case it was attributed to the influence of the moon; and because it paralysed the organs of speech, it is called in Mark 9: 17, a dumb spirit. Such are the pathological terms by which the people of those days designated their corporeal afflictions, which the gracious and benevolent Physician of their time, who "bore their infirmities," took upon himself. They were as ignorant of the real cause of disorder and disease as the most learned pathologists of our day themselves. They called them "demons," dumb, lunatic, &c.; also "unclean spirits," or spirits of uncleanness, unhealthy conditions of the affected; and therefore, Mosaically unclean. The terms are not so "scientific" as ours are supposed to be; but certainly as expressive of the real cause of disease as our "Chorea Sancti Viti," the Dance of St. Vitus, is of the muscular twitchings which pass by that name. To say of a doctor, that he had cast St. Vitus out of a dancing girl, would neither prove the indwelling nor existence of such a saint; though the saying might be admitted on the ground that the disorder of the unnaturally possessed was "St. Vitus’ Dance." But, St. Vitus has really as much to do with what is called "chorea," as six thousand "devils" have to do with intense madness, or a dumb disembodied ghost with lunacy and epilepsy. Their existence can no more be proved from the nomenclature of Hebrew pathology, than St. Vitus’ from our fanciful designation of diseases. The New Testament writers expressed themselves on the subject of disease in the language of the people, without undertaking to reveal to them more precise knowledge concerning it than they already possessed. The Jewish nation, however, admitted one truth, practically ignored by all others to this day—that all diseases are laid upon mankind by the hand of God as corrections for their transgressions of his law. As it is written in their law, "If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I WILL PUT none of these diseases upon thee which I HAVE BROUGHT upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord that healeth thee." From this, it is clear, that it is not disembodied ghosts of wicked men, or devils from hell, or the Devil, that cause lunacy, dumbness, madness, and so forth, which are referred to "demons," but Jehovah that puts diseases both on Jews and Gentiles. "If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law, O Israel, then the Lord," says Moses, "will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses of long continuance. Moreover, he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee. Also every sickness, and every plague, which are not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord cause to ascend upon thee, until thou be destroyed." Physical or natural evil is chastisement and punishment for sin; and because the Serpent was the cause of its introduction into the world, he stands as the symbol of what is inimical or adverse to human happiness. Hence, that system of evil within the flesh and in the world, which he originated, adverse to God, to righteousness, and to health, is surnamed "Satan," or Adversary, "that old Serpent." This is Sin’s symbol: so that the Israelites dying from serpent bites, because of transgression, looked to the Serpent lifted up by Moses for their cure. The serpent there exalted, represented sin to be condemned in the flesh of a crucified Messiah, for the cure of all believers of the gospel who looked to him. Hence, Serpent-sin, or Satan, and disease, are as cause and effect. Thus, the woman incurably diseased is said to have been bound of Satan for eighteen years. This is the case with Israel and the rest of the world to this day. They are bound of Satan—a bondage from which none can free them, but "the Son of Man at Jehovah’s right hand, whom he hath made strong for himself:" for "it is He that healeth thee," O World, as the Lord hath said. It was natural, then, that diseases being generally referred to Satan, particular affections should be designated by the word demon taken in an evil sense, instead of a good one, in which also it is sometimes used.

Having then taught us that we are to understand by a pathological demon, a man whose brain and nervous system are morbidly affected, he explains what Luke means by a man having demons. Luke says that the man Legion "had demons long time;" and which demons, as I have said before, he styles "the unclean spirit," and "the demon." Matthew’s phrase, parallel and expletive of Luke’s, is demonised exceedingly fierce. The plural, "demons," is not then a plurality of persons or beings; but a plural indicating intensity. An editor uses the plural we, though speaking of himself only. Majesty does the same as "we, the King." These are plurals of intensity; that is, enforcing to a high degree the thing referred to. A man demonised so as to be exceedingly fierce, is to have demons, even a legion of them; and to be "in" or of "a vicious spirit," temper, or disposition; and where incurable, to be untameable. Having expressed the intensity of the madness by "demons," Luke returns to the singular number, and says, "It seized him many times, and bursting the bonds, he was driven by the demon into solitary places." This is his way of telling us, that the demonised man was not always so fierce; but that his madness came upon him by paroxysms, when nothing could bind him.

Men may be mad, and untameably ferocious, and yet retain their memory, and the rational use of many of their cerebral faculties. The country of the Gadarenes was "over against Galilee," where Jesus began to make proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom, and to perform his wonderful cures. "And his fame," says Matthew, "went throughout all Syria; and they brought unto him all sick people, taken with divers diseases and torments, and demonised, and moonised, and paralytic: and he healed them. And there followed him great multitudes from Galilee, and Decapolis, and Jerusalem, and Judea, and the farther side of the Jordan."

