One man with an unclean spirit, or two?

Difficult Passages · Accounts of the Same Event

One man with an unclean spirit, or two?

Matthew tells of two; Mark and Luke of the fiercer one, who spoke with Christ and was sent home to tell of Him.

The Passages

Matthew 8:28-34

28 And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. 29 And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time? 30 And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding. 31 So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. 32 And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters. 33 And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils. 34 And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts.

Mark 5:1-20

1 And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. 2 And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, 3 Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: 4 Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. 5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. 6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, 7 And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. 8 For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. 9 And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many. 10 And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. Read all of Mark 5:1-20

26 And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee. 27 And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not. 29 (For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught him: and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.) 30 And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him. 31 And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep. 32 And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them. 33 Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked. 34 When they that fed them saw what was done, they fled, and went and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then they went out to see what was done; and came to Jesus, and found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid. Read all of Luke 8:26-39

The Difficulty

Matthew says that when Jesus came “into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs” (Matthew 8:28). Mark and Luke tell of the same healing, in “the country of the Gadarenes,” and speak of one man: “there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit” (Mark 5:1–2; Luke 8:26–27).

The Answer

As with the blind men at Jericho, Mark and Luke tell of the one of the two who stood out, and neither says there was only one. He was the fiercer, with “Legion” in him (Mark 5:9); it was he who spoke with Christ, and he who asked to be with Him and was sent home to tell “how great things the Lord hath done for thee” (5:18–20; Luke 8:38–39). Gill: had Mark said there was no more than one, “it would have been a glaring contradiction”; as he has put it, there is none.

The two names are of one country. Gergesa and Gadara were two towns near each other on the east of the lake, and the country was called from either (Gill). Modern versions read “Gadarenes” in Matthew too, from other manuscripts; the KJV keeps the Received Text’s “Gergesenes.”

Sources

John Gill, An Exposition of the New Testament, vol. 1 (1746–48), p. 365, on Mark 5:2

And though Matthew makes mention of two that were possessed, and Mark but of one, there is no contradiction in the one to the other; for Mark does not say there were no more than one; had he, it would have been a glaring contradiction to the other Evangelist; but as he has put it, there is none, and it creates no difficulty … and Mark may only take notice of this one, because he was the fiercest of the two, and had the most devils in him, having a legion of them; and because the conversation chiefly passed between Christ and him

Checked against: Internet Archive scan of the first edition, 2026-10-28
John W. Haley, An Examination of the Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible (1874), p. 387

Demoniacs, Luke viii. 27 and Matt. viii. 28 (only the more prominent one mentioned by Luke).

Checked against: Internet Archive scan of the 1874 edition, 2026-10-28