"Also please explain what kind of beings constituted 'the legion of devils' referred to in Mark 5:9-12-and hope you will oblige. Yours in hope of eternal life, J.S., Cambridge, Ohio, November 1, 1853."
As to the nature of the six thousand devils supposed to be referred to in Mark, I hardly know what answer to give. If by "devils" are meant the ugly bottle-imps and hobgoblins supposed to be the "angels" of the great Devil of Gentile theology, Latin, Greek, Protestant, Pagan, and Mohammedan, I have to confess that I know nothing about their nature, having no acquaintance with them, and finding nothing upon the subject in the Bible. "J.S." had better apply to some of the priests or clergy who deal in theological mysteries, and have so much to do with "devils in hell" and out of it, in converting sinners from their evil deeds to the errors of their clerical ways, and in keeping them loyal and piously adherent to their traditions. They, of course, can tell him all about their nature, which must be extraordinary, seeing that they can live in fire and brimstone for five thousand years, without being consumed, or manifesting the least compunction for their wickedness and unmitigated cruelty upon the poor ghosts, whom the avarice of priests keeps locked for ages, because their relations on earth are not lavish enough of their "filthy lucre," (so little prized by sacerdotals!) to make them willing to open the gates of hell, or purgatory, and to set them free. I rather think, that the nature of the priests who profess to hold the keys of purgatory is more devilish than the imps or hobgoblins themselves; for these make no pretensions to mercy and good fruits, which the priests do. These add hypocrisy to ferocity-ferocious hypocrites, who, by masses said or sung, profess to have the power of emptying all purgatory into paradise; yet refuse to do it, unless they are gorged with the wealth of the living relations of the dead! Such is the system, miscalled Christianity by fools; and glorified by them in those incarnations of knavery and superstition, the Ninth Pius, and his archiepiscopal representative in New York! Such priests and devils are but different names in my vocabulary for the same abomination.
But I suspect that it is because "J.S." has no faith in orthodox diablery, that he turns hitherward to see if any light can be thrown upon the passage, by which his difficulties, whatever they may be, may be removed. The subject there presented is intricate, but not inexplicable. It has a solution; but whether that which is about to be presented be the right one, the reader must decide for himself.
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.
"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 thou to do with me, O Jesus, Son of God the Most High? I conjure thee by God, torment me not! For he said unto 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 (Pantes hoi daimones, rendered all the demons, is "a reading," says the best authorities, "which should properly be omitted, although there is not sufficient evidence to justify its removal from the text.") 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 forward 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 demonized,-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 demonized, and concerning the swine. And they began to entreat him to depart out of their coasts.
"And having entered into the ship, he that had been demonized entreated him that he might not be with him. But Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto 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."
Mark in the foregoing text speaks of only one man as issuing forth to meet Jesus. We learn, however, from Matthew that "two demonized 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 17th 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 his boy is moonized (if I may be permitted to grecize 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 "moonized" 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 characterized by different effects. In this case it was attributed to the influence of the moon; and because it paralyzed 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, etc.; 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 of 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 those 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 Yahweh that puts diseases on both 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 Yahweh'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 said before, he styles "the unclean spirit," and "the demon." Matthew's phrase, parallel and expletive of Luke's, is demonized 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 things referred to. A man demonized 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 untamable. Having express 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" (Luke 8:29). This is his way of telling us that the demonized 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 untamably 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 diverse diseases and torments, and demonized, and moonized, 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 cognizant 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 layed him prostrate before the Lord. He fell down before him. He was afraid now, lest this power should be exerted against him, as the power of his neighbors 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 associate 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 demonized 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 ravings 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.
At 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 undemonized the men, and demonized 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 its waters...