The man whose name was Legion was an inhabitant of the region of Decapolis, beyond the Jordan. It cannot therefore be supposed that, when all this stir about Jesus existed in his country, he was unacquainted with the cause. On the contrary, he was doubtless cognisant of all that had been said and done by the "GREAT LIGHT" that had shone forth so extraordinarily in the surrounding darkness; and being a Jew, was not ignorant that when Christ appeared he would punish the wicked as well as reward his friends. He had a habit also of running at people to attack them, "so that," says Matthew, "no person was able to pass by through that way." Let the reader bear these things in mind, and he will understand how this son of Abraham, "when he saw Jesus at a distance," came to "run towards him." Though mad, and exceedingly fierce, he was not destitute of apprehension of evil. He recollected that Jesus was called "the Son of God the Most High," and that he was of wonderful power. As he ran up, that power encountered him in the words, "Vicious Spirit, from the man begone!" This laid him prostrate before the Lord. He fell down before him. He was afraid now, lest his power should be exerted against him, as the power of his neighbours had been, to bind him with fetters and chains, which had no doubt proved very tormenting. He, therefore, exclaimed with a loud voice, "What hast thou to do with me, O Jesus, Son of God the Most High? I conjure thee by God not to torment me!" No, poor fellow, "the time" was not come for that. Jesus had come to "bear the griefs, and carry the sorrows" of such as he; and not to execute vengeance and torment upon the unfortunate. His mission was one of mercy, which rejoiced against judgment; and of that mercy there was store for him and his associates in woe. Jesus then kindly asked him, "What is thy name?" But, not yet in his right mind, he called himself "Legion;" and gave as a reason, that he, and what Luke terms "demons," the intense affection, were many; that is, equal to many. "My name is Legion, for we are many;" or, as Luke says, "because many demons were with him;" in other words, It is Legion; for I am demonised exceedingly fierce.

Still prostrate before him, and uncertain what was to become of him, "he entreated Jesus earnestly that he would not send them away from the country." Here the man of unsound mind is the speaker. Under the impression that he was not alone, but in company with many, he says, "Pray do not send us out of the country! But send us unto the swine, that we may break in upon them." These two madmen had been accustomed to fall upon all that came in their way; and being still delirious, they wanted to drive the swine into the lake, and choke them. These were the ravings of delirium; and as the man called himself "many demons," Mark attributes these raving to "all the demons," if indeed the reading is to be accepted, which is equivalent to attributing them to the man himself bearing that name.

As the crisis of the cure of these men, Jesus concluded to adopt the suggestion. It was contrary to the law of the land for men to raise swine for food there. It would be a vindication, therefore, of the law, to destroy the whole herd; and Jesus determined to do it. He undemonised the men, and demonised the swine. I have seen a furious man drive thirty or forty people out of a room; and rush up to another, as if to floor him, who upon his approach said in a firm tone of voice, "Be still!"—and the man was powerless for further mischief. Matthew says that Jesus ordered the unclean spirits of the men to "Begone!"—that is, Be healed; and let your madness seize upon the swine. The result immediately followed. The men were forthwith restored to soundness of mind, while the maddened swine rushed violently into the lake, and perished in the waters.

MATTHEW’S ACCOUNT OF LEGION.

Matthew’s account of Legion’s extraordinary cure differs somewhat, though without contradiction, from Mark and Luke’s. The following is a corrected translation of it, which the reader can compare with that of the English version:

"And when he was come to the farther side, into the country of the Gergesenes, two demonised ones met him, coming forth from the tombs exceedingly fierce, so that no person was able to pass by through that way: and behold, they cried out, saying, ‘What hast thou to do with us, O Jesus, thou Son of God? Comest thou hither before the appointed time to torment us?’ And there was at some distance from them a herd of many swine feeding. And the demons entreated him, saying, ‘If thou order us to depart, permit us to go away unto the herd of swine.’ And he said to them, ‘Begone!’ And going forth, they went away unto the herd of swine: and behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and perished in the waters. And the swineherds fled, and went away to the city telling every thing, and the things concerning the demonised ones. And behold, all the city came forth for a meeting with Jesus; and seeing him, they entreated that he would go away from their coasts."

There is one point worthy of particular notice in Mark and Luke’s account, verbally omitted by Matthew; and another in Matthew’s not distinctly noted in theirs, of which I have said nothing as yet. The two demonians, according to Matthew, asked Jesus if he had come to that country before the appointed time, to torment them. Mark and Luke, who are said to have written for non-residents of the Holy Land, say nothing about Jesus coming "hither;" that is, to the region of the Sea of Galilee, to torment men before an appointed time. Yet they do not altogether lose sight of that particular. Part of the punishment apprehended by the demonians was the being "sent away out of the country," which Luke parallelises by the phrase, "go away upon the deep." To be sent out of the country over the Sea of Galilee, was an exile the two demonians did not wish to be subjected to, in addition to torment in their own region. They therefore entreated him earnestly not to exercise his power in this way.

