Mark 5:7 Commentary - Whedon's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

7. Torment me not In Matthew they cry: “Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?” From this we seem able to derive some inferences as to the laws under which these demons were, and which produce manifestations over and above the symptoms of mere disease. 1. The organs of the man are so completely possessed by the demon that the latter speaks through them, and thus he communicates with other beings in the body here on earth. 2. There is apparently a desire on the part of these unhappy spirits to come into such possession and into communion with the human scene of things, as if they were thus less miserable than when without. 3. These infernal beings dread to be driven back to their own infernal abode. They are there to be chained down in darkness, and in dread of the day of judgment yet to come. Jud 1:6 ; 2Pe 2:4. Hence they fear that Jesus will anticipate that day, and “torment them before the time.” Mat 8:29.