why were the gerasenes afraid why were the gerasenes afraid

Does a barbarian benefit from the fast movement ability while wearing medium armor? recognizes the military background of the term, pointing out that in the imperial period a legion consisted of 6000 foot soldiers, 120 horsemen and technical personnel. xiii. Subscriber Service CenterAlready a subscriber? When Jesus asked the demoniac his name, it was not without significance for He was, I believe, asking the demons to reveal their identity. 8ff.). Oh Hye-son recently published a Korean-language memoir on how she and her husband Thae Yong-ho, then deputy ambassador at North Korea's London embassy, defected in 2016. When our Lord confronted the demons, they had to submit to His power and authority. Evil is self-defeating in the end. In this story, we have a demon-possessed Gadarene who saw Jesus from a distance, and immediately he appeared to have felt a strong compulsion to run up to Jesus and bow down before him. For these demons to be sent out of the country would have meant that they would then be confined along with other fallen angels (cf. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. The particular focus of this mans testimony was the Decapolis region. And, Gerasene was one. 2). The account occurs in all three Synoptic gospels; in Mark (the shortest gospel) the story is in the longest and most detailed version; Matthew 8.28-34 is the shortest, What would happen to them? And, lastly, this would allow sufficient time for those miracles which took place on that second day in Capernaum after His return thither. But let us return to the gist of the matter: if Christ showed them His Divinity through the reason given above, is it easy to be in the presence of God? Acts 5:1-6). Then any greatest of men, like any prophet, hero or king? January 2021 Now they would deal with this One greater than he by doing likewise. (5) What our Lord could have given the people of this territory was much greater than what He took away. 13ff.). Renew or manage your subscription here. The best human analogy might be in the area of drug abuse. These, however, are not the problem raised by Bible students. The people were afraid when they saw the possessed man healed. Bob is a pastor/teacher and elder at Community Bible Chapel in Richardson, Texas, and has contributed many of his Bible study series for use by the Foundation. Sign-up for E-NewsletterGet Register Updates sent daily or weeklyto your inbox. Pope Francis Inexhaustible Font of Words: 10 Gems From the Heart Over 10 Years, Pope Francis, Biden Commend Peacemaker Bishop OConnell as Memorial Services Begin. He said unexpected things and lived by a high ethical standard. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. Catholic Church. Wasn't the answer obvious? As indicated in the textual note, the best Greek text reads Gerasenes in Mark and Luke, Gadarenes in Matthew. "The Gerasenes were the people of the district of which Gerasa was the capital. Although Gadarenes and Gergesenes are derived from a different Greek word, they are essentially referring to the same area. 120 The request is in both cases the same; for, according to Jewish notions, certain countries being assigned to evil as well as to good spirits, whose limits they were unable to overpass, to be sent out of their own country, no other being open to them, implied being sent into the abyss, or bottomless pit, since that remains for them alone. Trench, Miracles , p. 101. To understand this event, you need consider the incident at Babel, and Deuteronomy. Another indication of demonic control is the fact that this man was continually doing harm to himself by gashing himself with stones (verse 5). Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their neighbourhood. In any event, I love defending the Bible and Christianity. The Gospels use different names for the place where this occurred: This is supposedly a contradiction. Gerasa is (as we know) some 30-35 miles southeast of the Sea of Galilee, but may have also been the name of the larger region. xvi. We should be warned that fooling with these Satanic fronts is like experimenting with drugs. The passage in Daniel especially suggests specific geographical boundaries within which spirit beings must abide. But here we speak not about a bishop, but about Christ who made His Godhead revealed through devils beseeching Him not to cast them to hell but enter the swine. Unbelieving men may not rave and carry on like the Gerasene demoniac, but they are nevertheless under Satans control, doing his bidding. So he got into the boat and left., Luke 8:37, NIV, great fear [KJV] thoroughly frightened [Phillips]gripped with great fear [NASB]. Those possessed are depicted throughout as unfortunate sufferers who by no fault of their own are dominated by evil spirits and who, when the spirits are cast out by Jesus, accept their deliverance with joy and gratitude (Mark v. 18-20, Luke viii. Gadara is about six miles from the sea. The people who witnessed this are . Jesus asked a sick man if he wanted to get well. 22, xvii. The pleas of Legion were in response to the command of Jesus for the demons to come out of him (verse 8). March 2017 They liked Him and wanted to be with Him. Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, and our products. Gergesenes is also in some manuscripts (Khersa or Gersa was a town actually on the shore of the sea). I think all these attempts to harmonize what may at first seem like a contradiction are plausible, respectable, and adequate. David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 991. 34When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. This name (Strong's #G3003) is a reference to a Roman military regiment that varied in soldier strength from 4,000 to 6,000. Fear that you might do something that would embarrass you? People who have no appr Fallen people reject God not because they do not know His power. If they dare to open up their lives to Jesus what will happen? 9. The people were more terrified of Jesus and His authority than they were of this crazed and demonized man living among the tombs. Here is where Satan can use a man to influence scores of people, blinding minds and hearts to the truths of the Word of God (2 Corinthians 4:4). 