Legion in the bible. My name is Legion! What is a legion

28.09.2022

The Russian language is famous for speech turns, the meaning of which is difficult to understand without having a dictionary at hand. Let's say, where did the popular expression "Their name is legion" come from? The meaning of a phraseological unit can hardly be understood without knowing the history of its appearance in the Russian language. So, where did it come from and how to use it correctly in speaking and writing?

What is a legion?

What is the meaning of the catchphrase "Their name is legion"? The meaning of a phraseological unit is easier to understand by understanding the meaning of the word "legion". Not everyone knows that we inherited it from the ancient Romans, appeared even before the advent of our era. Indeed, it was in ancient Rome that a large military unit was called a legion. The number of such units could be approximately three to four thousand soldiers. There were also very large legions with up to ten thousand soldiers.

And what about the phraseological turnover “Their name is legion”? The meaning of phraseologism is still unclear. However, the word "legion" gradually began to be used not only to refer to army units. People began to use it in colloquial and written speech, meaning a myriad of something. And most often it was used in a negative way.

"Their name is legion": the meaning of a phraseological unit, its origin

With the word "legion" everything is clear, but where did the expression that is discussed in this article come from? There is which also cannot be ignored, talking about what the expression "Their name is legion" means. The meaning of the phraseologism is directly related to this legend, passed down from generation to generation.

This is a story about a man who lived in an ancient state located on the eastern shore of the Lake of Galilee. This man was possessed by demons. Those who met him had no doubt that he had lost his mind. One day this man met Jesus and the disciples who were following him. The Savior asked about his name, to which he received the answer: "My name is legion." The unfortunate man meant that thousands of demons had moved into him, which cannot be listed by name, since their name is legion.

Of course, the good Jesus decided to help and cast out the demons forever. However, they begged him to let them move into the pigs that were grazing nearby. The Savior allowed them to do this, after which the whole herd rushed off the cliff into the sea and found their death in the water. The disciple of Christ assures that there were about two thousand drowned pigs.

What does phraseologism mean?

Now it no longer seems like an unsolvable mystery, the origin of the mysterious speech turnover "Their name is legion." The meaning of a phraseological unit is the expression "myriad", as it was back in the days of Ancient Rome.

Of course, this stable design can be used not only in relation to evil spirits. It can be used whenever there is a lot to talk about, and not just to count the demons that have taken possession of the human body. Often the expression comes to the rescue when a person wants to say that there is too much of something, in this case a negative meaning is put into it.

In literary works

How to remember the history of the origin of the expression "Their name is legion", the meaning of phraseology? What is it - "a myriad"? The meaning of speech turnover can be forever deposited in memory thanks to examples borrowed from literature. For example, the writer Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov uses this catchphrase in his work "The Cliff". One of the characters reproaches the other for the fact that there are a great many artists like him, using the idiom we are considering.

In what other works does the expression "Their name is legion" occur? The meaning of a phraseological unit (what a legion is - we already know) is better to remember if you turn to the collection "Critical Articles" by Dostoevsky. Fyodor Mikhailovich uses precisely this vivid turn of speech when he complains about the huge number of imitators who are trying to copy Gogol's style. The author claims that a myriad of plays have come out that are just a pathetic parody of the famous "Inspector General".

Synonyms and antonyms

So, now it’s clear where it came from and when the expression “Their name is legion” is used. The meaning of phraseologism is known, so you can pick up synonyms for it. There are many turns of speech with which it can be replaced without the slightest loss of meaning. For example, you can use the popular expressions "above your head", "above the roof." The stable constructions “nowhere to go”, “there are no numbers”, “like stars in the sky” are perfectly suitable in meaning. Of course, simple words can also be used, for example, “full”, “many”.

It is obvious that it is easy to pick up antonyms: "little", "a little", "slightly" and so on.

Continuation of the topic below. "Their name is Legion ..." We deal with each specifically.

