Over the years, Ive had to prove all this to myself first, and it took soul-searching and tons of Scripture research. Its all a matter of being logical. If you have any questions, please review our Privacy Policy or email us at privacy@biblegateway.com. Our ways are not as Thine. Learn a new word every day. That will give us the perfect answer. No one cares where he sleeps when hes busy trying to keep himself from killing himself. My question is: Herod had massive building projects all over Israel. It was situated some 30 miles southeast of Gadara, on the borders of Peraea and a little north of the river Jabbok. Well let's pray before we read God's Word together. p. 102. Christ's journey into "the country of the Gerasenes" (Mark 5:1) was somewhat unusual. When Jesus said that he had not came to destroy the Law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17), he was not talking to the Jews who already knew the Law was permanent, he was looking into future centuries and talking to those Christians who would try to destroy it. It's all Gentile territory, so just bear that in mind. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. Its totally contrary to what we would expect. The Garasenes were not Jewish but the country was close to Galilee and Jesus had been to that side of the sea before. That is exactly what is happening here. Ive not heard that theory before. Early in the video, he is very factual and seems sure of himself. Also, Demetrius only needed to speak a few choice words against the Jew (compare with Act 19:34), to get the crowd all worked up the silversmith didnt have any real evidence that Pauls preaching was going to slow sales. And then they beg to go into the herd of pigs. And the thing that I love the most is the utter contrast in his attitude toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, even though folks from the Bishop of Hippo down to our two good California pastors have tried to persuade us that the Creator has shifted His views on pork, God did not, can not, and will not vary or alter or adjust any word spoken about any decision let alone His views on ham sandwiches. The borders are fairly clearly drawn up. He's no longer under the domination of demons or his own sin. (But that may sadly describe a good number of Christians.) There is no captivity that you can be captive to that is not captive to Jesus Christ for He has ascended on high and led captivity captive and He makes a sport and a spoil of the forces of darkness which are arrayed against God and against heaven. ), his power over blindness (John 9:32) and even over death, as in the case of a three-days dead Lazarus (John 11:1-44). And he sends out his representative, a man who is known only as the Lieutenant of the Tower of Barad-dr, the black gate. Knowing the correct genre of what you are studying is a major step toward getting a correct message or interpretation. We "are of more value than many sparrows" (Matt. Yet there was no fury. The power and the person of Jesus Christ. As regards the first question, it would appear that that section of the country was chiefly inhabited by pagans in the first century, and Gerasa is at any rate included by Schrer among the Hellenistic cities ("Geschichte," ii. Yet the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke actually report that the towns people many would have been the owners or friends of the pig owners or people who were connected to the trade in the swine were frightened of the Jewish rabbi. Thats why there was a herd of two thousand (Cf. He's a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ now. WebAll three Synoptic Gospels ( Mark 5:120; Luke 8:2639; Matthew 8:2834) mention the swine miracle, although with variations. Flower blossoms wither. ESV - 1 They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. The modern village Jarash is situated on the hillside above the ruins, built with stones from the ruins. Many year later, Messiah went to Israel as a prophet to get the people of Israel back to his Law. Thats the exodus that Israel needs. WebGenesis 10:5 Context. We pray in Jesus' name. Ruins of the temple of Artemis, some columns still standing, are on another hillside above the ruins. He was totally dominated by these demonic forces. And it's very clear that theyre in Gentile territory because they find themselves in a country where there is a huge, huge herd of pigs. This man, when Jesus says, What is your name? effectively says, I do not know my name. Lastly, even if Mr. Pipers explanation were true, look what its application could mean. WebScripture exhorts us to care for animals and not to be cruel to them. This was a Gentile town so they had pigs. This kind of inter-ethnic scenario normally spells d.i.s.a.s.t.e.r. All we know now is that the demoniac could have been either: Jew or Gentile. Answer: the impurity of the swine. being the holy Messiah of Israel, Jesus wants the swine out of The Land as much as he wants unclean spirits out of The People, and. 8:513) and the Syrophoenician woman whose daughter was possessed (Mark 7:2430), the Jews received the bulk of His attention, and He spent most of His time in the predominantly Jewish regions of Galilee and Judea. In a pigs eye. The Psalmist states that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills Because to me belong every beast of the wood, every herd on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10, and were assuming Jesus the Second Person of the triune God had equal rights to those hills and those cattle.). Third, I want you to see the change that results in this man after he is not only liberated from these demons, but after he clearly, because of a change of heart, becomes a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Seven facts why Jesus cast the demons to the pigs in Mark 5, but pastors still miss the point, We usually think of Jesus as the loving, forgiving guy from Galilee, right? Not by will, but because they have no choice other than to do as the Administrator of all creation commands them. The majority admits they are clueless and throw their hands up, stating the herd was just a casualty of war. Another who admits he has no idea why the gentle Jesus jettisoned all those unclean demons unto the swine is John MacArthur. 