But how came they to apprehend such an exercise of power? My answer is this: When Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom to the poor throughout their country, he also published God’s curses upon the ungodly men of Israel who would not attend to Moses and the Prophets, and recognise his claims to the Messiahship. To these he said, "When the door is shut, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer, and say unto you, I know not whence ye are . . . . depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out." These are the people of the left, concerning whom it is added, "Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, unto the Age-Fire, prepared for the DIABOLOS ("the Dragon, that old Serpent, surnamed the Devil and the Satan") and his agents." This "fiery indignation which is to devour the adversaries," is to burn in the interval, or Age, between Christ’s appearing, and the completion of the work of Israel’s restoration, and engraftment into their own olive tree, on the principle of faith in Jesus—an interval of forty years’ duration; during which period, the age, or aionian fire, will rage as the symbolical "lake of fire" in the territories of "the Beast and the False Prophet"—elements of the Old Serpent Dominion; and by which they and their emissaries, or "angels," who uphold their power over the nation, will be destroyed from the earth.

The territory where this "judgment and fiery indignation is to devour the adversaries," lies beyond the confines of the Holy Land—far beyond the Sea of Galilee and the Levant, which as "a great gulf" divides the territory of the kingdom of God from that of the Diabolos, or "Beast and False Prophet." Now, the demonians being Israelites, had a general acquaintance with these things, which they expected at the "appointed time," which they did not believe had then come. Knowing the punishment of the wicked was to be enforced "out of the country," and beyond sea, they earnestly entreated Jesus not to pass sentence of exile upon them; but rather condemn them to the prodigal’s fate, in herding with the neighbouring swine. But the appointed time for tormenting the ungodly had not then come. It has not yet come; but is certainly near at hand, the course or aion of the Beast and False Prophet, equal to 1260 years, being near its end. This end is the approaching time of torment under the Third Angel proclamation, which says, "If any man worship the Beast and his Image, and receive a mark in his forehead and in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy messengers, and in the presence of the Lamb," which is the Lord Jesus. The ungodly in the Holy Land who shall there appear before Jesus, will be "sent away out of the country" beyond the deep, to this place of torment, when he shall say to them, "Depart from me," leave the kingdom, "ye cursed, for the Age-Fire prepared for the Beast and his Image, and for them who have the mark, his number, and his name." But the time for tormenting the ungodly thus not having arrived, the King in whose presence the terrified demonians were prostrate at his feet, refrained from ordering them away. Instead of tormenting, he made them every whit whole; and to their own astonishment, and that of all the spectators around, they found themselves "clothed and in their right mind."

A word may be added on the phrase "rebuked the demon." This does not indicate intelligence in the demon; for Jesus is said to have "rebuked the wind;" and, in the case of Simon’s wife’s mother, to have "rebuked the fever." The word "rebuke" is used in the sense of "repress," or "restrain," which are meanings of epitimao as well. To be demonised, selenised, (affected by the moon,) paralysed, fevered, and so forth, are all summed up by Peter as "oppressions of the Diabolos," rendered "the Devil" in the English version; that is, properly, " oppressions of Sin." To rebuke these is to repress them by effecting a cure.

Finally. That the reader may see how unwarrantably James’ religious courtiers have introduced "devils," and "the Devil," into their translation, I shall conclude this paper with a corrected rendering of

LUKE’S ACCOUNT OF LEGION.

"And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee. And having landed, a certain man out of the city met him, who had demons on many occasions—and he wore no garment, nor abode in a house, but in the tombs.

"Now, seeing Jesus, and shouting, he fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What hast thou to do with me, O Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beseech of thee, torment me not! For he had commanded the unclean spirit to depart from the man; for many times it had seized him; and he was bound, being kept with chains and fetters: and bursting the bonds, he was driven by the demon into the solitudes.

"Now Jesus asked him, saying, What name is there for thee? And he said, ‘Legion:’ because many demons came upon him. And he entreated him that he would not command them to go away over the deep. Now there was there a herd of many swine feeding on the mountain; and they besought him that he would permit them to go away to them; and he permitted them.

"Now the demons having departed from the man, it went away to the swine; and the herd rushed forwards down the steep into the lake, and was choked. Now the swineherds beholding what was done, fled, and going away told it in the city and in the villages. And they came out to see what was done: and they drew near to Jesus, and found the man from whom he had dispelled the demons sitting clothed and sober-minded at the feet of Jesus; and they were afraid. The spectators also told them how he that had been demonised was cured. Then the whole multitude of the circumjacent country of the Gadarenes besought him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear: and going on board the vessel, he returned.

"Now the man from whom he had dispelled the demons requested of him to be withy him, but Jesus dismissed him, saying, Return to thy house, and relate what great things God hath done to thee. And he went away, publishing throughout the city what great things Jesus had done to him."

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