Beelzebub, Azazel, Astaroth, Ashtaroth, Leviathan, Belial, Lucifer (Satan) - all these names are considered to be the names of the devil. But in reality they are different people.

Astaroth - ASTAROT
The name of this demon is derived from Ashtarot. Probably, it can be identified with Astar - the ancient Semitic astral deity, revered on a par with the goddess Astarte, as her formidable husband. In Ugaritic myths, he is one of the contenders for power over the world. Being opposed to the god Balu, Astaroth is the embodiment of the evil inclination in Ugarit; his usual epithet: "terrible". Depicted with his tongue hanging out, as if mimicking everyone and everything. His image was revered for a long time in ancient Yemen, where he was a god of war, formidable and strong, and at the same time a protector god, guardian of houses and tombs, protecting them from everything damaging and destroying.
His divine wife Astarte was highly revered in Assyro-Babylonian mythology; in ancient Egypt, she was identified with the fertility goddess Ishtar, who was perceived as the mistress of horses and chariots, the goddess of battles and, probably, was associated with water and the water element. Astarte was also highly revered in Carthage and Cyprus, where she was even identified with the goddess of love, Aphrodite.

Ashtaroth - ASTAROTH
The name Ashtaroth probably comes from the name of the Canaanite fertility goddess Astarte (Astarte), revered by the Philistines, as well as in Sidon. For the ancient Jews, she was the wife of Baal and was identified with the planet Venus when she shone as an evening star in the western sky. She was one of the three Canaanite goddesses: Anat, Ashtart and Ashera. Ashtarta may have been invoked by Jewish women during childbirth. As often happens, there is nothing similar in the character of the goddess Astarte and the demon Ashtaroth, who is described in the following way in Goetia:
“He is a great and mighty prince, appearing as a fallen angel riding an infernal beast resembling a dragon, and holding a viper in his right hand. In no case should you let him close to you, otherwise he will harm with his bad breath. He gives truthful answers to questions about the past, present and future, and can also reveal all mysteries. He will deliberately tell how the spirits fell and reveal the reason for his own fall. It can make a person extremely knowledgeable in all the humanities. He rules over 40 legions of spirits."

Azazel
The famous demon of the desert, worthy of mention in the Old Testament (see Leviticus 16:8). In the Kabbalistic text The Zohar and in the book of Enoch, Azazel is one of the angels cast down from heaven for liaising with mortal women.
Probably, he can be identified with the Hellenic Prometheus: he teaches people magic, weapons and cosmetics. “And Azazel taught people to make swords and knives and shields and chest plates, and opened for them metals and the art of their processing, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and tinting eyelashes, showed all kinds of precious stones and all coloring compounds” (book Enoch 8:1). In Milton's Paradise Lost, a demon named Azazil is the standard-bearer of all the forces of hell. The Qur'an states that Azazil was cast down from heaven for refusing to honor Adam to God. He said, "Why should the son of fire fall before the son of clay?"
Azazel and Azazil are probably the same demon, although, as already mentioned, the similarity of names does not at all mean the identity of the demons.
The scapegoat, on whose head it was customary to lay all the sins of Israel, was driven out into the desert by the ancient Jews for a reason, namely as a sacrifice to Azazel.
In the King James Translation of the Bible, the name Azazel was changed to the word "scapegoat". The meaning of the name is not known with certainty. Most Bible scholars believe that this is the name of a demon, but the great Jewish scholar Rashi claimed that it was the name of a mountain with an abyss, implying that the scapegoat was thrown off the cliff as a sacrifice.