3. It is repeated over and over. And Jews are forbidden by God and His eternal commands to own pigs. The bottom line is, I don't know why Jesus did that and neither do you and neither does anyone else. 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 8.2639). This software has many innovative features and you can trap a Bull or Bear in REAL TIME! I definitely dont want to be near that doctor on Judgement Day.). What's going on here? In this immediate area, steep hills come down to the shoreline and fit the story of the swine rushing headlong into the sea. Money Maker Software is compatible with AmiBroker, MetaStock, Ninja Trader & MetaTrader 4. This means that these miracles are especially meant to teach believers something. He does. And God isnt going to renounce or retract that decision no matter how many dispensational charts they print. Sadly, the rest of the verse is not quoted in GotQuestions best article and preachers rarely preach it, though it reveals more about the true character of the Messiah. At the very end of his book The Revelation of Jesus Christ, the Apostle John repeats them. At this distance from the Sea of Galilee, Gerasa could not have been the site of the healing of Legion. It is doubtful that Jesus ever visited it. And what about trees or rocks? The thinking behind each chart is contrary to the unity and oneness of God. Ba-dum-tsss.). At least Im man enough to admit possible weaknesses in my arguments and to talk about the elephants in the room. (Please dont hide behind that sensational dispensational chart. The best text in Matthew reads Gadarenes, in Mark and Luke it reads Gerasenes, whereas some MSS preserve Gergesenes and Gergustenes (cf. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. A wonderful verse that reveals Him to us and probably the most heartwarming is the commandment in the Torah that mother animals are allowed to stay with their newborns for at least seven days before the offspring can be taken for food or for sacrifice (Exodus 22:30; Leviticus 22:27). And did the Gospels writers believe the explanation was so obvious they didn't need to write one? This agrees with the general description of the site (Mark 5:1; Luke 8:26). Jesus helped a Syrophoenician woman and commended her faith ( Matthew 15:2128 ). Food cant affect our salvation, nor disqualify us from being saved.Pork might not be very healthy,but as long as its USDA approved and deemed good by health inspectors from feeder hogs tat eat corn to clean the mess out of them of the last few bowel movements, then you should be good to go. WebRoman Empire Map - Large Map of the Roman Empire in the Early First Century - Click around on the Places. Here, it may well be that a herd of unclean animals has been used to take thousands of demons to their doom in the lake in anticipation of the final judgment. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. It's not every day that you meet someone inhabited by a host of demons, but every time you meet a Christ-less soul, you meet someone who is utterly captive to sin. When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. One can only imagine the insanity the demoniac suffered at the hands of these evil forces. [Israels] real enemy isnt Rome, which barely figures into the gospel story. Im not saying I totally believed the stories, but I cannot believe that a single other place could not be found to send the legion. If ever there was a small and weak proof-text, this is the one. Theyre written as factual history. Do you remember? That is all I know. Now I want to say very quickly, my friends, that there is no power in this universe that can cause a rationale being to sin. Also, the land where the Master walked and the swine were feeding belonged to Israel. Jesus' action also shows the importance of human beings relative to animals. Jesus is going to tell him, You can't come with Me, but I do want you to go back and tell them what great things God has done for you. Jesus is the lover of our souls. Jesus was upholding all the kosher laws within the Land of Israel it was part of his job description. I remember my boyhood pastor, Gordon Reed, preaching through a sermon series on the gospel on Mark coming to a passage about demon possession saying, I don't know much about demon possession, but I've read a lot of books about people on demon possession and they don't know much about demon possession either. Well, before you give counsel to Jesus about what He has done in this passage you may want to take stock about how much you know about demon possession. She suffers a more oppressive slavery than ever before not to human rulers but to demons, who are bold enough to enter synagogues on the Sabbat. Was He asking us the impossible because He had nothing