Miles de Libros Cristianos Gratis. Accede a nuestra Biblioteca Virtual

Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 8:28

Para un estudio avanzado de: “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 8:28” utilice nuestra app.

And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.

28. Gergesenes ] The readings vary between Gerasenes, Gadarenes and Gergesenes. Gerasa and Gergesa are forms of the same name. Gadara was some distance to the south of the Lake. It was, however, the capital of Pera, and the more important place; possibly Gergesa was under its jurisdiction. Gergesa is identified with the modern Khersa; in the neighbourhood of which “rocks with caves in them very suitable for tombs, a verdant sward with bulbous roots on which the swine might feed” (Macgregor, Rob Roy), and a steep descent to the verge of the Lake, exactly correspond with the circumstances of the miracle. (See Map.)

tombs hewn out of the mountain-sides formed convenient dwelling-places for the demoniacs.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

28 34. The Gadarene Demoniacs. St Mar 5:1-20; St Luk 8:26-39

St Mark and St Luke make mention of one demoniac only. St Mark relates the incident at greater length and with more particularity. St Matthew omits the impossibility of binding him with chains, the absence of clothing, the wild cries night and day, the name “legion,” the prayer not to be sent into the “abyss” (Luke), the request of one of the demoniacs to be with Jesus, and the charge which Jesus gives him to tell his friends what great things the Lord had done for him.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The same account of the demoniacs substantially is found in Mark 5:1-20, and Luk 8:26-38.

Mat 8:28

The other side – The other side of the Sea of Tiberias.

Country of the Gergesenes – Mark Mar 5:1 says that he came into the country of the Gadarenes. This difference is only apparent.

Gadara was a city not far from the Lake Gennesareth, one of the ten cities that were called Decapolis. See the notes at Mat 4:25. Gergesa was a city about 12 miles to the southeast of Gadara, and about 20 miles to the east of the Jordan. There is no contradiction, therefore, in the evangelists. He came into the region in which the two cities were situated, and one evangelist mentioned one, and the other another. It shows that the writers had not agreed to impose on the world; for if they had, they would have mentioned the same city; and it shows. also, they were familiar with the country. No men would have written in this manner but those who were acquainted with the facts. Impostors do not mention places or homes if they can avoid it.

There met him two – Mark and Luke speak of only one that met him. There met him out of the tombs a man, Mar 5:2. There met him out of the tombs a certain man, Luk 8:27. This difference of statement has given rise to considerable difficulty. It is to be observed, however, that neither Mark nor Luke say that there was no more than one. For particular reasons, they might have been led to fix their attention on the one that was more notorious, and furious, and difficult to be managed. Had they denied plainly that there was more than one, and had Matthew affirmed that there were two, there would have been an irreconcilable contradiction. As it is, they relate the affair as other people would. It shows that they were honest witnesses. Had they been impostors; had Matthew and Luke agreed to write books to deceive the world, they would have agreed exactly in a case so easy as this. They would have told the story with the same circumstances. Witnesses in courts of law often differ in unimportant matters; and, provided the main narrative coincides, their testimony is thought to be more valuable.

Luke has given us a hint why he recorded only the cure of one of them. He says there met him out of the city, a man, etc.; or, as it should be rendered, a man of the city a citizen. Yet the man did not dwell in the city, for he adds in the same verse, neither abode he in any house, but in the tombs. The truth of the case was, that he was born and educated in the city. He had probably been a man of wealth and eminence; he was well known, and the people felt a deep interest in the case. Luke was therefore particularly struck with his case; and as his cure fully established the power of Jesus, he recorded it. The other person that Matthew mentions was probably a stranger, or one less notorious as a maniac, and he felt less interest in the cure. Let two persons go into a lunatic asylum and meet two insane persons, one of whom should be exceedingly fierce and ungovernable, and well known as having been a man of worth and standing; let them converse with them, and let the more violent one attract the principal attention, and they would very likely give the same account that Matthew and Luke do, and no one would doubt the statement was correct.

Possessed with devils – See the notes at Mat 4:24.

Coming out of the tombs – Mark and Luke say that they lived among the tombs. The sepulchres of the Jews were frequently caves beyond the walls of the cities in which they dwelt, or excavations made in the sides of hills, or sometimes in solid rocks. These caves or excavations were sometimes of great extent. They descended to them by flights of steps. These graves were not in the midst of cities, but in groves, and mountains, and solitudes. They afforded, therefore, to insane persons and demoniacs a place of retreat and shelter. They delighted in these gloomy and melancholy recesses, as being congenial to the wretched state of their minds. Josephus also states that these sepulchres were the haunts and lurking-places of those desperate bands of robbers that infested Judea. For further illustration of this subject see my notes at Isa 14:9; Isa 22:16; Isa 65:4. The ancient Gadara is commonly supposed to be the present Umkeis. Near there Burckhardt reports that he found many sepulchres in the rocks, showing how naturally the conditions of the narrative respecting the demoniacs could have been fulfilled in that region. Reliable writers state that they have seen lunatics occupying such abodes of corruption and death. – Hacketts Illustrations of Scripture, p. 109.

Dr. Thomson, however (The Land and the Book, vol. ii. pp. 34-37), maintains that Gadara could not have been the place of the miracle, since that place is about three hours (some 10 or 12 miles) to the south of the extreme shore of the lake in that direction. He supposes that the miracle occurred at a place now called Kerza or Gersa. which he supposes was the ancient Gergesa. Of this place he says: In this Gersa or Chersa we have a position which fulfills every requirement of the narratives, and with a name so near that in Matthew as to be in itself a strong corroboration of the truth of this identification. It is, within a few rods of the shore, and an immense mountain rises directly above it, in which are ancient tombs, out of some of which the two men possessed of the devils may have issued to meet Jesus. The lake is so near the base of the mountain that the swine, rushing madly down it, could not stop, but would be hurried on into the water and drowned. The place is one which our Lord would be likely to visit, having Capernaum in full view to the north, and Galilee over against it, as Luke says it was. The name, however, pronounced by Bedouin Arabs is so similar to Gergesa, that, to all my inquiries for this place, they invariably said it was at Chersa, and they insisted that they were identical, and I agree with them in this opinion.

Mat 8:29

What have we to do with thee? – This might have been translated with great propriety, What hast thou to do with us? The meaning is Why dost thou trouble or disturb us? See 2Sa 16:10; 2Ki 9:18; Ezr 4:3.

Son of God – The title, Son of God, is often given to Christ. People are sometimes called sons, or children of God, to denote their adoption into his family, 1Jo 3:1. But the title given to Christ denotes his superiority to the prophets Heb 1:1; to Moses, the founder of the Jewish economy Heb 3:6; it denotes his unique and near relation to the Father, as evinced by his resurrection Psa 2:7; Act 13:33; it denotes his special relation to God from his miraculous conception Luk 1:35; and is equivalent to a declaration that he is divine, or equal to the Father. See the notes at Joh 10:36.

Art thou come hither to torment us? … – By the time here mentioned is meant the day of judgment. The Bible reveals the doctrine that evil spirits are not now bound as they will be after that day; that they are permitted to tempt and afflict people, but that in the day of judgment they also will be condemned to everlasting punishment with all the wicked, 2Pe 2:4; Jud 1:6. These spirits seemed to be apprised of that, and were alarmed lest the day that they feared had come. They besought him, therefore, not to send them out of that country, not to consign them then to hell, but to put off the day of their final punishment.

Mark and Luke say that Jesus inquired the name of the principal demoniac, and that he called his name Legion, for they were many. The name legion was given to a division in the Roman army. It did not always denote the same number, but in the time of Christ it consisted of 6,000 to 3,000 foot soldiers and 3,000 horsemen. It came, therefore, to signify a large number, without specifying the exact amount.

Mat 8:30

A herd of many swine – The word herd, here applied to swine, is now commonly given to cattle. Formerly, it signified any collection of beasts, or even of people.

The number that composed this herd was 2,000, Mar 5:13.

Mat 8:33

They that kept them fled – These swine were doubtless owned by the inhabitants of the country.

Whether they were Jews or Gentiles is not certainly known. It was not properly in the territory of Judea; but, as it was on its borders, it is probable that the inhabitants were a mixture of Jews and Gentiles. Swine were to Jews unclean animals, and it was unlawful for Jews to eat them, Lev 11:7. They were forbidden by their own laws to keep them, even for the purpose of traffic. Either, therefore, they had expressly violated the law, or these swine were owned by the Gentiles.

The keepers fled in consternation. They were amazed at the power of Jesus. Perhaps they feared a further destruction of property; or, more likely they were acquainted with the laws of the Jews, and regarded this as a judgment of heaven for keeping forbidden animals, and for tempting the Jews to violate the commands of God.

This is the only one of our Saviours miracles, except the case of the fig-tree that he cursed Mat 21:18-20, in which he caused any destruction of property. It is a striking proof of his benevolence, that his miracles tended directly to the comfort of mankind. It was a proof of goodness added to the direct purpose for which his miracles were performed. That purpose was to confirm his divine mission; and it might have been as fully done by splitting rocks, or removing mountains, or causing water to run up steep hills, as by any other display of power. He chose to exhibit the proof of his divine power, however, in such a way as to benefit mankind.

Infidels have objected to this whole narrative. They have said that this was a wanton and unauthorized violation of private rights in the destruction of property. They have said, also, that the account of devils going into swine, and destroying them, was ridiculous. In regard to these objections the narrative is easily vindicated.

1. If Christ, as the Bible declares, is divine as well as human – God as well as man – then he had an original right to that and all other property, and might dispose of it as he pleased, Psa 50:10-12. If God had destroyed the herd of swine by pestilence or by lightning, by an inundation or by an earthquake, neither the owners or anyone else would have had reason to complain. No one now feels that he has a right to complain if God destroys a thousand times the amount of this property by overturning a city by an earthquake. Why, then, should complaints be brought against him if he should do the same thing in another way?

2. If this property was held by the Jews, it was a violation of their law, and it was right that they should suffer the loss; if by the Gentiles, it was known also to be a violation of the law of the people among whom they lived; a temptation and a snare to them; an abomination in their sight; and it was proper that the nuisance should be removed.

3. The cure of two men, one of whom was probably a man of distinction and property, was of far more consequence than the amount of property destroyed. To restore a deranged man now would be an act for which property could not compensate, and which could not be measured in value by any pecuniary consideration. But,

4. Jesus was not at all answerable for this destruction of property. He did not command, he only suffered or permitted the devils to go into the swine. He commanded them merely to come out of the magi. They originated the purpose of destroying the property, doubtless for the sake of doing as much mischief as possible, and of destroying the effect of the miracle of Christ. In this they seem to have had most disastrous success, and they only are responsible.

5. If it should be said that Christ permitted this, when he might have prevented it, it may be replied that the difficulty does not stop there. He permits all the evil that exists, when he might prevent it. He permits men to do much evil, when he might prevent it. He permits one bad man to injure the person and property of another bad man. He permits the bad to injure the good. He often permits a wicked man to fire a city, or to plunder a dwelling, or to rob a traveler, destroying property of many times the amount that was lost on this occasion. Why is it any more absurd to suffer a wicked spirit to do injury than a wicked man? or to suffer a legion of devils to destroy a herd of swine, than for legions of men to desolate nations, and cover fields and towns with ruin and slaughter.

Mat 8:34

The whole city came out – The people of the city probably came with a view of arresting him for the injury done to the property; but, seeing him, and being awed by his presence, they only besought him to leave them.

Out of their coasts – Out of their country.

This shows:

That the design of Satan is to prejudice people against the Saviour, and even to make what Christ does an occasion why they should desire him t leave them.
The power of avarice. These people preferred their property to the Saviour. They loved it so much that they were blind to the evidence of the miracle, and to the good he had done to the miserable people whom he had healed.

It is no uncommon thing for people to love the world so much; to love property – even like that owned by the people of Gadara so much as to see no beauty in religion and no excellence in the Saviour; and, rather than part with it, to beseech Jesus to withdraw from them. The most grovelling employment, the most abandoned sins, the most loathsome vices, are often loved more than the presence of Jesus, and more than all the blessings of his salvation.

Remarks On Matthew 8

1. The leprosy, the disease mentioned in this chapter, is a suitable representation of the nature of sin. Like that, sin is loathsome; it is deep fixed in the frame; penetrating every part of the system; working its way to the surface imperceptibly, but surely; loosing the joints, and consuming the sinews of moral action; and adhering to the system until it terminates in eternal death. It goes down from age to age. It shuts out men from the society of the pure in heaven; nor can man be admitted there until God has cleansed the soul by his Spirit, and man is made pure and whole.

2. The case of the centurion is a strong instance of the nature and value of humility, Mat 8:5-10. He sustained a fair character, and had done much for the Jews. Yet he had no exalted conception of himself. Compared with the Saviour, he felt that he was unworthy that he should come to his dwelling. So feels every humble soul. Humility is an estimate of ourselves as we are. It is a willingness to be known, and talked of, and treated just according to truth. It is a view of ourselves as lost, poor, and wandering creatures. Compared with other people with angels, with Jesus, and with God – it is a feeling by which we regard ourselves as unworthy of notice. It is a readiness to occupy our appropriate station in the universe, and to put on humbleness of mind as our proper array, 1Pe 5:5.

3. We have in the case of the centurion an equally beautiful exhibition of faith. He had unwavering confidence in the power of Jesus. He did not doubt at all that he was able to do for him just what he needed, and what he wished him to do. This is faith; and every man who has this trust or confidence in Christ for salvation, has saving faith.

4. Humility and faith are always connected. The one prepares the mind for the other. Having a deep sense of our weakness and unworthiness, we are prepared to look to Him who has strength. Faith also produces humility. Jesus was humble; and believing on him, we catch his spirit and learn of him, Mat 11:28-30. Compared with him, we see our unworthiness. Seeing his strength, we see our feebleness; seeing his strength exerted to save creatures impure and ungrateful as we are, we sink away into an increased sense of our unfitness for his favor.

5. We see the compassion and kindness of Jesus, Mat 8:16-17. He has borne our heavy griefs. He provides comfort for us in sickness and sustains us in dying. But for his merciful arm, we should sink; and dying, we should die without hope. But:

Jesus can make a dying bed

Feel soft as downy pillows are;

While on his breast we lean our head,

And breathe our life out sweetly there.

6. We are forcibly struck with his condescension, Mat 8:19-20. People of wickedness and crime dwell in splendid mansions, and stretch themselves on couches of ease; when afflicted, they recline on beds of down; but Jesus had no home and no pillow. The birds that fill the air with music and warble in the groves, nay, the very foxes, have homes and a shelter from the storms and elements; but He that made them, clothed in human flesh, was a wanderer, and had nowhere to lay his head. His sorrows he bore alone; his dwelling was in the mountains. In the palaces of the people for whom he toiled, and for whom he was about to bleed on a cross, he found no home and no sympathy. Surely this was compassion worthy of a God.

7. It is no disgrace to be poor. The Son of God was poor, and it is no dishonor to be like him. If our Maker, then, has cast our lot in poverty; if he takes away by sickness or calamity the fruits of our toils; if he clothes us in homely and coarse apparel; if he bids the winds of heaven to howl around our open and lonely dwellings, let us remember that the Redeemer of mankind trod the same humble path, and that it can be no dishonor to be likened to him who was the beloved Son of God.

8. We should be willing to embrace the gospel without hope of earthly reward, Mat 8:19-23. Religion promises no earthly honors or wealth. It bids its disciples to look beyond the grave for its highest rewards. It requires people to love religion for its own sake; to love the Saviour, even when poor, and cast out, and suffering, because he is worthy of love; and to be willing to forsake all the allurements which the world holds out to us for the sake of the purity and peace of the gospel.

9. We learn the necessity of forsaking all for the sake of the gospel. Our first duty is to God, our Creator and Saviour; our second, to friends, to our relations, and to our country, Mat 8:22. When God commands we must follow him, nor should any consideration of ease, or safety, or imaginary duty deter us. To us it is of no consequence what people say or think of us. Let the will of God be prayerfully ascertained, and then let it be done though it carry us through ridicule and flames.

10. Jesus can preserve us in the time of danger, Mat 8:23-27. He hushed the storm and his disciples were safe. His life was also in danger with theirs. Had the ship sunk, without a miracle he would have perished with them. So in every storm of trial or persecution, in every heaving sea of calamity, he is united to his followers. His interest and theirs is the same. He feels for them, he is touched with their infirmities, and he will sustain them. Because I live, says he, ye shall live also. Never, never, then, shall man or devil pluck one of his faithful followers from his hand, Joh 10:27-28.

11. All that can disturb or injure us is under the control of the Christians Friend, Mat 8:28-32. The very inhabitants of hell are bound, and beyond his permission they can never injure us. In spite, then, of all the malice of malignant beings, the friends of Jesus are safe.

12. It is no uncommon thing for people to desire Jesus to depart from them, Mat 8:34. Though he is ready to confer on them important favors, yet they hold His favors to be of far less consequence than some unimportant earthly possession. Sinners never love him, and always wish him away from their dwellings.

13. It is no uncommon thing for Jesus to take people at their word, and leave them. He gives them over to worldly thoughts and pursuits; he suffers them to sink into crime, and they perish forever. Alas, how many are there, like the dwellers in the country of the Gergesenes, that ask him to depart; that see him go without a sigh; and that never, never again behold him coming to bless them with salvation!

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Mat 8:28-33

There met Him two possessed with devils.

Christ and the demoniac

I. The immediate connection of the world of darkness with the evil heart.

II. The great power of the inhabitants of darkness over the evil heart.

III. The utter impotency of man to deliver the possessed from the power of the inhabitants of darkness.

IV. The weakness of the powers or darkness in conflict with Christ. Remarks:

1. Beware of tampering with evil.

2. The wish of evil will ever be self-destructive.

3. If Jesus has cured you show it by causing joy where you have caused so much misery-in your home. (F. Wallace.)

Sin and salvation

I. Some aspects of sin.

1. Its contagiousness.

2. Its anti-social tendency-Neither abode in any house.

3. Its embrutalization of character.

4. Its dread of righteousness.

II. Some aspects of salvation.

1. It is begun in expulsion, not repression, of evil principles and desires.

2. God accounts as nothing whatever material loss may be incurred in its effectuation. Souls more than swine.

3. Its moral and spiritual results have a counterpart and external evidence in improved material and social condition.

4. The surest proof of the reality of its accomplishment is renunciation of personal preferences in obedience to Christs commands. (Pulpit Analyst.)

The accusing conscience of the wicked

(ver. 29):-

1. Bad men must sooner or later acknowledge their deserts.

2. They believe that a time for punishment of their sins will come.

3. A guilty conscience dreads the presence of Christ. (American Homiletic Monthly)

Christ sending the demons from the man into the swine

I. The malice of satan.

1. The possession.

2. The dwelling of the man-among the tombs. A melancholy madness.

3. The fierceness of the demoniac-he could not be bound.

II. The grace and justice of the Saviour,

1. The grace displayed in expelling the demons from the man. The devils saw their Master.

2. The justice manifested in the entrance of the demon into the swine.

III. The result of the miracle.

1. The swineherds flee to carry the tidings. Fear gives wings to their feet.

2. The demoniac comes and sits at Jesus feet.

3. The Gadarenes entreat Christ to depart, and He goes.

4. The recovered demoniac seeks to be allowed to follow Christ, and is refused.

Learn:-

1. Let us shudder at the malice, power, and misery of fallen spirits.

2. Fly for refuge to the power and grace of Christ, and dread the thought of desiring Christ to depart.

3. See the place and duty of those whom Christ has healed. (J. Bennett, D. D.)

The authority of right over wrong

1. That this was not a work of authority done by our Master in His own country. He had passed from His own country. Truth knows no limitations; a man that has it owes it to mankind.

2. The sad spectacle that met our Lord was a man in ruins.

3. The moment our Saviour came into the presence of this man he brought a distributing force. Two spheres came together that were antagonistic. Evil claims its rights, liberty. This is the keynote of the opposition in modern society to every attempt to make men better.

4. We should oppose these malign influences front self-interest, and in self-defence. It is not going away from our own affairs when we attempt to break down everything that is destroying the industry and virtue of society. We are bound to meddle with the demonized part of society. Men ought to stand on the ground of goodness and assert the dignity of rectitude over immorality. (Beecher.)

A man in ruins

There is nothing sadder; and, sad to say, nothing more common. No one can see great desolation by conflagration without having a kind of commercial sympathy. The consumption of so much property, the waste and ruin of so many costly structures, is painful to behold. No man can learn that a storm has swept the sea, and that fleets and merchantmen have been wrecked or foundered, without a certain sadness. And yet all the ships on the sea might sink, and all the buildings on the globe might be burned, and the united whole would not be as much as to shatter one immortal soul. There is nothing in old dilapidated cities, there is nothing in temples filled with memorials of former glory, that tends to inspire such sadness and melancholy as to look upon a dilapidated soul, whose powers and faculties are shattered and east down. (Beecher)

Evil to be opposed in self-defence

It is not going away from our own affairs when we attempt to break clown everything that is destroying the industry, and order, and virtue, and the well-being of the young in society, and corrupting society itself. Every man is to a very great extent dependent for his own prosperity upon the average conditions of the community in which he lives. A man is very much like a plant. If you put a plant in a pot of poor earth, there is no inherent force in the plant by which it can grow. The atmosphere, too, which surrounds the leaf has much to do with the health and growth of the plant. But suppose plant should be endowed with momentary intelligence, and should cry out and protest that it was potted in bad earth, and surrounded by poisonous vapours? and suppose the earth should say, Mind your own business, and I will mind mine, and the atmosphere should say, You take care of yourself, and I will take care of myself? It would be very much like these enemies to society saying to us, when we raise our voices against them, Mind your own business. That is just what we are doing. We are minding our own business. Our business is to breathe and to grow, and we must have pure air and good soil. And if we are living in a community where we find our roots starved, and our leaves poisoned, we have a right to take care of ourselves and defend ourselves. A man depends for his prosperity and happiness upon the average condition of the community in which he lives. A man that lives in a virtuous community is like a man that lives on some mountain side, where the air is pure. A man that lives in a corrupt community is like a man that lives where the air is impure. And for the sake of our own well.being,and the well-being of our households, we have a right to resist these men who are destroying society by corrupting it. (Beecher.)

Physical injury not tolerated

Let a man start a mill for grinding arsenic, and let the air be filled with particles of this deadly poison, and let it be noticed that the people in the neighbourhood are beginning to sneeze and grow pale, and let it be discovered that this mill is the cause, and do you suppose he would be allowed to go on grinding? -No man would shut up his establishment at once. And yet men open those more infernal mills of utter destruction-distilleries, and wholesale and retail dens for liquor; and you can mark the streams of damnation that flow out from them; and yet nobody meddles with them. One man is getting carbuncles; another man is becoming red in the eyes; another man is growing irritable, and losing his self-control: another man is being ruined both in body and mind; multitudes of men begin to exhibit the signs of approaching destruction; and the cause of all this terrible devastation may be traced to these places where intoxicating drinks are manufactured and sold. You would not let a man grind arsenic; but you will let a man make and sell liquor, though arsenic is a mercy compared with liquor. (Beecher.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 28. The country of the Gergesenes] This word is variously written in the MSS, and versions; Gergasenes, Gerasenes, Gadarenes, Gergesions, and Gersedonians, The three first are supported by the greater authorities. They might have all been names of the same place or district; but, if we depend on what Origen says, the people mentioned here could not have been the inhabitants of Gerasa, which, says he, is a city of Arabia, , , which has neither sea nor lake nigh to it. “Gadara was, according to Josephus, the metropolis of Perea, or the region beyond Jordan: both the city and villages belonging to it lay in the country of the Gergasenes; whence Christ going into the country of the Gadarenes, Mr 5:1, is said to go into the region of the Gergasenes, Mt 8:28.” WHITBY.

Two possessed with devils] Persons possessed by evil demons. Mark and Luke mention only one demoniac, probably the fiercer of the two.

Coming out of the tombs] It is pretty evident that cupolas were generally builded over the graves among the Jews, and that these demoniacs had their dwellings under such: the evil spirits which were in them delighting more in these abodes of desolation and ruin, as being more congenial to their fierce and diabolic nature, and therefore would drive the possessed into them.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

This history is related by Mar 5:1, &c. and by Luk 8:26, &c., more largely than by Matthew. The other two evangelists report it to be done in the country of the Gadarenes; Matthew,

in the country of the Gergesenes; they were the same people, sometimes denominated from one great city in their territories, sometimes from another: whoso readeth the story in all three evangelists will easily conclude it the same, though related with different circumstances. Matthew saith there were two of these demoniacs. Mark and Luke mention but one. Luke saith, the man had devils long time, that he wore no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs. Mark saith, there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. Matthew saith he came out of the tombs, was exceeding fierce, so as none could pass that way. Divines agree, that the power of the evil angels was not abated by their fall, they were only depraved in their will. That the power of an angel is much more than is here mentioned is out of question. That the evil angels do not exert this power upon us is from the restraining power of God; we live in the air in which the devil hath a principality, Eph 2:2. Why God at that time suffered the devil more to exercise this power over the bodies of men, we probably showed before, upon Mat 4:24. See Poole on “Mat 4:24“. The world was grown very ignorant, and wicked, and sottishly superstitious. Besides, he was now come who was to destroy the works of the devil, and was to show his Divine power in casting him out. The Jews buried their dead out of their cities; the richer of them had tombs hewed out of rocks, &c., and those very large, as may be learned from Isa 65:4; Joh 20:6. The devil chose these places, partly to affright persons through the horror of the places, and torment the possessed with the noisomeness of them; partly to cheat men, with an opinion they were the souls of the persons deceased that were there buried.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

And when he was come to the other side,…. Of the lake, or sea of Tiberias, right over against Galilee,

into the country of Gergesenes, the same with the Girgashites,

Ge 15:21 whom Joshua drove out of the land of Canaan; and who, as a Jewish writer l says, left their country to the Israelites, and went to a country, which is called to this day,

, “Gurgestan”, of which these people were some remains: both in Mr 5:1 it is called “the country of the Gadarenes”; and so the Syriac and Persic versions read it here; which is easily reconciled by observing, not that Gergesa and Gadara were one and the same city, called by different names; but that these two cities were near each other, in the same country, which was sometimes denominated from the one, and sometimes from the other. Origen m has a remarkable passage, showing the different situations of Gadara and Gergesa; and that the latter cannot be Gerasa in Arabia; and also the signification of the name, for the sake of which, I shall transcribe it.

“Gerasa (says he) is a city of Arabia, having neither sea nor lake near it; wherefore the evangelists, who well knew the countries about Judea, would never have said so manifest an untruth: and as to what we find in some few copies, “into the country of the Gadarenes”, it must be said, that Gadara indeed was a city of Judea, about which were many famous baths; but there was no lake, or sea in it, adjacent with precipices; but Gergesa, from whence were the Gergasenes, is an ancient city about the lake; now called Tiberias; about which is a precipice adjacent to the lake, from whence is shown, that the swine were cast down by the devils. Gergesa is interpreted,

, “the habitation of those that cast out”; being called so perhaps prophetically, for what the inhabitants of those places did to the Saviour, beseeching him to depart out of their coasts.”

Dr. Lightfoot suggests, that this place might be so called, from

, which signifies “clay” or “dirt”, and mentions Lutetia for an example. But to pass this, as soon as Christ was got out of the ship, and come to land in this country,

there met him two possessed with devils. Both Mark and Luke mention but one, which is no contradiction to Matthew; for they do not say that there was only one; and perhaps the reason why they only take notice of him is, because he was the fiercest, had a legion of devils in him, and was the principal one, that spake to Christ, and with whom he was chiefly concerned. This is to be understood, not of any natural disease of body, but of real possession by Satan. These possessed men met him, not purposely, or with design, but accidentally to them, and unawares to Satan too; for though he knows much, he is not omniscient: had he been aware of Christ’s coming that way, and what he was about to do, he would have took care to have had the possessed out of the way; but so it was ordered by providence, that just as Christ landed, these should be

coming out of the tombs. Their coemeteria, or burying places, were at some distance from towns or cities; wherefore Luke says, the possessed met him “out of the city”, a good way off from it; for the Jews n say, , “that the sepulchres were not near a city”; see Lu 7:12 and these tombs were built so large, that persons might go into them, and sit and dwell in them, as these “demoniacs” did, and therefore are said to come out of them. The rules for making them are o these;

“He that sells ground to his neighbour to make a burying place, or that receives of his neighbour, to make him a burying place, must make the inside of the cave four cubits by six, and open in it eight graves; three here and three there, and two over against them; and the graves must be four cubits long, and seven high, and six broad. R. Simeon says, he must make the inside of the cave six cubits by eight, and open within thirteen graves, four here, and four there, and three over against them; and one on the right hand of the door, and one on the left: and he must make , “a court”, at the mouth of the cave, six by six, according to the measure of the bier, and those that bury; and he must open in it two caves, one here and another there: R. Simeon says, four at the four sides. R. Simeon ben Gamaliel says, all is according to the nature of the rock.”