Beelzebub - BEELZEBUB
Beelzebub is the prince of hell, whose name is usually translated as "Lord of the Flies" (beelzeboub), but which should probably be translated as "Lord of the Earth" (beelzeboul). He is one of the oldest and most famous demonic figures, dating back to the local deity of the city of the Philistines, Akkaron, who is mentioned in the Old Testament. “But Ohoeia fell through the bars from his upper room in Samaria, and fell ill. And he sent messengers, and said to them: go, ask Beelzebub, the deity of Akkaron: will I recover from this disease? (2 Kings 1:2).
Obviously, Beelzebub had power over diseases, which may explain the generally accepted version of his name. Flies flock to the corpses of the dead and carry diseases to the living. In the Bible, ambassadors come to the priests of Beelzebub in Ekron (where his cult existed) to find out with the help of divination whether a person will recover (II Kings 1:2).

There are archaeological finds depicting flies, obviously dedicated to this deity. According to some, this was a desire to humiliate Satan by relegating him to the level of a miserable "god of flies." This tendency is even clearer in a different philological interpretation of the word in question - an interpretation according to which Beelzebub means "the god of dung" or all uncleanness and dirt. He was considered the main culprit of the excruciating illness of the possessed, who usually retired from society to unclean places (cemeteries, etc.).
The Gospels tell us that the Pharisees and scribes called Jesus Christ Beelzebub or claimed "that he casts out demons by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of demons.
According to the vision of a possessed Catholic nun, Sister Madeleine of Aix-en-Provence, this demon is none other than one of the rulers of the devilish world. “Beelzebub was the prince of the seraphim,” it is written from her words, “the most important after Lucifer. All the princes, that is, the rulers of the nine orders of angels, have fallen; from the order of the seraphim, three were the first to fall, namely: Lucifer, Beelzebub and Leviathan, and all of them rebelled. Further, Sister Madeleine reports that Beelzebub's service consists in tempting people with the sin of pride and that his heavenly adversary is St. Francis of Assisi.
Like the Devil, who said to Christ: “I will give you all this, if you fall down and worship me,” opening to him all the kingdoms of the world; and their prince is he who said: "I will ascend above the clouds and be like the Most High, and who, therefore, is called Beelzebub, that is, the ancient god." This seems to place Beelzebub even above Lucifer.
The head of the magical society "Golden Dawn", S.L. MacGregor Mathers assigned Beelzebub a place in the second demonic order, in the sphere of Chokmah, under Satan and Moloch, but above Lucifer (see "Kabbalah Revealed", tab IV).
All of these systems of association are hypothetical, and none of them should be taken blindly as the highest authority. The only thing that can be stated with certainty is that Beelzebub is very high on the hierarchical ladder of hell.

Belial
Books and legends are written about few demons, but Belial received more attention than any other inhabitant of hell, not counting Lucifer himself. The Goetia states that Belial is one of the four demons locked in a copper vessel with the magical seal of King Soloman (the other three are said to be Ticket, Asmodeus, and Gaap).
Reginald Scott in "Discoverie of Witchcraft" tells the following about Belial, which is clearly taken from "Pseudomonarchia daemonum" by Johann Virus.
“Some say that King Belial was created immediately after Lucifer, and therefore is considered the father and seducer of the fallen angels. Because he fell first among the more worthy and wise, who went before Michael and other heavenly angels ... "

Mephistopheles

The most famous, although not the most revered and far from the most powerful demon. This demon's name is spelled in various ways, including Mephistopheles, Miphostophiles, Mephisto, Mephostophiles and Mephistophilis. Mephistopheles means "not loving light", from me - not, phos - light and rholos - loving; according to another version, Hebrew. origin - from mefitz - the destroyer and tofel - a liar.

Mephistopheles, by the way, is a very wise demon who often uses the phraseology of enlightened rationalism. And he often acts as an intermediary between the demon - the spirit of evil and man. He offers power, knowledge, earthly goods in exchange for a soul.

Briefly about the most important names told. Let me tell you more about the Snake.

And they sailed to the other side of the lake, to the Gergesinsky region.