better to do or is He sadistic? He showed mercy to the men who were possessed and brought judgement on the pig farmers. They know that Jesus can cast them into the abyss, into the lake of fire, into the bowels of hell, and theyre frightened. This picking and choosing is completely unbiblical. So he's drawing our attention to an extraordinary event, but the reason he's drawing our attention to that extraordinary event is because there are actually truths which transfer across the last 2,000 years, right to where we are today, that we are to learn out of this passage. Does he really believe Mark 5 is Biblical material just for laughs? Admittedly the whole event with the demon-crazed pigs is odd you dont see it every day but the writer wanted us to believe it genuinely happened. In a, If Paul got himself into hot water because of a Gentile, To top it off, Jesuss farmers see Jesus and see their property floating belly up in the surf, but they dont throw him after them! The mountainside has caves and hewn tombs where, according to Mark and Luke, the demoniac had taken shelter. David was a good example of what Jesus meant by the shepherd gives his life for the sheep. Compared to this, Jesuss behaviour toward the pigs appears extremely callous: giving vile demons permission to slaughter swine is not exactly compassionate. 1). Jesus though he was The Prophet (Deuteronomy 18:15-18 and John 1:21) had to play by the same laws. You know that because the people tell Him to leave. Now, if a Jew can be treated so badly by fellow Jews, lets put on our thinking caps and imagine what happens to a Jew walking straight into a big group of Gentiles. The stories in the gospels may or may not have happened but, regardless, they are told in a way that makes a theological point and were never intended to be understood as factual history. I am but a man possessed by an innumerable host of demons. Now do you see how silly the Jesus-kept-the-Law-perfectly statement is? Mark and Luke call it Gerasenes and some English versions translate it as Gergesenes. It is all the same place. Pig meat, according to Scripture, is as unclean as the demons that Jesus sent into the swine. Jesus made him whole. He also said after much work with people that was possess that most of them dealt in occult practices. After this long, careful study, it should be crystal clear that the heartless Bishop of Hippo was mistaken, as were our two good pastors. Isnt this what hes paid for? A city in Transjordania, situated about thirty-five m. SE of the S end of the [[Sea of Galilee]], one of the cities of the Decapolis; the That is, they appear contrary, except for one thing: Gods Law forbids righteous people from eating pork. being the eternal Son of God. From the brook beside the road he will drink and for this reason, he will lift high his head. Somewhere I read that that region actually raised pigs and worshipped them or considered them as idols so study about the region and style of worship for that region. Yet a number of objections immediately spring to mind. So lets not laugh these verses off. We know that two thousand pigs go over the cliff. Now you understand what sitting at the Savior's feet means? Now it's not a very profound book. The tricky bit is finding the correct reason why gentle Jesus dumped hundreds of murderous, unclean spirits on so many swine. WebGerasene: [noun] an inhabitant of the ancient Palestinian town Gerasa. They are unclean for you. This is the Just-believe-and-receive Hypothesis and the advocates thereof like to stretch Jesuss words, I came to fulfill the Law, and make it say that Jesus needed to destroy or replace the nasty Law, but hope to heaven it still sounds Biblical heres an example of stretchy talking from GotQuestions. Obviously, they were Jewish pig farmers seeing judgement for flagrant disobey Gods Word and keeping and eating pig meat. Good Pastor John MacArthur's funny option, The real Author(s) of the Law and the Commandments. Those people were Jews in Nazareth. (, For I tell you truly, until the passing away of Heaven and the Earth, not the smallest letter nor the smallest comma will pass away from the Law until everything has happened. And wild animals are not forget because farmers in the Land of Israel are commanded in Exodus 23:11 to leave parts of their fields for food for wildlife. If Jesus had done anything less, he could not have been the Messiah. (photo by Jean Pierre, Pexels), Reading the Word of God is wonderful. These demons of the Gadarene Demoniac wanted to stay in this territory where worship of Baal was predominant. Christians never finish reading the chapter. And the good pastor doesnt give any rationale for a slaughter that huge. The Greek clause literally says, End of law is Christ but why bother finishing the sentence? We ask this in Jesus' name. So why do Christians say no one can when these two did? Jesus was wise to use what God gives us, for a teachable moment. The victorious Lord made life good again for one embattled soul. Most scholars today would agree with Origen that near Gergesa was the precise site for the healing of Legion. It was a small village about midway along the E shore of the Sea of Galilee. 141-144). Jesus does not go looking for this demon-possess man, the man comes to Him. