Bible Strands
Mark 5:17
And the people began to beg Jesus to leave their region.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The residents of the Gerasene region speak to Jesus immediately after the restored demoniac describes the event and the destroyed pigs are witnessed. They address Him as He prepares to board a boat and depart their territory.
The words — The Greek construction παρακαλεῖν αὐτὸν ἀπελθεῖν (parakalein auton apelthein) literally means "to implore Him to depart." The verb ἤρξαντο (ērxanto) marks this request as a collective, initiated action rather than a spontaneous outburst.
The thread — The text parallels Matthew 8:34, where the townspeople issue the same request after Jesus' intervention, and Luke 8:37, which explicitly links the demand to fear. These accounts record a recurring pattern of communities requesting Jesus' removal following supernatural acts.
Why it lands — The narrative presents a community that witnesses power but chooses territorial control over personal transformation. Readers must examine their own response to divine authority when it disrupts established comfort.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts.
Cross-references
- Matthew 8:34 Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, they begged Him to leave their region.
- Mark 1:24 “What do You want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”
- Luke 8:37 Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to depart from them, because great fear had taken hold of them. So He got into the boat and started back.
- Genesis 26:16 Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Depart from us, for you are much too powerful for us.”
- Job 21:14 Yet they say to God: ‘Leave us alone! For we have no desire to know Your ways.
- Mark 5:7 And he shouted in a loud voice, “What do You want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You before God not to torture me!”
- Luke 5:8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees. “Go away from me, Lord,” he said, “for I am a sinful man.”
- Acts 16:39 They came to appease them and led them out, requesting that they leave the city.
- Deuteronomy 5:25 But now, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us, and we will die, if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer.
- 1 Kings 17:18 “O man of God,” said the woman to Elijah, “what have you done to me? Have you come to remind me of my iniquity and cause the death of my son?”