“In Thai society, those who are possessed by evil spirits are usually the weak or mentally unstable. This man is shown as freed from his spiritual and physical chains. Even though he is naked Jesus is not ashamed to be close to him.”
Jesus and His disciples were traveling in a boat. They came to the other side of the lake. There was a place called Gerasa. There was a place where there were many caves. People who had died were buried there. There was a man there. He was possessed by a demon. The man lived in these caves.
People tried to grab him and tie him up, but he tore all the ropes. They even tried to tie him up with chains. Many times they caught him, tied him up, but still he tore the chains, broke free and ran away. Day and night he walked there among the graves, climbed up the mountain and shouted loudly, and beat himself with stones, he was all scarred.
When Jesus arrived at the shore in a boat, the demon-possessed man saw Jesus, ran up to him, and knelt down before him.
Jesus looked at him and commanded, Demon, get out of this man!
The demon inside the man began to shout angrily, You, Jesus, are the Son of God! What do you want? I beg you before God — don’t torture me!
Jesus said: What is your name?
The demon answered: My name is Legion! It means a great multitude of warriors.
The demon continued: I beg you, if you drive us out of this area, where will we go?
Not far away, on a mountain, a large herd of pigs was grazing.
The demons began to ask Jesus: Permit us to go out and take possession of the pigs!
Jesus allowed it. The demons began to come out of this man and took possession of the pigs. And there were about two thousand pigs. The pigs began to be demonized. And there was a mountain, and all the pigs began to fall off the mountain into the sea and they all sank. The shepherds who were herding the pigs, when they saw that the pigs were drowned, were very frightened. They ran to the city of Gerasa and also to its surrounding villages, they said to the people, Look, look what has happened!
A large crowd gathered, the people went to that place. They saw Jesus and the man who was demon-possessed. He was healed, he became normal, he was sitting quietly, with his clothes on.
The people were frightened and began to ask: Is this the man who was demon-possessed?
Others began to say: Yes, it was him, he was healed. The demons came out of him and entered the pigs, and the pigs fell from the mountain into the sea.
That’s what the witnesses said. The people were frightened and began to ask: Who did it? Jesus?
And they said to Jesus, Don’t come to our land, go away from here!
Jesus turned around and got into the boat to sail on. The man who used to be demon-possessed came to Jesus and begged Him: Take me with you! May I come with you?
Jesus commanded: No! Go home to your family. God has healed you. Go tell all the people what God has done to you, that he has had mercy on you.
The man went around the ten cities, telling what Jesus had done for him, and all the people marveled.
Original Russian back-translation (click or tap here):
Иисус с учениками плыли в лодке. Они пристали к другому берегу. Там был город Гераса. Там было место, где было много пещер. Там хоронили умерших людей. Там был один человек. В него вселился бес. Человек жил с этих пещерах.
Люди пытались его схватить и связать, но он рвал все веревки. Даже цепями его пытались связать. Много раз его ловили, вязали, но все равно он рвал эти цепи, вырывался и убегал. Днем и ночью он ходил там среди могил, забирался на гору и громко кричал, и сам себя бил камнями, был весь израненный.
Вот Иисус причалил на лодке к берегу, сошел на землю, и тут бесноватый увидел Иисуса, подбежал к нему и бросился перед ним на колени.
Иисус посмотрел на него и приказал: Бес, выйдете вон из этого человека!
Бес внутри этого человека стал злобно кричать: Ты, Иисус, Сын Божий! Чего тебе надо? Умоляю тебя перед Богом — не мучь меня!
Иисус сказал: Как твое имя?
Бес ответил: Мое имя — Легион! Оно означает «великое множество воинов».
Бес продолжал: Умоляю тебя, если ты выгонишь нас из этой местности, куда нам деваться?
А недалеко оттуда, на горе, паслось большое стадо свиней.
Бесы стали просить Иисуса: Разреши нам выйти и вселиться в свиней!