606-607. Why were the Romans afraid of the Christians? Acts 19:16). They valued their pigs more than they valued salvation. How Satan blinds our minds! Though Legion bowed before Jesus (verse 6), it was no act of worship (as the King James Version would seem to indicate). Five squad cars converged on it. First of all, the EPA would have been investigating the pollution of Lake Galilee with decaying pigs. In the King James Version it is called the country of the Gadarenes in Mark and Luke, and of the Gergesenes in Matthew. 35Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. https://www.ncregister.com/blog/gerasene-or-gadarene-swine, What Archaeology Tells Us About Joshuas Conquest, 50 Verses to Help You Prepare for Pentecost, St. Polycarp, Who Learned the Faith From an Apostle, Did Not Believe in Faith Alone, The Three Kinds of Atheists, and How to Respond to Them, We Know That Hes in Heaven: Thousands Gather for Funeral of Bishop David OConnell in Los Angeles, Archbishop Naumann and Bishop Paprocki Speak Out in Support of Traditional Latin Massgoers in Their Dioceses, Survey: Decline in Vocations to the Priesthood Is Worse Where Priests Serve Larger Flocks, God Really Intervened: How a Catholic Priest Escaped From His Kidnappers in Haiti, Amber and Dave VanVickle on Finding God in the Midst of Suffering. Well, it is because atheists, in their zealous rush to make fun of Christians, Christianity, and the Bible, start to lose their logical rigor and rationality, leading them to contend for implausible things: as presently. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors, and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.110. He was received into the Catholic Church in 1991. 125 This is the position of Lane, Mark, p. 187. 36Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. Non-Christians can often experience this fear of Jesus as well. Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for professors, theologians, and those interested in exegetical analysis of biblical texts. Lets face it, we all like to be in control. If Jesus had that kind of power, then He could not be controlled. The drowning of the swine was an accident, possibly simultaneous with the healing, and report mixed up the two incidents. or by some form of self-emptying (such as various forms of eastern meditation) in my opinion, they are in a precarious position. But as Gergesa was a small village, and little known, the evangelists, who wrote for more distant readers, spoke of the event as taking place in the country of the Gadarenes, so named from its largest city, Gadara; and this country included the country of the Gergesenes as a state includes a county. To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers. Jesus asked some crazy questions like "Why are you afraid?" September 2020 I think the coup de grce is to look up the Greek word for country in these passages, to see what latitude of meaning it has. He seemed to view Jesus approach as the launching of a direct attack on the demonic forces. Also, frequently associated with demon possession was a super-human strength (cf. Gerasenes could have had a sense of reference to the entire region (as well as to a city: just as New Yorker can refer to the state or city), and Gadarenes likely was a reference to the most prominent city of the region at the time. Wikipedia states about it: In the second half of the 1st century AD, the city of Jerash achieved great prosperity.. Thayers Greek Lexicon defines it as the space lying between two places or limits region or country. The Sea of Galilee was clearly one of the limits. To the evildoer, anonymity is always preferable to identification. The difference between the phonemes /p/ and /b/ in Japanese, Is there a solutiuon to add special characters from software and how to do it. September 2015 Having been properly warned of the demonic underworld, let us not fall into the opposite error of absolute paranoia. 127 The view of Greek philosophy was that these were the spirits of those who lived in the Golden Age. If we put ourselves in their place, and use empathy to feel how we might have reacted if we were confronted with the loss of our next year's source of feeding our families, it will be easier to understand that they were afraid to suffer any other loss that might result if Jesus stayed in their area. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. Instead, they reject Him because all they know is His power and purity. They ask Him if they can enter some nearby pigs, and He lets them. Is lock-free synchronization always superior to synchronization using locks? It was not the loss of their property or investment that caused them to be afraid of Jesus. Christians are to be a "safe" people - an expression of that love of God so people who do not know Him can be drawn to the Truth. Thats why also Peter having realized who Christ was, was dreaded and asked Him to leave him for he said to be a sinful man (Luke 5:8). And Jesus, being a Gentleman, was not about to force Himself on them. The occult and every front for demonic influence and activity should be avoided like the plague. The exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac (Matthew 8.28-34; Mark 5.1-20; Luke 8.26-39), frequently known as the Miracle of the (Gadarene) Swine and the exorcism of Legion, is one of the miracles performed by Jesus according to the New Testament. In this context, however, he insists that legion has nothing of its usual Roman military overtones, but is the designation of numerous powers which oppose themselves to Jesus as the embodiment of the power of God. Lane, Mark, fn. October 2020 to men facing fear and death. As has been said before, look for Satans man behind the pulpit. What did we miss because we allowed fear instead of faith to drive our lives? monetization of National Catholic Register RSS feeds is strictly prohibited. I think that this story is a little bit of an Easter story. They would have to trust Jesus. Mark 9:17-29). 2 And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. The ego is so impaired that the spirits speak through him. February 2021 Fear that you would not be in control? 