Now in the court, at the mouth, or entrance of the cave, which was made for the bearers to put down the bier or coffin upon, before the interment, there was room for persons to enter and lodge, as these possessed with devils did: which places were chosen by the devils, either because of the solitude, gloominess, and filthiness of them; or as some think, to confirm that persuasion some men had, that the souls of men after death, are changed into devils; or rather, to establish a notion which prevailed among the Jews, that the souls of the deceased continue for a while to be about their bodies; which drew persons to necromancy, or consulting with the dead. It is a notion that obtains among the Jews p, that the soul for twelve months after its separation from the body, is more or less with it, hovering about it; and hence, some have been induced to go and dwell among the tombs, and inquire of spirits: they tell us q,

“it happened to a certain holy man, that he gave a penny to a poor man, on the “eve” of the new year; and his wife provoked him, and he went , “and lodged among the tombs”, and heard two spirits talking with one another.”

Or the devil chose these places, to render the persons possessed the more uncomfortable and distressed; to make them wilder and fiercer, by living in such desolate places, and so do more mischief to others: which was the case of these, who were

exceeding fierce, wicked, malignant, mischievous, and troublesome, through the influence of the devils in them;

so that no man might pass that way, without being insulted or hurt by them.

l Juchasin, fol. 135. 2. m Comment. in Joannem, T. 2. p. 131. Ed. Huet. n T. Bab. Kiddushin. fol. 80. 2. Gloss. o Misn. Bava Bathra, c. 6. sect. 8. p Nishmat Chayim, par. 2. c. 22. p. 81. 2. c. 24. p. 85. 1. & c. 29. p. 93. 1. p. 94. 1, 2. q T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 18. 2.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The Devils Cast Out of Two Men.

28 And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. 29 And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time? 30 And there was a good way off from them a herd of many swine feeding. 31 So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. 32 And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters. 33 And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils. 34 And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts.

We have here the story of Christ’s casting the devils out of two men that were possessed. The scope of this chapter is to show the divine power of Christ, by the instances of his dominion over bodily diseases, which to us are irresistible; over winds and waves, which to us are yet more uncontrollable; and lastly, over devils, which to us are most formidable of all. Christ has not only all power in heaven and earth and all deep places, but has the keys of hell too. Principalities and powers were made subject to him, even while he was in his estate of humiliation, as an earnest of what should be at his entrance into his glory (Eph. i. 21); he spoiled them, Col. ii. 15. It was observed in general (v. 16), that Christ cast out the spirits with his word; here we have a particular instance of it, which have some circumstances more remarkable than the rest. This miracle was wrought in the country of the Gergesenes; some think, they were the remains of the old Girgashites, Deut. vii. 1. Though Christ was sent chiefly to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, yet some sallies he made among the borderers, as here, to gain this victory over Satan, which was a specimen of the conquest of his legions in the Gentile world.

Now, besides the general instance which this gives us of Christ’s power over Satan, and his design against him to disarm and dispossess him, we have here especially discovered to us the way and manner of evil spirits in their enmity to man. Observe, concerning this legion of devils, What work they made where they were, and where they went.

I. What work they made where they were; which appears in the miserable condition of these two that were possessed by them; and some think, these two were man and wife, because the other Evangelists speak but of one.

1. They dwelt among the tombs; thence they came when the met Christ. The devil having the power of death, not as judge, but as executioner, he delighted to converse among the trophies of his victory, the dead bodies of men; but there, where he thought himself in the greatest triumph and elevation, as afterwards in Golgotha, the place of a skull, did Christ conquer and subdue him. Conversing among the graves increased the melancholy and frenzy of the poor possessed creatures, and so strengthened the hold he had of them by their bodily distemper, and also made them more formidable to other people, who generally startle at any thing that stirs among the tombs.

2. They were exceeding fierce; not only ungovernable themselves, but mischievous to others, frightening many, having hurt some; so that no man durst pass that way. Note, The devil bears malice to mankind, and shows it by making men spiteful and malicious one to another. Mutual enmities, where they should be mutual endearments and assistances, are effects and evidences of Satan’s enmity to the whole race; he makes one man a wolf, a bear, a devil, to another–Homo homini lupus. Where Satan rules in a man spiritually, by those lusts that war in the members, pride, envy, malice, revenge, they make him as unfit for human society, as unworthy of it, and as much an enemy to the comfort of it, as these poor possessed creatures were.

3. They bid defiance to Jesus Christ, and disclaimed all interest in him, v. 29. It is an instance of the power of God over the devils, that, notwithstanding the mischief they studied to do by and to these poor creatures, yet they could not keep them from meeting Jesus Christ, who ordered the matter so as to meet them. It was his overpowering hand that dragged these unclean spirits into his presence, which they dreaded more than any thing else: his chains could hold them, when the chains that men made for them could not. But being brought before him, they protested against his jurisdiction, and broke out into a rage, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? Here is,

(1.) One word that the devil spoke like a saint; he addressed himself to Christ as Jesus the Son of God; a good word, and at this time, when it was a truth but in the proving, it was a great word too, what flesh and blood did not reveal to Peter, ch. xvi. 17. Even the devils know, and believe, and confess Christ to be the Son of God, and yet they are devils still, which makes their enmity to Christ so much the more wicked, and indeed a perfect torment to themselves; for how can it be otherwise, to oppose one they know to be the Son of God? Note, It is not knowledge, but love, that distinguishes saints from devils. He is the first-born of hell, that knows Christ and yet hates him, and will not be subject to him and his law. We may remember that not long since the devil made a doubt whether Christ were the Son of God or not, and would have persuaded him to question it (ch. iv. 3), but now he readily owns it. Note, Though God’s children may be much disquieted in an hour of temptation, by Satan’s questioning their relation to God as a Father, yet the Spirit of adoption shall at length clear it up to them so much to their satisfaction, as to set it even above the devil’s contradiction.

(2.) Two words that he said like a devil, like himself.

[1.] A word of defiance; What have we to do with thee? Now, First, It is true that the devils have nothing to do with Christ as a Saviour, for he took not on him the nature of the angels that fell, nor did he lay hold on them (Heb. ii. 16); they are in no relation to him, they neither have, nor hope for, any benefit by him. O the depth of this mystery of divine love, that fallen man hath so much to do with Christ, when fallen angels have nothing to do with him! Surely here was torment enough before the time, to be forced to own the excellency that is in Christ, and yet that he has no interest in him. Note, It is possible for me to call Jesus the Son of God, and yet have nothing to do with him. Secondly, It is as true, that the devils desire not to have any thing to do with Christ as a Ruler; they hate him, they are filled with enmity against him, they stand in opposition to him, and are in open rebellion against his crown and dignity. See whose language they speak, that will have nothing to do with the gospel of Christ, with his laws and ordinances, that throw off his yoke, that break his bands in sunder, and will not have him to reign over them; that say to the Almighty Jesus, Depart from us: they are of their father the devil, they do his lusts, and speak his language. Thirdly, But it is not true, that the devils have nothing to do with Christ as a Judge, for they have, and they know it. These devils could not say, What hast thou to do with us? could not deny that the Son of God is the Judge of devils; to his judgment they are bound over in chains of darkness, which they would fain shake off, and shake off the thought of.

[2.] A word of dread and deprecation; “Art thou come hither to torment us–to cast us out from these men, and to restrain us from doing the hurt we would do?” Note, To be turned out, and tied up, from doing mischief, is a torment to the devil, all whose comfort and satisfaction are man’s misery and destruction. Should not we then count it our heaven to be doing well, and reckon that our torment, whether within or without, that hinders us from well-doing? Now must we be tormented by thee before the time; Note, First, There is a time in which devils will be more tormented than they are, and they know it. The great assize at the last day is the time fixed for their complete torture, in that Tophet which is ordained of old for the king, for the prince of the devils, and his angels (Isa 30:33; Mat 25:41); for the judgment of that day they are reserved, 2 Pet. ii. 4. Those malignant spirits that are, by the divine permission, prisoners at large, walking to and fro through the earth (Job i. 7), are even now in a chain; hitherto shall their power reach, and no further; they will then be made close prisoners: they have now some ease; they will then be in torment without ease. This they here take for granted, and ask not never to be tormented (despair of relief is the misery of their case), but they beg that they may not be tormented before the time; for though they knew not when the day of judgment should be, they knew it should not be yet. Secondly, The devils have a certain fearful looking for of that judgment and fiery indignation, upon every approach of Christ, and every check that is given to their power and rage. The very sight of Christ and his word of command to come out of the man, made them thus apprehensive of their torment. Thus the devils believe, and tremble, Jam. ii. 19. It is their own enmity to God and man that puts them upon the rack, and torments them before the time. The most desperate sinners, whose damnation is sealed, yet cannot quite harden their hearts against the surprise of fearfulness, when they see the day approaching.

II. Let us now see what work they made where they went, when they were turned out of the men possessed, and that was into a herd of swine, which was a good way off, v. 30. These Gergesenes, though living on the other side Jordan, were Jews. What had they to do with swine, which by the law were unclean, and not to be eaten nor touched? Probably, lying in the outskirts of the land, there were many Gentiles among them, to whom this herd of swine belonged: or they kept them to be sold, or bartered, to the Romans, with whom they had now great dealings, and who were admirers of swine’s flesh. Now observe,

1. How the devils seized the swine. Though they were a good way off, and, one would think, out of danger, yet the devils had an eye upon them, to do them a mischief: for they go up and down, seeking to devour, seeking an opportunity; and they seek not long but they find. Now here,

(1.) They asked leave to enter into the swine (v. 31); they besought him, with all earnestness, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. Hereby, [1.] They discover their own inclination to do mischief, and what a pleasure it is to them; those, therefore, are their children, and resemble them, whose sleep departeth from them, except they cause some to fall, Prov. iv. 16. “Let us go into the herd of swine, any where rather than into the place of torment, any where to do mischief.” If they might not be suffered to hurt men in their bodies, they would hurt them in their goods, and in that too they intend hurt to their souls, by making Christ a burthen to them: such malicious devices hath that old subtle serpent! [2.] They own Christ’s power over them; that, without his sufferance and permission, they could not so much as hurt a swine. This is comfortable to all the Lord’s people, that, though the devil’s power be very great, yet it is limited, and not equal to his malice (what would become of us, if it were?) especially that it is under the control of our Lord Jesus, our most faithful, powerful friend and Saviour; that Satan and his instruments can go no further than he is pleased to permit; here shall their proud waves be stayed.

(2.) They had leave. Christ said unto them, Go (v. 32), as God did to Satan, when he desired leave to afflict Job. Note, God does often, for wise and holy ends, permit the efforts of Satan’s rage, and suffer him to do the mischief he would, and even by it serve his own purposes. The devils are not only Christ’s captives, but his vassals; his dominion over them appears in the harm they do, as well as in the hindrance of them from doing more. Thus even their wrath is made to praise Christ, and the remainder of it he does and will restrain. Christ permitted this, [1.] For the conviction of the Sadducees that were then among the Jews, who denied the existence of spirits, and would not own that there were such beings, because they could not see them. Now Christ would, by this, bring it as near as might be to an ocular demonstration of the being, multitude, power, and malice, of evil spirits, that, if they were not hereby convinced, they might be left inexcusable in their infidelity. We see not the wind, but it would be absurd to deny it, when we see trees and houses blown down by it. [2.] For the punishment of the Gadarenes, who perhaps, though Jews, took a liberty to eat swine’s flesh, contrary to the law: however, their keeping swine bordered upon evil; and Christ would also show what a hellish crew they were delivered from, which, if he had permitted it, would soon have choked them, as they did their swine. The devils, in obedience to Christ’s command, came out of the men, and having permission, when they were come out, immediately they went into the herd of swine. See what an industrious enemy Satan is, and how expeditious; he will lose no time in doing mischief. Observe,

2. Whither they hurried them, when they had seized them. They were not bid to save their lives, and, therefore, they were made to run violently down a steep place into the sea, where they all perished, to the number of about two thousand, Mark v. 13. Note, The possession which the devil gets is for destruction. Thus the devil hurries people to sin, hurries them to that which they have resolved against, and which they know will be shame and grief to them: with what a force doth the evil spirit work in the children of disobedience, when by so many foolish and hurtful lusts they are brought to act in direct contradiction, not only to religion, but to right reason, and their interest in this world! Thus, likewise, he hurries them to ruin, for he is Apollyon and Abaddon, the great destroyer. By his lusts which men do, they are drowned in destruction and perdition. This is Satan’s will, to swallow up and to devour; miserable then is the condition of those that are led captive by him at his will. They are hurried into a worse lake than this, a lake that burns with fire and brimstone. Observe,

3. What effect this had upon the owners. The report of it was soon brought them by the swine-herds, who seemed to be more concerned for the loss of the swine than any thing else, for they went not to tell what was befallen to the possessed of the devils, till the swine were lost, v. 33. Christ went not into the city, but the news of his being there did, by which he was willing to feel how their pulse beat, and what influence it had upon them, and then act accordingly.

Now, (1.) Their curiosity brought them out to see Jesus. The whole city came out to meet him, that they might be able to say, they had seen a man who did such wonderful works. Thus many go out, in profession, to meet Christ for company, that have no real affection for him, nor desire to know him.

(2.) Their covetousness made them willing to be rid of him. Instead of inviting him into their city, or bringing their sick to him to be healed, they desired him to depart out of their coasts, as if they had borrowed the words of the devils, What have we to do with thee, Jesus thou Son of God? And now the devils had what they aimed at in drowning the swine; they did it, and then made the people believe that Christ had done it, and so prejudiced them against him. He seduced our first parents, by possessing them with hard thoughts of God, and kept the Gadarenes from Christ, by suggesting that he came into their country to destroy their cattle, and that he would do more hurt than good; for though he had cured two men, yet he had drowned two thousand swine. Thus the devil sows tares in God’s field, does mischief in the Christian church, and then lays the blame upon Christianity, and incenses men against that. They besought him that he would depart, lest, like Moses in Egypt, he should proceed to some other plague. Note, There are a great many who prefer their swine before their Saviour, and so come short of Christ, and salvation by him. They desire Christ to depart out of their hearts, and will not suffer his word to have a place in them, because he and his word will be the destruction of their brutish lusts–those swine which they give up themselves to feed. And justly will Christ forsake those that thus are weary of him, and say to them hereafter, Depart, ye cursed, who now say to the Almighty, Depart from us.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

The country of the Gadarenes ( ). This is the correct text in Matthew while in Mr 5:1 and Lu 8:26 it is “the country of the Gerasenes.” Dr. Thomson discovered by the lake the ruins of Khersa (Gerasa). This village is in the district of the city of Gadara some miles southeastward so that it can be called after Gerasa or Gadara. So Matthew speaks of “two demoniacs” while Mark and Luke mention only one, the leading one. “The tombs ” ( ) were chambers cut into the mountain side common enough in Palestine then and now. On the eastern side of the lake the precipitous cliffs are of limestone formation and full of caves. It is one of the proofs that one is a maniac that he haunts the tombs. People shunned the region as dangerous because of the madmen.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

The tombs [] . Chambers excavated in the mountain, which would afford a shelter to the demoniac. Chandler (” Travels in Asia Minor “) describes tombs with two square rooms, the lower containing the ashes, while the upper, the friends performed funeral rites, and poured libations through a hole in the floor. Dr. Thomson (” Land and Book “) thus describes the rock – cut tombs in the region between Tyre and Sidon : “They are nearly all of the same form, having a small chamber in front, and a door leading from that into the tomb, which is about six feet square, with niches on three sides for the dead.” A propensity to take up the abode in the tombs is mentioned by ancient physicians as a characteristic of mad – men. The Levitical uncleanness of the tombs would insure the wretches the solitude which they sought. Trench (” Notes on the Miracles “) cites the following incident from Warburton (” The Crescent and the Cross “) : “On descending from these heights I found myself in a cemetery whose sculptured turbans showed me that the neighboring village was Moslem. The silence of night was not broken by fierce yells and howling, which I discovered proceeded from a naked maniac who was fighting with some wild dogs for a bone. The moment he perceived me he left his canine comrades, and bounding along with rapid strides, seized my horse ‘s bridle, and almost forced him backward over the cliff.”

Fierce [] . Originally, difficult, hard. Hence hard to manage; intractable.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

THE DEMONS AT GADARA CAST OUT V. 28-34

1) “And when he was come to the other side,” (kai elthontos autou eis to peran) “And when he came to the other side,” beyond the sea, across from Capernaum, to the southeast, as recounted also Mr 5:1-21; Luk 8:26-40.

2) “Into the country of the Gergesenes” (eis ten choran ton gadarenon) “Into the country of the Gadarenes,” on the southeast side of the Sea of Galilee, known as the Golan Heights today, also known as the country of Gadara. The people are called Gadarenes, Mr 5:1.

3) “There met him two possessed with devils,” (hupentesan auto duo daimonizomenoi) “There met him two demon possessed men,” or demon-controlled, demon-dominated men, Mat 7:22. Mark and Luke give in more detail what happened to one of the two. They mention only one, in more detail.

4) “Coming out of the tombs,” (ek ton mneneion ekserchomenoi) “Coming out of the tombs, or out from among the tombs,” the area of their quarantined restricted exile. Tombs were hewn out of the limestone hillsides nearby.

5) “Exceeding fierce,” (chalepoi lian) “Exceedingly dangerous,” ferocious, raving maniacs, lunatic, or dangerous madmen.

6) “So that no man might pass by that way.” (hoste me ischuein tina paralthein dia tes hodou ekeines) “So that no one was able to pass through that way,” safely, without danger of being harmed. It was a place to be shunned as dangerous. Nobody cared to go near these madmen.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

The error of those who think that Mark and Luke relate a different miracle from this, has been already refuted. It is the same country which was opposite, as Luke expressly states, to Galilee, that is described by the three Evangelists, and all the circumstances agree. Who then will believe that the same things, so fully coincident at all points, happened at different times?

Mat 8:28

Two demoniacs met him Commentators have been led into the error of separating Matthew’s narrative from that of the others by this single difference, that he mentions two, while the others mention but one. There is probability in the conjecture of Augustine, who thinks that there were two, but accounts for not more than one being mentioned here by saying, that this one was more generally known, and that the aggravation of his disease made the miracle performed on him the more remarkable. And, indeed, we see that Luke and Mark employ many words in describing the extraordinary rage of the devil, so as to make it evident that the wretched man, of whom they speak, was grievously fomented. The circumstance of their holding up to commendation one singular instance of Christ’s divine power is not inconsistent with the narrative of Matthew, in which another, though less known man, (547) is also mentioned.

(547) “ Combien qu’il ne lust pas rant eognu que le premier;” — “though he was not so well known as the former.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CRITICAL NOTES

Mat. 8:28. Gergesenes.The readings vary between Gerasenes, Gadarenes, and Gergesenes (Carr). Modern research claims to have ascertained the exact locality of the transaction. The ruins right opposite the plain of Gennesaret, from which they had sailed, bear still the name of Kersa or Gersa. About a quarter of an hour to the south of Gersa is a steep bluff, which descends abruptly on a narrow ledge of shore. The whole neighbourhood abounds in limestone caverns and rock chambers. These local features meet the requirements of the story (Laidlaw). Two possessed with devils.See on Mat. 8:16. St. Mark and St. Luke speak of one only. A like difference meets us in St. Matthews two blind men at Jericho (Mat. 20:30) as compared with the one of the two other Gospels. The natural explanation is that, in each case, one was more prominent than the other in speech or act, and so was remembered and specified, while the other was either forgotten or left unnoticed. The difference, as far as it goes, is obviously in favour of the independence of St. Matthews narrative (Plumptre).

Mat. 8:29. Thou Son of God.The utterance rather of the demons than of the demoniacs (Morison).

Mat. 8:30. Swine.Unclean animals that were an abomination to all true Jews (Lev. 11:7; Deu. 14:8). The keeping of them or the rearing of them was strictly forbidden by the Jewish canon-law, as Dr. Lightfoot shows in his Exercitations (ibid.).

Mat. 8:31. Suffer us to go away, etc.Whence such a request? We are not told, and we need not anxiously conjecture. Theophylact supposes that their aim was to arrest the influence of Jesus in the locality, by stirring up the opposition of the proprietors of the flock. Perhaps there was pure malice. Perhaps, too, there was infatuated malice, for it is needless to suppose that they alwaysor even that they everreasoned well. Are they not always, in the end, outwitted? (ibid.).

Mat. 8:32. Go.We are at least on the right track in suggesting that only in some such way could the man be delivered from the inextricable confusion between himself and the unclean spirits in which he had been involved. Not till he saw the demoniac forces that had oppressed him transferred to the bodies of other creatures, and working on them the effects which they had wrought on him, could he believe in his own deliverance. Those who measure rightly the worth of a human spirit thus restored to itself, to its fellowmen, and to God, will not think that the destruction of brute life was too dear a price to pay for its restoration. Other subordinate endssuch, e.g., as that it was a penalty on those who kept the unclean beasts for their violation of the law, or that it taught men that it was through their indulgence of the swinish nature in themselves that they became subject to the darker and more demoniac passionshave been suggested with more or less plausibility (Plumptre).

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Mat. 8:28-34

The powers of darkness.What happened by the way, when the Saviour took His disciples away from the multitudes which He had gathered around Him at Capernaum, for the other side of the lake, is told us in the verses preceding. What happened when they arrived thither is found in the verses before us. They may be fitly treated, we think, as illustrating on the one hand, the extent of His power; and on the other, the depth of His mercy.

I. The extent of His power.The first step towards a fitting realisation of this is to be found in what is told us of the persons He meets with on landing. As the boat touches the shore there have come down to meet Him two highly exceptional men. They are exceptional in their wildness, their fierceness, their strength (Mar. 5:4). Also because of these things they had the neighbourhood almost to themselves (Mat. 8:28). Other men shunned a place which such worse than beasts as could neither be tamed nor controlled, had to themselves. Besides this, they were believed to be exceptional in a still more evil degree. In the eyes of the Saviour, and so of truth, they were in a special degree under the influence and control of the spirits of evil. They were men possessed with devilsin a peculiarly manifest way. The language they employ, in the next place, was in full accord with this view of their case. It is language which has little or nothing to do with those unhappy beings as men. There is a knowledge of the present which those isolated wanderers could hardly have learned (Mat. 8:29, Jesus, Thou Son of God). There is a knowledge of the future of which the same can be said, and which points also to what we are not told anywhere of the children of men (end of Mat. 8:29, also Mat. 25:41). And there is a request or entreaty which would be absolutely impossible, if not unmeaning, if merely spoken by men. A numerous herd of swine is seen feeding some distance away. The voices that speak are voices asking permission to enter into those swine. Such a request would be an utter absurdity if only spoken by men. Moreover, the voices themselves are such as to teach, by the language they use, that they are not uttered by men. How could men even think of asking not to be cast out (Mat. 8:31) of themselves? Evidently, therefore, there are beings here which are other than men. The issue of the request, in the last place, tells just the same tale. Permit us to go, the voices cry out. The Saviour replies to them by whomsoever they are uttered. He says to them, Go. What follows next? The real utterers of those strange utterances do as He permits. They go out; they go away; they go into the swine (Mat. 8:32). Suddenly maddened, the whole herd rushes down the steep cliff, and is choked in the sea at its foot. Who can doubt that there were powers here far greater than mans? Who can doubt also that there is a Power here far greater than theirs?

II. The depth of His mercy.The case of the persons delivered may show this, to begin. What befel the swine is vivid evidence of what had been previously suffered by them. The very suddenness and universality of that sweep to destruction only makes this the more plain. What must have been the condition of those two human personalitieseach, it may be believed, with a capacity for suffering beyond that of all the swine in existencewhen in the hands and at the mercyif they had mercy at allof such powers! And what an act of mercy thereforeas well as of powerwas that of setting them free! What a merciful substitution of heaven for hell must it have seemed to their hearts! On the other hand, we see almost equal mercy in that which ensued. When the swine rushed down into the waters, those that kept them rushed away to the city, and, open-mouthed, and doubtless with abundance of gesture, told the story of their loss; as also of what had happened in consequence to the two demoniac men. Touched in purse and so to the quick, the greedy owners come forth. They see Jesus; they see the men He has blessed; they see where their riches had been. This last sight affects them the most. They have but one request to prefer. Would He depart out of their coasts? (Mat. 8:34). Not to see Him now; never to see Him again; that is all they desire. To this insolent requirement the Saviour replies only in meekness and love. Without a word of angeror even of remonstrance so far as we knowthe Saviour does as they ask. Instead of this, if we may judge from Luk. 8:39, He goes away in a spirit of deepest concern for those who have sent Him awayand so is as merciful to them as, in another way, to the poor demoniacs themselves!

Do we not also see, in conclusion:

1. How excellent a lesson there would be in all this to the disciples of Christ.Having before seen Jesus in triumphant contact with nature, they now see Him the same in contact with Hades!

2. How exceedingly unwise it is to judge hastily and a priori about such matters as these.Who can tell what goes onor what ought to go onin the invisible world?

3. How wide and deep are the scriptural foundations for the belief implied here.Cf. as above, end of Mat. 8:29 with Mat. 25:41; also Luk. 8:31; Rev. 20:3, etc.; also Act. 16:16-17, compared with the utterances noted above.

4. How there is a kind of possession even now which is as bad in result as anything described here.A possession which, as it were, casts out the presence of Jesus Himself, a possession, therefore, which does the very worst for us that even Satan can wish.

HOMILIES ON THE VERSES

Mat. 8:28-34. Christ casting out devils.

1. Christ went nowhere but for a special errand. Pity for these two poor possessed men moved Him to cross the sea of Tiberius.
2. Christ can make the devils bring men to Him.
3. The malice of the devils is exceeding cruel, where they can get liberty to show it against men.
4. However powerful devils may be, yet they can neither stand out against Christs power, nor flee from Him, nor abide His presence.
5. The case of possessed souls, in whom the spirit of disobedience doth rule, is to be seen in these whose bodies were possessed with devils. The man is their lodging-house. He is no more master of his own actions, but Satans slave. The mans eyes look for Satan, his hands and feet work and walk for Satan, his throat is made Satans blowing-horn, his mouth speaketh for Satan.
6. Devils knew Christ to be the Son of God, but they knew also that He came not into the world for their good, but to be the Saviour of men. What have we to do with Thee?
7. Although it is not in the power of devils not to yield to Christ, yet they retain their wicked aversion to obey Him, being loth to leave the possession they have got. They would be let alone by Him if they could.
8. They know there is a time coming when they shall be more tormented than they are as yet.
9. They cannot hurt so much as a sow except Christ, Lord of heaven and earth, do suffer them.
10. The Lord sometimes suffereth Satan to have his will of mens bodies and goods.
11. These wicked spirits love always to do evil, and make it a sport to destroy what they are permitted.
12. To the end that the trial of men may be perfected, Christ will have them to know the spiritual benefits of the gospel, as well as the temporal inconveniences following it. This is why Christ will have the Gadarenes know of the delivery of the men possessed with devils, as well as of the drowning of the swine. The swineherds tell them of all, that so they might be inexcusable.
13. Men left to themselves will choose anything rather than Christ, and will do no better than these Gadarenes did.
14. Temporal loss of swine is so great in worldly mens estimation that spiritual advantage is nothing esteemed of.

15. If men see nothing of Christs sweet mercies, but only take up His power they will be loth to have Him in their company (Mat. 8:34). Such worldly men will rather quit the gospel than hazard their worldly goods.

16. This is the greatest token of Christs leaving a place, or not coming into a place, when the whole place doth consist only of Gadarenes, and all do consent that He should depart; for there apparently He hath no errand to stay Him; and wherever Christ hath no employment, thence will He remove.David Dickson.

Mat. 8:28-29. A Saviour, not a tormentor.

