Mark 5:1-10
“Notice what you notice.” Mark’s account of the Gerasene demoniac, the first half… Two items struck me. First, when the demon first approached Jesus, the demon-possessed man …ran and fell down before Him (v. 6, ESV). The NASB has “bowed before Him”. Either way, the demon bowing down before Jesus clearly showed that the demon immediately recognized that Jesus was the higher power. The demon was defeated before he even met Jesus – and he knew it.
A second thing that I noticed was a difference in translations in verse 8. The ESV has For He was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”, while the NASB says For He had been saying to him…The past perfect tense in the NASB implies that the demon had not obeyed Jesus’ earlier command, at which point Jesus engaged him in further conversation. The contrast is with Mark’s most recent verses at the end of chapter 4, where Jesus calmed the storm on His way to the land of the Garasenes and the disciples had noted that even the wind and the sea obey Him (Mark 4:41). Jesus had immediate power over the natural forces and even though He clearly was more powerful than the demoniac forces, it seems that He allowed even them a bit of free will.
Unfortunately, that contrast is also with us – how often do we disobey Jesus’ commands? Possibly the present perfect tense is even more appropriate, For He has been saying…{to us…}. Ouch.
Blessings!