Mark 5:7

Τί ἐμοὶ καὶ σοί. See on Mark 1:24.

τοῦ ὑψίστου. The girl with a Python uses the same expression (Acts 16:17); elsewhere in N.T. “it occurs only in passages with an O.T. ring, Luke 1:32; Luke 1:35; Luke 1:76; Luke 6:35; Luke 8:28; Hebrews 7:1” (Swete). In LXX. it is freq. But the title is not exclusively Jewish, and may have been used by heathen before it was adopted by the Jews. It savours of polytheism in the sense of highest among many, and the demoniac may have been a heathen. In Jewish writings it is specially freq. in those of the second cent. B.C. See Charles, Book of Jubilees, p. 213; Clemen, Primitive Christianity, p. 81. Theophylact points out that Christ’s enemies, the demons, exhibited better knowledge of Him than His friends had shown (Mark 4:41), or showed even later (Mark 6:50).

ὁρκίζω σε τὸν θεόν. The common phrase; cf. Acts 19:13 and ἐνορκίζω ὑμᾶς τὸν κύριον (1 Thessalonians 5:27). The double acc. is found in inscriptions. Deissmann, Bib. St. p. 281. In LXX. we find both κατὰ τοῦ θεοῦ and ἐν τῷ θεῷ. In order to influence Jesus, the demon uses the very phrase that was commonly employed in exorcisms.

μή με βασανίσῃς. While the man runs to Jesus and prostrates himself, the evil power by which he is obsessed shrinks in terror from Him. Immediate punishment is expected from One who has the power to inflict it. Mt. inserts the significant πρὸ καιροῦ. Cf. Revelation 14:10; Revelation 20:10; also βάσανος in Luke 16:23; Luke 16:28. The history of the noun indicates the delusion which has produced, and still produces, hideous suffering, that torture is a touch-stone or test of truth. Bede and Theophylact suggest that it was torture to the malignant spirits to be made to cease from tormenting a human being; but this is not what the cry means.