Mark 5 - In Depth Bible Commentaries

665And they begged him, saying “Send us into the pigs, so that we may enter into them.” 5.13666And he permitted them. And, having come out, the spirits, the unclean ones, entered into664(...continued)“very good” creatures, according to Genesis 1:1-2:3. But something had happened inhistory to make these originally “clean” animals “unclean”–as is made clear by thepassages in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. What had caused this? Our answer is that theswine had been made unclean by being used in the magical rites of the fertility religionssurrounding Israel, as these two passages from Isaiah 66 make abundantly clear.665The masculine nominative plural present participle, ëÝãïíôåò, legontes, “(they are)saying,” is read by Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Ephraemi Rescriptus, L, Delta, Family 1 ofMinuscules, Minuscules 892, 2427 and some other Greek manuscripts.It is changed to read pa,ntej, pantes (this word is missing in K, Minuscule 579 andsome other Greek manuscripts) oi` dai,monej le,gontej, hoi daimones legontes, “all thedemons are saying,” by Alexandrinus, Minuscule 33 (probably) and the “Majority Text.”It is changed to read panta, panta (this word is missing in Bezae) ta. daimo,niaeiv,ponta, ta daimonia eiponta, “all the demons, saying” (with an aorist participle instead ofthe present participle), by Bezae, Theta, Minuscules 565, 700 (see), a few other Greekmanuscripts and the Old Latin Manuscript a.It is changed to read parakale,santej ei=pon, parakalesantes eipon, “begging, theysaid,” by W, Family 13 of Minuscules, Minuscules 28 and 2542.The variant readings do not change the meaning of Mark, but demonstrate thefreedom felt by later copyists and translators to make slight changes and commentary-likeadditions to the original text in an effort to enhance its reading.666The phrase ðÝôñåøåí áôïò, epetrepsen autois, literally “he permitted to them,” isread by Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Ephraemi Rescriptus, L, W, Delta, Family 1 of Minuscules,Minuscules 28, 579 (see), the first writer of 892, 2427, 2542, the Old Latin Manuscripts b,e, the Sinaitic Syriac, the Peshitta Syriac, the Bohairic Coptic and Epiphanius of Constantia(who died 403 A.D.).It is changed to read ev,pemyen auvtou,j, epempsen autous (+ o` vIhsou/j, ho Iesous,by Minuscules 565 and 700), “he sent them (the Jesus),” by Theta, Minuscules 565 and700.It is changed to read euvqe,wj ku,rioj vIhsou/j ev,pemyen auvtou,j eivj tou.j coirou,j,eutheos kurios Iesous epempsen autous eis tous choirous, “immediately Lord Jesussent them into the pigs,” by Bezae, a few other Greek manuscripts, the Old LatinManuscripts c (see), a corrector of ff, I (see), and a corrector of r.418(continued...)