why were the gerasenes afraid

Why do people like Jesus a lot? October 2021 December 2015 They were willing to post guards and chain and shackle their neighbor to keep him from hurting someone. Thanks for contributing an answer to Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange! He was Someone Who could control the spirit realm. March 2017 The lose of the pigs meant loose of partial income in the area. Significantly, the demons are called unclean spirits (verse 2,9). 4, p. 180. Clarify They were content where they were. Others are absolutely controlled (hooked) by the drug and totally dependent upon it. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. Similar to the storm we see in the book of Job that killed Jobs sons - and Satan was the instigator of that as well. February 2018 When Jesus asked the demoniac his name, it was not without significance for He was, I believe, asking the demons to reveal their identity. The Gadarenes was the place where Jesus confronted a man whose possession by demons gave him a level of superhuman strength like Samson (Mark 5:3 - 5, Luke 8:27). Luke 8:37Then the whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes round about besought him to depart from them: for they were taken with great fear: and he went up into the ship, and returned back again. This was surely not so in every case, and perhaps in none. It only takes a minute to sign up. xx. Accordingly this was not merely an ordinary form of mental disease as some writers have alleged, but a special phenomenon which was particularly frequent during Jesus earthly sojourn and thus was directly connected with His coming to destroy the power of darkness. Also, the wholesale slaughter of these pigs dramatically illustrated the destructive purposes of the demons. 5:5). Brazilian Charity Caring for Children Who Survived Abortions Issues Urgent Appeal, Memento Mori: Remember You Are Going to Die, The Meat of the Matter: St. Patricks Day and the Lenten Fast. This is when the storm arose which threatened to destroy the ship (Mark 4:35-41). Jesus asked some crazy questions like "Why are you afraid?" What did Jesus do? Region of the Gerasenes - Fire and Light Afraid of Jesus? | Sermons | College Park Church Matthew 12:43-45). April 2015 They themselves are equally pleased by both errors, and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.110. In the wake of new restrictions on the traditional Latin Mass, two American bishops spoke with EWTNs Raymond Arroyo Thursday about how their dioceses have responded. 112 Skeptics and liberals have made much of the differences between the Gospel writers as to the place Jesus landed with His disciples. Just as demons desire to possess persons through whom they can exhibit their personalities, so the Spirit of God indwells man, imparting new life, and progressively gaining control so that the character of God is exhibited, but not in such a way as to hinder our individuality and identity. The religious rulers hated Jesus for exposing their hypocrisy and feared the consequences His actions might have with Rome, but they were not afraid of Jesus as a Person. It indicates full and permanent control. Paul says of the former life of the Christian, And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience (Ephesians 1:1-2). She and her wife moved to Maine from Illinois. The region is located east of the Jordan River and southeast of the Sea of Galilee. As an alternative to confinement, the demons posed the option of being permitted to enter the pigs, some 2,000 in number, feeding nearby. So he got into the boat and left., Luke 8:37, NIV, great fear [KJV] thoroughly frightened [Phillips]gripped with great fear [NASB]. Jesus has lead me away from my old life. When our Lord confronted the demons, they had to submit to His power and authority. No matter what men attempted to bind him with, he broke loose. Definition of Gadarenes (Gergesenes) in the Bible - Bible Study March 2021 Fear that you might do something that would embarrass you? Why were the Romans afraid of the Christians? 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. November 2016 Even in our sophisticated times, there is an intense interest in the supernatural and the occult. 8; Mark vi. This name (Strong's #G3003) is a reference to a Roman military regiment that varied in soldier strength from 4,000 to 6,000. Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it. There seems to be no excuse here for the charge of contradiction. Since the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave in their fear, it seems that Jesus' ability to exorcise Legion was disturbing to the people. Privacy Policy. Mark 5:16 says the thoughts of the people were on the swine. Others cited unfaithfulness, lack of seriousness, and the lack of confidence to sustain a relationship. Having been properly warned of the demonic underworld, let us not fall into the opposite error of absolute paranoia. January 2022 So he got into a boat and returned. Mark 3:14). Jesus heals the Gerasene demoniac in Luke 8 | Psephizo "The Gerasenes were the people of the district of which Gerasa was the capital. However, the point was clearly made; Jesus, the Son of God, has power over all things, including the powers of darkness. Is there any archaeological evidence for Joshua entering Israel and conquering cities in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age? "And all the people of