1. It would seem that there were two natures in the menone, a good and sane nature, urging them to go to meet Jesus, the other, a bad and mad nature, making them cry, What have we to do with Thee, Thou Son of God? Is it not so with all of us? Two voices there are withinone calling us to what is healthy and holy, the other to all that is destructive and bad.
2. Just as the Saviour did not land on the coast of the Gadarenes to torment them, but to save them from the demons and sins that were their real tormentors, so He did not come into the world to torment us, but to save us from evil passions and desires, than which there are no worse tormentors.
3. It may be frankly admitted that true religion does restrain our conduct; but this ought not to be considered a tormenting characteristic, because every man, if he is to remain a man and not to become a brute, must restrain himself.
4. Nor does Christ torment us by taking up all our time. What time does it take to do everything to the glory of God, which is true religion? No more time than to do everything to Gods dishonour.
5. What have we to do with Thee, Thou Son of God? was the question asked by these wretched men, and each of us must ask the same question at different periods of life.E. J. Hardy, M.A.

Mat. 8:34. Christ and the commercial spirit.We may observe:

I. That it is the special mission of Christ to save men from the devil.

1. The devil has possession of man.
2. The devil in the man becomes injurious to him and makes him injurious to all about him.
3. When once the devil gains possession he will not go out; he must be cast out.
4. Christ only can cast out the devil from the human soul.

II. That the salvation of man may involve the destruction of property.This may be an unavoidable consequence of the progress of a good work, or it may be an indirect result following upon a particular case. Thus:

1. Property may lose its value, e.g. the damsel who had the spirit of divination; progress of the gospel destroying the trade of the craftsmen of Ephesus.

2. Property may even be destroyed. The chariots of Egypt; idols of Israel and the nations; goods and cattle of the Amalekites.

III. That it is possible to suppose a state of society in which property is more highly prized than man.The loss of the swine held to be more important than the saving of a man. Is not this the besetting sin of a commercial age? Wealth accumulates and men decay. This is also the characteristic of despotic governmentsTurkey and the East generallyall slaveholders, etc. There are three states of society to which we may direct attention.

1. The slave state. When man can hold property in man.
2. The commercial state. When man regards man as a means of increasing his wealth, as if one class lived for the aggrandisement of another.
3. The Christian state. When man holds property for man, as a trust for humane and benevolent purposes, never to be set against the highest welfare of the race.

IV. That when people prefer property to man, they may well wish to be rid of Christ.Where Jesus is, there are:

1. Sacrifices to be made for the good of others.
2. Efforts to be made for the good of others.
3. Men are to be saved at all risks.

V. That when people show that they prefer wealth to humanity, Christ is not likely to make His abode with them.He gives them up to commerce and devils, since they desire Him to depart from them.

1. May not this be so in a society or church?
2. May not men of business experience a crisis when they must hold their wealth for Christ, or else hold their wealth instead of Christ?
3. How awful the condition of those who prefer wealth and devils to Christ.

Lessons.

1. Set a high value on everything human.
2. Save the human from the diabolical.
3. Let property, and time, and talent, be devoted to this work.
4. Let us be assured that this is the work of Christ, and therefore worthy of us.W. Whale.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Section 17
JESUS FREES THE GADARENE DEMONIACS

(Parallels: Mar. 5:1-20; Luk. 8:26-39)

TEXT: 8:28-9:1

28.

And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, there met him two possessed with demons, coming forth out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man could pass by that way.

29.

And behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?

30.

Now there was afar off from them a herd of many swine feeding.

31.

And the demons besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, send us away into the herd of swine.

32.

And he said unto them, Go. And they came out, and went into the swine: and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep into the sea and perished in the waters.

33.

And they that fed them fled; and went away into the city, and told everything, and what was befallen to them that they were possessed with demons.

34.

And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought Him that he would depart from their borders.

Mat. 9:1.

And he entered into a boat, and crossed over, and came into his own city.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS

From the information given in this text in the speeches of the demons themselves, what is revealed about their nature?

Why did the herd of pigs react so violently?

What is the value of the testimony of those who kept the swine in this incident?

Why should people, whose public enemies numbers one and two had been completely rehabilitated, request their Benefactor to leave? Why, do you think, did Jesus so meekly leave this territory without actively opposing His expulsion? Could He not have reasoned with this superstitious populace and have gained thus entrance into the Decapolis?

Since it was apparently under Jesus orders that the disciples took the boat back to Capernaum with Jesus on board, what does this indicate about Jesus original desire to get away from Capernaum for awhile? (See Notes on Mat. 8:23) Did Jesus change His mind after He left Capernaum? If so, tell the sequence of events which may have led the Lord to decide to return to Capernaum instead of sailing further south on the east side or else landing on the western shore south of Capernaum.

Do you think that we have anything today similar to the demon-possession as described in the Bible? What is the basis for your conclusion?

Why do you suppose the demoniacs lived in the tombs?

Could these demons foretell the future? What makes you think so?

Explain why the men who tended the swine fled.

Do you think the following question is fair: If Jesus is truly just, why then did He permit this loss of property to the owners of the swine? If you think it is fairly stated, answer it; if not, show how it does not justly represent the situation involved. In this latter case, how would you rephrase the question and then answer it?

Why do you think the freed demoniac made the request that he did?

Can you give at least one reason why Jesus sent the man back to his own city to tell them what God had done for him?

How does Jesus technique of sending the freed demoniac back to his own people in the Decapolis, harmonize with Jesus own admission of the general proverb: A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and among his own people? (cf. Luk. 4:24; Mat. 13:57)

From an objective reading of the three synoptic accounts of the demoniacs approach to Jesus, can you decide whether the actions of these two are attributable to the influence of the demons or to the men themselves, as they struggle against the malign influence? For instance, what prompted them to worship Jesus? Would demons have been likely to worship Him? What makes you say so?

If you decide that the demons actually worshipped Jesus through the outward actions of these demoniacs under their influence, what may be learned regarding the respective positions of Jesus and the demons in relationship to each other?

If you decide that the men actually worshipped Jesus in a wild, desperate attempt to seek help in being rid of the demonic influence, then what may be deduced respecting the personal responsibility and control or freedom of anyone who is demon-possessed?

Some suggest that the demons chose to enter the swine with hatred for Jesus and planned to drive the hogs to destruction in a deliberate attempt to discredit Jesus before the local populace through the eradication of the swine herd. If so, could not Jesus have foreseen this and forestalled the consequent rejection by the townspeople? Do you think Jesus was gullible enough to let Himself be tricked by the demons?

Where do you think the ex-demoniacs found the clothes in which they were seen dressed, sitting at Jesus feet, by the time the crowds from the town arrived? Considering their former manner of life under demonic control, their wild, naked existence, would they have been likely to have a suit packed away in one of the tombs? Where did the clothes come from?

Whose idea was it to make the plunge into the lake, the demons or the hogs? Or was this the purpose of neither, hence, an accident?

If you conclude that the demons upon entering the swine had no intention of driving them into the lake, but rather deceived themselves into supposing a peaceful habitation in those animal bodies in order to postpone being hurried into the abyss, are the commentaries right in suggesting that the demons succeeded in thwarting Jesus further work among these people?

PARAPHRASE AND HARMONY

Then, after the calming of the tempest, they arrived on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee (which is opposite the province of Galilee, as you look at it on the map), to the country whose chief Roman city is Jerash or Gerasa. Closer to the sea is the town of Gadara while Gergesa is located on the shore. All three towns have given their name to the territory.
As Jesus came ashore, there met Him two demoniacs from the nearby city who were coming out of the tombs where they lived. For a long time they had worn no clothes and did not stay in a house at all. They were men in the grip of an unclean spirit. They were so violent that none dared use that road anymore. No one had yet been able to subdue them, not even chains could hold them. Many had been the times they had been secured with fetters and lengths of chains but they merely snapped the chains and broken the fetters to pieces and made off for solitary places. No one was able to do anything with them. And so, unceasingly, night and day, they would scream among the tombs and on the hills, gashing themselves with stones.
When they saw Jesus in the distance, they ran and flung themselves down on their knees before Him and worshipped. (Jesus commanded the foul spirit, saying, Come out of him!) Then the demons began yelling at the top of their voices, What business have You here with us; what do You want of us, O Son of the most high God? Have You come here to torment us before the appointed time? For Gods sake, we beg of You, do not torture us!
Jesus questioned him, What is your name? To this, the most prominent demoniac replied, My name is Legion, for there are many of us, for many demons had entered the men. The spirits begged and begged Jesus earnestly not to banish them from the country into the bottomless pit.
In the distance on a hillside there was a large drove of hogs feeding. So the demons begged Jesus, Send us over to the pigs and we will take possession of them! So Jesus gave them permission, saying, Go! and the unclean spirits came out and went into the pigs. The whole herd of about two thousand head stampeded over the edge of the cliff and down the steep slope into the sea, where they were drowned.
When the hog-feeders saw what had taken place, they took to their heels, and made for the town where they poured out the whole story, not forgetting the part about what had happened to the demoniacs. All over the countryside they told the news! Notice that the whole town came out to meet Jesus and to learn what it was that had happened. They saw Him and former demoniacs sitting at Jesus feet clothed properly, and in full control of themselvesthe very ones who had had the legion of demons! The crowds were afraid. Those who had seen the incident told them what had happened to the demon-possessed men and about the tragedy of the pigs. Upon this all the inhabitants of the surrounding country near Jerash began to implore Jesus to get out of their neighborhood; for they were terrified.
When Jesus was boarding the boat, one of the former demoniacs begged Jesus to let him go with Him but Jesus would not allow it but sent him away, saying, Go to your own home and friends and tell them how much God has done for you and how the Lord has had mercy on you.
So the man went all over the town spreading the news of how much Jesus had done for him. He did this, in fact, throughout the Decapolis. Those who heard him were simply amazed.
So, Jesus, boarded the boat and crossed over the lake to the other side and came to His own city of Capernaum.

SUMMARY

After the stilling of the tempest, perhaps even the same evening, Jesus and His disciples landed at Gergesa. They were met on the shore by two demoniacs who recognized Jesus for His divine authority. Jesus cast out the demons, giving them leave to enter a swine herd. The frightened swineherds alerted the local populace to come see what had happened. The superstitious folk unanimously begged Jesus to depart. The chief ex-demoniac pleaded to be permitted to accompany Him, but was sent home to testify to Gods goodness in his behalf.

NOTES

I. THE VIOLENT

Mat. 8:28 And when He was come to the other side of the Sea of Galilee following the stormy crossing, the events occur which follow. However, the time element is not clear since this event follows hard on the stilling of that tempest, which, in turn, took place after the disciples and Jesus set sail when evening had come (Mar. 4:35) This phrase used by Mark (opsas genomnes) must be interpreted according to context to determine just what time is meant, whether before or after sundown. (Arndt-Gingrich, 606) So, if the storm blew the disciples in an easterly direction, like the wind after the feeding of the five thousand (cf. Joh. 6:17 with Mar. 6:48), it would not be impossible for them to have arrived at Gerasene shore not too long before sunset, Thus, the freeing of the demoniacs possibly took place that evening. Rejected by the native population, Jesus and His disciples either slept in the boat for the return trip to Capernaum, or else slept on the beach where the local people found them the next morning and asked them to leave.

to the country of the Gadarenes. A quick survey of the parallel texts in various translations will reveal divergent names for this area. The Greek texts are not much more help, although there is a firmer consensus of opinion among the editors of Greek texts that Matthews original wording was Gadarenes while that of Mark and Luke was Gerasenes. This apparent confusion is due to the error of scribes, seeking to correct what was thought to be an error in an earlier manuscript, when they had the correct original reading in hand. The country of the Gadarenes is the political territory around Gadara, the chief city having jurisdiction over the land on the southeast side of the Sea of Galilee. This could certainly include the lesser town, Gergesa, a name also found in the manuscripts at this place. Gadara was one of the well-known cities of the great Decapolis city much farther away from the Galilean Sea to the south-east about 30 air-miles. Or, this latter name may be a pronunciation variant of the word Gergesa, found in the manuscripts. (See ISBE 1217b) Barnes (Matthew, 91) notes that these different names simply prove that the Evangelists are not deceivers, since, were they imposters attempting a hoax, they would have sought to agree! But their testimony is the more valuable, since this divergency demonstrates that these independent witnesses knew their land!

One fact stands out clearly: as will be seen from the map, the Arabic name Khersa or Kurseh clings to the ruins of a city mentioned by McGarvey (Lands, 328). At the southern side of the mouth of a deep ravine through the eastern mountains called Wady Samakh are to be found these remains. McGarvey describes the area:

Immediately south of (Khersa) rises a rocky mountain penetrated by tombs, which extends more than a mile along the lake-shore, at first leaving a plain more than a quarter of a mile wide between its base and the waters edge, but finally projecting one of its spurs close to the shore. Here, as Captain Wilson has clearly shown, must be the place where the hogs into which the demons entered ran violently down a steep place into the sea. (Mat. 8:32) He says: About a mile south of this (Khersa), the hills, which everywhere else on the eastern side are recessed from a half to three-quarters of a mile from the waters edge, approach within 40 feet of it; they do not terminate abruptly, but there is a steep, even slope, which we would identify with the steep place down which the herd of swine ran violently into the sea, and so were choked. . . . It is equally evident, on an examination of the ground, that there is only one place on that side where the herd of swine could have run down a steep place into the lake, the place mentioned above.

Angry, fear-filled eyes had been following the progress of the boat in which Jesus and the Apostles had crossed the Sea of Galilee. Apprehension grew in the two as the boat bearing the Son of God drew nearer and nearer the shore. As the Creator and Lord of heaven, earth and hell stepped ashore, the two watchers ran to accost Him. There met Him two possessed with demons, coming forth out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man could pass that way. See the Paraphrase-Harmony for the full description of their terrible case. Mark (Mar. 5:6) intimates that from their home in the tombs, from a distance, the demoniacs had watched Jesus and the disciples disembark. Now they run to Him, fling themselves on the ground at His feet and worship. (Luk. 8:28) Here is tragedy; these men belonged to the city (Luk. 8:27), but they came out of the tombs.

Out of the tombs is probably not intended to suggest that the demoniacs became such by some league with the devil through communication or companionship with the dead, for Luke (Luk. 8:27) states the natural antithesis of this abode thus; He lived not in a house, but in the tombs.

However, see Isa. 65:4 which connects base idolatry with sitting in graves. Is there some connecting link between idolatry, necromancy and demon possession? The gods of the Gentiles are called demons. (See Deu. 32:17; Psalms 106; Psalms 36-37; Rev. 9:20; 1Co. 10:20-21) False religions are also connected with demons. (1Ti. 4:1; 1Jn. 4:3-6; 2Th. 2:2-3; 2Th. 2:9-12; 1Co. 12:10; Rev. 16:13-14; 1Ki. 22:22-23; Zec. 13:2)

The hillside between the ruins of modern Khersa (Gergesa?) and the spur closest to the sea is literally studded with natural and hewn caves which were used as tombs. These two demoniacs were able from their shelter in the tombs to hinder passage along the road that followed the seacoast by rushing out screaming, terrorizing all who attempted to use the road.

Two possessed with demons. This alleged contradiction with Mark and Luke who mention only one demoniac is a simple difference in style of writing, since there are several cases where Matthew speaks of two persons or things in a given situation, while the other two Synoptic authors, in describing the same situation, mention only one. (See McGarvey, Evidences of Christianity, III, 57) Obviously, Mark and Luke mention only the more fierce of the two, while Matthew objectively describes the total picture. In addition, the other two authors do not affirm that there was only one demoniac; hence, there is no contradiction.

Demons. For fuller notes on Demons, see the special study Notes on Demon Possession by Seth Wilson in THE GOSPEL OF MARK by Johnson-DeWelt, pp. 509513, with its selected bibliography. The very mention of demons brings us moderns to an immediate crisis of conscience: here before us are records that purport to be true, which includes the assertions that Jesus Christ talked with, and cast out of their human victims, certain spiritual beings of which there is very limited scientific knowledge today. Did Jesus really cast out demons?

Assuming the accounts which record this phenomenon are false, we can have no certain knowledge about Jesus, since there are no objective grounds whereby the accounts themselves can safely be excised from the total record without destroying the fabric of the whole testimony of each Evangelist that mentions Jesus casting out of demons. Only the subjective presupposition that demons do not exist (a prejudice in itself) has been perilously offered. (See special study on miracles at the end of chapter nine.) Foster (syllabus in loc.) lists the following radical explanations offered by some:

The whole story is a myth. But there is just not time historically available for the development of the legend between the supposed occurrence of the facts and the writing of the record and its reception by hundreds of witnesses who both knew the facts and could testify to the contrary, were that necessary.

The freeing of the man from the demon and the peoples rejection of Jesus are true but the swine detail is a later, untrue addition. Again, there is no objective evidence, textual or otherwise, of any addition.

The demoniacs frightened the swine: thus the supposed transfer of the demons into the swine was imagined. But again Jesus own words are proof against this: He permitted the demons to go. Nor is there any evidence that the demons left the men with such a paroxysm so great as to scare the hogs.

The drowning of the swine and the casting out of the demons are simultaneous events with no connection between them. However the inspired Apostles record the connection, for they were eyewitnesses and could not confuse hearsay reports about the two events.

The demons were just mentally insane, whom Jesus humored by granting permission to imaginary demons to enter the swine, giving rise to the fable of the demons entering the swine so producing their destruction. Explain, please, the two thousand dead hogs bobbing up and down in the water.

Thus we are compelled to reject not merely the objectionable parts of the narrative that do not suit our preconceptions, but rather the narrative in its totality, since there is no sure method whereby we can safely reject one part of the eyewitness testimony and accept any other part. Further, we must admit that the record is free from the influence of popular Jewish ideas. Edersheim (Life, I, 480485, also Vol. II and appendix XIII, p. 748763 and appendix XVI, 770776) demonstrates that it is not merely deceiving, but totally untrue to assert that these reports are tainted with the ideas prevalent in that superstitious age. These reports are just as different from the ideas that Judaism expressed on demons and demon possession as the difference between empty superstition and what is sober, credible history. (See also ISBE article, 828, 829.) We are driven to:

Assume the accounts which contain the reports of demon possession and the casting out of demons are true, But even the assumption that the accounts are true, does not free us from responsibility to weigh carefully this evidence. For:

Either Jesus did not know demons did not exist.

In this case He was Himself deceived, for He actually thought He was casting them out, which, in fact, He never did.

And He is as ignorant and superstitious as the people He pretended to teach and help.

Or else Jesus knew that demons did not exist.

In this case He is a conscious deceiver, since He continually went through the motions of casting out demons, encouraged His disciples to believe that they too had the power to do the same (Mat. 10:8); scolded them for their failure to do so (Mat. 17:14-21). He Himself claimed to cast them out and gave God thanks for this power (Luk. 10:17-18; Luk. 10:21) as well as argued on the basis of the actual fact, not the hypothesis, that He had so done. (Mat. 12:27-29)

Even a theory that describes Jesus as accommodating Himself to the popular superstitions of the day, in order to deal with what modern scientific knowledge would term an unbalanced mental condition, manias, insanity, etc. leaves Jesus under the morally fatal charge of deception, by permitting even His closest disciples to remain under the old delusion. He is hereby to be charged with withholding vital information from us on so important a subject in the modern period.

Or else Jesus knew that demons exist and dealt with them accordingly.

But Jesus did not treat demoniacs as merely sick, nor demons themselves as another disease, although when the demons were gone out of their victims, who had shown also characteristics of disease, the demoniacs were well.

Nor did Jesus treat demons as mere sins. There is no evidence that He regarded demoniacs as particularly guilty, beyond other sinners.

However, Edersheim (Life, I, 481) argues that there is no evidence for permanent possession or that the demonized were under constant power of the demon. An illustration of this is the impression of a sudden influence in the demoniac in the Capernaum synagogue as if occasioned by the demons reacting to the spiritual effect of the words or Person of Jesus (Mar. 1:21-28). Consider also the epileptic demonized boy (Mat. 17:14-21; Mar. 9:14-29, esp. Mar. 9:18; Luk. 9:39). The boy was possessed from childhood (Mar. 9:21). Accordingly, says Edersheim (op cit., 484), this fact establishes a moral element, since, during the period of their temporary liberty, the demonized might have shaken themselves free from the overshadowing power, or sought release from it. Is Jesus discussing demonology when He taught that when the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none, whereupon he returns with seven other spirits more evil than himself? (Mat. 12:43 f)

Jesus dealt with demons as spirits who inhabited the body and governed the mind of human beings. He addressed them as evil visitors from the spirit world whose malignant control over those made in Gods image roused His indignation and sympathy.

There met him two demoniacs, but Jesus saw them as men:

Violently antisocial: they lived not in a house but in the tombs, fierce, night and day among the tombs and on the mountains, driven by the demon into the desert.

Indomitable: None could bind him any more with fetters and chains, no one had the strength to subdue him,

Extremely tormented to the point of brutal self-abuse: he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones,

Unclean spirit (Mar. 5:2) Up to this point one might have pointed to natural mania or some other violent insanity. Here the line is sharply drawn, for the man was the vile home of other personalities who were destroying him.

There met him two demoniacs, and Jesus met them. He stood His ground calmly while the fiercest, wildest beings alive ran, screaming toward Him. He had earlier been charged by the Pharisees with being the very incarnation of Satans power, but now is the moment of truth as He stands calmly awaiting the most terrifying conflict with naked evil, What thoughts race through the minds of the disciples as these frightening figures rush toward their Master? The Apostles worst nightmare was occurring in broad daylight. They probably did not run because Jesus did not. When Jesus is in this thing, we are not to panic regardless of the danger or fear we feel! The Pharisees had snarled that Jesus had some secret agreement with the Devil. This calumny is about to be brought to its most startling test.

II. THE VANQUISHED

The two demoniacs ran and worshipped Him (Mar. 5:6). But why? Who really did this: the demons or the men themselves?

a. If the demons worshipped Jesus, then out of what motives?

(1)

Recognition of their real Master, greater than Satan, and their final Judge for eternity? (See on Mat. 8:29)

(2)

McGarvey (Matthew-Mark, 289) supposed two malignant purposes:

(a)

The demons perhaps used cunning flattery and fawning to dissuade Jesus from casting them into the abyss;

(b)

By pretending friendship between themselves and Jesus, they could hope maliciously to injure His cause, and show thereby that the wicked calumny of the Pharisees was true.

If the men worshipped Jesus, then this could be seen as a desperate bid for freedom against the awful possession which seemed unending. But, how could two mere men recognize in Jesus the potential Savior when they terrorized all others who passed that way? Or, did Jesus personal calm tame their habitual fierceness by showing them a reaction never before experienced, and in their surprise they are reduced to abject submission? Did Jesus moral courage temporarily restrain the demons, giving their victims opportunity to express themselves thus? Could it be that the demons fear of Gods Son was communicated to the harried minds of their victims?

In this same general connection, it will be seen in the Gospel narratives several apparently contradictory elements in the speech of the demoniacs, both in frequent changes from singular to plural and vice versa as well as changes from the man who seems to be speaking, to the demons who use the mans voice to speak their will. Edersheim (Life, I, 608f.) deals with these phenomena thus:

In calling attention to this and similar particulars, we repeat that this must be kept in view as characteristic of the demonized, that they were incapable of separating their own consciousness and ideas from the influence of the demon, their own identity being merged, and to that extent, lost, in that of their tormentors . . . The language and conduct of the demonized, whether seemingly his own, or that of the demons who influenced him, must always be regarded as a mixture of the Jewish-human and the demoniacal. The demonized speaks and acts as a Jew under the control of a demon. Thus, if he chooses solitary places by day and tombs by night, it is not that demons really preferred such habitations but that the Jews imagined it, and that the demons, acting on the existing consciousness, would lead him, in accordance with his preconceived notions, to select such places . . . The demonized would speak and act in accordance with his previous (Jewish) demonological ideas. He would not become a new man, but be the old man, only under the influence of the demon.

This note argues the difficulty of deciding whether the men themselves worshipped Jesus or whether it were the demons, since their self-identity was lost in that of the other. As Mark (Mar. 5:9) and Luke (Luk. 8:30) say, Jesus endeavored to bring out the slightest possible trace of the demonized mens self-identity, but the answer reveals the depth of the confusion of the mans consciousness with that of the demons.

Mat. 8:29 And behold they cried out, What have we to do with thee thou Son of God? The report of Mark and Luke includes Jesus personal name and describes God as the Most High God, Plummer (Luke, 229) believes that this expression as a description of God given by the demons, rather indicates that the man was not a Jew, and there is some evidence the owners of the swine were not Jews, The Most High (Elyon) is a name for Jehovah which seems to be usual among heathen nations, His references cited are Gen. 14:20; Gen. 14:22; Num. 24:16; Mic. 6:6; Isa. 14:14; Dan. 3:26; Dan. 4:2; Dan. 4:24; Dan. 4:32; Dan. 5:18; Dan. 5:21; Dan. 7:18; Dan. 7:22; Dan. 7:25; Dan. 7:27; Act. 16:17. However, some of these are statements by Daniel not necessarily directed to heathens or spoken even for Gentile ears, even though stated within a Babylonian context, as Plummer notes. Further, see Stephens thoroughly Jewish sermon, (Act. 7:48) and many other undoubted Jewish references in the OT (Psa. 7:17; Psa. 78:35; Deu. 32:8; 2Sa. 22:14 etc.) Thus, the demoniacs could well have been very Jewish indeed.

Jesus, thou Son of God. It is remarkable that these denizens of hell refer to Jesus in terms totally contrasting with the common Jewish expectations regarding the Messiah. (See additional references to Jewish views made by Edersheim at Mat. 8:28 under A.) Further, they use terms that even Jesus had not publicized as often as His use of the title Son of man, even though He accepted and used the term Son of God as true concerning Himself on other occasions. This fact immediately gives the lie to the possibility that these anachronistic terms were mythologically originated or else derived from supposed Jewish parallels. The point is that these demons, then, really did know Jesus! (cf. Mar. 1:24) They, however, are not the proper witnesses by which Jesus would have His identity proclaimed, even though these supernatural voices from the spirit-world provide corroboratory testimony.

What have we to do with thee, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time? Here the personal testimony of the demons clarifies the true relationship between themselves and Jesus, and, at the same time, shows that they recognized Jesus authority above that of Satan:

By their cries to be let alone. But, let alone to do what? They preferred their past course to be far better than any temporary or permanent judgment Jesus would bring.

By their denial of all connection with Jesus: What have we to do with thee? (T hemn ka so) means what do we have in common? What is there between us that unites us in a common bond? Nothing! (See other examples: 2Sa. 16:10; Joh. 2:4) Here the demons implicitly declare the total lack of connection between Jesus and themselves. Now none could make the mistake of supposing that Jesus casts out demons with Satans blessing and aid.

By their expressed understanding that He had the right to cast them into abyss. Have you come here to torment us before the time? There is no question in their minds about the torment: for them it is but a question of timing. It is a fair question whether this pained question by the demons, which is reported by Mark and Luke as an earnest pleading and, ironically, an adjuration by God, be further illuminated by the demons later entreaty not to command them to depart into the abyss (Luke). That is, are these latter requests an expression of the demons understanding of the meaning of the torment feared? The time referred to can be no other than Gods final vindication of His wrath against all rebellion in His creation. (cf. Mat. 25:41; 2Pe. 2:4; Jud. 1:6; Rev. 12:12.) They are sure of the torment. (cf. Luk. 16:23; Luk. 16:25; Luk. 16:28; Rev. 14:10-11; Rev. 20:10)

This adjuration, I adjure you by God, do not torment me. (Mar. 5:7 b) probably represents the desire of the demons, but expressed in the conscious thought-form of the Jewish speakers, since the men are so confusedly identified with them. (For similar form of adjuration see Mat. 26:63. For an example of exorcism by use of this same formula, see Act. 19:13.)

The abyss (Luk. 8:31) is a figure used in the OT for ocean depths (Psa. 33:7; Psa. 77:16; Psa. 107:26) or even deep fountains (Deu. 8:7) which gives the figurative picture of anything deep out of which immediate or easy escape or access is impossible. Thus, by the time of the NT period, it became a figure of the depths, of the underworld, in the sense of the abode of the dead (Rom. 10:7); the dungeon where the devil is kept (Rev. 20:3), abode of the beast (Rev. 11:7; Rev. 17:8), of Abaddon (Rev. 9:11). But in Revelation the abyss denotes only the abode of evil spirits, although not the place of final punishment, since it is apparently distinguished from the lake of fire and brimstone wherein the beast and false prophet are thrown alive and into which the Devil is to be finally cast (Rev. 19:20; Rev. 20:10). (See ISBE, article abyss, 26, 27; Arndt-Gingrich, 2)

Out of the country (x ts chras) may be the antithesis in the demons mind with do not send us into the abyss, meaning do not send us out of the district of this earth into the abyss, But this phrase is also perfectly consonant with the confusion, in the demonized wretches, of their interests with those of the demons: he does not wish to leave his home country to be sent into the unknown. Edersheim (Life, I, 612) supposes this means that the demons desired to remain in Gilead too, and gained their purpose through the permission to go into the hogs. But the destruction of the hogs frustrated this, although it is left unknown whether the demons yet had to go into the abyss or were left wandering homeless throughout the Decapolis.

