<p>8:28 <i>And when he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said: What have I to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me</i>-</p><p>He was one of the few who joined the dots and saw that the Lord was God's Son; yet he feared condemnation, which is what &quot;torment&quot; spoke of. It was his mental illness which was largely responsible for that paranoia about condemnation; and the Lord healed him of it.</p><p>A comparison of the records indicates that the voice of the individual man is paralleled with that of the 'demons' (see on :2)- the man was called Legion, because he believed and spoke as if he were inhabited by hundreds of 'demons':</p><p>&quot;Torment <i>me</i> not&quot; (Mk. 5:7) = &ldquo;Are you come to torment <i>us</i>?&rdquo; (Mt. 8:29). <br />&ldquo;<i>He</i> singular besought him&rdquo; (Mk. 5:9) = &quot;<i>the demons</i> besought him&quot; (Mk. 5:12) <br />The man's own words explain his self-perception: &quot;<i>My</i> name singular is Legion: for <i>we</i> are many (Mk. 5:9)&quot;. This is classic schizophrenic behaviour and language. Thus Lk. 8:30 explains that Legion spoke as he did because he thought that many demons had entered into him.</p><p>Another case of 'proving too much' arises from reflection upon the fact that the 'demon possessed' Legion clearly recognized Jesus as the Son of God (Mk. 5:7); Mark seems to emphasize that demon possessed' people perceived Jesus as God's Son (Mk. 1:24,34; 3:11). Yet Mark and the other Gospel writers likewise emphasize the slowness or refusal of many other groups in the Gospels to arrive at the same perception. And so we are forced to deal with the question: Since when do 'demons' bring people to accept Jesus as God's Son? Surely, according to the classical schema of understanding them, they and the Devil supposedly behind them are leading people to unbelief rather than to belief? But once we accept the language of 'demon possession' as referring to mental illness without requiring the actual physical existence of demons, then everything falls into place. For it's so often the case that the mentally ill have a very fine and accurate perception of spiritual things. And we see a clear pattern developed in the Gospels: the poor, the marginalized, women, slaves, the mentally ill 'demon possessed', the disenfranchised, the lepers, the prostitutes, are the ones who perceive Jesus as God's Son and believe in Him.</p><p>The man's fear of condemnation &quot;torment&quot; was triggered or restimulated by the command to the 'unclean spirit' to come out of the man. Legion assumed that he personally was going to be condemned if the &quot;unclean spirit&quot; was condemned which he supposed was within him. But the Lord was seeking to help the man see a difference between himself personally, and his mental illness, the &quot;spirit&quot; or mind within him which was paranoid about condemnation. And so the Lord went along with the man's self-perception, and in terms the man understood, showed beyond doubt that that spirit of fear had been cast out. Perhaps John reflects on this incident when he writes that perfect love casts out fear, because fear is associated with &quot;torment&quot; (1 Jn. 4:18), which is just what the man was obsessed with fearing (Mk. 5:7).</p>