Demonic · Deliverance tradition · c. 80 CE

Legion

The only spirit in the gospels that answers when asked its name — and answers with a military unit.

37attested

Narrow source base

InfernalNamed SpiritChristian Deliverance & Spiritual Warfare

Jesus asks the Gerasene demoniac's spirit for its name and gets back: 'My name is Legion: for we are many.' The man lives among tombs, cannot be bound with chains, and cuts himself with stones. The spirits ask not to be sent out of the country, are permitted into a herd of swine, and the herd drowns.

What makes the passage unusual is that it is the only place in the gospels where a spirit is asked for a name and gives one. That is the operational core of deliverance ministry — identify the spirit, name it, expel it — and it rests very largely on this one exchange.

The name itself carries freight the text does not comment on. A legion was the occupying army; the swine were unclean animals a Jewish community would not keep, in a Gentile region; and the herd drowns in the sea, which is where the population might reasonably have wished the occupiers. Whether Mark intended any of that is disputed, and he does not say.

Identity

Where does the name come from?

What the name means

Latin *legio*, a Roman army unit of roughly five to six thousand men. The demoniac lives in the Decapolis under Roman occupation, and the spirit answers a question about its name with the name of the occupying force. Commentators have argued for two thousand years about whether that is coincidence.

Where it was actually worshipped

None. A category in modern deliverance teaching rather than a figure anyone has ever worshipped — these are diagnoses of a condition, and a diagnosis has no address.

A figure with temples and a figure that only ever existed on a page are different kinds of thing, and the difference is easy to lose once both are entries in a list.

At a glance

Vitals

First attested: New Testament · c. 50–110 CE
Rank: Named Spirit
Order: Deliverance tradition
Base of operations: None. A category in modern deliverance teaching rather than a figure anyone has ever worshipped — these are diagnoses of a condition, and a diagnosis has no address.
Era: c. 80 CE
Traditions: Christian, Deliverance & Spiritual Warfare

Traits

Domain: Multiplicity, self-destruction, occupation
How firm the basis is: Strong — the spirit gives this name itself, in the text
Textual basis: Mark 5:9, Luke 8:30

Stats

Source base37/100

Standing in the traditionNamed Spirit

Texts naming it2

Powers attributed4

Known connections

Chain of command

Satan

4 attributed

What is it said to do?

Where these powers cluster

The 4 offices attributed to Legion, grouped by kind. Segment width is the share of powers falling in each category.

A bar dominated by one colour means a specialist; an even spread means a figure the sources credit with almost anything.

martial2
malefic2

martial

malefic

1 claim

What is it blamed for?

Harms attributed to this figure by a named text. An attribution is not a diagnosis, and where a claim carries a grading it is about how well it rests on the passage it cites.

Madness

c. 50–110 CE

A man among the tombs who breaks chains, cries out night and day, and cuts himself with stones. The spirit names itself Legion, for they are many.

Cast out at a word into a herd of swine; the man is found sitting, clothed and in his right mind.

2 texts

Which texts say so, and where do they disagree?

When these texts were written

Each dot is one of the 2 texts that names Legion, placed at that text's approximate date.

A wide spread means the figure was carried across many centuries and traditions; a tight cluster means a single period produced the whole record.

2 texts spanning roughly 1,893 years

Where the texts differ

Rank: given as Unclean spirit; Ruling spirit

New Testamentc. 50–110 CE

LegionUnclean spirit

Possesses the Gerasene man among the tombs; he cannot be bound, and cuts himself with stones. Asked its name, it answers Legion, because they are many. It begs not to be sent out of the country and enters a herd of swine, which drown.

“My name is Legion: for we are many.”

Pigs in the Parlor: A Practical Guide to Deliverance1973

LegionRuling spirit

Cited as the warrant for demanding a spirit's name during deliverance, and for the idea that demons operate in grouped families under one head.

Connections

What is it connected to?

Historical depiction of Satan, Adversary

Serves Satan

Afterwards

What did later readers make of it?

The naming exchange is cited more often in deliverance literature than any other passage, as warrant for the practice of demanding a spirit's name. It also supplies the recurring idea of demons operating in groups under a single identity.

Kept in its own section on purpose. Everything above is what the cited texts say; this is what was built on top of them afterwards, and blending the two is how most popular demonology goes wrong.

Answered from the sources

Common questions

Which texts mention Legion?

ColossiansOne records 2 texts naming Legion: New Testament and Pigs in the Parlor: A Practical Guide to Deliverance. The earliest is New Testament (c. 50–110 CE), which gives the name as Legion.

What rank is Legion?

The texts do not agree. Legion is given as Unclean spirit and Ruling spirit depending on which source is consulted, which is normal for figures that pass through several traditions — each one assigns a rank from its own system rather than inheriting one.

What is Legion said to do?

The sources credit Legion with 4 distinct powers or offices, including Commands Legions, Binds Spirits, Causes Sickness and Torments. Each is attributed on the profile to the text that claims it. ColossiansOne describes what the texts say; it does not endorse the claims or reproduce them as instruction.

How old is Legion?

The earliest attestation in this corpus dates to c. 80 CE. That is when the name first appears in a surviving text, which is a lower bound rather than an origin — a figure known from three tablets was probably named in many more that did not survive. Legion is classified as infernal in ColossiansOne.

Nearest in the corpus

If Legion is what you came for, these are next

Chosen by proximity rather than by popularity: the same pantheon first, then the same rank, then the same kind of figure.