By their overt acts of worship, the demons vigorously expressed their recognition of Jesus authority. This focuses more clearly an answer to an earlier question: who worshipped Jesusthe demons or the men? Perhaps both, but certainly it is the demons that expect the final triumph of Christ!

By their implicit knowledge that it was useless for them to fight or flee, though they were an obvious numerical majority, while He was only One against a Legion. Though they had easily overpowered humans and terrorized the countryside, they stood calmly bowed before Jesus of Nazareth, knowing that their only respite could be gained through parley.

By their parleying for another place of abode, in place of banishment to the abyss, they reveal the almost certain knowledge that He could and would cast them out. This is more than insanity: this supernatural knowledge comes out of the spirit world.

This protest shouted by the demons is the expressed admission that the demons themselves stand in the presence of Gods Holy One, before Whom all the powers of moral destruction cannot hold their peace: they must speak and confess their subjection and doom. It is unnecessary for Jesus to discuss or debate with these evil spirits. It is sufficient for them that Jesus is the Christ: He had already won the victory. Now it was merely a question of what to do with the captives! James words (Mat. 2:19) ring true: The demons believeand shudder! In another connection McGarvey comments: Let the sinner listen to that cry and learn what is to be under the domination of Satan.

At this point, Mark and Luke report that Jesus asked the principle demoniac, What is your name? His answer was: My name is Legion; for we are many, for many demons had entered him. Note the changes from singular to plural. Legion: There is no necessary connection between the usual size of a Roman legion, 40005000 men, and the actual number of demons in the two demoniacs. Edersheim (Life, I, 612) offers as a suitable translation of Legion a purely Jewish expression representing a large number, an idea more general than, strictly, a Roman legion. Who answered therefore, the man speaking for himself or the demons? Probably the demons spoke, still being in control, since it was not until they were ejected that that mans own rationality returns, showing itself in reasonable speech. (Mar. 5:18-20; Luk. 8:38-39) But why did Jesus ask the man his name?

Perhaps Jesus was trying to draw out of the human being himself all the human identification He could possibly reach. Had this demoniac so completely lost his original identity with his family and the society from which he had come, that, as far as he was concerned, his own true name was completely blotted out from his disordered existence? If so, it is because he must see that he is a person, once free from, and even now not permanently bound to, the demons.

Perhaps to reveal the name of the demons to His Apostles. But if so, for what future purpose? Was it to expose the demons vulnerability to His men, who would later cast them out? If so, these disciples must learn that even the fiercest of these spirits from the unseen world, however strong or numerous they may be, they are all subject to Jesus world and to those who stand against the demons in Jesus name!

Plummer (Matthew, 134), placing emphasis upon Jesus human nature, suggests that He asked him for information, since Jesus may have chosen not to know by supernatural insight. If so, this question becomes another manifestation of the historical dependability of the narrative, since it would seem to imply some ignorance (even though willed) on the part of Christ, which the Evangelists, on the basis of apologetic motives, would have sought to remove. Any sharp-eyed critic can see the scandalous character that would be pictured for Jesus among those who do not understand His unique incarnation.

Mat. 8:30 Now there was afar off from them a herd of many swine feeding. Two thousand head of swine (Mar. 5:13) were feeding on the hill overlooking the Sea of Galilee about a mile south of modern Khersa. (See map of the Sea and notes on Mat. 8:28) But what were so many pigs doing in Jewish country? But that is just the point: this was not merely Jewish territory, but rather the sub-territories of the famous independent cities of the Greek Decapolis. (Mar. 5:20) It may well be that that herd of swine represents Greek contempt for Jewish prejudices. Yet, since this event occurred within the tetrarchy of Philip, the owners of these swine could well be Jews, seeking profits from Gentile purchasers. They could have justified themselves, whining, But we dont eat the stuff! We just grow the hogs and sell the pork to the heathen neighbors!

Mat. 8:31 And the demons besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, send us away into the herd of swine. If thou cast us out is no expression of doubt, since Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to depart (Mar. 5:8; Luk. 8:29). It is rather a dickering device, whereby the demons can escape their worst fears and yet hope to pacify Jesus. They did not instantly obey Jesus command, since they began to protest and barter instead of leaving. This fact, too, demonstrates the trustworthiness of the record, since the Apostles would probably have tried to cover up the obvious disobedience to Jesus commands.

Send us into the swine. Why did they make this strange request? Several answers are possible:

They did not ask to be sent into other humans, Such a request would be self-defeating, as they would only be cast out again.

They apparently did not wish to remain disembodied. (cf. Mat. 12:43-45). If so, this suggests their inability to read the future, since they probably would not have made this request had they been able to foresee the outcome that ensued. Desperate to have a home, any home but the abyss, they seized upon those brute beasts which they probably must have surmised to be less precious to Jesus.

It might be that they requested this with malicious intent, surmising, from the damage that they had been able to do while inhabiting the two humans, that they could turn the swine into savage beasts, hence, damage Jesus reputation. It would thereby appear that this Benefactor brings no unmixed blessings.

To any who would reject any of these reasons on the basis of the fact that the demons, in driving the herd into the sea, defeated their own supposed purpose, let it be noticed that nowhere is it stated that the demons drove the herd anywhere. What we see in the hogs action is THEIR decision, not that of the demons! If it be asked why the demons, who had so obviously taken men under control, could not have prevented the swine from destroying themselves, thus disembodying the demons again, it might be suggested that the demons could not control these beasts without as much intelligence or will power as men. The hogs turned savagely wild, ran the easiest direction i.e. downhill and the herd found the lake in its path and could neither turn nor stop.

Mat. 8:32 And he said unto them, Go. And they came out and went into the swine: and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep into the sea, and perished in the waters. Down the steep slope that fell away toward the road that skirted the seacoast. For a description of the land, see on Mat. 8:28 and ISBE, 1166a. This was not necessarily a sheer precipice, as some artists draw it. Mark notes that the herd numbered about two thousand. There is no necessary connection between the number of demons i.e. Legion Roman legion of 40005000 men, and the size of the herd. Actually, just a few wild hogs could stampede the whole herd. There is no need to seek a harmony between 2000 hogs and 4000 demons, since no Gospel writer affirms the latter figure.

And he said to them, Go. Whether this word be construed as mere permission or as a repeated command (cf. Mar. 5:8 and Luk. 8:29), by its use Jesus unleashed the demons to go their chosen path. But by the same word, Jesus unleashed another storm of controversy among modern scholars about His right to say it. The moral problem, it is said, lies around the question: How could Jesus allow this destruction of personal property which did not belong to Him? How could Jesus have permitted the demons to have what they requested without becoming also morally responsible for the damage that was produced? Several answers have been suggested:

If evil blinds its victims to hinder them from considering all possibilities in a real world, could the demons have foreseen the reaction of the hogs, that, finding themselves in the fearful grip of this horrible power, rushed around in wild panic until, against the will of the demons, they plunged further and more wildly down the hill to their destruction? Thus, the demons, victims themselves of the deception of evil, had not foreseen the frustration of their desire, as Jesus could well have planned.

Would Jesus, thus, have been so short-sighted and gullible as to have accepted so apparently benign and harmless a plan as the demons proposed? Did He not, rather, foresee both the destruction of the herd and the frustration of the demons? Otherwise, would He not have simply demanded the immediate passage of the demons into the abyss? As it is, He accomplishes a double purpose of His own, presuming that His permission was a judgment upon the swine owners too. If these latter were Jews, then they were violating the spirit of Moses Law in keeping swine, (See Lev. 11:7-8; Isa. 65:3-5; Isa. 66:3; Isa. 66:17) Jesus permission to destroy the herd becomes to them a shocking reminder of duty to God.

Another suggestion describes Jesus permission as like Gods general permission of all evil and all evils till the end of all evil. God permits tornadoes, floods, animal diseases and other natural disasters to destroy herds or portions thereof every year. Hence these owners had no more right to complain than other owners who lose animals to whatever cause.

Others say that, as Creator of the universe, Jesus had a right to do what He wished with His own. The local owners of the swine were but temporary stewards of their possessions, whereas the Owner of the world suddenly chose to liquidate His swine holdings. What is so unusual about this act of God incarnate? (See Psa. 50:10-12) Is it not He who gives and He who takes away, in order that thereby He may bless His children? (Study Job. 1:21-22) Why should He not decide to destroy the mans herd of hogs in order to give him a brother for whom to care? Plummer is right in saying (Matthew, 133), Brutes and private property may be sacrificed where the sanity and safety of human beings is concerned. The slaughter of these brute beasts, were it personally willed by Jesus Himself (of which there is, of course, no proof), is of no relative importance compared with the saving of the souls of two men! As God, Jesus could dispose of His own possessions as He choose, and what human subject could object?

Those who see a real moral difficulty here and thereby endeavor to reduce Jesus to a mere man, face the equally great difficulty involved in succeeding. For if they can reduce Jesus to a mere man, He could not have foreseen this destruction and cannot be blamed anyway! Thus, the answer to the apparent dilemma lies elsewhere.

Trench (Miracles, 102) suggests an interesting principle that is worth studying:

To the evil all things turn to evil. The wicked Satan (Job. 1:11) and his ministers are sometimes heard, and the very granting of their petitions issues in their worst confusion and loss. (Num. 22:20; Num. 22:35; Jos. 13:22; Psa. 78:29-31) So it is now: the prayer of these evil spirits was heard but only to their ruin. They are allowed to enter the swine; but the destruction of the whole herd follows . . . they defeated their own purpose . . . there reveals itself here the very essence and truest character of evil, which evermore outwits and defeats itself. . . . In seeking applications of this principle, it would be well to be aware of the fact that not all evil turns to evil immediately. Some evil men seem to succeed to turning all things to good during their lifetime. (cf. Job 21) These inequities will, however, be rectified at the judgment.

III. THE VILLAGERS

Mat. 8:33 And they that fed them fled, and went away into the city. If our identification of the site of Gerasa, or Gergesa, as the location of the steep place is correct, then the herdsmen had about a mile to run. But why flee? What reaction is more natural, when the herd you are watching as it calmly roots or rests, suddenly begins to squeal and bellow, then rushes headlong down the slope into the lake below? You can give no normal explanation for this mad dash of the drowned herd now only so many corpses floating at the shore. You were charged with the safe care of this valuable herd. Why not run? But why flee to the town to shout the news of the herds destruction? Who would believe the fantastic story about Jesus and the demoniacs?

They fled out of fear of the unknown: What had really caused the inexplicable actions of the hogs? Were they demonized? If there were spirits in the neighborhood, it is best to leave the place!

Fear of the consequences to the swineherds themselves if other mouths brought the owner word. It is better to tell it yourself than let him find out about it himself: he could hold you liable and punish severely.

But the swineherds were also eyewitnesses of the whole event. They had seen the whole proceeding. The still air of the quiet countryside had been pierced by the shrieks of the demoniacs as they approached Jesus, drawing also the interest and attention of these swineherds. So they told everything and what was befallen to them that were possessed with demons. It was this message about the casting out of the demons that was foremost upon their lips as they rushed through the town shouting the news, It was the one fact that would lend credibility to their story about the swine.

Mat. 8:34 And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart from their borders. All the city means the majority of its inhabitants, as we say, Everybody and his dog was there, although we never mean the absolute totality of any population. The people had come:

to meet Jesus, because the swineherds had testified that it was Jesus that had cast out the demons. There could be no doubt that He possessed unlimited, supreme power.

to see what it was that had happened. (Mar. 5:14 b) This was for these citizens a time of severe testing even though they probably did not realize it.

To the demoniacs. The very fact, that these their own fellow citizens had been delivered from Satans bondage, should have signaled beyond doubt to the gathered crowd that Gods Kingdom had suddenly come among them. (cf. Mat. 12:28 and Act. 14:8-13 for a true pagan reaction) They were being tested whether they would hold all else cheap in comparison to the victory and joy at the release of two human beings, Gods creatures and their townsmen. Was it to be nothing to them that the former demoniacs now freed, were sitting at Jesus feet, clothed and in their right mind?

The expression in his right mind certainly implies that the demoniacs had been insane, which is correct. McGarvey (Matthew-Mark, 292) comments wisely: This detracts nothing from the reality of demon possession; it only shows that the presence of the foreign spirit within a man disturbed, as from the nature of the case it must, the normal workings of his own spirit.

And to the swine. The corpses bobbing up and down in the lake gave tangibility to the story told by the swineherds, who according to Mark and Luke, undoubtedly repeated their testimony to all comers.

And when they saw Jesus, they besought him that he would depart from their borders. They knew that He could not be treated indifferently nor safely ignored: they must decide. They chose to ask Him to leave! Why?

Did they fear the loss of more property? Was it that they considered the loss of only two thousand hogs of more importance than the restoration of two men to useful life as citizens of their town? If so, what a horrid warped sense of values! Can it be that they would hold fast to the most forbidden sins, the most despicable life and the most perishable property, rather than rejoice in the presence of Jesus and the happiness, peace and blessing He brings?

Luke (Luk. 8:37; cf. Mar. 5:15; Luk. 8:35) emphasizes the depth of their fear: (they) asked him to depart from them; for they were seized with great fear. (Study Luk. 5:8; Luk. 8:25 for similar responses.) These sinners, when they had sized up the whole picture of Jesus, the freed demoniacs, the dead swine, they realized they were standing in the presence of naked super-naturalism, in the presence of sheer otherworld power. They stood on the battlefield of a spiritual-world and it unnerved them. These sinners stood in the presence of Jesus, the Holy One, the Son of the Most High God. But their gross ignorance of His mission of mercy and help to earth hindered them from understanding Gods power and holiness. They found Gods holiness incarnate, standing in their presence, intolerable, so they asked Jesus to leave. What other consequences would follow in their lives if He were allowed to remain? If illegal hogs could be destroyed in a flash, what would He do in their personal lives? Would they too soon be visited for their own many sins? Their own fear and guilt is the pain of their sinfulness in the presence of Gods holiness, and it blinds them to Gods mercy. (Cf. Job. 21:14 where the same words reflect not so much fear as rebellion.) Perhaps the only reason none dare present Jesus with a bill for the payment for the destroyed swine is both secret acknowledgement of His right to have destroyed the animals and fear to admit the ownership of the illegal animals. Besides their suspicions, and proof He did it was circumstantial. Only the swineherds had seen the facts but perhaps had not heard the direct connection between Jesus permission to the demons and the destruction of the hogs.

Plummer (Matthew, 134) points out that this request of the inhabitants is a guarantee for the general trustworthiness of the narrative. Fiction would have made the inhabitants anxious to detain Him that He might work other wonderful cures, where He was regarded, not as a dangerous magician, but as a great prophet,, . .

IV. THE VALIANT

Mark and Luke narrate the anxious clinging of the freed demoniac to Jesus, Just as Jesus was boarding the boat to depart, the man begged Him that he might accompany Him. Here occurs one of the starkest lessons of discipleship: Jesus refused his request, even though so natural and apparently so needful, Why did Jesus do it? Edersheim (Life, I, 614). puts it so poignantly:

It would have seemed to him, as if he could not bear to lose his new found happiness; as if there were calm, safety and happiness only in His Presence; not far from Himnot among those wild mountains and yet wilder men. Why should he be driven from His fellowship, who had so long been an outcast from that of his fellow-men, and why again left to himself? So, perhaps, should we have reasoned and spoken; so too often do we reason and speak, as regards ourselves or those we love. Not so He Who appoints alike our discipline and our work. To go back, now healed, to his own, and publish there, in the citynay, through the whole of the large district of the. . . . Decapolishow great things Jesus had done for him, such was henceforth to be his life-work. In this there would be both safety and happiness.

All of his fear, that the demons, in the absence of Jesus their Master, might return to repossess their former victims, then, diminishes in the mans confidence that Jesus command to return home has become his assurance that Jesus authority is complete. The demons will not return: he is safe even with Jesus gone. So long as the man is engaged in this mission on which Jesus sends him, his safety is guaranteed. If he fears the unfriendly populace which had rejected his Savior, then Jesus command to evangelize them, to take the offensive, is his best defense. If his desire is to accompany Jesus as a close disciple out of deep gratitude for his salvation, Jesus indicates the direction his discipleship and gratitude must take: Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord God has done for you and how He has had mercy on you. (Mar. 5:19; Luk. 8:39)

Note that both Evangelists record that the man did go home and told how much JESUS had done for him. The theological connections between God and Jesus might not have been crystal clear to the man yet, but he could speak in concrete terms about the power of Jesus.
Contrast this commission given by Jesus to this ex-demoniac to go tell what God had done for him, with the injunctions to silence given to others:

This area is not Galilee but Gilead, less thickly populated and less excitable by Messianic rumors. Also Jesus had not yet worked here and needed this mans enthusiastic pre-campaign advertising here, not over in Galilee to which Jesus was soon to return.

The others healed by Jesus needed more inner reflection upon Gods great action on their behalf in order to learn deeper appreciation of Gods power and goodness. As Jesus disciples, they needed to learn submission and self-control. But this ex-demoniac needed immediate association with people, to reenter human society once more. He needed to be drawn out of himself, out of his lonely environment into usefulness to his fellows. Jesus knew that by his public proclamation of Gods mercies this man could certainly maintain the spiritual health with which Jesus left him. (Psa. 66:16)

Jesus laid no unnecessary burdens of great sacrificial discipleship upon the man. He restored him immediately to his family and, friends. He sent him home (Mar. 5:19; Luk. 8:39) and to go home and work for Jesus was just as much obedience as for others to leave home to work for the Master! (Luk. 9:59-62)

Read the enthusiastic reports of Mark and Luke about the mans ministry, or should we say, that mans obedience after the disappointment of not being permitted to join Jesus immediate company!. He went away and began proclaiming throughout the whole city, nay, in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all men marveled. Oh my soul, can I take no for an answer from Jesus and still love Him and go right on preaching His Word where He is largely an unknown, rejected miracle-worker from Galilee?

It is easy to think of the valiant Twelve who remained by Jesus in His ministry and suffering; but they are also valiant servants of God who go it alone, knowing only that Jesus wills it? This mans preaching must have been tremendously effective, since everyone could remember him as the mighty terror of Gerasa. But now he was the living monument to the power and mercy of God in Jesus of Nazareth! No wonder he succeeded: his mission method was personal witnessing to the change wrought in his own life.

V. THE VICTOR

Mat. 9:1 And he entered into a boat, and crossed over, and came into his city. To entitle this section which describes Jesus retreat from Decapolis the Victor, would seem to some exaggerated, since Jesus obviously accepts the fear-filled request of the selfish, superstitious villagers as sufficient reason to leave. But this is to forget the total picture painted by the three Evangelists: Calmly Jesus had stepped out of the boat to face the fiercest inhabitants of the Decapolis. The mere fact that He was the Christ was itself victory, and the demons must confess their submission and condemnation. With but one final authoritative word, He drove the unclean spirits from their victims. Against His ultimate command there was no appeal. What had been proved thereby? Edersheim answers so picturesquely (Life, I, 613):

He that had erst been the possession of foul and evil spiritsa very legion of themand deprived of his human individuality, is now sitting at the feet of Jesus, learning of Him, clothed and in his right mind. He has been brought to God, restored to self, to reason, and to human societyall this by Jesus, at Whose Feet he is gratefully, humbly sitting, a disciple. Is He not then the Very Son of God? Viewing this miracle, as an historical fact, viewing it as a parabolic Miracle, viewing it also as symbolic of what has happened in all agesis He not the Son of the Most High God? And is there not now, on His part, in the morning light the same calmness and majesty of conscious Almighty Power as on the evening before, when He rebuked the storm and calmed the sea?

But what is so victorious about His retreat? Here is written the meekness of the Son of God. He could have mustered all manner of invincible argument why they should permit Him to remain. He could have shown a demonstration of supernatural power that would have overpowered their reason and frightened them into abject submission. But. He did not, Jesus did not stay long where He was not wanted. (cf. Luk. 9:51-55; Mat. 13:54-58; Luk. 4:16-30) He simply left without a word.

But He left behind Him a one-man advertising campaign that would more than prepare for His Decapolis ministry next year! (See Mat. 15:29-39; Mar. 7:31 to Mar. 8:10) Jesus real purpose for coming to the Decapolis area was to save it. Though He must postpone His actual ministry there till a later date, yet the activity of this freed ex-demoniac brought a deep change in the attitude of the people. Later when Jesus returned He met an open-hearted reception. Contrary to several commentators who ignore Jesus Decapolis ministry cited above, Jesus DID come back. His mercy is long-lasting. He gave Decapolis a second chance!

What is the proper theology regarding this section and many more like it? Jesus is NOT in league with Satan, but is successfully routing the devils infantry at every encounter! Casting out demons, defeats also their lord, Satan. (cf. Luk. 10:17-18; Mat. 12:29) No wonder Peter, in retrospect, described Jesus ministry thus: He went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

FACT QUESTIONS

Where is the country of the Gadarenes? Explain about the three different wordings of this and how they harmonize.

How many of the Gadarenes were possessed with demons according to the Gospel accounts? Explain the apparently conflicting reports regarding the number of demoniacs by listing other occasions where Mark mentions one thing or person where Matthew mentions a multiple number.

What symptoms or actions indicated that they had demons?

How could people tell that the demons were gone from them?

Quote accurately what the demons said to Jesus and tell four or five things that are clearly indicated by their speeches.

What did the general populace ask of Jesus after the demoniacs were healed? Why?

What did one demoniac ask of Jesus after he was healed?

What did Jesus command him to do?

Explain the meaning of the demons expression: Are you come here to torment us before the time? To what did they allude? What were they afraid of?

10.

Tell what the NT teaches about the abyss, the bottomless pit which was the horror of these demons. What is the difference between this and hell?

11.

State the pleas made by the demons in reference to their future state, whereby they hoped to secure a compromise from Jesus. What other NT passages may explain why they made this particular plea?

This map of the Sea of Galilee indicates in a general way the movements of Jesus when He left Capernaum by boat, calmed the storm, debarked in Gadarene territory, freed the demoniacs and sailed directly back to Capernaum.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(28) The country of the Gergesenes.The exact determination of the locality presents many difficulties. In all the three Gospels we find various readings, of which the best supported are Gadarenes in St. Matthew, and Gerasenes in St. Mark and St. Luke. Gergesenes is, however, found in some MSS. of high authority, and the variations are obviously of very early date. The main facts as to the three regions thus indicated are as follows:

(1.) Gadara was a city east of the Sea of Galilee, about sixteen miles from Tiberias. It is identified with the modern Um Keis, the ruins of which are more than two miles in circumference, and stand at the north-west extremity of the mountains of Gilead, near the south-east corner of the Lake. The tombs of the city, chambers in the limestone rock often more than twenty feet square, are its most conspicuous feature, and are, indeed, the sole abode of its present inhabitants. Under the Roman occupation it was important enough to have two amphitheatres and a long colonnaded street.

(2.) Gerasa was a city in the Gilead district, twenty miles east of the Jordan, described sometimes as belonging to Cle-Syria, sometimes to Arabia. It also has ruins which indicate the former splendour of the city. Of these two, it is clear that Gadara fits in better with all the circumstances of the narrative; and if Gerasenes is more than the mistake of a transcriber, it could only be because the name was used vaguely for the whole Gilead district. The reading Gadarenes in that case would probably come from some one better acquainted with the position of the two cities.

(3.) There was no city named Gergesa, but the name Gergesenes was probably connected with the older Girgashites, one of the Canaanite races that occupied the country before the invasion of Israel (Gen. 10:16; Gen. 15:21; Jos. 3:10; Jos. 24:11; et al.). Apparently, however, from the last passage referred to, they were on the western side of the Jordan. It is, on the whole, more likely that the reading was a mistake, than that the old tribe still remained with its old name; but it is possible that the name of Gerasa may represent an altered form of Girgashim.

Two possessed with devils.St. Mark and St. Luke speak of one only. A like difference meets us in St. Matthews two blind men at Jericho (Mat. 20:30) as compared with the one of the two other Gospels. The natural explanation is that, in each case, one was more prominent than the other in speech or act, and so was remembered and specified, while the other was either forgotten or left unnoticed. The difference, as far as it goes, is obviously in favour of the independence of St. Matthews narrative. The tombs in the neighbourhood of Gadara, hewn out in the rock, have been already mentioned. To dwell in such tombs was, to the ordinary Jew, a thing from which he shrank with abhorrence, as bringing pollution, and to choose such an abode was therefore a sign of insanity.

St. Luke adds that he wore no clothes (i.e., strictly, no outer garment; the word does not imply actual nakedness). St. Mark (whose account is the fullest of the three) notices that he had often been bound with fetters and chains, and that, with the abnormal strength often found in mania, he had set himself free from them. The insanity was so homicidal that none could pass by that way, so suicidal that he was ever cutting himself with stones, howling day and night in the wildness of his paroxysms.

For a full discussion of the subject of demoniacal possession, see Excursus at the end of this Gospel.

III.DEMONIAC POSSESSION (Matthew 8:28).

(1.) As to the word, the Greek (the knowing, or the divider) appears in Homer as interchangeable with (God). In the mythology of Hesiod( Works and Days, i. 108) we have the first downward step, and the are the departed spirits of the men who lived in the first golden age of the world. They are the good genii of Greek religion, averters of evil, guardians of mortal men. The next stage introduced the neuter of the adjective derived from as something more impersonal, and was used by Plato as something between God and man, by which the former communicates with the latter (Symp., p. 202), and in this sense Socrates spoke of the inward oracle whose warning he obeyed, as his , and was accordingly accused of bringing in the worship of new , whom the State had not recognised. The fears of men led them, however, to connect these unknown intermediate agents with evil as well as good. The of the Greek tragedians is the evil genius of a family, as in the case of that of Agamemnon. A man is said to be under its power when he is swayed by some uncontrollable, frenzied passion that hurries him into guilt and misery.

Such were the meanings that had gathered round the word when the Greek translators of the Old Testament entered on their task. They, as was natural, carefully avoided using it in any connection that would have identified it with the God of Israel. It appears in Psa. 90:3, where the English version gives destruction; in Deu. 32:17, and Psa. 106:37, where the English version has devils, and in this sense it accordingly passed into the language of the Hellenistic Jews, and so into that of the writers of the Gospels. So St. Paul speaks of the gods whom the heathen worshipped as (1Co. 10:20).

(2.) As to the phenomena described, the belief of later Judaism ascribed to demons, in the sense which the word has thus acquired, many of the more startling forms of bodily and mental suffering which the language of modern thought groups under the general head of disease. Thus, in the history of Tobit, the daughter of Raguel is possessed by the evil spirit Asmodeus, and he slays her seven bridegrooms (Tob. 3:8). Or passing on to the Gospel records, we find demoniac agency the cause of dumbness (Mat. 9:32), blindness (Mat. 12:22), epilepsy (Mar. 9:17-27), or (as here, and Mar. 5:1-5) insanity. To have a devil is interchangeable with being mad (Joh. 7:20; Joh. 8:48; Joh. 10:20, and probably Mat. 11:18). And this apparently was but part of a more general view, which saw in all forms of disease the work, directly or indirectly, of Satan, as the great adversary of mankind. Our Lord went about healing all that were oppressed of the devil (Act. 10:38). Satan had bound for eighteen years the woman who was crippled by a spirit of infirmity (Luk. 13:16). And these demons are described as unclean spirits (Mat. 10:1; Mat. 12:43, et al.) acting under a ruler or prince, who is popularly known by the name of Beelzebub, the old Philistine deity of Ekron, and whom our Lord identifies with Satan (Mat. 12:24-26). The Talmud swarms with allusions to such demons as lurking in the air, in food, in clothing, and working their evil will on the bodies or the souls of men. St. Paul, though he refers only once to demons, in this sense, and then apparently as the authors of false doctrines claiming divine authority, but coming really from seducing spirits (1Ti. 4:1), seems to see in some forms, at least, of bodily disease the permitted agency of Satan, as in the case of the chastisement inflicted on the incestuous Corinthian (1Co. 5:5; 2Co. 2:11), his own thorn in the flesh (2Co. 12:7), and possibly in other like hindrances to his work (1Th. 2:18).

