Unclean Spirits

Jesus and his disciples came to the other side of the sea, to the territory of the Gerasenes. When he got out of the boat, at once a man from the tombs who had an unclean spirit met him. The man had been dwelling among the tombs, and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain. In fact, he had frequently been bound with shackles and chains, but the chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles smashed, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones.

Catching sight of Jesus from a distance, he ran up and prostrated himself before him, crying out in a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me!” (He had been saying to him, “Unclean spirit, come out of the man!”) He asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “Legion is my name.  There are many of us.” And he pleaded earnestly with him not to drive them away from that territory.

Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside. And they pleaded with him, “Send us into the swine.  Let us enter them.” And he let them, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine. The herd of about two thousand rushed down a steep bank into the sea, where they were drowned. The swineherds ran away and reported the incident in the town and throughout the countryside. And people came out to see what had happened.

As they approached Jesus, they caught sight of the man who had been possessed by Legion, sitting there clothed and in his right mind. And they were seized with fear. Those who witnessed the incident explained to them what had happened to the possessed man and to the swine. Then they began to beg him to leave their district.

As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed pleaded to remain with him. But Jesus would not permit him but told him instead, “Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you.” Then the man went off and began to proclaim in the Decapolis what Jesus had done for him; and all were amazed. (Mark 5:1-20)

The Romans left their cultural stamp on all cities where they sponsored and built numerous temples and other public buildings. Decapolis was a center of Hellenistic and Roman culture in a region which was otherwise populated by Jews, Nabataeans and Arameans. 

According to one reference, (begin) the imperial cult, the worship of the Roman emperor, was a very common practice throughout the Decapolis, a group of ten Hellenistic cities on the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire in the Southern Levant in the first centuries BC and AD. They formed a group because of their language, culture, religion, location, and political status, with each functioning as an autonomous city-state dependent on Rome. They are sometimes described as a league of cities, although some scholars believe that they were never formally organized as a political unit. (end)

Mark appears to be cleverly and subtlety condemning the Roman Empire and its emperor. “Legion” was the name of the unclean spirits. The Roman legion was a highly disciplined, well-trained, and heavily armed body of infantry, which, in the first century AD, comprised up to 6,000 men all of whom were Roman citizens.  The Jews considered pigs to be unclean; therefore, the unclean spirit [the Romans soldiers] came out of the man [Israel?] and entered the swine with the herd of about two thousand [modest Legion size] rushing down a steep bank into the sea, where they were drowned. That was a Jewish hoped-for fate of the Roman occupiers.

At the end of this reading we read: “Then the man went off and began to proclaim in the Decapolis what Jesus had done for him; and all were amazed.”  Mark appeared to tell his Jewish audience that those who worshiped the Roman emperor throughout the Decapolis risked “drowning.” The Roman occupiers were unclean, and worshiping the Roman emperor(s) meant residing in pigs rushing to the sea and away from Israel.  Who said the Gospels were not political commentary?

Deacon David Pierce