As soon as He got out of the boat, a man possessed by an unclean spirit ran out to meet Him from the cemetery. who has taken refuge in the graveyard and whom no chain has yet been able to hold, because being repeatedly bound both with chains and fetters, he broke the chains on himself and broke the fetters, and no one was able to overcome him; and night and day, in the mountains and in the cemetery, he constantly screamed and beat against the stones.

Seeing Jesus from afar, he ran up and, falling down on his face before Him, cried out with a loud voice: What do You want from me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? God I ask you, do not torture me!

For He said to him, Unclean spirit, come out of this man.

And Jesus asked him: What is your name? And he answered: my name is legion, because we are many.

And he begged Him not to drive them out of this region.

And not far from the mountain there was a large herd of pigs grazing, and all the demons began to beseech Him: send us into swine, that we may enter into them.

And Jesus allowed them. Having gone out, the unclean spirits immediately entered the pigs, and the whole herd - about two thousand - rushed off the cliff into the lake and drowned in it.

And the shepherds ran and announced this in the city and villages, and came from there to find out what had happened.

Approaching Jesus, they were amazed to see that the possessed man, in whom there was a legion of demons, was sitting, clothed and in his right mind.

Meanwhile, those who saw what happened to the demoniac and the swine told them about it, and those who came begged Him to depart from their land.

And when He got into the boat, the demoniac began to beg Him to take him with Him.

But He refused him this and said to him: Go back to your relatives, to your house, and tell them what the Lord has done to you and how He has had mercy on you.

And he went, and everywhere in Decapolis he told about what Jesus had done to him, and everyone was amazed.

When Jesus again crossed over in a boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around Him, and He remained by the lake.

And one of the elders of the synagogue came, named Jairus; when he saw him, he fell at his feet and, loudly exclaiming, began to implore Him: my daughter is about to die; come and lay Your hands on her, and then she will recover and live.

And He went with him, and a large crowd followed Him and pressed Him.

And here is a woman who suffered from bleeding for twelve years and spent all her wealth on the treatment of many doctors, but did not receive any relief, but came to an even worse condition, when she heard about Jesus, she went along with everyone and touched His clothes from behind, for she decided that if she even touched His garments, she would be healed.

And immediately her bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she had got rid of the disease.

Meanwhile, Jesus felt power go out of Him, and turning to the people, He asked: Who touched My garments?

And the disciples said to him: You see how the people oppress you, and you ask: who touched me?

But He continued to look for the one who did it.

Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, in fear and trembling for what she had done without permission, came up and, falling down on her face before Him, told Him the whole truth.

He said to her: My daughter! Your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be free from your affliction.

He was still speaking when they came to the elder of the synagogue and said: your daughter is dead, why are you disturbing the Teacher?

And Jesus, having barely heard what was said, said to the elder of the synagogue: do not be afraid, only believe.

And allowing no one to follow him except Peter and the brethren James and John, went to the house of the elder of the synagogue, where he saw a multitude of people weeping and wailing in sorrow.

Entering, He says to them: why do you mourn and weep? The maiden is not dead, but asleep.

They made fun of him. Then, driving out all, He took with Him the father and mother of the maiden, as well as those who were with Him, and entered the room where she was lying.

Taking the girl by the hand, He says to her: talifa kumi, which means: girl, I tell you, wake up!

To the great joy and amazement of all, the girl immediately got up and began to walk, for she was about twelve years old.

And He severely punished them that no one should know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.

So it was seen that the description / image of the process of evolution of the Human Soul is present in the form of images, symbols and allegories in many ancient and modern sources and works of art. Figurative allegories in them are often conveyed through illustrative examples: historical (fabulous, mythological) events, or they are expressed in the analysis of the relationship between personified heroes.
Apparently, the original purpose of such stories was to preserve information through time and convey it to human Souls. And already as the Human comprehends/understands the images, information is revealed and inner Knowledge is manifested. This is nothing but the enlightenment of the Soul, i.e. the knowledge of one's true, divine nature.