(3.) The belief bore its natural fruit among the Jews of our Lords time. The work of the exorcist became a profession, as in the case of the sons of Sceva at Ephesus (Act. 19:13). Charms and incantations were used, including the more sacred forms of the divine name. The Pharisees appear to have claimed the power as one of the privileges belonging to their superior holiness (Mat. 12:27). Josephus narrates that a herb grew at Machrus, the root of which had the power of expelling demons (whom he defines as the spirits of wicked men), and that he had himself beheld, in the presence of Vespasian, a man possessed with a demon, cured by a ring containing a root of like properties. As a proof of the reality of the dispossession, a vessel of water was placed at a little distance from the man, which was overthrown by the unseen demon as he passed out from the mans nostrils (Wars, vii. 6, 3; Ant. viii. 2, 5). The belief as to the demons being the souls of the dead, lingered in the Christian Church, was accepted by Justin, who, coming from Samaria, probably received it from the Jews (Apol. I., i., p. 65), and was recognised as at least a common belief by Chrysostom (De Lazaro, I., p. 728).

(4.) Our Lords treatment of the cases of men thus possessed with demons stands out partly as accepting the prevailing belief in its highest aspects, partly as contrasted with it. He uses no spells or charms, but does the work of casting out as by His own divine authority, with a word. He delegates to the Twelve the power to cast out demons, as well as to cure diseases (Mat. 10:8); and when the Seventy return with the report that the devils (i.e., demons) were subject unto them in His name, He speaks of that result as a victory over Satan (Luk. 10:17-18). He makes the action of the demons the vehicle for a parable, in which first one and then eight demons are represented as possessing the same man (Mat. 12:43-45). It may be noted that He nowhere speaks of them, in the language of the later current beliefs of Christendom, as identical with the fallen angels, or as the souls of the dead, though they are evil spirits subject to the power of Satan.

(5.) It is obvious that many hard questions rise out of these facts. Does our Lords indirect teaching stamp the popular belief with the seal of His authority? or did He, knowing it to be false, accommodate Himself to their belief, and speak in the only way men were able to understand of His own power to heal, teaching them as they were able to hear it? (Mar. 4:33). If we answer the former question in the affirmative, are we to believe that the fact of possession was peculiar to the time and country, and that the demons (either as the souls of the dead, or as evil angels) have since been restrained by the influence of Christendom or the power of Christ? or may we still trace their agency in the more obscure and startling phenomena of mental disease, in the delirium tremens of the drunkard, in the orgiastic frenzy of some Eastern religions, in homicidal or suicidal mania? And if we go as far as this, is it a true theory of disease in general to assign it, in all cases, to the permitted agency of Satan? and how can we reconcile that belief either with the temper which receives sickness as Gods visitation, or with that which seeks out its mechanical or chemical causes? Wise and good men have answered these questions very differently, and it may be that we have not the data for an absolutely certain and exhaustive answer. It is well to remember, on the one hand, that to speak of the phenomena of the Gospel possessions as mania, hysteria, or the like, is to give them a name, but not to assign a causethat science, let it push its researches into mental disease ever so far, has to confess at last that it stands in the presence of unknown forces, more amenable often to spiritual influences than to any medical treatment; and on the other, that our Lord came to rescue men from the thraldom of frenzy and disease, and so to prepare them for the higher work of spiritual renovation, rather than rudely to sweep away the traditional belief of the people as to their source, or to proclaim a new psychological theory.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

42. FIFTH MIRACLE DISPOSSESSING TWO DEMONIACS, Mat 8:28-34 .

Matthew pursues our Lord’s course across the lake, in order to narrate a miracle which displays our Lord’s authority over the powers of hell, as this shows his command over the elements of the earth.

This miracle is more fully narrated by Mark, to whose account, and our notes thereon, the reader is referred.

It may be proper here to note, however, that between the two accounts there is a difference in regard to the number of demoniacs dispossessed. Matthew mentions two; Mark and Luke note but one. Here is variation, but not contradiction. He who says there is two of course includes the one. He who mentions the one does not deny the other. The two evangelists doubtless specify the one which was the more bold and prominent. There was a second less marked, whom they pass over, but Matthew mentions.

CHAPTER 9.

In this chapter the group of TEN SPECIMEN MIRACLES given by Matthew is completed. They are selected from different periods of our Lord’s ministry, and their place in order of time will be found by referring to the Historical Synopsis. The miracles of the present chapter are five, namely: 1. The paralytic; 2. The infirm woman; 3. The ruler’s daughter; 4. The two blind, 5. The dumb demoniac.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, there met him two possessed with demons, coming forth out of the tombs, extremely fierce, so that no man could pass by that way.’

When they landed on the shore of the country of the Gadarenes they were met by two wild and fierce demoniacs who ran to meet them out of the tombs, which were in caves in the rocks. Matthew tells us that they were possessed with demons. It would seem that Matthew wants us to know that Jesus deliberately went that way, for he tells us that men did not usually pass that way because these demoniacs were so fierce and uncontrolled. Their very behaviour demonstrated the amount of evil forces within them. This dreadful fierceness caused by possession has to be experienced to be believed. It regularly causes self-harm, and a lust for blood. I knew a woman in such a state, who had to be held down all through the night, desperate to see the sight of blood, until at four in the morning, after prayer in the name of Jesus, she suddenly subsided and the blood lust left her. And it genuinely was followed by a remarkable and very noticeable calm. The storm at sea was as nothing compared with these two raging demoniacs.

‘The country of the Gadarenes.’ Gadara was an inland town whose territories reached down to the shore of the sea. The other synoptics in the better manuscripts read Gerasa, which probably refers, not to the city of Gerasa, but the small town of Kersa on the shoreline. Near that town is a fairly steep slope within forty metres of the shore, and the cave tombs can still be seen there.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Two Demoniacs of Decapolis (8:28-34).

Having experienced their amazing deliverance the disciples were no doubt pleased to reach a safe haven. Little did they realise that they were going to see even greater things than this. They had learned the lesson that as Jesus’ disciples they did not need to fear the storms and the seas, because He would watch over them, but now they would be faced with an even greater foe, and would see Jesus’ power exercised over him and his minions. It would reveal to them that both violent nature and the awesome powers of the supernatural were under Jesus’ control. And they would also learn that the very sea from which He had rescued them was to be the destiny of these evil spirits. There was no deliverance for them. There is a delightful irony in the thought that Satan had sought to destroy Jesus in the sea, only to find his own minions destroyed there instead. But once again Matthew abbreviates the account in Mark. As so often he streamlines it and reduces it to the points that he wants to get over.

Yet as against Mark he introduces us to two demoniacs. This suggests that he is remembering what he saw, not just sticking with hearsay. In many of his abbreviations of Mark he adds these extra small points from his memory. And in all cases they make added sense. This is especially true when he introduces twos. There would have been a number of demoniacs scattered among the tombs, with men and women having relationships. A mother ass would regularly follow her young unbroken colt. There would always be numbers of blind men begging by the wayside. And so on. Matthew vividly remembers those two people and their fierceness. It is precisely because he remembers the two people that, unlike Mark, he gives us little detail of the conversations, for he wants to include both. Thus we do not even learn here of the multitude of demons. We are left to gather it from what Matthew does say.

Some try to suggest that Matthew enhances stories by doubling up. But a little thought will bring out that there would almost certainly be at least two such people. For there were many demon possessed men and women in those days, and many of them would make for the tombs, where they would be left alone and could find shelter in the rocky caves without interference. And because even people like that are social creatures, they would form their own companionships, even possibly here being a man and a woman. Mark concentrates on the one of greatest interest, and the fiercest, possibly the male. Matthew possibly remembers also the wild woman, possibly with her hair hanging raggedly down her back, and gives us the full true background which he so vividly remembered.

Such poor, naked (Luk 8:27, compare Mar 5:15) men and women were not only there in Jesus’ day. Thompson in his travels in the 19th century describes similar experiences. ‘There are some very similar cases at the present day — furious and dangerous maniacs who wander about the mountains and sleep in caves and tombs. In their worst paroxysms they are quite unmanageable, and prodigiously strong. — And it is one of the common traits of this madness that the victims refuse to wear clothes. I have often seen them absolutely naked in the crowded streets of Beirut and Sidon. There are also cases in which they run wildly about the country, and frighten the whole neighbourhood.’ Indeed the desire to strip naked is a symptom of certain types of clinical depression today, with the result that all thoughts of decency are gone and even what are normally respectable men and women parade themselves in the nude in the most unseemly places without even giving it a thought.

Analysis.

a And when He was come to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes (Mat 8:28 a).

b There met Him two possessed with demons, coming forth out of the tombs, extremely fierce, so that no man could pass by that way (Mat 8:28 b).

c And behold, they cried out, saying, “What have we to do with You, You Son of God? Are You come here to torment us before the time?” (Mat 8:29).

d Now there was afar off from them a herd of many swine feeding, and the demons besought Him, saying, “If You cast us out, send us away into the herd of swine” (Mat 8:30-31).

c And He said to them, “Go.” And they came out, and went into the swine, and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep into the sea, and perished in the waters” (Mat 8:32).

b And those who fed them fled, and went away into the city, and told everything, and what had happened to those who were possessed with demons (Mat 8:33).

a And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw Him, they pleaded with Him that He would depart from their borders (Mat 8:34).

Note than in ‘a’ He arrives in the country of the Gadarenes, and in the parallel He is asked to depart from the country of the Gadarenes. In ‘b’ we have mention of the two who were possessed with demons, and in the parallel the witnesses tell of what has happened to the two who were possessed with demons. In ‘c’ we are told of the plea of the demons to Jesus, and in the parallel of His response. Centrally in ‘d’ they ask to be sent into the herd of swine.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Jesus and the Gadarenes.

v. 28. And when He was come to the other side, into the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.

On the east side of the Sea of Galilee was the territory of the Gadarenes, the Gerasenes, and the Gergesenes, the southern part of Gaulanitis, so named after the chief cities of the region, one of which, Gergesa, was located on the lake shore. Two demoniacs here ran to meet the Lord. As an eye-witness, Matthew states the number, although only one of the sick men was so exceptionally violent that he drew the attention of all, and is therefore mentioned in the other accounts, Mar 1:23-27; Luk 4:31-37. Their home was in the limestone caves along the eastern shore, which were also used for tombs. A terrible picture: The naked, filthy, raving maniacs terrorizing the neighborhood, too strong to be bound with ropes or chains, associated with darkness and death, with grave and destruction, a fitting setting for the devil’s power, under God’s permission.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Mat 8:28. And when he was come to the other side The storm being hushed, they came to land. St. Matthew says, in the country of Girgasa, or of the Gergasenes; St. Mark and Luke, in the country of Gadara; but the Evangelists do not differ here; if, as it is probable, the one gives us the general name of the country, the other the denomination of a particular spot only; though indeed there is no necessity for this supposition, as many manuscripts and versions of great authority read Gadarenes here, in agreement with St. Mark and St. Luke. Josephus says, Gadara was the metropolis of Peraea, and that it was sixty furlongs from Tiberias. Gadara therefore is rightly placed opposite to Tiberias, at the south end of the sea. Farther; speaking of the country of Gadara, he says, it bounded Galilee to the east. See Luk 8:26. Gadara, therefore, must have been situated on the east side of the lake, about eight miles from Tiberias, in such a manner, that part of its territory was contiguous to the Lower Galilee, but separated from it by the Jordan; and part of it was opposite thereto, with a lake between. The city was one of those called Decapolis, and, according to Josephus, was situated in Coelo-Syria, in the possession of the tribe of Manasseh. When Pompey subdued Judaea, he rebuilt Gadara, and joined it to the province of Syria: Augustus afterwards gave it to Herod; but, upon Herod’s death, he annexed it again to Syria. By these means the town came to be inhabited partly by Syrians. Gadara being thus inhabited by a mixture of people, it is no wonder that there were swine in its territory: for, though the Jews did not eat the flesh of these animals, they might breed them fortheir heathen neighbours; or the herd might be the property of the latter.

When Jesus and his disciples landed at this place, two men possessed with devils came towards them from the tombs. Mark and Luke speak only of one demoniac; but in several instances the sacred historians mention but one person, though more were concerned in thematter related. St. Austin thinks that one of the demoniacs was more remarkable than the other, perhaps for his birth, or parts, or interest in the country; and that his cure made more noise, and for that reason was mentioned by Mark and Luke, while they omitted the cure of the other. St. Luke’s account, as it stands in our translation, seems in one particular, at first sight, to clash with St. Matthew and St. Mark; for he says, Luk 8:27., there met him out of the city a certain man; but there is no inconsistency between the Evangelists; for St. Luke’s words are , which properly signifies a man of the city, one who had formerly been an inhabitant, though now he dwelt among the tombs. See the phrase in Joh 1:45 in the original. Accordingly St. Luke tells us, that he did not abide in any house, but in the tombs; whither Grotius supposes that the demons chose to drive the men whom they possessed, to confirm some superstitious notions of the Jews relating to the power of evil spirits over the dead. The heathens had undoubtedly such notions; but Elsner’s opinion seems most probable, that the demoniacs chose the caves of this burying-ground as a kind of shelter; and he has shewn, that poor tormented creatures in extremity sometimes did the like. It should be remembered that the sepulchres of the Jews were, very wisely, always at some distance from their cities, in lonely and desert places. Hence St. Luke says of the demoniac, Luk 8:29 that he was driven of the devil into the wilderness. Doubtless those malevolent spirits love such tokens of death and destruction.

It should be observed farther, that no compassion to these unhappy men, nor endeavours for their own security, had been wanting in the people of the place: for they had frequently endeavoured to confine them; but no man could bind them, no not with chains; because, though they had been frequently so bound, the chains had been plucked asunder by them, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame them. See Mar 5:4. Being therefore at liberty, they shunned the society of men, wandering day and night amid the melancholy receptacles of the dead, formidable to all who passed by, and a great nuisance to the country. Concerning the nature of these demoniacs, see the note on the 33rd verse.

Mat 8:29. What have we to do with thee? This is a Hebrew phrase, signifying “What right, rule, or authority dost thou claim over us?” What concern hast thou with us? See Jdg 11:12. 2Sa 16:10. 1Ki 17:18. 2Ki 3:13; 2Ki 9:19. Septuagint. There is in the next words, art thou come to torment us, &c. such a reference to the final sentence which Christ is to pass upon these rebel spirits in the judgment of the great day, to which they are reserved (Jude, Mat 8:6.), as could not have been dictated by lunacy; and it is much to be questioned whether the persons speaking, or any of the hearers, but Christ himself, understood the sense and propriety of them. See 2Pe 2:4.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Mat 8:28 ff. Comp. Mar 5:1 ff.; Luk 8:26 ff. Comp. Ewald, Jahrb . VII. p. 54 ff.

] Since Gerasa , the eastern frontier town of Peraea (Joseph. Bell . iii. 3. 3, iv. 9. 1), which Origen and others look upon as even belonging to Arabia, stood much too far to the south-east of the Sea of Tiberias, as the ruins of the town also still prove (Dieterici, Reisebilder aus d. Morgenl . 1853, II. p. 275 ff.; Rey, Voyage dans le Haouran , 1860); since, further, the reading has the preponderance of testimony against it, and since that reading has gained currency, if not solely on the strength of Origen’s conjecture (on Joh 1:28 ; Joh 2:12 ; Opp . iv. p. 140, ed. de la Rue), at least mainly on the strength of his evidence; since, again, no trace is found of a Gergesa either as town (Origen: ) or as village (Ebrard), Josephus, in fact, Antt . i. 6. 2, expressly stating that of the ancient (Gen 15:21 ; Gen 10:16 ; Deu 8:1 ; Jos 24:11 ) nothing remains but their names; since, finally, the reading has important testimony in its favour (see the critical remarks), being also confirmed by Origen, though only as found , and harmonizes with geographical facts, we are therefore bound to regard that as the original reading, whilst and must be supposed to owe their origin to a confusion in the matter of geography. Even apart from the authority of Origen, the latter reading came to be accepted and propagated, all the more readily from the circumstance that we are made acquainted with actual Gergesenes through the Old Testament. On Gadara , at present the village of Omkeis , at that time the capital of Peraea (Joseph. Bell . iv. 7. 3), standing to the south-east of the southern extremity of the Sea of Tiberias, between the latter and the river Mandhur, consult Ritter, Erdk . XV. p. 375 ff.; Retschi in Herzog’s Encykl . IV. p. 636 f.; Kneucker in Schenkel’s Bibellex . II. p. 313 ff. According to Paulus, who defends , the district of Gerasa, like the ancient Gilead, must have extended as far as the lake; the , however, Mat 8:33-34 , he takes to have been Gadara, as being the nearest town. The context makes this impossible.

] According to Mark and Luke, only one. This difference in the tradition (Mat 9:27 , Mat 20:30 ) is not to be disposed of by conjectures (Ebrard, Bleek, Holtzmann think that, as might easily enough have happened, Matthew combines with the healing of the Gadarenes that of the demoniacs in the synagogue at Capernaum, Mar 1:23 ff.), but must be allowed to remain as it is. At the same time, it must also be left an open question whether Matthew, with his brief and general narrative (Strauss, de Wette), or Mark and Luke (Weisse), with their lively, graphic representations, are to be understood as giving the more original account. However, should the latter prove to be the case, as is probable at least from the peculiar features in Mark (comp. Weiss, op. cit. , p. 342), it is not necessary, with Chrysostom, Augustine, Calvin, to hit upon the arbitrary method of adjustment implied in supposing that there were no doubt two demoniacs, but that the one whom Mark (and Luke) accordingly mentions was far more furious than the other. According to Strauss and Keim, the change to the singular has had the effect of giving a higher idea of the extraordinary character of a case of possession by so many demons; Weisse and Schenkel hold the reverse; Weiss thinks the number two owes its origin to the fact of there having been a great many demons. Mere groundless conjectures.

The demoniacs are lunatics , furious to a high degree; they took up their abode among the tombs (natural or artificial grottoes in the rocks or in the earth) that were near by, driven thither by their own melancholy, which sought gratification in gloomy terrors and in the midst of impurity (Lightfoot in loc. , and on Mat 17:15 ; Schoettgen, p. 92; Wetstein in loc. ), and which broke out into frenzy when any one happened to pass by. Many old burial vaults are still to be seen at the place on which Gadara formerly stood.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

IV
Christ healing the demoniacs who profess His name; banished from Gadara; He restores the paralytic, and is accused of blasphemy,or, the blessed working of the Lord despite the contradiction of the kingdom of darkness.

Mat 8:28-34, Mat 9:1-8

( Mat 9:1-8 the Gospel for the 19th Sunday after Trinity.Parallels: Mar 5:1-20; Luk 8:26-39, Mar 2:1-12; Luk 5:17-26.)

28And when he was [had] come to the other side, into the country of the Gergesenes [Gadarenes],25 there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man [one] might [could, or was able to, ] passby that way. 29And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee,30Jesus,26 thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time? And there was a good way off from them a herd of many swine feeding. 31So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away [send us away]27 intothe herd of swine. 32And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine [into the swine];28 and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently [rushed] down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.33And they that kept them [the herdsmen, ] fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to [had befallen] the possessedof [with] the devils. 34And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts [borders].

Mat 9:1 And he entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city. 2And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be3[are] forgiven29 thee. And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This4man blasphemeth. And Jesus, knowing30 their thoughts, said, Wherefore think ye evil5in your hearts? For whether [which] is easier, to say, Thy sins be [are] forgiven thee;or to say, Arise, and walk? 6But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thybed, and go31 unto thine [to thy] house. 7And he arose, and departed to his house. 8But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled [feared]32, and glorified God, which [who] had given such power unto men.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Mat 8:28. On the discussion about the readings, , , , comp. the Commentaries.Bleek (Beitrge zur Evangelienkritik, 1:26): From Orig. (in Joh. Tom. 6:24), we may infer with tolerable certainty, that, at the time of that Father, was not found in any of the MSS. of the Gospels then current. He only mentions it as a conjecture, that this may have been an older reading. From that time it seems to have been introduced into manuscripts. Origen found that the common reading was , that of also occurring. The change of the former into the latter word is easily accounted for, but not the reverse. Hence the writer has always been of opinion, that , which Lachmann also has adopted, is the correct reading in all the three Gospels. But as the town of Gerasa, in Arabia, could not possibly be meant, we suppose that the name was incorrectly written by the Evangelists, and that they probably meant the town of Gergesa, as Origen suggests. Accordingly, we drop the reading , and only retain thus much, that Origen was exegetically right in maintaining that Jesus landed in the district of the Gergesenes, whose name at least (, Gen 15:21; Deu 7:1; Jos 24:11) is mentioned by Josephus (Ant. i. 6, 2). But the MSS. are divided between the readings Gadara and Gerasa. Hence, judging from the circumstances of this narrative, we are warranted in fixing upon the adjoining Gadara, which was the capital of Pera, rather than on the distant Gerasa, which lay on the eastern boundary of Pera, and indeed was considered by some geographers to have been situate in Arabia. So also Winer and Meyer. Besides, the expulsion of the Lord is represented as an event of considerable importance, which would not have been the case had He been banished from Gerasa, and not from the capital of Pera. Expulsion from a village by the sea-shore would only have induced Him to go farther inland; but banishment from the capital of the district rendered at least a temporary removal absolutely necessary. The pagan character of the district (swine, raging demons) may have led to the evangelical tradition, by which the scene of this narrative was transferred from Gadara to Gerasa. Gadara, the capital of Pera (Joseph. Bell. Jud. iv. 8, 3), situated to the southeast of the southern end of the Lake of Gennesareth, south of the river Hieromax, sixty stadia from Tiberias, upon a mountain, inhabited chiefly by Gentiles (according to Seetzen and Burckhardt). It is supposed to have been the modern Omkeis (but comp. Ebrard, who places Gadara only one hour from the lake). See Winer and the Encyclops. and von Raumers Palestine. On the eastern shore of the lake, comp. Ritters Palestine. Ebrard suggests, that there had been a village called Gerasa in the neighborhood of Gadara. Euseb. Onomasticon refers to such a village under the article Gergesa, without, however, pronouncing decidedly on the point.

Two possessed with devils.Mark and Luke speak only of one. Strauss and de Wette hold, that the account of Matthew is the authentic narrative; Weisse and others prefer that of Mark and Luke. Ebrard suggests, that Matthew joined the account of the possessed at Gadara with that in Mar 1:23; others fancy, that our Evangelist is in the habit of speaking of two individuals when there was only one. Meyer leaves the difficulty unsolved; while Augustine, Calvin, and Chrysostom suppose that one of the demoniacs is specially mentioned, as the principal personage and the greater sufferer. This idea is confirmed by the consideration, that two demoniacs would not have associated, unless the one had been dependent upon the other. For the details of the narrative, the parallel passages in the other Gospels must be consulted.

Coming out of the tombs.This was their abode, the only one left them, after they had withdrawn from human supervision and society. We conjecture that they chose this haunt not merely from melancholy, but rather from a morbid craving for the terrible. These tombs were either natural or artificial caves in the rocks, or built in the ground. The calcareous mountain on which Gadara was situated, was specially suited for such sepulchres. Even Epiphanius (adv. Hres. i. 131) mentions these rocky caves near Gadara, which were called and .

Mat 8:29. What have we to do with Thee? , 2Sa 16:10, etc. Grotius remarks ad loc.: Hoc si ex usu Latini sermonis interpreteris, contemtum videtur inducere. Ita enim Latini aiunt: Quid tibi mecum est? At Hebris aliud significat, nimirum cur mihi molestiam exhibes?33 The ordinary consciousness of the demoniacs was always affected by, and mixed up with, their morbid consciousness. Hence their power of anticipation was morbidly developed. By virtue of this faculty they now recognized the Divine power and majesty of the Lord (comp. Luk 4:34). Hence the question, whether means: before the judgment of the Messiah, as de Wette and Meyer suppose. Perhaps they also anticipated that the work of Jesus in the district would be interrupted by them, and that it was not ready for the reception of the Messiah.

To torment us.The apparent contradiction in the conduct of the demoniacs affords a striking confirmation of the truthfulness of this narrative. On the one hand, they seem to have felt the power of the Lord; they hastened to meet Him; their fierceness was kept in check, and they humbly entreated. But on the other hand, they identified themselves with the demons under whose power they were; they, so to speak, appeared as their representatives, and in that capacity complained that Jesus was about to torment them by healing the demoniacs,i. e., that He was about to send the demons to the place of torment. De Wette: Torment us, by disturbing our stay and rule in man.

Mat 8:30. A herd of many swine.The Jews were prohibited from keeping swine, which were unclean animals (Lightfoot, 315; Eisenmenger, Entdektes Judenthum, i. 704). The herd must therefore have belonged to pagans, or else have been kept for purposes of traffic. In any case, it might serve as evidence of the legal uncleanness of the people, and of their essentially Gentile disposition.

Mat 8:31. Probably the request was expressed in such terms as Send us, , but the assent of the Lord was couched in the form of a permission, or even of a sentence of banishment. Hence the other reading of the Received Text. The request shows that these demons were antinomian, not Pharisaical; hence their choice of the swine. Possibly, there was also the malicious design latent, in this manner to put an end to the work of the Lord in the district. But in that case, the compliance of the Lord must be regarded as an evidence that at that time the awakening of terror was a sufficient effect. Lastly, the request of the demons implies that they were many (Meyer), which indeed is expressly mentioned in Mark and Luke.

Mat 8:32. Go, .The emphasis rests on the command to go. Strauss and others have raised an objection, on the ground that Jesus here interfered with the property of others. In reply, Ebrard appeals to the divinity and the absolute power of Christ. He also reminds us of the casting out of those who bought and sold in the temple; which, however, is scarcely a case in point, as every Jew might claim the right of reproving and opposing open and daring iniquity. Probably the conduct of Christ, in the case of so manifest a contravention of Mosaic ordinances, might be vindicated on the same ground, as simply the privilege of every zealous Israelite.34 But the text does not oblige us to suppose that Jesus interfered at all with the here of swine. He neither administered justice, nor enforced police regulations, nor took oversight of the herds of swine of Gadara. His only object was to cure the demoniacs, which He did by commanding the demons simply to go. Other objectionssuch as, that the demons would have acted foolishly by driving the swine into the seaare scarcely worth repeating. Any such difficulty would arise from the false assumption that demons can never be stupid. It must be admitted that certain morbid states, such as derangement of the nervous system, madness, idiocy, raving, etc., formed the natural substratum of demoniac possessions. Hence there is a marked difference between the possessed, and those who, like Judas and the Pharisees, voluntarily surrendered themselves to the power of evil, as there is also between the demons themselves, and Satan, or between the renunciation of Satan in Christian baptism, and exorcism,a rite which originally was only applied in the case of the possessed, and only introduced into the ordinary ritual of baptism and confirmation of catechumens generally when spiritual knowledge was obscured in the Church. The demoniacs were destitute of freedom, not merely on account of the psychical ailment under which they labored, but because, while thus suffering, they were possessed by unclean spirits (). The idea of bodily possession, or the indwelling of the evil spirit in the physical frame of the diseased, was merely the popular notion. The main point was, that they were under the power of some special demoniac influence, or of a number of such influences, which proceeded from real demons, and were so strong, that the persons possessed identified themselves in their own minds with the demons. But it is quite possible that such influences may have proceeded not merely from the kingdom of Satan, in the narrowest sense, but also from the spirits of the departed. Hence Josephus (De Bello Jud. vii. 6, 3) held, that the demons were the spirits of wicked men; an opinion which was shared by some of the oldest of the Fathers, such as Justin Martyr and Athenagoras. Tertullian was the first to turn the current of opinion on the subject, and ultimately, on the authority of Chrysostom, the old idea of the spirits of departed and lost men was discarded, and that of devils adopted. But a closer inquiry into the character of sympathetic influences will show, that while the question, whence these demoniac influences proceeded, is of secondary importance, such influenceseven to literal bodily possessionare quite possible, whether the party affected was conscious of them or not. From this it follows, that a demoniac might feel himself under the influence of a whole legion of unclean spirits, as, from the account in the other Gospels, appears to have been the case in the present instance. Hence we must beware of the common mistake, of putting the guilt of the demoniacs on the same level with that of wilful slaves of Satan. In our view, the blame attachable to such persons varied from the minimum, in the case of idiots, to a maximum. The common characteristic of all was cowardice,a cowardly surrender of a weakened and lowered consciousness to wicked influences. The same remarks apply to the moral aspect of madness generally; and we would adopt the idea, that all madness was connected with a kind of demoniac influence, rather than the view, that the demoniacs of Scripture were merely lunatics, or even that of older orthodox interpreters, who regarded them as a class of persons possessed by the devil,God allowing it at the time of Christ, and then only, for the purpose of glorifying His name. We do not, however, deny, that at that period, when all human corruption had reached its climax, these demoniac possessions also appeared in a more full and patent manner. But if we consider that the evil primarily depended upon moral cowardice and non-resistance to evil, we shall understand all the better the method of cure adopted by the Lord. The thunderbolt of His power and divine rebuke would once more kindle the ray of life and strength in the soul, fill the spirits who possessed the demoniac with fear, and thus break the fetters by which they held their victims. It snapped, so to speak, the connection between the diseased mind, deprived of its freedom, and the demon; while at the same time the soul was brought under the influence of the Divine Being. Such was the deliverance from the , who, although a personal being, is designated as , in allusion to the impersonality of the relationship.