Иисус позволил. Бесы начали выходить из этого человека и вселялись в свиней. А свиней было около двух тысяч. Свиньи начали бесноваться. А там была гора, и все свиньи начали срываться с горы в море и все потонули. Пастухи, которые пасли свиней, когда увидели, что свиньи утонули, очень испугались. Они побежали в город Герас, а также в его окрестные деревни, они сказали людям: Посмотрите, посмотрите, что случилось!
Собралась большая толпа, народ пошел к тому месту. Они увидели Иисуса и того человека, который был бесноватым. Он исцелился, стал нормальным, он спокойно сидел, в одежде.
Люди испугались, стали спрашивать: Точно ли это тот человек, который был бесноватым?
Другие стали говорить: Да, это он, он исцелился. Бесы из него вышли и вселились в свиней, и свиньи попадали с горы в море.
Так говорили свидетели. Народ испугался, стали спрашивать: Кто это сделал? Иисус?
И они обратились к Иисусу: Не ходи в наши края, уходи отсюда!
Иисус развернулся и сел в лодку, чтобы плыть дальше. Человек, который раньше был бесноватый, подошел к Иисусу и стал умолять Его:
Возьмите меня с собой! Можно, я пойду с вами?!
Иисус приказал: Нет! Иди домой к своим родным. Бог излечил тебя. Иди, расскажи всем людям, что Бог сделал с тобой, что он помиловал тебя. Этот человек ходил по десяти городам, что совершил Иисус для него, и все люди удивлялись.
Retrotraducciones en español (haga clic o pulse aquí)
Allá en un lugar llamado Gadara había un hombre que tenía un demonio adentro de él. Caminaba de un lado al otro gritando y lastimandose con piedras todos los días de la mañana hasta la noche.
Antea la gente se había acercado a él muchas veces para agarrarlo y amarrarlo con cadenasde hierro, pero el hombre se había liberado de las cadenas y caminaba de un lado al otro, se acercaban a él muchas veces pero no podían (detenerlo) y lo dejaban y se fueron.
El hombre seguía caminando y gritando, y subía la montaña hacia una roca donde había sepulcros.
Over there in a place called Gadara there was a man who had a demon inside him, and who walked up and down screaming and hurt himself with stones every day, the whole day.
Before people had approached him again and again to take hold of him and tie him up with iron chains, but the man would free himself of the chains and walk up and down, the people had approached him again and again but could not (overpower him) and so they left him and went away.
The man continued to walk back and forth screaming and he would go up the mountain to a rock where there were graves.
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 5:3:
Uma: “In that land of Gerasa, there was a person who was possessed by an evil-spirit. His dwelling was in the graves. He couldn’t be kept bound even with chains, for no kidding was he strong. Sometimes his feet and hands were bound, but he could always break the ropes and chains. Because he was so strong, no-one dared to guard him. Day and night he kept wandering among the graves and in the mountains, and he called out and wounded himself with rocks. So, just as Yesus got-off/descended from the boat, this possessed person appeared from the graves.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “He made his place (to live) in the burial caves and he could not be bound by the people even if they used a chain to tie him with.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “This person was entered by demons; that’s why he lived in the burial places. He was very strong and because of this no one could tie him up, not even with chains.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “There was a man there who stayed in the burial (lit. cemetery) caves who was possessed by many-evil-spirits. No one was able-to-bind him even if chains were what they used-for-binding.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “There in the cemetary is where that person lived. And even though chains would be used to bind him, he couldn’t be detained.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
dia to auton … dedesthai kai diespasthai … kai … suntetriphthai ‘because he … had been bound, and (the chains) had been shattered … and (the fetters) … had been smashed’: the three verbal infinitives, all perfect passives, are governed by the preposition dia ‘on account of,’ ‘because.’ As Burton points out, this clause presents the evidence for the preceding statement (that the man no longer could be bound) rather than the cause.
diaspaō (only here in Mark) ‘tear apart,’ ‘shatter.’
suntribō (14.3) ‘crush,’ ‘smash,’ ‘break.’
