What Does Mark 5:15 Mean?
And they came to Jesus and saw the one held by a demon, the one who had the Legion, sitting and clothed and sound in his mind. And they were afraid.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.THE KEY
The man once feared is now sound-minded, while the witnesses are the ones afraid.
THE MEANING
Before you is a person no longer overtaken by the force that once ruled him: he is seated, clothed, and sound-minded. Yet the witnesses are afraid. Restoration and fear occupy the same moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that visible restoration automatically makes everyone feel safe: a person can become composed while the people around them remain afraid of what they see.
THE ROOT
σωφρονοῦντα
sōphronounta
GROWS FROM
σωφρον
Sound-mindedness; a composed, self-possessed mind.
“sound in his mind” in this verse is sōphronounta. The Greek word family is built around the sense of a sound mind. The man is not merely quiet or restrained: he is present and composed, while the fear in the scene belongs to the witnesses.
ALSO GROWS
sōphrosynē: soundness of mind; self-control
σωφροσύνη
This related noun carries the same sound-minded quality into a name for composed judgment.
sōphroneō: to be sound-minded; to think with sound judgment
σωφρονέω
The verb makes the shared root an active way of thinking, not simply an outward appearance.
ἐφοβήθησαν
ephobēthēsan
GROWS FROM
φοβ
Fear; being afraid.
“they were afraid” in this verse is ephobēthēsan. The Greek verb assigns fear to the witnesses, while the man is described as seated and sound-minded. The scene leaves the disturbance with those looking at him: they are afraid of the change they see.
ALSO GROWS
phobos: fear; alarm
φόβος
This noun names the fear that the verb expresses in the witnesses.
phobeomai: to fear; to be afraid
φοβέομαι
This verb is the same word family as the form translated “they were afraid.”
phoberos: fearsome; frightening
φοβερός
This adjective shows how the same root can describe what provokes fear.
THE PATTERN
When restoration becomes visible, witnesses may answer first with fear or astonishment before they can name what they are seeing.
And Israel saw the great hand that the LORD did upon the Egyptians, and the people stood in awe of the LORD, and they leaned their weight on the LORD and on his servant Moses.And awe seized them all, and they gave weight to God, saying, A great prophet has been roused among us, and God has looked in upon his people.And they knew that it was he who sat for gifts at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with wonder and beside themselves at what had happened to him.THE THREAD
For God has not given us a breath of cowering, but a breath of power, and of love, and of a mind kept whole.The Greek word translated “in his right mind” in Mark belongs to the same σωφρον word family as “sound mind” here. Together, the verses name sound-mindedness as a state of composed presence, set beside fear rather than swallowed by it.
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