They went into the herd of swine.Of course the demons, not the demoniacs. The commotion in the herd, by which they rushed down a steep place into the sea, is readily accounted for from the well-known sympathy existing among gregarious animals. If one of the herd was seized with terror, all the others would be affected. Probably the horse is, of all animals, most liable to sudden fright, especially from spectral apparitions; but swine are also subject to such wild frights (comp. Scheitlins Thierseelenkunde, vol. ii. 486). Perhaps the reason why swine were Levitically unclean, may have been not merely their outward conformation, but their susceptibility for impure psychical impressions. The circumstance, that the demons went into the swine, seems indeed mysterious; but the fright of these animals arose probably from the last terrible paroxysm, which ordinarily accompanied the healing of the possessed (Mar 1:26; Luk 4:35; Mar 9:26, etc.).

, cum impetu ferri, irruere, Act 19:29.Olshausen suggests, that the demons drove down the herd; Henneberg, Neander, and others, that they were impelled by an unknown, but accidental cause; while Meyer regards this as a mythical addition. We prefer leaving it unexplained, as belonging to the mysterious connection between the world of spirit and nature.

Mat 8:34. The whole city.For the moment, the terror produced by this miracle proved even stronger than the indignation excited by the loss sustained. Accordingly, as the heathen were wont to go in solemn procession to the altars of the gods in order to avert calamities, so the people of Gadara went out to meet Christ, humbly beseeching Him to depart from their coasts. They evidently feared, lest, if He remained, they should sustain yet greater damage. The cure of two furious demoniacs, involving the loss of a herd of swine, appears a calamity in a district where swine have their keepers, but men are left uncared for. Jesus departs; but those who have been restored are left behindmore especially he who would fain have followed Himto bear witness it Decapolis of the power and grace of Christ.

Footnotes:

[25] Mat 8:28. according to B., C., M., al. Griesbach, Scholz, Tischendorf [Tregelles, Alford, Conant]. C. codd. minusc., versions, Origen., the ruling lectio at the time of Origen; several ancient versions, Lachmann. [Dr. Lange reads Gadarenes. Cod. Sinait.: . See Com.]

[26] Mat 8:29. is omitted in B., C., L. [Cod. Sinait.], etc. Borrowed from Mar 5:7; Luk 8:28.

[27] Mat 8:31. , in Cod. B., [Cod. Sinait.], most of the versions, Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf Tregelles, Alford, Conant]. The lectio recepta, , is probably taken from Luk 8:32, and explanatory.

[28] Mat 8:32. , B., C., [Cod. Sinait.], Lachmann [for ]. Probably taken from the parallel passages.

[29]Ch. 9, Mat 8:2.[ is the indicative, either the present tense and equivalent to (as Homer uses for ), or more probably the perf. pass. (Doric form) for , remissa sunt. Comp. Winer, Grammat., etc., 6th Germ. ed., 1855, p. 74. Lachmann and Tregelles read , remittuntur, with Cod. B., Cod. Sinait., and the Latin Vulgate.P. S.]

[30] Mat 8:4.Lachmann, following B., M., reads instead of of the Received Text.

[31] Mat 8:6.[Cod. Sinait. reads , for .P. S.]

[32] Mat 8:8., they feared, is much better supported than , they marvelled. [It is sustained by the newly discovered Cod. Sinaitces and adopted in all the modern critical editions, except the Gr. Test. of Stier, and Wordsworth who adhere to the Received Text.P. S.]

[33][Comp. Comment. on Joh 2:4. where Christ uses this phrase in speaking to His mother.P. S.]

[34][Dr. Alford thus disposes of this difficulty: The destruction of the swine is not for a moment to be thought of in the matter, as if that were an act repugnant to the merciful character of our Lords miracles. It finds its parallel in the cursing of the fig-tree ( Mat 21:17-22); and we may well think that, if God has appointed so many animals daily to be slaughtered for the sustenance of mens bodies, He may also be pleased to destroy animal life when He sees fit for the liberation or instruction of their souls. Besides, if the confessedly far greater evil of the possession of men by evil spirits, and all the misery thereupon attendant, was permitted in Gods Inscrutable purposes, surely much more this lesser one. Whether there may have been special reasons in this case, such as the contempt of the Mosaic law by the keepers of the swine, we have no means of judging; but it is at least possible.P. S.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

We meet with the relation of this miracle, and somewhat more particularly enlarged, in Mar 5 . I refer the Reader therefore to that part of my Commentary for my observations upon it. I only detain the Reader for the moment, to observe, that the place, though mentioned differently, is one and the same. Matthew here calls it the country of the Gergesenes. Mark and Luke call it the country of the Gadarenes. But as it was on the lake of Tiberias, right over against Galilee, it is but one and the. same. It was called in the days of Joshua, and indeed long before, the country of the Girgashites. Gen 15:21 ; Deu 7:1 ; Jos 3:10 . The Syriac version gave it the name of Gadarenes: Gergesce and Gadara, was the same city.

REFLECTIONS.

READER! let you and I look on, and behold the wonders of our wonder-working GOD. See the leprous man cleansed; the paralytic healed; the raging fever subdued; yea, the winds, sea, and devils, in a moment brought under the word of our JESUS. But let us not stop here. He that cleansed the poor leper in his body, can and will cleanse all the leprosy of soul in his people. He that gave strength to the palsy of nature, can and will make the crippled in soul to leap as an hart; and all the feverish lusts of his redeemed, JESUS will subdue. Oh! thou gracious God of our salvation! no storms of hell, nor storms of indwelling corruption, nor storms of the world, shall drown thy people! JESUS, though for a while may appear to our impatient minds as inattentive, but he hath said, For the sighing of the poor, and the oppression of the needy, now will I arise, saith God! And oh! with what tenderness and fellow-feeling, the LORD JESUS enters into all the concerns of his redeemed. Truly Lord, it may be said of thee, thou dost thyself take our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses! Oh! vouchsafe thy continual presence with us! and never, never LORD, do thou depart out of our coasts!

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Chapter 34

Prayer

Almighty God, hear thou the petition of every heart offered in the sweet name of Jesus Christ, the name that is above every name, associated with the cross and with the crown. Every heart has its own cry, every life knoweth its own bitterness, and we are all here before thee now to tell thee the tale of our sorrow, and sing our hymn of joy in thine house, and to ask thee for such mercies as our wasting life may yet require. Thou hast done great things for us whereof we are glad; thou hast done everything for us we have done nothing for ourselves; of thine own have we given thee; we have lived at thy table; the water we have drunk has flown from fountains of thy making; and behold there is not a hair upon our head that is not numbered, nor is there a step taken by our feet which thou dost not notice. Thou hast beset us behind and before, and laid thine hand upon us; and the air is full of thy presence, and musical with thy voice. We desire to see thee, and to feel thee everywhere leave no vacant place, chill us not by thine absence, thou loving One, whose heart is the sun of all worlds, warming them and making them beautiful, and clothing them with all the beauty of joy.

Come to us in thine house, and make it a pleasant place to us yea, make it the chosen place where thou wilt reveal thyself to our vision, to our expectant love, to our broken and contrite hearts. We bless thee that though we may not know thee by our understanding, we may know thee by our love; though thou dost shut thyself out from our ability, thou dost reveal thyself to our sin, and pain, and want. We see thee through our tears; we know thee by the subtle processes of the heart; we feel thy nearness, though we have no words to explain thy presence.

We have hastened to thine house that we might be caught in the plentiful rain which thou dost pour down upon the inheritance of thy possession. Spare none from the gracious baptism; let the reviving shower fall upon every heart, the meanest, the obscurest, the least before thee; and may we return to our abodes as men who have felt the presence of God and been lifted up by all that makes his presence what it is.

Thou hast shown unto us sore affliction; thou hast dug the grave too deeply sometimes for our poor faith; we have not been able to follow thee as thou hast dug thy way down to the very rocks, that in the pit thou mightest hide all the beauty that made our eyes glad. Thou hast shown us great and sore trouble; that which we have straightened out thou hast made so crooked that we can never straighten it again. Our first born has become a liar, and our last born has run greedily after the devil, and our house is a place of emptiness. Thou hast sent a blight upon our fields, and suddenly turned away the tide of our prosperity; thou hast given us days of anxiety and nights of sleeplessness; and as for our poor strength, thou hast utterly withered it away.

Yet hast thou given us joys which could only have grown in heaven: thou hast blessed our eyes with light, thou hast set round about our table all pleasant things; no grave hast thou dug except it has been in the garden, where the flowers have hidden its hideousness; and thou hast not smitten us but in love, and if the stroke has been severe the kiss of thy love has been all-healing. Truly thou hast spared nothing from us; thou hast given us thine own Son. So hast thou dealt with our life so that it is all hill and dale a strange, mysterious undulation, now rising up into heaven, and now deepening swiftly into places we dare not enter. Deal with us as thou wilt. If thou wilt take the last lamb, take it not our will but thine be done. If thou wilt pluck the last flower, pluck it: it was thine before it was ours; it is only ours because it is thine. If thou wilt send us prosperity, send us modesty along with it; if thou wilt greatly revive us with wondrousness of increase of life, then do thou touch the heart that it may be ready to answer thy greatest gifts with sweet hymns and solemn psalms of trust and love.

The Lord send a blessing to every one of us; may each heart have a line from heaven; let an angel sing in every ear; let no man feel himself lonely to sadness; let no heart shiver under the coldness of absolute isolation. Revive our best memories, relight our noblest hopes, kindle the passion of our early enthusiasm for Christ and his kingdom, and this day may men return from afar wandering, and with tears and love and trust and yearning, gather around the cross of the Lord Jesus and give to the Lamb of God, the Saviour of the world, their repentant and undivided heart. Amen.

Mat 8:28-34 .

The Supreme Miracle

This is decidedly the worst case that has yet come up in the sacred narrative. There is always a testing case in every ministry. There are critical hours in every life. Jesus has been with wondrous placidity dealing with diseases of many kinds, touching them, and healing them, and driving them away; but most of the cases appear to have been what we should term of an ordinary kind, though there was nothing ordinary in them from any point of view but his own. That which is commonplace to him is a miracle to us; that which is a miracle to us was a commonplace to him. We do not occupy the same ground, we do not look at things from the same angle of vision. Here is a test case, and it makes me tremble. I have never seen Christ confronted after this sort before.

The men were exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. There was no mistake about the terribleness of this possession. The devils had been in the man a long time: he was naked; no house could hold him; he dwelt in the tombs; he was driven of the devil into the wilderness the case was extreme; it makes me tremble; it turns all other incidents into ordinary events. How will Jesus Christ do now? We have put that question regarding one another in critical circumstances when great distress has come upon the life, when a loss of property has been threatened, when particular audiences have assembled for the purpose of giving judgment in many other varieties of human experience we have asked concerning our friend, How will he carry himself now?

Whilst we are wondering what Jesus will do there is a cry of fear from the other side. He was working when we did not suppose he was doing anything; he was giving one of those silent looks which eloquence cannot follow in descriptive terms; he was troubling the hidden devils with light which they only could see. The cry of distress comes from hell. Is there something in Christ’s face that troubles the evil one? Is there anything in that calm, serene, majestic look which makes hell afraid? He alone was quiet. By-and-by it will be seen that this is the exact relation between parties in the universe: the good triumphant, the wicked cowardly and afraid. It does not look so now, because the wicked are too demonstrative to show their real character: they make a noise to keep their courage up, they fill their ears with their own vulgar din, and imagine that there is no other voice appealing to them. If I look at society from one point of view I am utterly disheartened my hope goes out of me: it is evidently devil-ridden and hell-bound, and nothing can stay it in its awful course; perdition must enlarge its borders to receive our enlarging civilisation. When I gather into one all the evil thinkers and evil doers that are in the world I feel that evil has the upper hand, and that God himself is but a theological term.

Then, again, we come upon incidents that give a new point of view and a new reading of human events. We see that God is not dethroned: when the true collision comes the result is won by a look. God is to do wonders by the brightness of his face: the silent glance is to be as a sword before which nothing that is evil can stand. The ever-speaking but ever-silent face, gleaming with light, glowing with fire, is to make its way through the universe, and to leave heaven behind it. Oh, thou speaking man, and book-writing man, evangelist, apostle call thyself by what name thou wilt, this conquest is not to be won by our noise, or fuss, or high demonstration of religious zeal all this is right enough in its own place; it is part of the plan; it hath pleased God to do certain things by the foolishness of preaching; but the devil is to be burnt out with the divine look. Hold thy little light aloft; speak thou mightily or gently, in thunder or whisper as thou wilt, and do what little lies within the scope of thy little power; but understand that the final disposition of the devil, and the ultimate setting up of the dominion that is divine and beneficent, is to be done by the breath and the power and the glory of God. A nation shall be born in a day, the light shall fill the heavens in a moment, and the earth shall lose her cold shadows, and in the new warmth that shall penetrate her veins she shall give up her dead, and be scarred and seamed no more by tombs and sepulchres and sanctuaries of death.

Read the histories as given by Matthew and by Luke, and regard them as completing one another, and as forming substantially the same incident, and you will see from its graphic colouring what man may become. Do not make little local anecdotes of these divine histories; do not let the years grow between you and the Book of God till they separate you as by a thick wedge from all that is venerable and true in history. This incident is occurring today. If I have to wander over a wilderness of eighteen hundred years to get at it I shall tire on the road. It occurs next door to-morrow it may occur in our own house.

See here what man is, what, man may become what man really is in the sight and estimate of God. If you would profit by this incident see yourself in it. It is an evil temptation, one that will deplete you of every true sympathy and right conception of history and of the future, which leads you to think that this incident occurred once for all, and became an exciting and romantic anecdote in the neighbourhood in which it took place. You are the demoniac: I am the possessed with devils: they have never awakened yet altogether, but some of them are beginning to open their eyes, and to turn in restlessness, as if about to rise. Why will you put the Bible away from you thousands of years, and talk of Moses as if he were a dead man, and of the evangelists as though they lived only in epitaphs? These things are round about us now. When John Newton, the celebrated clergyman, saw a man being taken away to the scaffold to be hanged, he said, “There goes John Newton but for the grace of God.” You cannot tell what you are; that is no merely earthly fire that burns in your blood. If you want to see what you may become go to the madhouse. It is an awful church, it is a terrible sanctuary; but if you want to see what you are made of go to the madhouse, into its very vilest and most appalling quarter, where no wise word is spoken, where no noble look ever illumines or elevates the human face, where no prayer to heaven is ever spoken, where there is violence extreme, cruelty only kept from its proper issues and outcomes by iron and granite, and all the forces of the most watchful civilisation. Pick out the worst specimen of that madness, and see yourself in those eyes of fire and those cheeks livid with excitement, and in that whole frame shaken and torn by passions that cannot be controlled. I am afraid you have been too daintily reared: I tremble lest you are the victims of your own respectability. There is no respectability in the sight of God. We see the contrast between the madman and the philosopher. That contrast is nothing as compared with the contrast between the sinner and what God meant him to be when he made him a man, and that appalling contrast is for ever in the sight of him that made us.

When I take this view of human nature, which is the only fundamental and profound view, all others being shams and tricks of an inventive immorality, I see our need of Christ. The doctor can heal my skin, the nurse can cool my brow, a friend may be able to lull me to momentary sleep in which I may forget my troubles; but when it comes to the point of agony, and I see the heart as it really is, and feel it as if it were on fire of hell, then I know that no water can quench it, but only blood can answer the great distress. You may whiten the sepulchre, you may make the outside of the cup and platter clean, you may look good to the eye that rests upon the skin, but to the eye that reads the inner life and sees every filament of your heart to that eye we are wounds and bruises and putrefying sores.

The physiologist tells me that in every two square inches of the human brain there are two hundred million of fibres, each of which can receive a mental impression. I am lost in these astronomical figures. A hundred million of fibres in one square inch of the human brain! No theologian told me that, but the physiologist, a man whom everybody is ready to believe. That these should be kept for one hour is surely the supreme miracle of heaven. That these should be wrong and think amiss, and move the whole life in a forbidden direction, what is it but a tragedy that might make all heaven rain oceans of tears? It is a terrible thing to live, it is an appalling thing to be a man; there is but a step between the best of us and madness yea, they who make psychology a study tell us that thin is the veil that separates genius from insanity.

There are people who would rather have devils in the land than have Jesus Christ. The whole city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts. The devils have to ask their places at Christ’s hand: their power of trespass is great, but it never impairs the divine dominion over them. “Do not drive us out of the country, suffer us to go into the swine, tell us where we have to be;” and he says, “Back.” He orders them behind: like hounds that are afraid of his voice they make way for him. No man had passed that way before; when the Son of man passes that way he clears a space for himself. You have seen “Christ leaving the Prtorium”? The dominant idea of that grand picture to me is that as he comes down the steps the whole space enlarges to let him through nothing comes within touch of him. Somehow the great painter has thrown back the space and given him room enough to show the King in.

Now that his great conquest is completed the people who had lost their swine came to him and besought him that he would depart out of their coasts. It was not impiety; it was a great fear. There are some people who can only live in the commonplace; who hide themselves in the cellar when it thunders and lightens. They could do with a great excitement in the neighbourhood if it were far enough off, somewhere among the tombs, with a noise now and then caught in the wind that made them get closer together; but the great fear that came into their hearts when Jesus came was too much for them, their commonplace was rudely shaken, and they could not live in the excitement of such a presence. It is one of two things with this Christ when he comes into a place: it is deadly fear or infinite rejoicing: he is a savour of death unto death, or of life unto life. He never comes in merely as a respectable citizen a few inches higher than his neighbours: when he comes the land cowers in great fear or lifts itself up in jubilant delight and religious rapture. Do not believe in your Christianity if your hearts are cold. Christianity is nothing if it be not the supreme passion of life. If Christianity does not put everything else down and set its regal foot upon them, you have only entered into the letter, you have not come under the inspiration and blessed dominion of its spirit.

Are there not those who beseech Jesus Christ to depart out of their coasts because of the effect of high religious conviction and noble Christian sentiment? Are there not persons who put trade above man? What is a man compared to a good balance-sheet? What does it matter what becomes of the man if the master is all right? What do I care what becomes of my servant if I am happy? Of what concern is it to me what becomes of the weak so long as I am strong? There are cases which come before me as a public man which cannot come before you in your strictly private capacity, which make me weep with sadness, and I blame some of you for some cases of oppression and distress which disfigure and debase our civilisation: I include myself in the waiting curse. That women should be sitting and making twelve of your carpet bags for eighteenpence, that women should be standing day by day behind the counter till their limbs swell and blacken and they can stand no longer, that women should be made to decorate your apparel at wages which will not give them one single hour of relaxation or wholesome country air what is this but preferring devils to Christ? I do not know where the wrong is, altogether: it is not a wrong you can lay your fingers upon and throttle, it is a widespread wrong, and nobody is responsible. Doth not he that pondereth the heart consider? When he maketh inquisition for blood will he not identify this and that man and yonder fine lady and demand the price? It is not an easy question; there are faults on many sides, and probably the whole fault cannot be accumulated and set down at any one man’s door. Therefore I would speak with forbearance as to the direct application of these doctrines in particular instances, but do not let us run away from the solemn fact that there are people in the world who would set trade above man.

There are those who calculate the expense of social regeneration, there are journals that calculate how much the missionary societies have expended, how many conversions they can trace, and they have divided the one set of figures by the other. What can you expect from such men? Incapable of religious enthusiasm, they are incapable of social justice. There are those who would ask how many swine there were and how many men were cured, and they would divide the one set of figures by the other, and talk about the statistical result. I hold that if one soul can be converted in this house, it was worth building the place for, if it should be burnt down today. We should work for men; our whole passion should be human; if one poor little child could say to me, “Till your church was built I never knew Christ: having come to it I see him now to be fairest among ten ‘thousand and altogether lovely, and I give myself right to him, if he will take so unworthy a thing” if that could be the result of this ministry, it was worth all the trouble and all the money, ten thousand times ten thousand over and over again, and multiplied by the number of all the stars of heaven. Let us take this view of our work. It is something to enliven a human heart, to lighten one human burden, to dry one human tear. If I could have the joy of thinking that this had been done by any exposition of this narrative, whatever might be set upon the other side would be less than the small dust of the balance.

The people besought Christ that he would depart out of their coasts. They accorded him a negative treatment: they did not violently thrust him out, they courteously besought him that he would go away. I have more hope of those who violently treat him than of those who politely decline to have anything to do with him. You are sitting there today saying of yourself, “I have never made any profession of religion.” The greater your shame. You have besought Jesus to depart out of your coasts: you have no high feeling against him, you never profaned his name by vulgar desecration; you attend a religious place of worship, but you make no profession of Jesus Christ’s name. You, on the other hand, say that you leave all religious questions alone. You have besought Jesus that he would depart out of your coasts intellectual, speculative, imaginative, practical, ideal. He is not within your coasts at all you have besought him to go away.

Read the next verse in the next chapter. “And he entered into a ship and passed over.” He may go then? Truly. We can get rid of him? Yes, yes. He will not be an eternal torment? No. He will not always strive with me I can shake him off? Yes, you can will you? I can banish him? Yes, yes you can stab him to the heart, you can spit upon him, you can smite him on the head, you can crucify him, you can get rid of him but if you do get rid of him do not come at last and beg to be admitted into the heart that you have wounded. Be consistent throughout. Will you get rid of him? Come, say, “My Lord, my God, cast the devils out of me, make me a sanctuary, a living temple abide with me.” That is the better course. Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.

Come into our house, Jesus, and dine there, and sup there, and stop the night there, all the night, the life-night, till the day dawn and the shadows flee away.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

Ver. 28. Coming out of the tombs ] There the devil kept them, the more to terrify them with the fear of death all their lives long, Heb 2:15 . Appius Claudius (as Capella witnesseth) could not abide to hear the Greek pronounced, because it represented the gnashing of the teeth of dying men. Chrysostom gives another reason hereof, that the devil hereby sought to persuade silly people that dead men’s souls were turned into devils, and walked (as they call it) especially about tombs and sepulchres. Thus he often appeared to people, in times of Popery, in the shape of some of their dead kindred, and haunted them till he had made them sing a mass for such and such a soul. Melancthon tells a story of an aunt of his, that had her hand burnt to a coal by the devil, appearing to her in the likeness of her deceased husband. And Pareus relates an example (much like this poor demoniac in the text) of a baker’s daughter in their country, possessed and pent up in a cave she had dug, as in a grave, to her dying day.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

28. ] Among the difficulties attendant on this narrative, the situation and name of the place where the event happened are not the least. Origen’s remarks are: . , . , . “ ,” (lit. “we must speak also to (in reference to) this;” discuss this reading also. Dr. Bloomfield’s conjecture, , need only be considered by those who are not aware of this common expression). , , . , , , , . Comm. in Joan. tom. vi. 24, vol. iv. p. 141. Notwithstanding this, it appears very doubtful whether there ever was a town named Gergesha near the lake. There were the Gergashites (Joseph. i. 6. 2) in former days, but their towns had been destroyed by the Israelites at their first irruption, and never, that we hear of, afterwards rebuilt (see Deu 7:1 ; Jos 24:11 ). Gerasa (now Dscherasch) lies much too far to the East. The town of Gadara, alluded to in the text, was (Joseph. B. J. iv. 7. 3) , and (Euseb. Onomasticon) , , (Dr. Bloomfield in loc. conjectures ) . It was on the river Hieromax (‘Gaddara Hieromace prfluente,’ Plin. Mat 8:18 ), and sixty stadia from Tiberias (Joseph. Vit. 65), (Jos. Antt. xvii. 11. 4). It was destroyed in the civil wars of the Jews, and rebuilt by Pompeius (Jos. B. J. i. 7. 7), presented by Augustus to King Herod (Jos. Antt. xv. 7. 3), and after his death united to the province of Syria (Jos. B. J. ii. 6. 3). It was one of the ten cities of Decapolis. (Pliny, ibid.) Burckhardt and others believe that they have found its ruins at Omkeis, near the ridge of the chain which divides the valley of Jordan from that of the Sea of Tiberias. The territory of this city might well extend to the shore of the lake. It may be observed, that there is nothing in any of the three accounts to imply that the city was close to the scene of the miracle, or the scene of the miracle close to the herd of swine, or the herd of swine, at the time of their possession, close to the lake. Indeed the expression , Mat 8:30 , implies the contrary with regard to the swine. It appears, from Burckhardt, that there are many tombs in the neighbourhood of the ruins of Gadara to this day, hewn in the rock, and thus capable of affording shelter. It may be well in fairness to observe, that can hardly have arisen entirely from Origen’s conjecture, as it pervades so many MSS. and ancient (it is true, not the most ancient) versions. We cannot say that a part of the territory of Gadara may not have been known to those who, like Matthew, were locally intimate with the shores of the lake, by this ancient and generally disused name. Still however, we are, I conceive, bound in a matter of this kind to follow the most ancient extant testimony. See further on [105] Mark, Luke. The excursus of Dr. Bloomfield, Gr. Test. edn. 9, vol. i. p. 890, though containing interesting matter confirming the fact of Gergesa having been a name actually used for a town near the lake, determines nothing as to the reading here, which must be settled purely on objective evidence.

[105] When, in the Gospels, and in the Evangelic statement, 1Co 11:23-25 , the sign () occurs in a reference, it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in the other Gospels, which will always be found indicated at the head of the note on the paragraph. When the sign () is qualified , thus, ‘ Mk.,’ or ‘ Mt. Mk.,’ &c., it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in that Gospel or Gospels, but not in the other or others .

] In Mar 5:2 , and Luk 8:27 , but one is mentioned. All three Evangelists have some particulars peculiar to themselves; but Mark the most, and the most striking, as having evidently proceeded from an eye-witness. The of Mark is worth noticing, in reference to the discrepancy of number in the two accounts, as perhaps connected with the mention of more than one by our Evangelist, who omits the circumstance connected with that speech.

] See the terribly graphic account of Mark ( Mar 5:3-6 ). The dmoniac was without clothes, which though related only by St. Luke ( Luk 8:27 ), yet, with remarkable consistency, appears from St. Mark’s narrative, where he is described as sitting, clothed , and in his right mind, at Jesus’s feet, after his cure.

. ] Peculiar to this Gospel.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Mat 8:28-34 . The demoniacs of Gadara (Mar 5:1-20 , Luk 8:26-39 ). This narrative raises puzzling questions of all sorts, among them a geographical or topological one, as to the scene of the occurrence. The variations in the readings in the three synoptical gospels reflect the perplexities of the scribes. The place in these readings bears three distinct names. It is called the territory of the Gadarenes , the Gerasenes , and the Gergesenes . The reading in Mar 5:1 in [54] , and adopted by W.H [55] , is , and, since the discovery by Thomson ( Land and Book , ii. 374) of a place called Gersa or Kersa, near the eastern shore of the lake, there has been a growing consensus of opinion in favour of Gerasa (not to be confounded with Gerasa in Gilead, twenty miles east of the Jordan) as the true name of the scene of the story. A place near the sea seems to be demanded by the circumstances, and Gadara on the Hieromax was too far distant. The true reading in Matthew (Mat 8:28 ) nevertheless is . He probably follows Mark as his guide, but the village Gerasa being obscure and Gadara well known, he prefers to define the locality by a general reference to the latter. The name Gergesa was a suggestion of Origen’s made incidentally in his Commentary on John, in connection with the place named in chap. Joh 1:28 , Bethabara or Bethany, to illustrate the confusion in the gospel in connection with names. His words are: , , , , (in Ev. Ioan., T. vi. c. 24). Prof. G. A. Smith, Historical Geography , p. 459, note, pronounces Gerasa “impossible”. But he means Gerasa in Decapolis, thirty-six miles away. He accepts Khersa, which he identifies with Gergesa, as the scene of the incident, stating that it is the only place on the east coast where the steep hills come down to the shore.

