What Does Mark 5:16 Mean?
And those who had seen it told them how it had happened to the one held by a demon, and about the swine.
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 that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine.THE KEY
The witnesses tell not only of the man’s changed condition but also of what happened to the swine.
THE MEANING
The account holds the man and the swine together in one telling. What you witness is carried forward with its surrounding consequences still in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This verse undoes the belief that an honest account of a changed life can leave out what else happened.
THE ROOT
διηγήσαντο
diēgēsanto
GROWS FROM
διηγ- (diēg-), the stem of διηγέομαι (diēgeomai)
Recount or describe fully; lead someone through an account.
“told” in this verse is diēgēsanto. The word carries more than passing along a fact: the witnesses lead their hearers through what they saw. Their account includes both the man and the swine, keeping the event’s full shape in view.
ALSO GROWS
diēgēsis: Narration, account, or declaration.
διήγησις
This noun names the account itself; Mark’s witnesses make what they saw into a narrative others can follow.
diēgeomai: To recount or narrate fully.
διηγέομαι
Luke 8:39 uses this verb in Jesus’ instruction to recount what God has done, joining testimony with a full telling of an encounter.
ἐγένετο
egeneto
GROWS FROM
γεν-/γιν- (gen-/gin-), from γίνομαι (ginomai)
Become, come into being, happen.
“befell” in this verse is egeneto. The Greek asks how the event came to be for the man. Its wording gives the witnesses’ report the shape of an unfolding, not just a label for his condition.
ALSO GROWS
genesis: Origin, birth, or coming into being.
γένεσις
The shared stem links what happens with what comes to be, giving the reported event a sense of unfolding.
genos: Kind, stock, or lineage.
γένος
This branch names a kind or source of being; beside the event that came to be, it echoes the question of what form a life takes.
THE PATTERN
Witness turns what is seen into an account that carries the event and its consequences forward.
Come and hear, all you who stand in awe of God, and I will recount what he has done for my living soul.Return to your own house, and tell how much God has done for you. And he went away and heralded throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.For we cannot keep from speaking what we have perceived and heard.THE THREAD
Return to your own house, and tell how much God has done for you. And he went away and heralded throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.In Mark 5:16, διηγήσαντο (diēgēsanto, “they recounted”) describes the witnesses’ telling. In Luke 8:39, διηγοῦ (diēgou, “recount”) is Jesus’ instruction to the restored man: the same word family carries an encounter into an account others can hear.
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