The second, longest, and most complex of this Gospel’s narrated exorcisms (see also Mark 1:21-128; 7:24-30; 9:14-29), Mark 5:1-20 is a tale of terror.

 Jesus encounters a demoniac who horrifies his neighbors by howling among tombs (verses 2-3a, 5a), commandeered by diabolical powers that provoke him to appalling self-abuse, impossible to restrain (verses 3b-4, 5b). For Jewish listeners other details reek of religious impurity. In the Levitical tradition (Leviticus 22:4b-6a; 11:7-8; Numbers 5:2; 6:6; 9:6) contact with corpses defiles. More pointedly, “[those] who sit inside tombs, and spend the night in secret places, who eat swine’s flesh” (Isaiah 65:4; see Leviticus 11:7-8; Mark 5:11) typify a stubborn nation that rebels against the LORD’S holiness.

The demon’s name, “Legion” (Mark 5:9), referring to a Roman regiment of six thousand soldiers, is at once a petrifying depiction of this sufferer’s trauma and a reminder of Israel’s oppression by pagan colonials. Although the precise location of this episode has long been disputed (see also “Gadara”: Matthew 8:28; “Gergesa”: ...