[54] Codex Vaticanus (sc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

[55] Westcott and Hort.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Mat 8:28 . , two , in Mark and Luke one. According to some, e.g. , Holtzmann (H. C.), the two includes the case reported in Mar 1:23-27 , Luk 4:31-37 , omitted by Matthew. Weiss’ hypothesis is that the two is an inference from the plurality of demons spoken of in his source ( vide Matt.-Evan., p. 239). The harmonists disposed of the difficulty by the remark that there might be two, though only one is spoken of in the other accounts, perhaps because he was the more violent of the two (so Augustine and Calvin). : the precipitous hills on the eastern shore are a limestone formation full of caves, which were doubtless used for burying the dead. There the demoniacs made their congenial home. , fierce exceedingly; , one of our evangelist’s favourite words. These demoniacs were what one would call dangerous madmen; that, whatever more; no light matter to cure them, say by “moral therapeutics”. : again with infinitive (with for negative). The point is not that nobody passed that way, but that the presence of the madmen tended to make it a place to be shunned as dangerous. Nobody cared to go near them. Christ came near their lair by accident, but He would not have been scared though He had known of their presence.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Matthew

THE PEACE-BRINGER IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD

Mat 8:28-34 .

Matthew keeps to chronological order in the first and second miracles of the second triplet, but probably His reason for bringing them together was rather similarity in their contents than proximity in their time. For one cannot but feel that the stilling of the storm, which manifested Jesus as the Peace-bringer in the realm of the Natural, is fitly followed by the casting out of demons, which showed Him as the Lord of still wider and darker realms, and the Peace-bringer to spirits tortured and torn by a mysterious tyranny. His meek power sways all creatures; His ‘word runneth very swiftly.’ Winds and seas and demons hearken and obey. Cheap ridicule has been plentifully flung at this miracle, and some defenders of the Gospels have tried to explain it away, and have almost apologised for it, but, while it raises difficult problems in its details, the total effect of it is to present a sublime conception of Jesus and of His absolute, universal authority. The conception is heightened in sublimity when the two adjacent miracles are contemplated in connection.

There is singular variation in the readings of the name of the scene of the miracle in the three evangelists. According to the reading of the Authorised Version, Matthew locates it in the ‘country of the Gergesenes’; Mark and Luke, in the ‘country of the Gadarenes’; whereas the Revised Version, following the general consensus of textual critics, reads ‘Gadarenes’ in Matthew and ‘Gerasenes’ in Mark and Luke. Now, Gadara is over six miles from the lake, and the deep gorge of a river lies between, so that it is out of the question as the scene of the miracle. But the only Gerasa known, till lately, is even more impossible, for it is far to the east of the lake. But some years since, Thomson found ruins bearing the name of Khersa or Gersa, ‘at the only portion of that coast on which the steep hills come down to the shore’ Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy Land, p. 459. This is probably the site of the miracle, and may have been included in the territory dependent on Gadara, and so have been rightly described as in ‘the country of the Gadarenes.’

Matthew again abbreviates, omitting many of the most striking and solemn features of the narrative as given by the other two evangelists, and he also diverges from them in mentioning two demoniacs instead of one. That is not contradiction, for if there were two, there was one, but it is divergence, due to more accurate information. Whether they were meant so or no, the abbreviations have the striking result that Jesus speaks but one word, the permissive ‘Go,’ and that thus His simple presence is the potent spell before which the demons cower and flee. They know Him as ‘the Son of God’; a name which, on their lips, must be taken in its full significance. If demoniacal possession is a fact, there is no difficulty in accounting for the name here given to Jesus, nor for the sudden change from the fierce purpose of barring an intruder’s path to abject submission. If it is not a fact, to make a plausible explanation of either circumstance will be a task needing many contortions, as is seen by the attempts to achieve it. For example, we are told that the demoniacs were afraid of Jesus, because He ‘was not afraid of them,’ and they knew Him, because ‘men with shattered reason also felt the spell, while the wise and the strong-minded often used their intellect, under the force of passion or prejudice, to resist the force of truth.’ Possibly the last clause goes as far to explain some critics’ non-recognition of demoniacal possession as the first does to explain the demoniacs’ recognition of Jesus!

To the demonic nature Christ’s coming brought torture, as the sunbeam, which gives life to many, also gives death to ugly creatures that crawl and swarm in the dark. Turn up a stone, and the creeping things hurry out of the penetrating glare so unwelcome. ‘What maketh heaven, that maketh hell,’ and the same presence is life or death, joy or agony. The dear perception of divine purity and the shuddering recoil of impotent hatred from it are surely of the very essence of the demonic nature, and every man, who looks into the depths of his own spirit, knows that the possibilities of such a state are in him.

Our Lord discriminated between healing the sick and casting out demons. He distinguished between forms of disease due to possession and the same diseases when dissociated from it, as, for example, cases of dumbness. His whole attitude, both in His actual dealing with the possessed and in His referring to the subject, gave His complete adhesion to the reality of the awful thing. It is vain to say that He humoured the delusions of insanity in order to cure them. That theory does not adequately explain any of the facts and does not touch some of them. It is perilous to try to weaken the force of the narrative by saying that the evangelists were under the influence of popular notions which are quietly assumed to have been wrong, and hence that their prepossessions coloured their representations. If the mirror was so distorted, what reliance can be placed on any part of its reflection of Jesus? There can be no doubt that the Gospel narrative asserts and assumes the reality of demoniacal possession, and if the representation that Jesus also assumed it is due to the evangelists, what trust can be reposed in authorities which misrepresent Him in such a matter? On the other hand, if they do not misrepresent Him, and He blundered, confounding mere insanity with possession by a demon, what reliance can be reposed in Him as our Teacher of the Unseen World? The issues involved are very grave and far-reaching, and raillery or sarcasm is out of place.

But the question is pertinent: By what right do we allege that demoniacal possession is an exploded figment and an impossibility? Do we know ourselves or our fellows so thoroughly as to be warranted in denying that deep down in the mysterious ‘subliminal consciousness’ there is a gate through which spiritual beings may come into contact with human personalities? He would be bold, to the verge of presumption or somewhat further, who should take up such a position. And have we any better right to assume that we know so much of the universe as to be sure that there are no evil spirits there, who can come into contact with human spirits and wield an alien tyranny over them? The Christian attitude is not that of such far-reaching denial which outruns our knowledge, but that of calm belief that Jesus is the head of all principality and power, and that to Him all are subject. It is taken for granted that the supposed possession is insanity. But may it not rather be that to-day some of the supposed insanity is possession? Be that as it may-and perhaps those who have the widest experience of ‘lunatics’ would be the least ready to dismiss the possibility,-Jesus recognised the reality that there were souls oppressed by a real personality, which had settled itself in the house of life, and none of us has wide and deep enough knowledge to contradict Him. Might it not be better to accept His witness in this, as in other matters beyond our ken, as true, and to ponder it?

The demons’ petition, according to the Received Text, takes the form, ‘Suffer us to go,’ while the reading adopted by most modern editors is ‘Send us.’ The former reading seems to be taken from Luk 8:32 , while Mark has ‘Send’ not the same word as now read in Matthew. But Mark goes on to say, not that Jesus sent them, but that He ‘suffered them’ or ‘gave them leave’ the same word as in Matthew, according to the Received Text. Thus, Jesus’ part in the transaction is simply permissive, and the one word which He speaks is authoritative indeed in its curtness, and means simply ‘away,’ or ‘begone.’ It casts them out but does not send them in. He did not send them into the herd, but out of the men, and did not prevent their entrance into the swine. It should further be noted that nothing in the narrative suggests that the destruction of the herd was designed even by the demons, much less by Jesus. The maddened brutes rushed straight before them, not knowing why or where; the steep slope was in front, and the sea was at its foot, and their terrified, short gallop ended there. The last thing the demons would have done would have been to banish themselves, as the death of the swine did banish them, from their new shelter. There is no need, then, to invent justifications for Christ’s destroying the herd, for He did not destroy it. No doubt, keeping swine was a breach of Jewish law; no doubt the two demoniacs and the bystanders would be more convinced of the reality of the exorcism by the fate of the swine, but these apologies are needless.

The narrative suggests some affinity between the demoniac and the animal nature, and though it is easy to ridicule, it is impossible to disprove, the suggestion. We know too little about either to do that, and what we cannot disprove it is somewhat venturesome hardily to deny. There are depths in the one nature, which we cannot fathom though its possessors are close to us; the other is removed from our investigation altogether. Where we are so utterly ignorant we had better neither affirm nor deny. But we may take a homiletical use out of that apparent affinity, and recognise that a spirit in rebellion against God necessarily gravitates downwards, and becomes more or less bestialised.

No wonder that the swineherds fled, but, surely, it is a wonder that eagerness to be rid of Jesus was the sole result of the miracle. Perhaps the reason was the loss of the swine, which would bulk largest in their keepers’ excited story; perhaps the reason was a fear that He would find out and rebuke other instances of breach of strict Jewish propriety, perhaps it was simply the shrinking from any close contact with the heavenly, or apparently supernatural, which is so instinctive in us, and witnesses to a dormant consciousness of discord with Heaven. ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man,’ is the cry of the roused conscience. And, alas! it has power to send away Him whom we need, and who comes to us, just because we are sinful, and just that He may deliver us from our sin.

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 8:28-34

28When He came to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, two men who were demon-possessed met Him as they were coming out of the tombs. They were so extremely violent that no one could pass by that way. 29And they cried out, saying, “What business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?” 30Now there was a herd of swine feeding at a distance from them. 31The demons began to entreat Him, saying “If You are going to cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.” 32And He said to them, “Go!” And they came out and went into the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished in the waters. 33The herdsmen ran away, and went to the city and reported everything, including what had happened to the demoniacs. 34And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they implored Him to leave their region.

Mat 8:28

NASB, NRSV,

JB” into the country of the Gadarenes”

NKJV”to the country of the Gergesenes”

TEV”to the territory of Gadara on the other side of the lake”

There has been much discussion over this geographical location. This place was spelled three different ways in differeing Greek manuscripts of Matthew, as well as in three different Synoptic Gospels. Apparently it was close to the city of Khersa, but the city of Gadara owned some land near the lake and it was often called the district of Gadara, even though this city was six miles away.

“two men” Matthew usually has two people involved in an account where Mark and Luke only have one (cf. Mar 5:1; Luk 8:26). Another example would be the blind man/men of Jericho (cf. Mat 20:29; Mar 10:46; Luk 18:35). Some have supposed that two were mentioned because the OT required two witnesses in court (Num 35:30; Deu 17:6; Mat 18:16).

“who were demon-possessed. . .coming out of the tombs” They had been ostracized by the community and this was the only place where they could find shelter. During this period small manmade or natural caves were used as burial places. Whether this location was connected with their demon possession is uncertain. There are many specific questions about demons and angels which cannot be answered because there is not enough biblical information. Our world is permeated by a personal force of evil with his servants, the fallen angels, who are out to thwart the will of God and to destroy mankind, God’s ultimate creation and focus of His love and attention. See Special Topics: Personal Evil at Mat 4:5 and the Demonic at Mat 10:1.

“that no one could pass by that way” See Mar 5:2-6 and Luk 8:27.

Mat 8:29 “Son of God” These demons recognized who Jesus was (cf. Jas 2:19). The title “Son of God” was used several times in Mat 4:3; Mat 14:33; Mat 16:16; Mat 27:43; Mat 27:54. It was a play on the term “son” (cf. Mat 2:15); the nation of Israel is called “son” ; Israel’s king is called “son” ; and Israel’s Messiah is called “son.” Several times in the Gospels the demons recognize Jesus (cf. Mar 1:24; Luk 4:34). Jesus does not acknowledge their testimony. They were not saying this to help Him. Later Jesus will be accused of utilizing Satan’s power (Mat 12:24). The demons’witnessing to Him would have given credence to this charge. See SPECIAL TOPIC: THE SON OF GOD at Mat 27:54.

NASB, NKJV,

NRSV, JB” Have You come here to torment us before the time”

TEV”Have you come to punish us before the right time”

The spiritual realm knows that a time has been set for God to judge the living and the dead, humans, and angels (cf. Php 2:10-11; Rev 11:15).

Mat 8:30 “a herd of many swine” It was a Gentile area shown by the presence of these hogs. Exactly why the demons wanted to go into the hogs is simply a matter of conjecture. There is not enough information. The destruction of this group of hogs does show the ultimate purpose of the demonic-death to their host. Also, the herd’s destruction would have caused the townspeople to ask Jesus to leave!

“the demons” See Special Topic at Mat 10:1.

“if” This is a first class conditional sentence. Jesus was going to drive out the demons!

Mat 8:34 “they implored Him to leave their region” This is one of the saddest verses in all of the Bible. In the presence of the greatest man of history, these villagers were more concerned about the death of a few hogs than they were over the redemption and reclamation of two demonized persons and the spiritual potential of the gospel for their area.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

when He was come. This miracle of the two demoniacs was not the same as that recorded in Mar 5:1-20 and Luk 8:26-40. Here, there were two men; in the later miracle there was one; here, they landed opposite the place whence they set sail (Gergesenes); there, the Gadarenes (not Gadera) not opposite; here, no name is asked; there, the name is “Legion”; here, no bonds used; there, many; here, the two were not afterwards used, and the Twelve not yet called; there, the one man was used, and the Twelve had been called. The consequents also are different. See App-97.

to = into. Greek. eis.

Gergesenes. Probably Girgashites, so called from one of the original Canaanite nations (Gen 10:16; Gen 15:21; Deu 7:1. Jos 3:10; Jos 24:11. 1Ch 1:14. Neh 9:8). Not Gadarenes, as in Mark and Luke. “Gergesenes is the reading of the vast majority of MSS. of both families; of the Coptic, Ethiopic, and Armenian versions”. Origen is the great authority; but Wetstein “imagined” that it was Origen’s “gratuitous conjecture”. Critics have followed Wetstein, but Scrivener is right (as usual in retaining Gergesenes.

two. In the later miracle only one. Compare “we”, Mat 8:29.

possessed with devils: i.e. demoniacs. Greek. daimonizomai. .

no man might pass = one was not able to pass.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

28.] Among the difficulties attendant on this narrative, the situation and name of the place where the event happened are not the least. Origens remarks are: . , . , . , (lit. we must speak also to (in reference to) this; discuss this reading also. Dr. Bloomfields conjecture, , need only be considered by those who are not aware of this common expression). , , . , , , , . Comm. in Joan. tom. vi. 24, vol. iv. p. 141. Notwithstanding this, it appears very doubtful whether there ever was a town named Gergesha near the lake. There were the Gergashites (Joseph. i. 6. 2) in former days, but their towns had been destroyed by the Israelites at their first irruption, and never, that we hear of, afterwards rebuilt (see Deu 7:1; Jos 24:11). Gerasa (now Dscherasch) lies much too far to the East. The town of Gadara, alluded to in the text, was (Joseph. B. J. iv. 7. 3) , and (Euseb. Onomasticon) , , (Dr. Bloomfield in loc. conjectures ) . It was on the river Hieromax (Gaddara Hieromace prfluente, Plin. Mat 8:18), and sixty stadia from Tiberias (Joseph. Vit. 65), (Jos. Antt. xvii. 11. 4). It was destroyed in the civil wars of the Jews, and rebuilt by Pompeius (Jos. B. J. i. 7. 7), presented by Augustus to King Herod (Jos. Antt. xv. 7. 3), and after his death united to the province of Syria (Jos. B. J. ii. 6. 3). It was one of the ten cities of Decapolis. (Pliny, ibid.) Burckhardt and others believe that they have found its ruins at Omkeis, near the ridge of the chain which divides the valley of Jordan from that of the Sea of Tiberias. The territory of this city might well extend to the shore of the lake. It may be observed, that there is nothing in any of the three accounts to imply that the city was close to the scene of the miracle, or the scene of the miracle close to the herd of swine, or the herd of swine, at the time of their possession, close to the lake. Indeed the expression , Mat 8:30, implies the contrary with regard to the swine. It appears, from Burckhardt, that there are many tombs in the neighbourhood of the ruins of Gadara to this day, hewn in the rock, and thus capable of affording shelter. It may be well in fairness to observe, that can hardly have arisen entirely from Origens conjecture, as it pervades so many MSS. and ancient (it is true, not the most ancient) versions. We cannot say that a part of the territory of Gadara may not have been known to those who, like Matthew, were locally intimate with the shores of the lake, by this ancient and generally disused name. Still however, we are, I conceive, bound in a matter of this kind to follow the most ancient extant testimony. See further on [105] Mark, Luke. The excursus of Dr. Bloomfield, Gr. Test. edn. 9, vol. i. p. 890, though containing interesting matter confirming the fact of Gergesa having been a name actually used for a town near the lake, determines nothing as to the reading here, which must be settled purely on objective evidence.

[105] When, in the Gospels, and in the Evangelic statement, 1Co 11:23-25, the sign () occurs in a reference, it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in the other Gospels, which will always be found indicated at the head of the note on the paragraph. When the sign () is qualified, thus, Mk., or Mt. Mk., &c., it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in that Gospel or Gospels, but not in the other or others.

] In Mar 5:2, and Luk 8:27, but one is mentioned. All three Evangelists have some particulars peculiar to themselves; but Mark the most, and the most striking, as having evidently proceeded from an eye-witness. The of Mark is worth noticing, in reference to the discrepancy of number in the two accounts, as perhaps connected with the mention of more than one by our Evangelist, who omits the circumstance connected with that speech.

] See the terribly graphic account of Mark (Mar 5:3-6). The dmoniac was without clothes, which though related only by St. Luke (Luk 8:27), yet, with remarkable consistency, appears from St. Marks narrative, where he is described as sitting, clothed, and in his right mind, at Jesuss feet, after his cure.

.] Peculiar to this Gospel.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Mat 8:28. ,[384] of the Gergesenes) Gerasa (said for Gergescha) and Gadara were neighbouring cities.[385] See Hillers Onomata Sacra, pp. 807, 812.- , from the tombs) The possessed avoid human society, in which the exercises of piety flourish. Invisible guests also have their dwelling in sepulchres (See Mar 5:3); those which are malignant, especially, I believe in the sepulchres of the impious.-, pass by) not even pass by.

[384] This reading, which Michaelis supposed to rest on the mere conjecture of Origen, is estimated by the Margin of Beng. more highly in this passage than in the parallels, Mar 5:1, and Luk 8:26.-E. B.

[385] See Bloomfields Greek Testament in loc.-(I. B.)

BC, Syr. (Peschito) and Harcl. (txt.) Syr. read . Lachm. reads with bcd Vulg. Hilar. 645, and D apparently (its Latin having this reading). has but second-rate authorities, LX. etc. Memph. Goth. The variety probably arose from the parallel passages being altered from one another. Tregelles (Printed Text of N. T. p. 192) has shown Origen, iv. 140, , does not refer to Matthew exclusively, but to the Gospel narration generally. It proves the name was sometimes read , sometimes , and that was not a then known reading, but was his mere conjecture.-ED.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Mat 8:28-34

Jesus Heals the man Possessed with Demons

Mat 8:28-34

28 And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes.-Matthew is not clear in giving the geography of the tours of Jesus; “the other side” usually means the east side of the Sea of Galilee; probably Jesus was going from Capernaum to “the other side” when the storm arose, and they continued on the journey to the “country of the Gadarenes,” arriving there in the early morning. This scene is recorded both by Mark (Mar 5:1-17) and Luke (Luk 8:26-37.) The main difference in these three narratives is that Matthew speaks of two demoniacs, while Mark and Luke speak of but one. There is a similar incident in the account of the healing of the blind near Jericho Matthew (Mat 20:30-34) speaks of two, while Mark (Mar 10:46-52) and Luke (Luk 18:35-43) speak of but one. No special importance is attached to these differences. The country of the “Gadarenes” was on the east side of the Jordan, and a little to the south the exact location cannot be determined. Sometimes the historian speaks of the “Gerasenes” and “Gadarenes” and “Gadara.” When he arrived in that country, “there met him two possessed with demons”; these came out of the tombs and were very fierce, “so that no man could pass by that way.” They were dangerous. Mark and Luke mention but one, and probably the one that they mention was the more ferocious of the two, and they direct attention to the most dangerous one. Some of the ancient tombs were like caves and other places of abode, hence one would be well sheltered in the tombs; this was a very suitable place of resort for demoniacs. The case of these two demoniacs is closely allied to the wild raving insanity known in every insane asylum. It was dangerous for one to come in contact with such characters.

29-34 And behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, thou Son of God?-Some think the meaning of the question here is what have we in common? or what have we do do with each other? The evil spirits in these two men recognized Jesus as the “Son of God”; they recognized his authority and power; they feared him. “Thou believest that God is one; thou doest well: the demons also believe, and shudder.” (Jas 2:19.) The evil spirit in a soothsayer following “after Paul and us cried out, saying, These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim unto you the way of salvation.” (Act 16:17.) The demons in these two men were disturbed over the presence of Jesus and asked, “Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?” Jesus had commanded the unclean spirits to come out of these men. (Mar 5:8.) They seemed to apprehend that Jesus crossed the lake for the purpose of afflicting or annoying them by depriving them of their power over their unhappy victims. They asked if Jesus had come to torment them “before the time”; that is, before the day of judgment. (2Pe 2:4; Jud 1:6.) In Mark we have the record that Jesus asked the man his name and the reply was “Legion; for we are many.” A Roman legion numbered 6,000, but it came to mean, as with us, a large number, a host. The demons asked Jesus not to send them out of the country; Luke says, “into the abyss,” the place of evil spirits; their request seems to be to send them anywhere, anywhere but to perdition.

Now there was afar off from them a herd of many swine feeding.-Mark says there were at the foot of the mountain a herd of many swine feeding, about two thousand (Mar 5:13), and when they besought Jesus to send them into the herd of swine, Jesus “said unto them, Go.” At the command of Jesus the demons left the men “and went into the swine.” “Swine” was considered an unclean animal among the Jews. When the evil spirits entered the swine, “the whole herd rushed down the steep into the sea and perished in the waters.” As there was a “legion” of them in one of the men, there were enough to furnish several for every one of the swine, though there were about two thousand of them. The swine “were choked” or suffocated, drowned. How demons could enter into swine we are not told, but it is no more of a mystery than the connections of the demands with the mind and body of a man. Jesus came to save man, not property; hence, he places a higher value upon the men who were saved than he did the herd of swine. The people of that country, instigated by the owners of the herd, besought Jesus to leave the country. Thus the devil played upon the cupidity of these people to induce them to ask Jesus to leave them forever-and he did. We do not read that Jesus ever returned to that people. Some of the richer citizens were owners of the swine and it is through their influence that the people besought Jesus to leave them. This miracle impressed all with the power of Jesus, even over the spirit world.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

an Unwelcome Visitor

Mat 8:28-34

The demon spirit seems still to tenant the lives of human beings. To what else can we attribute the paroxysms of passion, the awful cruelties and inhumanities of men? There is only one devil, but many demons; only one prince of the power of darkness, but many emissaries. Take heed, lest you open the door of your nature to the spirit of evil and he possess you. Watch and pray, and trust the keeping of your soul to the hands of Christ. He is stronger than the strong man.

Notice that the demon is set upon destruction. If he may not destroy the souls of men, he will destroy swine. This is the mark of evil. It is always destructive; whereas the Spirit of God is constructive and builds up from the ruins of Satans work a new heaven and a new earth, both in the soul and in the universe.

All the city besought Jesus to depart, because men count their gains more valuable than His presence. The same spirit rules in the commercial world of today. Let us beware. What shall it profit to gain the world, if we lose our souls?

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

The King driving Legions before Him

Mat 8:28. And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, ao that no man might pass by that way.

Did they come out to oppose him? As he steps on the shore, did Satan mean to drive him back by this double legion of demons? The tombs were Satan’s castle; he used the madness of these afflicted men as his weapons of war. They had driven away everybody else; will they stop the advance of the Lord Jesus? They were “exceeding fierce”: will they fright him to flight?

Mat 8:29. And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?

This is the old cry, “Mind your own business! Do not interfere with our trade! Let us alone, and go elsewhere! “Devils never like to be interfered with. But if devils have nothing to do with Jesus, he has something to do with them. His presence is torment to them. They know that a time is coming when they shall fully receive their hell; but that time seems to be antedated when the Lord Jesus invades their solitary lurking-place among the tombs. The devils here spoke, and compelled the lips of the men thus to plead against themselves. How very like is this to the swearer’s case, whose mouth is used to imprecate a curse upon himself! The devils owned him Son of God, for even they are not so base as to deny his Deity. The demons! confessed that he was not under their rule: “What have we to do with thee? “They also expressed their dread of his almighty power, and feared the torment they deserved, 30, 31. And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding. So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.

Jews had no right to be feeding herds of swine, for they were unclean to them. The devils began to tremble before Jesus had said a word, “saying, If thou cast us out.” They cannot bear to go to their own place, and so beg to go into pigs. Devils would sooner dwell inside swine than be in the presence of Jesus. If they cannot do mischief to men, they would sooner destroy pigs than be without doing mischief. Devils cannot, however, even afflict hogs without leave from Christ. Think of these demons in their pride beseeching Jesus, and beseeching him for so small a boon as to be allowed to enter into a herd of swine. Truly the Son of God is King! The whines of a legion of devils admit his sovereignty.

Mat 8:32. And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.

Our Lord never wastes words on devils: “He said unto them, Go.” The less we say to bad men the better. One word is enough for such dogs as these tormenting spirits were. The devils soon went from the lunatics to the hogs. From a madman to a beast was a short remove for a foul spirit. Swine prefer death to devilry; and if men were not worse than swine, they would be of the same opinion. They run hard whom the devil drives. The devil drives his hogs to a bad market. Those who pursue a downward path without consideration, will come to destruction in the end. The swine “perished in the waters”, but the devils are reserved to the judgment of eternal fire. We need not dread the powers of hell. They fly pell-mell before our Lord.

Mat 8:33. And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to the possessed. of the devils.

Well might the swineherds flee! When evil men perish at the last, their wicked pastors will have a hard time of it.

How vividly they told their story! I No item was left out! “They told everything.” Probably all the details were brought out into exaggerated relief. Thus would they excuse their own loss of the swine which they were set to keep, but had seen lost before their very eyes. Their employers, the owners of the herd, must have greatly lamented their loss, but they must have trembled as they saw the hand of God in it. What a crushing misfortune for the swine-keepers, of Gadara! Who pities them, since their trade was unlawful! The story of the healing of the demoniacs was mentioned by the reporters as a secondary matter; but, indeed, it was the central point of the narrative. To some men souls are secondary to swine. The healing of the two demoniacs added to the wonder, and set every ear tingling throughout the city. Yet the result on the people was not what one would have expected.

Mat 8:34. And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coast.

A rare occurrence-a whole city meeting Jesus, and that city unanimous in their appeal to him. Alas, it was the unanimity of evil! Here was a whole city at a prayer-meeting, praying against their own blessing. Think of having the Lord among them, healing the worst of diseases, and yet entreating him to go away from them! They would be rid of the one glorious Being who alone could bless them. Horrible was their prayer; but it was heard, and Jesus departed out of their coasts. He will not force his company on any. He will be a welcome guest, or he will be gone. What a mercy that our Lord does not hear every prayer of this sort! How would it fare with swearers if their imprecations were fulfilled?

O Lord, I thank thee that thou didst not go away from me, when I, in my unregenerate condition, wished thee to let me alone!

Fuente: Spurgeon’s The Gospel of the Kingdom

possessed

(Greek – – “demonized”). (See Scofield “Mat 7:22”).