So - the transmission goes through images and allegories. I tried to read the lines from the Bible from this point of view:
“…Jesus said to him: Get out, you unclean spirit, from this man. And he asked him: what is your name? And he said in response: Legion is my name, because we are many” (Mark 5:8-9)
"Legion" - what is it, is it the name of the spirit? We read: “in the Cyrillic number system there was the number legion ( ignorant), which is largely similar to the Cyrillic number "darkness of topics" (million millions) or - an uncountable number. It will not be difficult to draw analogies between the ignorant (unknown, ignorant) and the unknown, indefinite, unknown (dark).
“Knowledge is light, and ignorance is darkness.” This means that the unclean spirit answered Christ - “uncertainty (ignorance / darkness) is my name, because we are innumerable”.
Christ illuminated with his Divine Light (Truth, knowledge) and “everything secret became clear”, that is, ignorance was simply destroyed, ignorance was expelled, darkness was illuminated, thereby He healed human Souls, enlightening them and setting them on the Path.
In order to understand what kind of ignorance in this case we were talking about, let's pay attention to the description of the place where Jesus arrived, where he met the demoniac (possessed). From the story it is clear that he arrived in the country of Gadarenes (in another source in Gergesins). These are historically two settlements in the same county. The mention of Gergese is found in Genesis (10:16) - “one of the Canaanite peoples, whose possessions were given by God to the Israelites”, also gergesium means - clayey, earthy, that is, in figurative terms - material, also (Heb.) - prone to abuse (passions). BUT gadar is height, greatness. This means that the allegory of the Gergesin (Gadarene) country is as follows: it is such a state (habitation) of human Souls, in which the dominant in consciousness was commitment to the material nature of things.

The modes of material nature enslaved the “inhabitants of Gadara”, and were manifested in passions and ignorance: “ The state of excitement (passion) - (raja-guna) causes the need for sensual pleasures. Passion makes the soul greedy, insatiable...
The state of obscurity (ignorance) - (tama-guna) is generated by darkness, therefore it causes the greatest clouding of consciousness and hides the true essence of things“.

The symbol of the “pig”, where unclean spirits entered, expelled from the demoniac, is the personification of the inertness of material thinking. Therefore, in principle, a “pig” can be any “object” of a material nature that causes a strong dependence/addiction in the Soul. This is the very “material idol”, the collective image of which seeks to fill the void (abyss) of the ignorant Soul of a person. Such people are the very idolaters who are mentioned more than once in Scripture.
The Soul that is in ignorance is restless, because it does not know its Divine nature, and therefore it is insatiable and fills itself with passions, which are those very impure spirits. And if such a soul is given the opportunity to realize its desires, then they will bring both the Soul and the body to death. Therefore, when Jesus gave the spirits-demons what they asked for - physical bodies (infused them into pigs), then unbridled passions immediately destroyed them, bringing them into the abyss.

When the rest of the “inhabitants of the country of Gadarene” looked at the healed Soul of the former demoniac, they got scared. They did not see in her those passions and desires that made up their habitual material way of life. This unknown new, healthy state of the Soul frightened them so much that they asked Jesus to leave “from their limits”, as they did not want to be deprived of what, in their view, was the only valuable and true one.
“Legion is my name...”- and yet IMHO .... these are not some external terrible evil entities brazenly oppressing a white-fluffy person, no))) This is the internal state of a restless Soul, residing in deep ignorance and passions, otherwise the consciousness is strongly enslaved by the mode of material nature in its lower manifestation.
And even so: this is the Soul not just remaining in ignorance, in darkness, not knowing the true Living God, but also replacing it with an “illusory idol” - dead matter, becoming dependent on it. And the “demons”, whose “name is legion”, are the passions and attachments of the Soul mired in materiality, which may well lead it to death:
“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul; but be afraid of him who can destroy both soul and body in hell"(With)

nomen illis legio) is a catch phrase denoting a myriad of something, moreover, with a negative assessment of the countable.

