The Gadarene Demoniac. Mark 5, 1-20.
On the eastern shore of the lake: V. 1. And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. The journey across the sea, which ordinarily took only a few hours, was prolonged, on account of the storm, to last all night. The next day they landed in the country of the Gergesenes, or Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee, Matt. 8, 28; Luke 8, 26. It was known by both names, from the chief cities of the neighborhood.
"We read…. that Jesus and His disciples 'came to the other side of the sea to the country of the Gerasenes.' The Authorized Version reads: 'to the country of the Gadarenes.' The country to which Jesus came at this time cannot have been that of the Decapolitan city Gerasa, for, as we have seen, that lay far to the south. It was in a direct line nearly fifty miles from the Sea of Galilee. Neither can it have been to the region of Gadara that He came, for Gadara lay at least five miles to the south across the deep valley of the Yarmuk. There was, however, on the east shore of the Sea of Galilee a town called Gergesa, the modern Kursi. This place was near the city of Hippos, and possibly one of the towns subordinate to Hippos. As Jesus and the disciples walked back from the sea, they met the demoniac, whom Jesus healed" (Barton, Archeology and the Bible, 214).
The whole region or district southeast of the Sea of Galilee was indiscriminately called that of the Gadarenes and Gerasenes. It was predominantly heathen.
The demoniac: V. 2. And when He was come out of the ship, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, V. 3. who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains, V. 4. 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. V. 5. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.
Matthew, in relating this story, speaks of two demoniacs, while Mark mentions only one, the speaker of the two, and probably also the fiercer of them. Hardly had Jesus 'stepped out of the boat when this man came running to meet Him from his home among the tombs in the neighborhood.
He was a man in, that is, fully possessed by, an unclean spirit. The power of the devil and his angels is such that it always renders the person whom he gets into his dominion, spiritually unclean. Here the whole person, body, mind, and soul, was possessed of the devil. This demoniac had his dwelling-place in the tombs, probably in some of the burial-places which had been excavated or hewn into the side of the hills.
His fierceness was such as to make his confinement by means of fetters and chains absolutely impossible. The piling up of the negatives emphasizes this peculiarity very strongly. All attempts to keep him in constraint by means of foot-guards and with chains had been futile. He tore the chains apart and shattered the foot-guards, whether of metal or rope, and no man was able in any way to keep him in subjection. All the methods employed in the case of wild animals availed nothing in his case. The strength of the devil and his angels in him was too great for human skill and ingenuity. He was given no rest by the tormentors living in him, but always, night and day, he was driven by them through the tombs and through the hills, making it dangerous to travel in that neighborhood.
The people that caught sight of him saw that he was usually engaged in striking and mutilating himself with sharp stones, uttering at the same time fierce cries, that might well cause the stoutest heart to quail. It is a terrible thing if the devil gains ascendancy over a person, not one whit less so if this power extends over his mind and soul only than if it includes also the body.