Luke 8:30

And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(30) Legion.—Here again St. Mark and St. Luke agree.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:22-40 Those that put to sea in a calm, even at Christ's word, must yet prepare for a storm, and for great peril in that storm. There is no relief for souls under a sense of guilt, and fear of wrath, but to go to Christ, and call him Master, and say, I am undone, if thou dost not help me. When our dangers are over, it becomes us to take to ourselves the shame of our own fears, and to give Christ the glory of our deliverance. We may learn much out of this history concerning the world of infernal, malignant spirits, which though not working now exactly in the same way as then, yet all must at all times carefully guard against. And these malignant spirits are very numerous. They have enmity to man and all his comforts. Those under Christ's government are sweetly led with the bands of love; those under the devil's government are furiously driven. Oh what a comfort it is to the believer, that all the powers of darkness are under the control of the Lord Jesus! It is a miracle of mercy, if those whom Satan possesses, are not brought to destruction and eternal ruin. Christ will not stay with those who slight him; perhaps he may no more return to them, while others are waiting for him, and glad to receive him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See this passage explained in the Matthew 8:23-34 notes, and Mark 5:1-20 notes.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Lu 8:26-39. Demoniac of Gadara Healed.

(See on [1602]Mt 8:28-34; and Mr 5:1-20).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 8:26"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Jesus asked him, saying, what is thy name?.... This question was put, not out of ignorance in Christ, but for the sake of those that were with him; and partly, that the miserable condition of this man might be the more known; and partly, that his own power might be the more manifest in the dispossession:

and he said, legion, because many devils were entered into him; See Gill on Mark 5:9.

Geneva Study Bible

And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 8:30. ὅτι εἰσῆλθεν, etc.: Lk. gives this explanation of the name Legion; in Mk. the demoniac gives it.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

30. What is thy name?] The question was no doubt asked in mercy. Gently to ask a person’s name is often an effectual way to calm the agitations and fix the wavering thoughts of these sufferers.

And he said, Legion] A legion consisted of 6000 soldiers, and this man (who was probably a Jew) would have become familiar with the name since the Roman conquest of Palestine. The ancient Megiddo was now called Legio, still Ledjun. The answer shewed how wildly perturbed was the man’s spirit, and how complete was the duality of his consciousness. He could not distinguish between himself and the multitudes of demons by whom he believed himself to be possessed. His individuality was lost in demoniac hallucinations.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 30. - And Jesus asked him; saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him The Master vouchsafed no reply to the demons' prayer, but puts a quiet suggestive question to their unhappy victim. The Lord's words, as Dean Plumptre suggests, would serve "to recall to the man's mind that he had once a human name, with all its memories of human fellowship. It was a stage, even in spite of the paroxysm that followed, in the process of recovery, in so far as it helped to disentangle him from the confusion between himself and the demons which caused his misery. But, at first, the question seems only to increase the evil. 'My name is Legion, for we are many.' The irresistible might, the full array of the Roman legion, with its six thousand soldiers, seemed to the demoniac the one adequate symbol of the wild, uncontrollable impulses of passion and of dread that were sweeping through his soul." Luke 8:30

Vincent's Word Studies

Many devils were, etc

Compare Mark 5:9.