The number of the Roman legion was 5-6 thousand people. Gradually, this word began to mean among the people simply “a lot”. For example, in the Cyrillic number system there was the number legion (ignorance), denoted by the sign, its meaning: small count - one hundred thousand (10 5); great account - a million million (10 12) (compare with the Cyrillic number " darkness"And the meaning of this word that has survived to our time to refer to something innumerable that comes from tumen - a large military unit of the Mongol-Tatars). The demoniac, answering how many demons are sitting inside him, used this word to demonstrate a huge number of demons.

In the New Testament

The miracle was performed in a country lying on the eastern shore of the Lake of Galilee, called Gadarene (by Mark and Luke) or Gergesin (by Matthew). On the shore, Jesus and his disciples were met by a demoniac (in Matthew, two demoniacs are mentioned). This demoniac, seeing Jesus from afar, ran, bowed to him and shouted, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, the Son of the Most High God? I conjure you by God, do not torment me! And then, when asked by Jesus what his name was, he answered: “Legion”, indicating by this the dwelling in it of a large number of unclean spirits.

The demons asked Jesus not to send them out of that country, but to let them into the herd of pigs grazing nearby. Jesus allowed them, and the whole herd of pigs threw themselves down the steep slope into the sea and perished in the water. According to Mark, about two thousand pigs died. Christ did not allow the healed man to follow him, “but said: go home to your people and tell them what the Lord has done to you and how he has had mercy on you.” At the same time, the inhabitants of the city were frightened by this miracle - “the whole city came out to meet Jesus; And when they saw Him, they asked Him to depart from their borders.

Gospel	quote
from Mark (Mk.)	And they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of Gadarene. And when He got out of the boat, a man who came out of the tombs immediately met Him, possessed by an unclean spirit, he had a dwelling in the tombs, and no one could bind him even with chains, because he was many times bound with shackles and chains, but tore the chains and broke the fetters and no one was able to tame him; always, night and day, in mountains and graves, he shouted and beat against stones; but when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him, and, crying out with a loud voice, said: What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I conjure you by God, do not torment me! For Jesus said to him, Get out, you unclean spirit, from this man. And he asked him: what is your name? And he said in response: Legion is my name, because we are many(). And they asked Him a lot not to send them out of that country. A large herd of pigs grazed there by the mountain. And all the demons asked Him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. Jesus immediately allowed them. And the unclean spirits went out and entered into the pigs; and the herd rushed down the steep into the sea, and there were about two thousand of them; and drowned in the sea.
from Luke (OK. )	And they sailed to the country of Gadara, lying opposite Galilee. When He came ashore, a man from the city met Him, possessed by demons for a long time, and who did not wear clothes, and lived not in a house, but in tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him, and said with a loud voice: What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don't torment me. For [Jesus] commanded the unclean spirit to come out of this man, because he tormented him for a long time, so that they bound him with chains and bands, saving him; but he broke the bands and was driven by a demon into the wilderness. Jesus asked him: What is your name? He said: Legion, because many demons have entered into him.(). And they asked Jesus not to command them to go into the abyss. Right there on the mountain a large herd of pigs grazed; and [the demons] asked Him to let them enter into them. He allowed them. The demons, coming out of the man, entered into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep slope into the lake and drowned.
from Matthew (Matt.)	there is a wonderful episode, but the word "legion" is not used And when He arrived on the other side in the country of the Gergesins, He was met by two demoniacs who came out of the tombs, very fierce, so that no one dared to pass that way. And behold, they cried out: What have you to do with us, Jesus, the Son of God? You came here before the time to torment us. Far away from them, a large herd of pigs grazed. And the demons asked Him: if you cast us out, then send us into a herd of pigs. And He said to them, go. And they went out and went into the herd of swine. And so, the whole herd of pigs rushed down the steep into the sea and perished in the water.