It is to be noticed that the perfect infinitive dedesthai describes an action in the past whose result no longer existed at the time of speaking, but had ceased at an undefined point in the past: ‘he had been bound.’
pedais (only here in Mark) ‘with fetters,’ ‘with shackles.’
kai oudeis ischuen auton damasai ‘and no one was strong enough to subdue him’: a summary statement of the whole detailed description of the demoniac’s superhuman strength.
ischuō (cf. 2.17) ‘to be strong,’ ‘to be able’; Field (against Revised Standard Version) contends for the weakened sense ‘was able,’ ‘could.’ The use of edunato ‘could’ in the previous verse, however, would seem to require for ischuen the meaning Revised Standard Version gives it.
damazō (only here in Mark) ‘subdue’; of animals, ‘tame.’
Translation:
Lived among the tombs is equivalent to ‘had his home among the tombs’ or ‘continually stayed among the tombs.’
It should be noted that in the Revised Standard Version text verses 2-4 are punctuated as one sentence. Because of the complex nature of the clauses, involving as they do several shifts in subject expressions, it is necessary in many languages to break these up into several complete sentences, depending upon the syntactic requirements of the receptor language into which one is translating.
Chains are known as ‘iron ropes’ in some areas (Central Tarahumara, South Bolivian Quechua), and in the second part of verse 3 may be incorporated as follows: ‘no one could tie him up any more, not even when they used iron ropes.’ In some instances no one could is more naturally rendered as ‘people could not.’
Fetters were used to bind the legs and feet and the chains were used to bind the hands and arms. Where a specific word for fetters is not known, it is possible to translate this passage as ‘put chains on his hands and feet’ (Tetelcingo Nahuatl, Central Tarahumara); Toraja-Sa’dan has ‘block in which the feet are put.’
The chains he wrenched apart refers to the violent action of his arms in breaking the chains and the fetters he broke may refer to his smashing of the fetters by stones or slamming them against rocks or on the ground, translated in some instances as ‘he pulled in two the chains around his arms and he smashed into pieces the iron that was fastened on his legs’
Had the strength to is in some languages equivalent to ‘was strong enough to’ or ‘was able to.’
Subdue may be translated either as a reference to taming wild animals, e.g. ‘to teach him to drink’ (Shilluk), or to controlling possessed persons, e.g. ‘to keep him quiet’ (Tzotzil).
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
In 5:3–5, Mark gave background information. He gave more details about the man with the unclean spirit. Use a natural way in your language to indicate that 5:3–5 is background information.
Some of the information (especially 5:4) describes events that happened before the man came to Jesus. If you need to talk about these events in a different order in your language, the General Comment on 5:2–6 at the end of 5:6b gives a suggestion.
5:3a
This man had been living in the tombs: As mentioned in the notes on 5:2c, the tombs here were probably caves. The man probably lived right in these caves.
In some languages it is not natural to say that someone lived in the place where dead people are buried or their bones are kept. If that is true in your language, you may need to say that the man lived at that general place. For example:
among the tombs (English Standard Version) -or- at the cemetery -or- at a place where dead bodies are put
See also the notes on “from the tombs” and “tombs” in 5:2c and the suggested footnote.
General Comment on 5:2b–3a
In 5:3a the author explained that the man was actually living in the tombs that are mentioned in 5:2c. So in some languages it may be natural to combine 5:2b–c with 5:3a. For example:
2b–3aA man with an evil spirit who lived in the tombs immediately came out and met him.
5:3b
and could no longer be restrained, even with chains: This phrase indicates that no one could keep the man bound or chained. After anyone bound or chained him, he would free himself, as 5:4 describes.
The clause in 5:3b uses several negatives to emphasize that no one could keep the man bound. Use an emphatic expression in your language that emphasizes that it was impossible to successfully bind him. For example:
There was no way that people could restrain him at all any more, not even by chaining him! -or-
Nobody could keep him tied with chains any more (Good News Bible)
could no longer be restrained: While the Berean Standard Bible translates this clause as passive, it is active in Greek, and in some languages it may be more natural to translate it as active. For example, the New Revised Standard Version says:
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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
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