the country of the Gerasenes round about asked him to depart from them, for they were holden with great fear: and he entered into a bo." March 2015 Lets face it, we all like to be in control. May 2015 Five squad cars converged on it. The center of personality, the volitional and active ego, is impaired by alien powers which seek to ruin the man and sometimes drive him to self-destruction (Mk. (1) As Lord of all, God has the right to make use of His creation any way that He deems best, and this includes not only pigs, but people (cf. February 2021 September 2021 Those demons were terrified of Him! How to show that an expression of a finite type must be one of the finitely many possible values? Anonymous, October 25 2014 Thus an economic lose of revenue was involved. (3) Spiritual insight. Jesus did say to count the cost [Luke 14:28-33]. February 2015 May 2018 Gerasa, Gadara, Gergesa - from where did the pigs stampede? When Jesus and his disciples come to the mostly-Gentile region of the Gerasenes, they are met by a man whose life has been destroyed by demonic infestation. A crowd had come to see what had happened for themselves. 21,22). November 2020 monetization of National Catholic Register RSS feeds is strictly prohibited. The best known Gerasa was a Greek city nearly forty miles southeast of the lake (modern village of Khersa, on the east shore of the lake. 113 According to the Talmud there were four characteristics of madness: walking abroad at night; spending the night on a grave; tearing ones clothes and destroying what one was given. But, the context is not going to be comfortable (accepted by) to some traditional understandings. Dave Armstrong Dave Armstrong is a full-time Catholic author and apologist, who has been actively proclaiming and defending Christianity since 1981. How much more sinful than Peter were the Geraseneans, who because of love of money did not shun even to engage in a non-Jew business of herding swine; how much more unbearable and dreadful must have been for them the Lords presence! And, Gerasene was one. March 2016 Treasury of Scripture. Jewish theology, at least on this point, seems consistent with biblical revelation. Satans most effective tool is not the demoniac wandering about the desolate places. Gergesenes is also in some manuscripts (Khersa or Gersa was a town actually on the shore of the sea). Preisker, TWNT IV (1942), pp. All of this sure seems perfectly consistent with calling the same area the country (chra) of either the Gerasenes or the Gadarenes, after the two major cities. Can devils entreat in such a manner any highest of angels, be he Michael, Gabriel or Raphael, or any greatest cherub or seraph? Jesus asked a sick man if he wanted to get well. Jesus had just performed an incredible miracleand one they desperately needed, at that! Asked October 24 2014 Is there a single-word adjective for "having exceptionally strong moral principles"? Wasn't the answer obvious? January 2015 Robert L. (Bob)Deffinbaugh graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary with his Th.M. Then the SPCA would have been up in arms over such cruelty to animals. So he got into the boat and left. Luke 7 - And blessed is the one who is not offended by me." | ESV.org The Lord, in an act of great mercy, freed the Gadarenes' man by casting the demons out of him and allowing them to enter a nearby herd of pigs. You can flip a coin hoping for heads, but you know that tails is a very real probability. Daniel 10:13; Ephesians 6:12), whose leader and prince is Satan (Matthew 12:24). January 2016 April 2021 . Just imagine, a man in a cinema, having bought popcorn and cola and watching an action movie, with a lot of violence and harsh language in it, and then he sees suddenly that a saintly bishop is sitting just next to his seat, not watching the movie, but reading silently psalms with a countenance radiating a deep contemplation; will not the first man be upset and lose all pleasure of watching the movie? Bible-believing Christians have always accepted the fact of demons and their activity in New Testament times, but most of us are inclined to relegate demonic activity in these days to pagan lands and missionary experiences. On the other hand, the scene gains in grandeurhas, so to speak, a fitting backgroundif we suppose the Saviour and His disciples to have landed on the other side late in the evening, when perhaps the silvery moon was shedding her pale light on the weird scene, and laying her halo around the shadows cast upon the sea by the steep cliff down which the herd of swine hurried and fell. My office mate of several years back was interrupted by a young and very zealous new Christian teacher accompanied by a student from whom she wanted my friend to cast out a demon. NET Bible Then all the people of the Gerasenes and the surrounding region asked Jesus to leave them alone, for they were seized with great fear. If Jesus had that kind of power, then He could not be controlled. They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. This suggests that whoever was the customer for the swineherder in the "region of the Gerasenes", it was not the Roman army to any significant extent. So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine . April 2020 Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. The scene which Mark presents is deliberately dark. It is now called Jerash and is a deserted ruin. Non-Christians can often experience this fear of Jesus as well. And the people went out to see what happened; and they came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting down at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind; and they became frightened. December 2022 How ironic, as others have noted, that the tormentor pleads not to be tormented. Some illicitly use drugs, supposing that they have them completely under their control. When the pigs were sent into the sea, the people of Gadara lost money. Their influence and control leads to untold agony and destruction. The pig shepherds had gone and spread the news of what had happened all around. While the Jews had not denied the works of Jesus were supernatural, they had declined to admit they established His deity. 