Mark 5:14

Mark 5:14, in plain English

The men tending the pigs ran off and told everyone in town and the surrounding area what happened. People came out to see it for themselves.

Why it's here

The news spreads like wildfire. A massive herd of pigs just drowned, and there's a man who was completely out of control now sitting peacefully. People had to see this.

Who's speaking

Mark describes the rapid spread of news about what happened.

Where it sits in the story

The herders become the first to tell the story, and soon the whole region is buzzing. Everyone wants to see what could possibly explain two thousand drowned pigs.

The scholarly reading

The pig herders flee and spread the news (apengeilan) throughout the town and countryside, functioning as inadvertent heralds of Jesus' power. The populace goes out 'to see what had happened' (idein ti estin to gegonos).

Language and setting

The flight and reporting parallel the reaction patterns in Mark's miracle narratives. The community's response will prove ambivalent — curiosity mixed with fear — contrasting with the healed man's gratitude.

Voice

Mark narrates the aftermath as the swineherds spread the news.

Significance

The pig herders run to town with the astonishing report, and people stream out to see for themselves. Word travels fast when something this extraordinary happens.

12So the demons begged Jesus, “Send us to the pigs, so that we may enter them.”

13He gave them permission, and the unclean spirits came out and went into the pigs, and the herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the water.

14Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened.

15When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons sitting there, clothed and in his right mind; and they were afraid.

16Those who had seen it described what had happened to the demon-possessed man and also to the pigs.

Read all of Mark 5 — A man possessed by a thousand demons, a woman who has bled for twelve years, a father whose daughter has just died — all healed in a single chapter.