Luke 8:27

Luke 8:27, in plain English

When Jesus stepped off the boat, a demon-possessed man met Him. For a long time, the man had worn no clothes and lived not in a house but among the tombs. He was utterly broken.

Why it's here

This is one of the most heartbreaking portraits in the Gospels: a man stripped of everything that makes life human, living among the dead. Jesus walked straight toward him.

Who's speaking

Luke introduces us to the tormented man Jesus encounters.

Where it sits in the story

On the shore, Jesus met a man who had lost everything to demonic oppression, his clothes, his home, his community. He lived among graves, more dead than alive. But help had just arrived.

The scholarly reading

A demonized man from the polis ('city') meets Jesus, described in extreme terms: chronō hikanō ('for a long time') without himation (clothing) or oikia (house), dwelling en tois mnēmasin ('among the tombs'). His condition represents total social and ritual exclusion.

Language and setting

Nakedness, homelessness, and tomb-dwelling combine to portray utter dehumanization. Contact with tombs rendered a person perpetually unclean under Jewish law (Numbers 19:16), adding ritual impurity to his social ostracism.

Voice

Luke narrates the encounter, describing the demonized man's condition.

Significance

When Jesus stepped ashore, He was immediately confronted by a man possessed by demons who had lived naked among the tombs for years, completely cut off from human society and dignity.

25“Where is your faith?” He asked.

26Then they sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, across the lake from Galilee.

27When Jesus stepped ashore, He was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothing or lived in a house, but he stayed in the tombs.

28When the man saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before Him, shouting in a loud voice, “What do You want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You not to torture me!”

29For Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was bound with chains and shackles, he had broken the chains and been driven by the demon into solitary places.

Read all of Luke 8 — A storm, a legion of demons, a bleeding woman, and a dead girl — Jesus moves through a world of chaos and brings order with a word or a touch.