Biblical commentary on the New Testament - The Christian ...

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Matthew VIII. 29.
darkness suddenly, because the conflict of warring powers in his de-
pressed organism, instead of healing, would have annihilated him :
hence he wisely prepares the way for a complete cure. After the
first paroxysm, therefore, Jesus asks, as was observed (according to
Mark v. 9 ; Luke viii. 30), in order to recover him to a consciousness
of his individuality, Ti ooi dvojm ? What is thy name ? But the insane
man, persisting in his confusion of himself with the power
which ruled over him, cries out, Legion (Aeyew^') ; and the Evangelists
add, that this name was suggested by the impression, that more
than one evil power was exerting its influence over him. In this
trait, error and truth are combined with fearful vividness, just as
they were interwoven in the unhappy man's mind. The impression
was true, that not merely one part of his being was given over to the
influence of the demoniacal world, but that his whole inner man was
laid open to them (see Mark xvi. 9, where it is said of Mary Magda-
lene, that she had seven devils i. e., was become the possession of the
kingdom of sin in all the departments of her being). But this correct
idea the suff'erer expresses in the form of calling himself Legion ;
Mark (v. 9) adds, " for we are many"—very expressively choosing the
first person. This name was evidently derived from the immediate
experience of his senses. The view—which he might at some time
have had the opportunity of taking of a compact Koman legion
that terrible instrument of the Koman dominion over the world, at
the sight of which the Jew especially trembled— gives him the idea,
that a compact host of Satanic powers was come down upon him.
In his present state of mental aberration, he confounds himself
with this host, conceives of it as a unity divided into many, and gives
himself the name Legion.* The utterance of this name is then
followed (Mark v. 10 ; Luke viii. 31) by the repeated (see Matth.
viii. 29) petition, in which the afiiicted man again sj)eaks in the
character of the power that controlled him, not to deprive the devils
of their power, and send them to the abyss (d(3vGaog). (This term
is used also in Kom. x. 7, and frequently in the ApocalyjDse, ix, 1,
2, 11 ; xi. 7 ; xvii. 8 ; xx. 1, 3. It is used like Tartarus (rdprapog)
[2 Peter ii. 4], and Gehenna (yeewd), and corresponds to the Hebrew
cinn, which, by the by, is not used in the Old Testament for
the dwelHng-place of evil spirits. In the Old Testament ^'ini? com-
prehends, in its more general signification, what we find distinguished
in the New. The ud7]g or the (pvXaKij of the New Testament, as the
assembling place of the dead, must be conceived as strictly separate
* A similar instance of diversity regarded as a divided unity, may be found in the
Eabbinical language, in wliicb I'i'^aV denotes " the commander of a legion." (See Bu,x-
torf, Lex. Talmud, p. 1123.) We might imagine that the poor man had an indistinct idea
of being possessed by an archfiend {upxuv tuv datfcovui), so tha.t poieniia, the power also
of the angels subject to him, was exercised upon him.
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