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. June 2017 I was in a dialogue with an atheist regarding what he believes is one of many so-called biblical contradictions. Odd guy that I am, I actually find this sort of thing fun. 7. Another reason they may have been afraid of Jesus was the realization that if they accepted Him, it would mean a radical change of lifestyle. September 2020 2,8) who can possess men and animals. As I have been studying this account through the week, it has seemed to me a rather bizarre and remote situation, the liberation of this Gerasene demoniac. March 2022 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. What scared them was a power so fierce it could free a man. French Monastery Survives War and Famine After 885 Years, the Basilica of St. Ambrose in Milan, and More Great Links! He pleaded with Jesus not to be tormented. Although demon-possession after that time no longer occurs on such a devastating and noticeable scale, the absolute form of demon-possession will appear at the end of the age in the Antichrist and in his followers (2 Thess. Men and women (as well as children) were demonized in that they fell under the influence of these unclean spirits. They became as afraid of Jesus as the demons were. 5. It was greatly influenced by Greek culture.126. The first two are in the Authorized Version. They were among North Korea's elite, but they fled anyway. Here's why 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. The lesson of this passage is that Satan is a defeated foe. The best human analogy might be in the area of drug abuse. 3 When the centurion 2 heard about Jesus, c he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his . The demoniacs were mere maniacs, whom Jesus cured by humouring their fancies; and His giving leave to imaginary demons to enter into the swine, produced the story of the disaster to the herd.All these explanations assume that the Gospel narratives are wholly or in part unhistorical. Plummer, Luke, p. 228. What did we miss because we allowed fear instead of faith to drive our lives? The Gerasenes were the people of the district of which Gerasa was the capital. On the other hand, it may be correct to understand that although there were many demons, they had combined as one force to possess this man.119 While Mark records Legions request as one of not being sent out of the country (verse 10), Luke adds a significant explanation by interpreting the meaning behind this request: And they were entreating Him not to command them to depart into the abyss (Luke 8:31). The man looked out on the Tiberius. 18). Mark 5:1And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. Pastor Chrissy is a native of East Tennessee. And they were afraid. The expression to be with Jesus is used particularly of His disciples (cf. Therefore, Jesus Christ for demons is God and thus even demons inadvertently reveal themselves as being better theologians than Arians and their modern day heirs - Jehovawitnesians and all different breeds of Unitarians - their name being legion! (2) Anti-social behavior. For more information about Glenn Davis see our About Glenn page and/or his Author's Page. We're no longer publishing the comic strip 'Dilbert.' Here's why Then people came to see what it was that had happened. Ouija boards are found in many American homes. 114 We are indebted to Edersheim, who reminds us that the expression demon possession never occurs in the New Testament: The term demoniacal possession occurs not in the New Testament. But, Im telling you. Where did the demons go after they went into the pigs and caused them to jump to their death. Gergesa - Wikipedia They are unclean spirits, (vss. 118 H. The religious rulers hated Jesus for exposing their hypocrisy and feared the consequences His actions might have with Rome, but they were not afraid of Jesus as a Person. Legion of Demons - NeverThirsty 61-62. As these people began to piece together the previous events, not only of the destruction of the pigs, but also the deliverance of Legion, they began to sense that there was One far more awesome, much more to be feared, than Legion. Then people came to see what it was that had happened. Embedded into both stories are people who were afraid of Jesus. If it is a feminine spirit, the voice will be a feminine one, if masculine then very manly. No! Jesus asked some pretty crazy questions like What Things Happened? April 2018 Far from this, He had stormed the gates of Hell and prevailed. Hence it would be called the land of the Gadarenes.. 