14ff. While the Jews had not denied the works of Jesus were supernatural, they had declined to admit they established His deity. seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed. and 1 Kings xxii. These people from the region of the Gerasenes had undoubtedly felt the anger or disgust of Jews for making a career out of such unclean animals, but Jesus had not criticized them for their profession. The scene which Mark presents is deliberately dark. The before and after descriptions of the demoniac reveal that he was a totally different person under demonic influence. (4) Our Lord did not command the demons to enter into the pigs and bring about their destruction; He only permitted it.124. I will not look for a reason to return to it. Jesus asked Mary why she was crying at the grave site. 1 They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. In addition, Matthew includes the comment, Have You come here to torment us before the time? (Matthew 8:29). Hence it would be called the land of the Gadarenes.. Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. Pastor Chrissy is a native of East Tennessee. The region was not poor or economically depressed. Luke 8:26-39 Mark 5:1-20 ESV - 1 They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. I am wondering if the demoniac was pagan or an Israelite. Although it is likely that the larger towns of Galilee were predominantly Gentile, as was the Decapolis, the first-century civilian diet did not . The reference could hardly be to the better known Gerasa (Jerash) between thirty and forty miles southeast from the lake. I would like to invite you to return to where we left off a few weeks ago in our studies in the gospel of Mark. December 2014 The second question is an ethical one: What right had the Lord to inflict this loss on the owners of the swine?121 Put even more crassly, Huxley censored this act with these words: the wanton destruction of other peoples property is a misdemeanour of evil example.122. Who do you care more about, people or pigs? . By clicking Post Your Answer, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy. This was surely not so in every case, and perhaps in none. . A Jewish exorcist with such authority in the region, risked to damage the beliefs and reputation of the local pagan inhabitants. But for most of us, the world and the flesh are all that are necessary to cause us to stumble. The people of Gerasenes were willing to live with the devils they knew - quite literally. This was a federation of ten cities (deka = ten, polis = city). What was it that caused these people to react in such a way? 4, p. 102. (4) Super-human strength. How Can a Person Get Rid of Evil Spirits. Jesus had actually helped them. The pig shepherds had gone and spread the news of what had happened all around. Note: 'had the legion', i.e., the many unclean spirits inhabiting him. What sort of strategies would a medieval military use against a fantasy giant? September 2022 When Jesus asked his name the man answered, Legion, for we are many (Mark 5:9). The region is located east of the Jordan River and southeast of the Sea of Galilee. October 2017 At their request, He left. 18). As we pass from this section to the next, let us not end on the note of the death of the pigs, but on the deliverance of the demoniac. Here is one of the few times that a miracle drove people away, rather than to draw them to Jesus. And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? There was no such danger in Perea, and thus the mercy of the Lord was to be heralded. April 2018 No matter who you are. Far from this, He had stormed the gates of Hell and prevailed. 17, pp. Since the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave in their fear, it seems that Jesus' ability to exorcise Legion was disturbing to the people. It had nothing to do the farmers losing revenue - at all. 28); Mark the country of the Gerasenes (v. 1), and Luke, probably, the country of the Gergesenes (viii. From this it is clear that demon-possession is a phenomenon which occurred almost exclusively, but then to be sure on an amazing scale, during Jesus appearance on earth and to a lesser extent during the activity of the apostles. Demons are highly organized (cf. Anonymous, October 25 2014 The expression to be with Jesus is used particularly of His disciples (cf. The confrontation of Jesus and the Gerasene demoniac made it clear that Jesus was no servant of Satan. It is in no way certain, however, that the pig raisers were Jews. French Monastery Survives War and Famine After 885 Years, the Basilica of St. Ambrose in Milan, and More Great Links! December 2017 And all the people of the country of the Gerasenes and the surrounding district asked Him to depart from them; for they were gripped with great fear; and He got into a boat, and returned (Luke 8:35-37). That is why he was living in the solitude of the tombs, away from civilization. In other words, Jesus had caused a loss to them of 2,000 swine already; what else would His presence cost? That would be a strong message, by allowing them to be possessed and then drowned. On the other hand, Gadara is only six miles from the southern tip of the lake and could easily have given its name to the district. Once naked, he is now clothed. Will they be condemned like unclean animals? The region and polygon don't match. Mark and Luke, on the other hand, write to more general audiences, and Gerasa was the main Greek-Roman city of the area. The country of the Gadarenes (Gergesenes) is one of the few areas Jesus visited where Gentiles (non-Jews) composed the majority of the population. . We see people in other places where he worked miracles, endeavoring to make him their king (Jn 6:15) . May 2017 2 Now a centurion had a servant 1 who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. Flavius Josephus and Steve Mason, Flavius Josephus: Life of Josephus (Boston; Leiden: Brill, 2003), 47. He pleaded with Jesus not to be tormented. 13; Luke iv. They had been unable to control these two men [Luke only mentions one man, but Matthew tells us there were two]. March 2016 As He had landed with His disciples He had been confronted with a demon-possessed man - a man that no one had been able to control. In the past several weeks, there has come to light the case of a man arrested for various crimes who has several of the symptoms of demon possession, including multiple personalities, even multiple IQs. October 2015 A friend of mine told me later that two students were attempting to cast a demon out of a fellow. Those who had seen it told them how the man who had been demon-possessed had been healed. At first we may deceive ourselves into thinking that we are controlling them, but the ultimate likelihood is that they will master us.