Mark 5 · WEB

Legion, the Bleeding Woman, and Jairus' Daughter

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They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.

²When he had come out of the boat, immediately a man with an unclean spirit met him out of the tombs.

³He lived in the tombs. Nobody could bind him any more, not even with chains,

⁴because he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him, and the fetters broken in pieces. Nobody had the strength to tame him.

⁵Always, night and day, in the tombs and in the mountains, he was crying out, and cutting himself with stones.

⁶When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and bowed down to him,

⁷and crying out with a loud voice, he said, "What have I to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, don't torment me."

⁸For he said to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!"

⁹He asked him, "What is your name?" He said to him, "My name is Legion, for we are many."

¹⁰He begged him much that he would not send them away out of the country.

¹¹Now on the mountainside there was a great herd of pigs feeding.

¹²All the demons begged him, saying, "Send us into the pigs, that we may enter into them."

¹³At once Jesus gave them permission. The unclean spirits came out and entered into the pigs. The herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and they were drowned in the sea.

¹⁴Those who fed them fled, and told it in the city and in the country. The people came to see what it was that had happened.

¹⁵They came to Jesus, and saw him who had been possessed by demons sitting, clothed, and in his right mind, even him who had the legion; and they were afraid.

¹⁶Those who saw it declared to them how it happened to him who was possessed by demons, and about the pigs.

¹⁷They began to beg him to depart from their region.

¹⁸As he was entering into the boat, he who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him.

¹⁹He didn't allow him, but said to him, "Go to your house, to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how he had mercy on you."

²⁰He went his way, and began to proclaim in Decapolis how Jesus had done great things for him, and everyone marveled.

²¹When Jesus had crossed back over in the boat to the other side, a great multitude was gathered to him; and he was by the sea.

²²Behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, came; and seeing him, he fell at his feet,

²³and begged him much, saying, "My little daughter is at the point of death. Please come and lay your hands on her, that she may be made healthy, and live."

²⁴He went with him, and a great multitude followed him, and they pressed upon him on all sides.

²⁵A certain woman, who had an issue of blood for twelve years,

²⁶and had suffered many things by many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better, but rather grew worse,

²⁷having heard the things concerning Jesus, came up behind him in the crowd, and touched his clothes.

²⁸For she said, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be made well."

²⁹Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.

³⁰Immediately Jesus, perceiving in himself that the power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd, and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"

³¹His disciples said to him, "You see the multitude pressing against you, and you say, 'Who touched me?'"

³²He looked around to see her who had done this thing.

³³But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had been done to her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.

³⁴He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be cured of your disease."

³⁵While he was still speaking, people came from the synagogue ruler's house saying, "Your daughter is dead. Why bother the Teacher any more?"

³⁶But Jesus, when he heard the message spoken, immediately said to the ruler of the synagogue, "Don't be afraid, only believe."

³⁷He allowed no one to follow him, except Peter, James, and John the brother of James.

³⁸He came to the synagogue ruler's house, and he saw an uproar, weeping, and great wailing.

³⁹When he had entered in, he said to them, "Why do you make an uproar and weep? The child is not dead, but is asleep."

⁴⁰They ridiculed him. But he, having put them all out, took the father of the child, her mother, and those who were with him, and went in where the child was lying.

⁴¹Taking the child by the hand, he said to her, "Talitha cumi!" which means, being interpreted, "Girl, I tell you, get up!"

⁴²Immediately the girl rose up and walked, for she was twelve years old. They were amazed with great amazement.

⁴³He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and commanded that something should be given to her to eat.

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Summary

Across the lake in Gentile territory, Jesus frees a violent demoniac whose legion of unclean spirits enter a herd of pigs that drowns themselves; the healed man is sent home as a missionary to the Decapolis. Returning to the Jewish side, Jesus is summoned by Jairus, a synagogue ruler whose daughter is dying. On the way, a woman with a twelve-year flow of blood is healed simply by touching his garment in faith, and Jesus blesses her openly. Word arrives that the girl has died, but Jesus presses on and raises her with two Aramaic words, "Talitha cumi" — showing his power over demons, disease, and death.

Themes

Jesus' authority over demons, disease, and death
Faith that reaches out and touches
Mercy crossing ethnic and ritual boundaries
Mission given to the restored
Fear replaced by belief

Key verses

Mark 5:19 — “Go to your house, to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how he had mercy on you.”
Mark 5:34 — “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be cured of your disease.”
Mark 5:36 — “Don't be afraid, only believe.”
Mark 5:41 — “Talitha cumi! ... Girl, I tell you, get up!”

Context & background

Mark, writing for a Roman audience around AD 60-65, sets these three miracles on both sides of the Sea of Galilee. The "country of the Gadarenes" (also called Gerasenes) sat on the east side of the lake in the Decapolis — a federation of ten Greek-speaking Gentile cities in modern Jordan and the Golan Heights — which explains the herd of pigs (unclean to Jews) and the steep cliffs near the shore. A "legion" was a Roman military unit of roughly six thousand soldiers, evoking overwhelming demonic occupation. A woman with a chronic flow of blood was ritually unclean under Mosaic law (Leviticus 15) and made anyone she touched unclean as well, making her secret approach socially daring. "Talitha cumi" is preserved in Aramaic, the everyday language of Galilee, giving the scene the feel of an eyewitness memory — likely Peter's, since he was one of the three permitted into the room.

Cross-references

2 Kings 4:32-35 — Elisha raising the Shunammite's son, foreshadowing Jesus' raising of Jairus' daughter
Isaiah 65:4 — Pagans dwelling among tombs and eating swine's flesh
Leviticus 15:25-27 — Laws making a woman with a flow of blood ceremonially unclean
Matthew 9:18-26 — Parallel account of Jairus' daughter and the bleeding woman
Romans 1:16 — The gospel "to the Jew first, and also to the Greek," reflected in Jesus' ministry on both shores

Legion, the Bleeding Woman, and Jairus' Daughter

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