What Does Mark 5:17 Mean in the King James?

And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts.

Mark 5:17 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The man is free, while the region asks the one who freed him to leave.

THE MEANING

A person can be restored while the surrounding community still asks the source of that restoration to leave. The request places a limit around the change they are willing to receive.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie that witnessing deliverance means a community will automatically welcome the one who brings it.

THE ROOT

ὁρίων

horiōn

GROWS FROM

ὅρος

horos

⁨ὅρος⁩ (horos) means a boundary or limit; ⁨ὅριον⁩ (horion) means a bounded district or territory.

English “coasts” can sound like a shoreline, but the Greek points to the limits of a territory. Their appeal asks Jesus to leave the bounds of their world.

ALSO GROWS

horizō: define or mark out a boundary

ὁρίζω

This branch makes the boundary in “coasts” active: a limit is being drawn around where Jesus may remain.

aphorizō: separate or set apart

ἀφορίζω

This related word shows how a boundary can divide one space or group from another; here the appeal draws a line between the region and Jesus.

THE PATTERN

When God’s presence unsettles a chosen order, people may seek distance from it instead of yielding that order.

And they came and besought them, and brought them out, and desired them to depart out of the city.

Acts 16:39 · KJVAfter Paul and Silas disrupt the city’s settled order, its leaders ask them to leave.

From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

John 6:66 · KJVWhen Jesus’ words unsettle his followers, many choose distance from him.

And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.

1 Samuel 8:7 · KJVThe people seek a different order of rule rather than receive God’s reign.

THE THREAD

And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;

Acts 17:26 · KJV

Mark’s “coasts” translates ⁨ὅριον⁩ (horion), a bounded territory; Acts uses the related word ⁨ὁροθεσία⁩ (horothesia) for the bounds of human habitation. The shared root makes the boundary more than geography: the region’s limits exist within boundaries God sets.

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