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.". Incredible. Im wondering But there is a message in this for all of us and it is simply this we may not be possessed by demons, but if we are possessed by what we want or by what we have and if what we want or what we have is not God in the Gospel of His dear Son, Jesus Christ, then we are no less in the thrall of sin that this man. GotQuestions has three articles alone on the subject: here is their best. The jokes are a smoke screen. The other part of the eastern shoreline was controlled by Og, king of Bashan, but it and sixty walled cities were taken from them by Moses and given to the tribes of Israel (Deuteronomy 3:1-7, 16; compare with 1 Kings 4:13). So He got into the boat and returned. But now this is an extraordinary case. Once more, we have half of an unclear verse, that people use to make up a grand doctrine, all with the hopes it will magically annihilate one hundred clear, unambiguous verses which say the Law is permanent. The shortest distance between two thoughts. WebWhy were there pigs in gerasenes? Add to that that recent studies claim 25% of the world today is antisemitic and ask yourself if racism was better or worse in the past? A may also be a combination of two or more genres. A main street with columns on both sides leads out of the forum. With such a track record, what difference would Legions size or strength make? These three verse from John really are earth-shattering. Delivered to your inbox! When Jesus healed the possessed man, He allowed Legion to possess the nearby herd of swine. When Jesus asked the mans name always a good way to start a conversation the demons replied, We are Legion, for we are many. A legion is a Roman military unit consisting of four to six thousand soldiers. Because the writer of the story wanted to make sure that everyone would know that the Garasenes were not Jewish. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. In fact in this passage with the demons naming His name, this was often done in the ancient world, if you knew someone's name you could call out that name as a part of casting a spell on them. One day the prophet Samuel angrily told his king that God would not go back on His decision. Rabbi, begone! Why explain something that is as plain as the nose on your face? Problem was, not even the pigs could withstand the madness these demonic forces manifested. In 2 Samuel 17 we read of the young boy who would be king risking everything for one lamb. This, by the way, is the miracle story that happens in Gentile land. Some of my Christian brothers and sisters see this as coded language referring to a confrontation with the political and military power of Rome. display: none !important; The apostle had been busy preaching in Demetriuss hometown of Ephesus and Pauls message about the one true God was catching on. But it was what they loved and they preferred it to everlasting blessing in Jesus Christ. Excavations at the modern Jarash (by the British and American Schools of Oriental Research and Yale University) clearly show that Gerasa was a large and important city already in Jesus time. And His promise to make a new promise (covenant) with Israel and with Judah in Jeremiah 31:31-32 does not repeal the first promise (the covenant that Israel broke), it strengthens it. Some of Jesus's reputation for being normally meek and merciful comes from statements like: From Jesus's own mouth, we are informed of Gods special love and attention for defenseless animals and we know Jesus has the same heart for the weak. The real-estate on the east side of the lake of Galilee where Jesus met the demons and the swine was also part of Israel-proper. Gerasa was rebuilt in splendor and remained prosperous for several centuries. In the Book of Acts, Chapter Nineteen, we read about Demetrius, a Greek silver-statue maker, who was connecting a few dots of his own and had reasoned that a certain big-mouthed Jew was bad for business. It all belongs to God. He knew how bad it was going to go for the pigs. Gods Everlasting Word is not something evolving or morphing into a strange new unusual thing, like some rose turning into a radish, or a carrot into a carnation. So its a fair comparison to place Pauls actions in Ephesians side-by-side with Jesuss actions by the Lake of Galilee. (Pastor Piper was right after all, almost!) It was like, Read my lips, Saul! They were ..ummm ..for producing manure to fertilize crops. Therefore, if Jesus gave no commandment (singular), what is he referring to when he talks about commandments (plural) in the following: The answer: when he says, keep my commandments he means the ones he and the Father gave Israel at Sinai. All these inescapable facts are so important to getting the right interpretation of Mark 5 and the other gospel records of the same event. Sadly, our two good pastors seem oblivious to the fact that under the Law of Moses, animals have benefits too, and this fact should have bearing on any interpretation of Mark 5. WebGentiles [N] [T] [B] [S] (Heb., usually in plural, goyim), meaning in general all nations except the Jews. You received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it! (Acts 7:53). Note that Jesus never touched the demon-inhabited individual: He merely spoke to him, commanding the evil to depart. Sinai. The fascinating story behind many people's favori Can you handle the (barometric) pressure? And the good pastor doesnt give any rationale for a slaughter that huge. They forget that all scripture is inspired of God and all of it is established in the heavens and none of it can change. In Luke 4 and 5, great multitudes are following Jesus Christ when He does His miracles.

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