New Testament · Gospel

Mark 5:16

Legion and the Little Girl

Those who had seen it described what had happened to the demon-possessed man and also to the pigs. Mark 5:16 · Berean Standard Bible

What It Means

Mark 5:16, in plain English

The people who saw it all happen described everything — what happened to the demon-possessed man and what happened to the pigs.

Why it's here

The full story is now out: a man is healed, but two thousand pigs are gone. The community has to decide how they feel about both parts of that equation.

Who's speaking

Eyewitnesses fill in the arriving crowd on all the details.

Where it sits in the story

The witnesses lay out the whole story. And now the townspeople face a choice: will they celebrate the man's freedom, or mourn their economic loss?

A Closer Look

The scholarly reading

Eyewitnesses provide a detailed account (diegesanto) of both the demoniac's healing and the pigs' destruction, giving the crowd the full narrative to process this unprecedented event.

Language and setting

The dual report — about the man and the pigs — forces the townspeople to weigh the miracle's cost, setting up their request for Jesus to leave in v.17.

Voice

Mark notes that eyewitnesses relay the full account to the arriving crowd.

Significance

Those who witnessed everything describe both the man's liberation and the pigs' destruction. The townspeople must now reckon with the full scope of what Jesus has done.

In context

Mark 5:14–18

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.

18As He was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by the demons begged to go with Him.

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.

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