S. The Gerasene demoniac (8:26–39)
S. The Gerasene demoniac (8:26–39)
1. The exorcism (8:26–33)
This miracle took place in a predominantly Gentile environment. There were some Jews in the area but the population was mostly Gentile.
26–27. The country of the Gerasenes presents us with a problem, for Gerasa was about 40 miles south-east of the lake. Matthew has ‘the country of the Gadarenes’, but Gadara is 6 miles away and separated by the deep gorge of the Yarmuk. All three Synoptists have both variants and also a third, ‘the country of the Gergesenes’. This reading was favoured by Origen, who saw the other two places as too distant and thought that the readings had arisen only because scribes did not know of the small town Gergesa, so substituted names they knew (see, for example, Manson). Modern students point to the village of Khersa and think this may retain the ancient name. This may be right, but the suspicion remains that the reading is found in the MSS only because Origen originated it. If either of the others is correct, we must understand that the city in question controlled a tract of land bordering the lake. As Jesus reached land in this territory he was met by a demoniac. The unfortunate man wore no clothes and he lived among the tombs.
28–29. The man was violent. He had been bound with chains and fetters (i.e. bonds for both hands and feet). But he broke the bonds, which shows his great strength. When Jesus commanded the demon to leave him he screamed and proceeded to a response like that of the demoniac in 4:34, except that Jesus is now greeted as Son of the Most High God in place of ‘the holy One of God’. The demoniac had the answer to the disciples’ question (25).
30. Jesus asked the man’s name. The reply is Legion, which seems a way of saying that a whole regiment of demons had entered him (in a Roman legion there were about 6,000 soldiers). Some think there is a reference to the Roman legions and that some traumatic experience with the soldiery was the origin of the man’s plight.
31–33. The demons recognized that they must leave the man and they kept asking (imperfect tense) that they be not sent into the abyss. This is a reference to a place of confinement for spirits, even Satan (Rev. 20:1ff.).16 Instead they asked that they might be permitted to enter a large herd of swine grazing nearby. Jesus gave them leave, at which the demons left the man and entered the pigs. The animals rushed down a steep bank into the lake where they drowned. There is a difficulty in seeing how demons could enter swine and another why pigs should act in this way. But as we know little about what demons can do we should probably not raise such questions. A further difficulty is that Jesus cured the man at the expense of the owners of the animals. To this the basic reply must be that the cure of the man was more important than a herd of pigs. Can anyone seriously hold that the pigs should have been saved and the man left unsaved? Farrar points out that, as well, ‘the freeing of the neighbourhood from the peril and terror of this wild maniac was a greater benefit to the whole city than the loss of this herd’. It is also to be remembered that Jesus neither sent the demons into the pigs (he did no more than give permission), nor the pigs into the lake (the narrative does not say that he willed the destruction of the pigs).
2. The reaction (8:34–39)
The miracle affected both the healed man and the people of the district.
34–36. The herdsman, not unnaturally, ran away and spread the news. People then came to see for themselves; they found the former demoniac at Jesus’ feet, clothed and in his right mind. Obviously something strange had happened and they were afraid.
37. With all the evidence before them that a great miracle had been wrought, these people proceeded to reject the greatest opportunity of their lives. Instead of welcoming Jesus, the liberator from demons, they, seized with great fear, asked him to leave. So he left. Their fear may have been a superstitious reaction to the supernatural power that had so evidently been in operation. It may also have been associated with the material loss involved in the destruction of the pigs. If so, they saw Jesus as a disturbing person, more interested in saving people than in material prosperity. It was more comfortable to ask him to go.
38–39. With the healed man it was different. He begged to be allowed to go with Jesus. He could not be close enough to his benefactor. But there was work for him elsewhere. Jesus sent him back home with the instruction, declare how much God has done for you (conversion brings the responsibility to evangelize, Marshall). In response the man proclaimed how much Jesus had done for him. What Jesus had done God had done. The command to tell of the miracle contrasts with the injunction to silence elsewhere (4:41). Perhaps in this predominantly Gentile territory there would be little danger of arousing Messianic speculations. And, now that Jesus had been asked to leave, it was more than ever important that in this region there should be somebody to witness to what God was doing in him.