Mark 5:15

Mark 5:15, in plain English

When the townspeople arrive, they see the man who had been possessed — the one they all knew and feared — sitting calmly, wearing clothes, and perfectly sane. And it scared them.

Why it's here

Think about what a shock this must have been. Everyone knew this man. They'd tried to chain him. Now he's sitting there like a completely different person.

Who's speaking

Mark describes the crowd's stunned reaction to the healed man.

Where it sits in the story

The transformation is so dramatic it frightens people more than the man's wildness ever did. Sometimes the power of God is so overwhelming that people don't know what to do with it.

The scholarly reading

The crowd finds the formerly demonized man 'sitting, clothed, and in his right mind' (kathemenon himatismenon kai sophronounta) — a threefold description of restored dignity contrasting his previous nakedness, restlessness, and insanity. Their response is fear (ephobethesan).

Language and setting

The transformation markers — sitting (vs. restless), clothed (vs. naked/wild), right mind (vs. insane) — form a complete reversal of 5:2-5. The crowd's fear parallels the disciples' reaction to the calmed storm (4:41).

Voice

Mark narrates the crowd's arrival and their reaction to the transformed man.

Significance

The people arrive to find a man they knew as a wild, naked, screaming demoniac now sitting peacefully, fully dressed, and completely sane. The transformation terrifies 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.

17And the people began to beg Jesus to leave their region.

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.