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. when He was the only One Who truly knew what had happened. May 2020 art thou come hither to torment us before the time? They were not looked upon as necessarily evil in all cases. Then they sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, across the lake from Galilee. This city was better known than Gadara or Gergesa; indeed in the Roman age no city of Palestine was better known. The spectrum ranges from those who seem to control the demonic powers to those who are utterly controlled by them. 2. The region was known also as the Decopolis because ten Greek cities were located in the region. Read the Scripture: Mark 4:35 - 5:20. 124 Augustine: The devils were driven out and permitted to go into the swine; and Aquinas: But that the swine were driven into the sea was no work of the divine miracle, but was the work of the devils by divine permission. Quoted by Trench, Miracles, fn. 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. especially fn. She is a graduate of the Divinity School at Wake Forest University and Chicago Theological Seminary. David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 991. ii. xii. Father Macaire, 33, who was ordained fewer than two years ago, was kidnapped the morning of Feb. 7 when he was on his way to his missionary community in Kazal, about 20 miles north of Port-au-Prince. In fact the region was known as the Gadarenes-Gerasenes region. The word translated windstorm here, and storm in the KJ, is the word lailaps, which is more than just a storm. Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it. July 2018 And they were afraid. Lets learn why. - And they came to the other side of the sea.The other side of the sea would be the south-east side of the sea. The story shows Jesus exorcising a demon or demons out of a man and into a herd of swine, causing the swine to run down a hill into a lake and drown . The district of the Gerasenes probably included that of the Gadarenes; so that the demoniac of Gergesa belonged to the country of the Gadarenes and also to that of the Gerasenes, as the same person may, with equal truth, be said to live in the city or the state, or in the United States. Should TikTok be banned? Your guide to understanding why the platform One is that he was a fascinating man. Thats just westernised interpretation which simply doesnt work when interpretating a Jewish book. 17, pp. This man demonstrated all four characteristics. Lane, Mark, p. 182, fn. The Death Of Relationships In Nairobi - YAZA Kenya The Secret behind Jesus Healing the Gerasene Demoniac The Truth is Jesus is a safe Person Who loves them, values them, wants their best and will never force Himself on them. Lane believes the modern Kersa is the most likely place: The point of arrival is indicated in a general way as the district of the Gerasenes, most probably in reference to a town whose name is preserved in the modern Kersa or Koursi. Have you even been in a service where the Spirit of God was moving and felt fear? These, however, are not the problem raised by Bible students. How many demons possessed the man in Mark 5:6? We owe it to Josephus, from whom it has passed into ecclesiastical language. And, it can not be understood properly out of this context. Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. But about a mile further south there is a fairly steep slope within forty yards from the shore, and about two miles from there cavern tombs are found which appear to have been used for dwellings. William L. Lane, The Gospel According to Mark (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), p.181. 68f. The lectionary reading for Trinity 1, Year C, is Luke's version of Jesus meeting and healing the demon-possessed man in the 'region of the Gerasenes' (Luke 8.26-39). Paul tells us that our struggle is, at bottom, a spiritual one (Ephesians 6:12). How do I connect these two faces together? Why is that. Gergesenes means "those who come from pilgrimage or fight.". As has been said before, look for Satans man behind the pulpit. And he said to them, Where is your faith? 125 This is the position of Lane, Mark, p. 187. Thus, all the circumstances lead us to regard the healing of the demonized at Gerasa as a night scene, immediately on Christs arrival from Capernaum, and after the calming of the storm at sea. Alford Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965), I, pp. Or they are too afraid of what the change might bring. where something similar occurs) is a demon-possession mentioned, and that outside the Gospels it is referred to only twice in the New Testament (Acts xvi. ), you also need to understand the significance of this - to the people in Gerasene. Mark and Luke, on the other hand, write to more general audiences, and Gerasa was the main Greek-Roman city of the area. May the Spirit of God be so evident in us that men may see God in our lives. Perhaps they clenched their fists or picked up driftwood with which to defend themselves. They all say country of (in the sense of region, not nation). These men were a danger to themselves and others. It was like being attacked by two Hulks. They probably thought of quickly getting aboard ship and pushing off. I asked why people are afraid of commitment and relationships and some said they are afraid because they fear being hurt again. In Jewish thinking, spirit beings were assigned to certain geographical territories.120. Small sins lead to big sins, and big sins bring about a terrible spiritual darkness.