Mark 5:9 Commentary - Whedon's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

9. Asked… What is thy name? Christ asked the man (not the demon) his name, in order to call out his personal consciousness, and aid in restoring him to himself. My name is Legion The demon snatches the man’s organs and answers the question for himself, giving his own name. He is a host by nature and by name. A Legion in the Roman army was a division embracing six thousand men. The demon, perhaps, assumes that name for this whole number, as being their leader. That Legion is a name for a commander of a legion among the Jews, appears from the Talmudical writings. It is not indeed to be supposed that either angels or devils wear in the invisible world the names that men give to their visible manifestations; and hence the same dark personality may enact the oracular Python or Apollo among the Greeks, the Belial, perhaps, among the Hebrews, and the Beelzebub among the Canaanites.