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

when: Mar 5:1-20, Luk 8:26-39, Act 10:38

Gergesenes: Some are of opinion that Gergasa was the country of the ancient Girgashites; but it is more probable the Gergesenes was introduced by Origen upon mere conjecture; as before him most copies seem to have read Gadarenes, agreeable to the Parallel Passages and the ancient Syriac version. Gadara, says Josephus, was the metropolis of Peraea, or the region beyond Jordan; and he also observes that it was sixty furlongs, or about eight miles from Tiberias. It is therefore rightly placed opposite Tiberias, at the southeast end of the lake. Pliny says it was called Hippodion, was one of the cities of Decapolis, and had the river Hieromax, or Jarmouk, flowing before it. It was of heathen jurisdiction; whence perhaps it was destroyed by the Jews; but was rebuilt by Pompey, and joined to the province of Syria. Augustus afterwards gave it to Herod, on whose death it was again annexed to Syria. It is now called Om Keis; its ruins are in a very mutilated state, and when visited by Burckhardt it had not a single inhabitant. The remains of the sepulchral caverns in which the demoniacs abode are still to be seen. Gen 10:16, Gen 15:21, Deu 7:1

coming: Mar 5:2-5, Luk 8:27, Luk 8:29

so: Jdg 5:6

Reciprocal: Lev 14:41 – into an unclean place Isa 65:4 – remain

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

8:28

Gergesenes (also called Gadarenes) was situated near the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. The tombs were caves in the rocks that were used for the burial of the dead. They were generally open so that persons could enter and leave them as occasion suggested. It was in this kind of a place that the Lord met the two afflicted men. Possessed with devils all comes from the Greek word DAIMONIZOMAI. Another Greek word that is always (with one exception) rendered by “devil in the Authorized Version is DAIMONION. These two Greek words are so frequently related that I shall consider them both in the comments at this verse. I shall quote from both Thayer and Robinson as they discuss the words in their lexicons. Because of the important history that they give in connection with their specific definitions, I think it will be well to give the reader the benefit of this authentic information. It will be so necessary in various places in our study of the New Testament, that I urge the reader to make it convenient to consult it carefully any time it is referred to. First will be Thayer on DAIMONIZOMAI:

“In the N. T. DAIMONIZOMENOI are persons afflicted with especially severe diseases, either bodily or mental (such as paralysis, blindness, deafness, loss of speech, epilepsy, melancholy, etc.), whose bodies in the opinion of the Jews (see DAIMONION) demons had entered, and so held possession of them as not only to afflict them with ills, but also to dethrone the reason and take its place themselves; accordingly the possessed were wont to express the mind and consciousness of the demons dwelling in them; and their cure was thought to require the expulsion of the demon.” Next is Thayer on DAIMONION “1. the divine Power, deity, divinity . . . 2. a spirit, a being inferior to God, superior to men . . . evil spirits or the messengers and ministers of the devil . . . to have a demon, be possessed by a demon, is said of those who either suffer from some ex ceptionally severe disease, Luk 4:33; Luk 8:27; or act and speak as though they were mad, Mat 11:18; Luk 7:33; Joh 7:20; Joh 8:48. . . . According to a Jewish opinion which passed over to Christians, the demons are the gods of the Gentiles and the authors of idolatry. . . . The apostle Paul, though teaching that the gods of the Gentiles are a fiction (1Co 8:4; 1Co 10:19), thinks that the conception of them has been put into the minds of men by demons, who appropriate to their own use and honor the sacrifices offered to idols.” Next will be Robinson on DAIMONIZOMAI: “In New Testament, to have a demon or devil, to be a demoniac, to be possessed, afflicted, with an evil spirit; found only in the Gospels.” Next is Robinson on the Greek word dai-monion: “1. generally a deity, a god, spoken of heathen gods, Act 17:18.

2. specifically a demon. In the New Testament, a demon, devil, an evil spirit, an unclean spirit. These spirits are represented as fallen angels, 2Pe 2:4; Jud 1:6; and are now subject to Satan as their prince, Mat 9:34; Mat 25:41; 2Co 12:7; Rev 12:9. They were held to have the power of working miracles, but not for good, Rev 16:14; to be hostile to mankind, Joh 8:44; to utter the heathen responses and oracles, Act 16:17; and to lurk in the idols of the heathen, which are hence called daimonia, devils, 1Co 10:20. . . . They are likewise represented as the authors of evil to mankind, both moral and physical.”

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.

[Into the country of the Gergesenes.] In Mark and Luke it is, of the Gadarenes; both very properly: for it was the city Gadara, whence the country had its name: there was also Gergasa, a city or a town within that country; which whether it bare its name from the ancient Canaanite stock of the Gergashites, or from the word Gargushta; which signifies clay or dirt; we leave to the more learned to discuss. Lutetia; [Paris], a word of such a nature, may be brought for an example.

[Two possessed with devils coming out of the tombs, etc.] “These are the signs of a madman. He goes out in the night, and lodges among the sepulchres, and teareth his garments, and tramples upon whatsoever is given him. R. Houna saith, But is he only mad in whom all these signs are? I say, Not. He that goes out in the night is condriacus, hypochondriacal. He that lodgeth a night among the tombs burns incense to devils. He that tears his garments is melancholic. And he that tramples under his feet whatsoever is given him is cardiacus, troubled in mind.” And a little after, “one while he is mad, another while he is well; while he is mad, he is to be esteemed for a madman in respect of all his actions: while he is well, he is to be esteemed for one that is his own man in all respects.” See what we say at Mat 17:15.

Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels

THE subject of these seven verses is deep and mysterious. The casting out of a devil is here described with special fullness. It is one of those passages which throw strong light on a dark and difficult point.

Let us settle it firmly in our minds, that there is such a being as the devil. It is an awful truth, and one too much overlooked. There is an unseen spirit ever near us, of mighty power, and full of endless malice against our souls. From the beginning of creation he has labored to injure man. Until the Lord comes the second time and binds him, he will never cease to tempt, and practice mischief. In the days when our Lord was upon earth, it is clear that he had a peculiar power over the bodies of certain men and women, as well as over their souls. Even in our own times there may be more of this bodily possession than some suppose, though confessedly in a far less degree than when Christ came in the flesh. But that the devil is ever near us in spirit, and ever ready to ply our hearts with temptations, ought never to be forgotten.

Let us, in the next place, settle it firmly in our minds, that the power of the devil is limited. Mighty as he is, there is one mightier still. Keenly set as his will is on doing harm in the world, he can only work by permission. These very verses show us that the evil spirits know they can only go to and fro, and ravage the earth, until the time allowed them by the Lord of lords. “Art thou come to torment us,” they say, “before the time?” Their very petition shows us that they could not even hurt one of the Gergesene swine, unless Jesus the Son of God suffered them. “Suffer us,” they say, “to go into the herd of swine.”

Let us, in the next place, settle it in our minds, that our Lord Jesus Christ is man’s great deliverer from the power of the devil. He can redeem us not only “from all iniquity,” and “this present evil world,” but from the devil. It was prophesied of old that he should bruise the serpent’s head. He began to bruise that head, when he was born of the virgin, Mary. He triumphed over that head, when He died upon the cross. He showed His complete dominion over Satan, by “healing all that were oppressed of the devil,” when He was upon earth. (Act 10:38.) Our great remedy, in all the assaults of the devil, is to cry to the Lord Jesus, and to seek His help. He can break the chains that Satan casts round us, and set us free. He can cast out every devil that plagues our hearts, as surely as in the days of old. It would be miserable indeed to know that there is a devil ever near us, if we did not also know that Christ was “able to save to the uttermost, because he ever liveth to make intercession for us.” (Heb 7:25.)

Let us not leave this passage without observing the painful worldliness of the Gergesenes, among whom this miracle of casting out a devil was wrought. They besought the Lord Jesus to “depart out of their coasts.” They had no heart to feel for anything but the loss of their swine. They cared not that two fellow-creatures, with immortal souls, were freed from Satan’s bondage. They cared not that there stood among them a greater than the devil, Jesus the Son of God. They cared for nothing but that their swine were drowned, and “the hope of their gains gone.” They ignorantly regarded Jesus as one who stood between them and their profits, and they only wished to be rid of Him.

There are only too many like these Gergesenes. There are thousands who care not one jot for Christ, or Satan, so long as they can make a little more money, and have a little more of the good things of this world. From this spirit may we be delivered! Against this spirit may we ever watch and pray! It is very common. It is awfully infectious. Let us recollect every morning that we have souls to be saved, and that we shall one day die, and after that be judged. Let us beware of loving the world more than Christ. Let us beware of hindering the salvation of others, because we fear the increase of true religion may diminish our gains, or give us trouble.

Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels

Mat 8:28. Into the country of the Gadarenes. Our version has: Gergesenes; in Mark and Luke: Gadarenes. The best established reading in Matthew: Gadarenes; Mark: Gerasenes; Luke: Gergesenes; though there are variations in all three. We know who changed the word Gadarenes into Gergesenes in this Gospel (Origen), his reasons for doing it, and hence have a more correct copy of the verse than was current in the middle of the third century.

The variety in names has occasioned much discussion as to the exact locality. The common view is that the city referred to in Mat 8:33-34, was Gadara, the capital of Perea, situated southeast of the southern end of the lake. It was about seven miles from Tiberias, on a mountain near the river Hieromax; was probably inhabited by Gentiles, and is now called Omkeis. This place was not too far away to be the city referred to, since the events occurred before the city was reached. The name Gergesenes is then to be regarded as derived from the old Girgashites, who lived there before the conquest of the Israelites. (Josephus says the name survived.) Gerasenes was probably a corruption, or derived from the city Gerasa, which was situated in the same district, though at a great distance. Another theory, now coming into favor, is, that a place, called Gerasa or Gergesa, existed near the lake shore. (See Thomson, The Land and the Book, ii. pp. 34-37.) The wood-cut represents the locality according to this view.

Two possessed with demons. Mark and Luke speak of but one, although the former gives the most detailed account. They probably mention the principal one, but do definitely affirm that there was but one. Matthew is always more particular as to numbers, as Mark is regarding looks and gestures. Lange: Two demoniacs would not have associated unless one had been dependent on the other.All three Evangelists agree, that the meeting occurred just after landing, although the form of expressing that fact varies.

Coming from out of the tombs. According to the other accounts, their abode, chosen from a morbid craving for the terrible. One of the early fathers speaks of such caves near Gadara, and modem travellers confirm the statement. They were hewn out of the chalky rock, and afforded shelter. The possessed probably came some distance toward the lake snore to meet Jesus. The whole narrative indicates a premonition of this coming of the Lord.

Exceeding fierce (comp. Mar 5:3-5). Mark tells of the unsuccessful efforts made to subdue them; Matthew, that unsubdued they were the terror of the country.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

We read of few, if any in the Old Testament, that were possessed with evil spirits; but of many in the New Testament. Our Saviour came into the workd to destroy the works of the devil; therefore he suffered Satan to enter some human bodies, to shew his divine power in casting them out.

Note here, 1. That the evil angels by their fall, lost their purity but not their power.

2. That they do no oftener exert their power in doing mischief to the bodies and lives of men, is from the restraining power of God. The devils cannot do all the mischief they would, and they shall not do all they can.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Mat 8:28. And when he was come to the other side, &c. This history is related by Mar 5:1-4, &c.; and by Luk 8:26-27, more at large than here by Matthew: and they report it to be done in the country of the Gadarenes, who, it is evident, were the same people with those called here Gergesenes; Gadara and Gergesa being towns near each other, and the country between them taking its name indifferently from either place. There met him two possessed with devils St. Mark and St. Luke mention only one, who was probably the fiercer of the two, and the person who spoke to our Lord first. But this is no way inconsistent with the account which St. Matthew gives. The tombs Doubtless those malevolent spirits love such tokens of death and destruction. Tombs were usually in those days in desert places, at a distance from towns, and were often made in the sides of caves, in the rocks and mountains. No one could pass Safely. And behold, they cried out Namely, the devils, using the mans tongue, What have we to do with thee Why dost thou concern thyself about us? It is a Hebrew phrase, made use of when men wish not to be troubled with the company or importunity of others. Jesus, thou Son of God The devils knew him to be the Son of God, though the Jews would not believe that he was. Art thou come to torment us before the time Before the great day of judgment?

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

LVI.

JESUS HEALS TWO GERGESENE DEMONIACS.

(Gergesa, now called Khersa.)

aMATT. VIII. 28-34; IX. 1; bMARK V. 1-21; cLUKE VIII. 26-40.

b1 And they came to the other side of the sea [They left in the “even,” an elastic expression. If they left in the middle of the afternoon and were driven forward by the storm, they would have reached the far shore several hours before dark], c26 And they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is over against Galilee. a28 And when he was come into the country of the Gadarenes. c27 And when he was come forth bout of the boat, cupon the land [Midway between the north and south ends of the lake, and directly east across the lake from Magdala, was the little city of Gergesa. In front and somewhat to the south of this city Jesus landed. Some sixteen miles away and to the southeast, and seven miles back from the lake, was the well-known city of Gadara. Further on to the southeast, on the borders of Arabia, and at least fifty miles from Gergesa, was the city of Gerasa. The name Gerasenes is, therefore, probably an error of the transcribers for Gergesenes, as Origen suggested. The region is properly called “country of the Gadarenes,” for Gadara was an important city, and the stamp of a ship on its coins suggests that its territory extended to the Lake of Galilee], bstraightway there met him out of the tombs ca certain man out of the city [Gergesa], bwith an unclean spirit, cwho had demons; b3 who had his dwelling in the tombs: cand abode not in any house, but in the tombs. [The sides of the mountain near the ruins of Gergesa are studded with natural and artificial caves which were used as tombs.] band no man could any more bind him, no, not with a chain; 4 because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been rent asunder by him, and the [344] fetters broken in pieces: and no man had strength to tame him. 5 And always, night and day, in the tombs and in the mountains, he was crying out, and cutting himself with stones. [The natural spirit of the man seeking to throw off the dominion of the demons would cry out in agony, and the demons themselves, in their own misery, would use him as a vehicle to express their own grief. It would be hard to imagine a more horrible state] cand for a long time he had worn no clothes, b6 and when he saw Jesus from afar, che cried out, bhe ran cand fell down before him, band worshipped him; 7 and crying out with a loud voice, he saith, {csaid,} What have I to do with thee [on this phrase, see Rom 10:7, Rev 9:1, Rev 9:2, Rev 9:11, Rev 11:7, Rev 17:8, Rev 20:1, Rev 20:3. How these demons escaped from the abyss is one of the unsolved mysteries of the spirit world; but we have a parallel in the releasing of Satan– Rev 20:1-3.] a28b And there met him two possessed with demons, coming forth out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man could pass by that way. [Matthew tells of two, while Mark and Luke describe only one. They tell of the principal one–the one who was the fiercer. In order to tell of two, Matthew had to omit the name “legion,” which belonged to one; and conversely, Mark and Luke, to give the conversation with one, did not confuse us by telling of two.] 29 And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time? [The judgment-day, the time of punishment and torment– Mat 25:41, 2Pe 2:4, Jud 1:6.] b11 Now there was there aafar off from them bon the mountain side a great herd aof many swine feeding. 31 And the demons besought him, cand they entreated him that he would give them leave to enter into them. asaying, If thou cast us out, send us away into the herd of swine. bthat we may enter into them. 13 And he gave them leave. a32 And he said unto them, Go. And they bthe unclean spirits cthe demons came out of the man, and entered aand went into the swine: and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep into the sea, {cthe lake,} bin number about two thousand; and they were drowned in the sea. aand perished in the waters. [About a mile south of Khersa a spur of the mountain thrusts itself out toward the lake so that its foot is within forty feet of the water line. This is the only spot on that side of the lake where the mountains come near the water. The slope is so steep and the ledge at its foot so narrow that a herd rushing down could not check itself before tumbling into the water. [346] Skeptics have censured Jesus for permitting this loss of property. God may recognize our property rights as against each other, but he nowhere recognizes them in the realm of nature. What was done to the swine was done by the demons, and the owners had no more right to complain than they would have had if the herd had been carried off by murrain, by flood, or by any other natural cause. All animals have a right to die, either singly or in numbers. The demons evidently did not intend to destroy the swine. Their desire to have live bodies to dwell in shows that they did not. But the presence of the demons in their bodies made the hogs crazy, as it had the demoniac, and they ran the way their noses were pointed at the moment. For discussion of demoniacal possession, see Mar 7:31-37.] cand he went his way, publishing throughout the whole city [Gergesa] how great things Jesus had done for him. band began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him [for the cities which constituted Decapolis, see page 173]: and all men marvelled. 21 And when Jesus had crossed over again in the boat unto the other side, a great multitude was gathered unto him: and he was by the sea. c40 And as Jesus returned, the multitude welcomed him; for they were all waiting for him. [They could see the sail of his boat as he started back.] a1 And he came into his own city. [Capernaum.] [348]

[FFG 344-348]

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

THE DEMONIZED GADERENE

Mat 8:28-34; Mat 9:1; Mar 5:1-21; and Mar 5:26-40. We visited this country of the Gadarenes, which comes down to the northeast coast of this sea; Gergesa, their capital, situated on a beautiful, rich plain, enjoying a handsome view of this beautiful water, as well as the majestic mountains and fertile valleys of the surrounding countries. Matthew says they came to Gergesa, Mark and Luke say they came to the country of Gadara. This is in perfect harmony, as Gergesa was the city and Gadara the country. You must remember that when our Savior bade the temple adieu, the day before He was arrested, He said, Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. Within forty years from the utterance the Roman armies signally verified it. Hence the desolation has been on that country ever since. However, Gadara was a Gentile country; but it was the subject of a terrible Divine retribution, as we will see in this narrative, for rejecting the ministry of Jesus. And they came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes, and a man with an unclean spirit, from the tombs, met Him immediately having come out of the ship, who had his habitation among the tombs; and no one was able to bind him with chains, because frequently he had been bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been slipped off by him and the fetters torn to pieces, and no one was able to subdue him. Matthew says there were two demoniacs, exceedingly fierce, so no one could pass that way. Mark and Luke speak of but one. Luke says that he wore no clothing. It is a notable fact that raging maniacs have an aversion to wearing clothing, and if possible will tear it off. Mark: And he was all the time, night and day, among the tombs and in the mountains; was crying, and cutting himself with stones. Seeing Jesus a great way off, he ran and fell down before Him, and crying, with a great voice, said, What is there to me and to Thee, O Jesus, the Son of the Most High God? I adjure Thee, in the name of God, that you torment me not; for He said to him, Unclean spirit, come out from the man. Luke says: For a long time he had possessed him, and he was kept bound with fetters and chains; and smashing his fetters, he was driven by the demon into the wilderness. And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? and he said, Legion, because many demons had entered into him. And he continued to exhort Him that He may not command them to depart into the abyss; i.e., the bottomless pit.

God never created the devil, a sinner, nor a snake. The snake originated from the transformation of the Nahash, an intelligent biped, one of the intermediate links between man and the lower animals, and unfortunately used by Satan in the abduction of humanity. Satan is a fallen archangel:

How thou art fallen, O Lucifer, the morning star! (Isa 14:12.)

The term devil is the ordinary cognomen of Satan, demon being the regular epithet applied to those innumerable evil spirits, swarming up out of the bottomless pit and thronging the atmosphere, their highest aspiration being a habitation in some human spirit, as in the case of this Gadarene, into whom a whole legion i.e., ten thousand had crowded together. Nothing is so terrible to these demons as the gloomy dungeons of the bottomless pit. Consequently they importuned Jesus not to send them thither. Originally the intelligences inhabiting the innumerable worlds, constituting the celestial empire, were presumptively all on probation. In the fatal revolt of Lucifer, an immense host, perhaps one-third (Revelation 12), followed the apostate archangel. As this apostasy, in all probability, infected many celestial worlds, we find innumerable hosts of fallen demons roaming round this world, hunting a habitation in some human heart. (Ephesians 6) We have no right to conclude that this Gadarene is the only legionaire in all the earth. It is pertinent to remember how all the demons, with whom Jesus comes in contact, recognize Him. We have no record at what epoch in bygone eternity the angels were created; evidently long before Divinity spoke this world into existence. As Jesus is co-eternal with God Himself, identical with the uncreated Jehovah, the recognition of these demons is doubtless a vivid reminiscence of the bright celestial ages which glided away before the dark period of rebellion and ruin supervened. It is here specified that the legionaire tore his clothing from his person, smashing all the fetters and escaping from all the chains with which they could bind him. The muscular power of these Oriental red men is vastly superior to that of Europeans and Americans. In all probability, he was a natural giant, as were most of the aborigines in that country in the days of Joshua; for you must remember he was not a Hebrew, but a Gentile. It is generally believed that physical strength is located in the muscles. This is a mistake. The muscles are the mere instruments used by the nerves, which are the custodians of physical power. A crowbar is a most potent instrument in the hands of a stalwart man; but left alone, utterly impotent.

I thought the muscles were the custodians of physical strength till, in 1884, a stroke of partial paralysis demonstrated the utter impotency of the muscles without nervous stimuli. From a human standpoint, the exegesis of Samsons paradoxical strength was the induement of the Holy Ghost, who operated through his nerves, thus imparting miraculous physical dynamics. Now remember, this Gadarene had ten thousand demons, ready in a moment to electrify his nerves, thus imparting an incredible muscular power. I have seen epileptics whom it took a half-dozen strong men to manage. You have all witnessed the extraordinary feats of strength and activity performed by maniacs, lunatics, and epileptics. This man was doubtless a combination of them all, so many demons, ready at any moment to turn loose the very galvanic batteries of the pandemonium on their poor victim, thus making them instrumental in the most paradoxical feats of agility and power. Why did he dwell among the tombs? Satan is king of death and hell. He sways his leaden scepter over every graveyard, holding fast every human body in the dark sepulcher, as their souls in the regions of woe. Hence these demons found congeniality among the tombs.

Mar 5:11. And there was at the mountain a great herd of swine, feeding. And all the demons entreated him saying, Send us into the swine, that we may go into them. And Jesus immediately permitted them. And the unclean spirits, having come out, went into the swine, and the herd rushed down a steep place into the sea, and there were about two thousand, and they perished in the sea. These heathen Gentiles set great store on the hog, a notoriously unclean animal, which Gods people were forbidden to raise, heavy interdictions being laid on the eating of the same. When I visited that country last November, our dragoman showed us the mountain traditionally recognized as the pasture of the swine, and the cliff down which the whole herd stampeded into the sea; thus transmitting to us a most monitory lesson against demoniacal possession, which is so common in all ages, the present day being no exception to the rule. Here we see these hogs unhesitatingly choosing suicide rather than demoniacal possession. This verdict of the swine should put millions to the blush this day, who go over the earth, full of demons, and claiming a place among the bon tons of society. And those herding them fled, and proclaimed in the city and in the country; and they came out to see what is that which has been done. And they come to Jesus, and see the demonized man sitting down, clothed, and in his right mind, him who was called Legion; and they were afraid. And those seeing, explained to them how it occurred to the demonized man, and concerning the swine. And they began to entreat Him to depart from their coasts. Luk 8:36 : And those seeing, explained to them how the demonized man was saved; and the whole multitude of the surrounding country of the Gadarenes entreated Him to depart from them, because they were possessed with great fear. Here we have the united testimony of Matthew, Mark, and Luke to the unanimous and importunate verdict of all the Gadarenes, requesting Jesus to leave their country. That this awful and hopeless demoniac had been wonderfully saved, all admitted. But there was another phase to the matter they had lost their swine. Now a pertinent question looks them all in the face. Will they have Jesus or bacon? If they keep Jesus, they can have all of the sick healed, all the devils cast out, all the people saved, soul and body, and turn their country into a little heaven, so they can live on angels food instead of hog and hominy. The popular verdict comes quickly, and without a dissenting voice: they all decide to let Jesus go, and save their bacon to eat and sell for the money.

DOOM OF GADARA

And embarking into the ship, He returned; i.e., went back to Capernaum, the center of His evangelistic work in the North, thus throwing a dark shadow over all of that country of the Gadarenes, which has wrapped it in gloom and withered it with desolation these eighteen hundred years. When I visited that country, with its beautiful, fertile plains, bordering on the sea; majestic, rich mountains, with innumerable valleys and coves all, at the time of our Saviors visit, flourishing as the gardens of the Lord, cultivated by a thriving and enterprising people, whose temporal needs a gracious Providence had most abundantly supplied. So they needed nothing but the Savior, whom, in loving, Fatherly affection, He so kindly sent them. O what a grand introductory He made among them in saving the worst man they had! How all hell rallied to hold their grip tight on Gadara! Jesus comes to all people, even uninvited, thus pitying their blindness and ignorance, and giving all a chance for salvation. But when He turns the light on them, if, instead of rejoicing in it, they prefer darkness, and, like these besotted Gadarenes, even have the impudence to ask Him to leave, He always goes, leaving them to their choice, with the devil and hell, world without end. Jesus saves none against their will; neither does He stay where He is not wanted. When I stood upon the old walls of Gergesa, the capital of Gadara, to which Jesus went, and looked around upon the ruins of the city, without an inhabitant except the wandering Arabs, then on the spot, grazing their herds and flocks, and saw their country, which has lain desolate eighteen hundred years, I saw in panorama, as I look out over the sea, Jesus embarking on the ship, which sails away, appearing smaller and smaller, till she passes out of sight, thus leaving poor Gadara doomed and ruined. How signally has this been verified in the dismal fate of that country! The Gadarenes have literally faded from the face of the earth, not one to be found; their capital desolate, their cities and villages depopulated and destroyed; their country in the hands of the nomadic Bedonins, the wild sons of Ishmael, in reference to whom God said, His hand shall be against every mans hand, and every mans hand against him. They are born robbers. If you would visit the land of Gadara this day, you would need an armed escort to save you from robbery and murder. What a warning to the people who request Jesus to depart from them!

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Mat 8:28-34. The Gerasene Demoniacs (Mar 5:1-20*, Luk 8:26-39)Mt. is considerably shorter than Mk.; note his summary of Mar 5:3-5 and omission of Mar 5:8-10, Mar 5:18-20. He frequently omits questions put by Jesus. His statement that there were two maniacs may be compensation for the previous omission (Mat 8:1-4*), but perhaps Mk. and Lk. are thinking of the more important of the two. According to Dalman, Son of God (Mat 8:29) was not a common Messianic title but was substituted for one in the case of demons by the evangelists. The spirits feel that the hour of their doom, the Judgment-day (Eth. Enoch, 1:5 f.; Jubilees, 10:8 f.), has struck too soon. The rush and total disappearance of the frightened swine would be a great factor in establishing the patients peace of mind. What had troubled him. was now gone for ever.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

Verse 28

Gergesenes; called by Mark 5:1 Gadarenes. It was a region on the eastern side of the lake, in which were two cities, Gergesa and Gadara.–Met him two. Mark 5:2 speaks of but one, having reference, probably, to the principal speaker. There is no contradiction; but impostors, in fabricating accounts, would have guarded against such a difference.–The tombs. The sepulchres of the Jews were generally at some distance from the city, among the mountains, and in solitudes.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

8:28 {7} And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.

(7) Christ came to deliver men from the miserable enslavement of Satan: but the world would rather go without Christ, than the vilest and least of their conveniences.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Jesus’ deliverance of a demoniac in Gadara 8:28-34 (cf. Mar 5:1-20; Luk 8:26-39)

The central theme of this incident is Jesus’ authority over evil spirits. Though Matthew previously mentioned Jesus’ reputation as an exorcist (Mat 4:24; Mat 8:16), this is the first of five exorcisms that he narrated (cf. Mat 9:32-33; Mat 12:22; Mat 15:21-28; Mat 17:14-20).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Gadara was the regional capital of the Decapolis area that lay southeast of the Sea of Galilee. Its population was strongly Gentile. This may account for the presence of many swine there (Mat 8:30). The Gadara region stretched west to the Sea of Galilee. This was the country of the Gadarenes.

Mark and Luke mentioned only one man, but Matthew said there were two (Mar 5:2; Luk 8:27). Mark and Luke evidently mentioned the more prominent one. Perhaps Matthew mentioned both of them because the testimony of two witnesses was valid in Jewish courts, and he wrote for Jews originally.

The Jews believed that demonic spirits could and did take over the bodies and personalities of certain individuals. Matthew reflected this view of the spirit world. A literal reading of Scripture leads to the same conclusion. [Note: See Edersheim, The Life . . ., appendix 16, for differences between Jewish and New Testament views of demon possession.] Demons are fallen angels who are Satan’s agents.

These demoniacs lived lives of terror among tombs away from other people in a place that rendered them ritually unclean in Judaism.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Disfruta de miles de canciones cristianas en exclusiva sólo en Bibles