Luke 8:37

8:37 begged Jesus to go away: Jesus’ power over spiritual forces frightened the townspeople, and their loss of property (the pigs) angered them. Their rejection contrasts with the faith of the healed man.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk 8:37 . Lk. is very careful to involve the whole population in the request that Jesus would leave the country the whole multitude of the district of Gerasa, town and country, citizens and farmers. And he gives as the reason, ὅτι φόβῳ μεγάλῳ συνείχοντο , they were possessed with a great fear, panic-stricken.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(37) They were taken with great fear.—Better, they were oppressed.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

37. besought him to depart] The opposite to the request of the Samaritans (Joh_4:40). Unlike Peter, they meant what they said. Preferring their swine to Christ, they felt that His presence was dangerous to their greed. And our Lord acted on the principle of not casting that which was holy to dogs, nor pearls before men whose moral character tended to become like that of their own swine. At Gadara the worst iniquities were prevalent. It may be that if they had not deliberately begged Christ to leave them they might have been spared the fearful massacre and ruin—fire, and sword, and slavery—which befel them at the hands of the Romans in less than 40 years after this time (Jos. B. J. III. 7, § 1, iv. 7, § 4). But

“We, ignorant of ourselves,

Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers

Deny us for our good.”

For other instances of prayers fatally granted see Exo_10:28-29; Num_22:20; Psa_78:29-31; on the other hand, a refused boon is sometimes a blessing. 2Co_12:8-9. The result of their wilful sensuality was that the time never came when

“E’en the witless Gadarene,

Preferring Christ to swine, shall learn

That life is sweetest, when’tis clean.”

they were taken] Rather, they were oppressed.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Now the man out of whom the devils were departed,.... Sensible of the power of Christ, and of the favour he had received from him, was of a quite different mind from his countrymen: and

besought him that he might be with him; See Gill on Mar 5:18.

But Jesus sent him away; from him, into the country:

saying, as follows.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

37 Then 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.

Ver. 37. See Mat 8:33-34.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Then 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. The recital had no effect upon. the headmen of the neighbouring towns and villages. They were probably for the most part owners of similar herds of swine, perhaps sharers in nameless sins, all specially hateful to the Rabbi Jesus, whom they no doubt knew well by repute. But he was, they saw, something more than a poor wandering moral Teacher; he possessed strange and awful powers: had they not had terrible experience of them? Which of them in that law-breaking, dissolute neighbourhood might not he the next victim whose unclean possessions were to be swept away? So they would have none of him: let him, as quickly as possible depart from their coasts. They felt they could not keep both the Saviour and their swine, and of the two they preferred their swine! And returned back again. The chance, as far as the Gadarene district was concerned, was gone for ever. Jesus probably returned thither no more. Within forty years this district was the scene of one of the terrible calamities of the great Roman war. The sack of Gadara, and the desolation and ruin which was the hapless lot of this once wealthy but evil-living district, is one of the many melancholy chapters of the hopeless Jewish revolt, (see Josephus, Bell. Jud:," 3:7:1 4:7:4). A modern traveller, Dr. Thomson, remarks, singularly enough, that the old district of Gadara at the present day is infested with wild, fierce hogs: "Everywhere," he writes, "the land is ploughed up by wild hogs in search of roots on which they live" ("The Land and the Book," 2. ch. 25).

Vers. 37, 40. Jesus Christ: rejection and welcome.

We have in these two passages a very striking contrast; we have in the one a very deliberate and consentaneous dismissal, and in the other a very cordial and unanimous reception of our Lord, it is illustrative of the treatment he is now receiving at the hands of men.

I THE REJECTION OF JESUS CHRIST.

1. It may be deliberate and determined. In the case of the Gadarenes it was emphatically so. They all came together to seek him and to entreat of him that he would leave their neighbourhood. Their request was unqualified with any condition; it was decisive, absolute. It is not often that men suddenly arrive at the conclusion that "they will not have the Son of man to reign over them; but the long postponement of his claims leads on and down to a decisive rejection; at length the mind is fully made up, the soul resolved that it will seek its good elsewhere, that the patient Saviour may knock but he will wait in vain. It may proceed from motives that are distinctly unworthy. It was a procedure on the part of these Gadarenes that was simply shameful; they preferred their swine to a Divine Restorer; they would rather keep their property than entertain One who would bring health to their homes and wisdom to their hearts. When men reject Christ, they seldom put before their minds the alternative as it really is in the sight of God; but traced far enough, seen in the light of truth, viewed as it will have to be one day regarded, it is an unholy and an unworthy preference of the human to the Divine, or of the present to the future, or of the fleshly to the spiritual; it is a preference which God condemns, and for making which the soul will one day reproach itself.

2. It may be only too successful. It was so here. Jesus did not contest the point; he did not assert his fight to go where he pleased and labour where he liked. He yielded to their urgency; "He went up into the ship, and returned back again," Man has a power which may well make him tremble, of resisting and rejecting the Divine; of sending away the messenger and the message which come from God himself; of silencing the voice which speaks from heaven "How often would I!... but ye would not;" "Ye shall not see me until," etc. (Lu 13). This is the record of many a soul"s history in its relation to Christ. We send away from our hearts and homes the Lord that would heal and save and enrich us.

II THE WELCOME OF CHRIST. "The people gladly received him" (ver. 40); they welcomed him, "for they were all waiting for him were in expectation of his coming.

1. The spirit in which it is offered. We cannot suppose that every one then present had the same feeling about our Lord"s return. Probably there were those who were influenced by a legitimate but unspiritual curiosity; others by a desire to be healed, or to secure his services as Healer of sickness for their friends; others by a wish to learn more of his wondrous wisdom; others by a reverent thankfulness and a desire to manifest their gratitude to him. Many motives take men into the presence of Christ. Some are low and very near the ground, that may or may not go unblessed. Others are higher and more hopeful. And yet others are certain to be recompensed. They who receive Christ"s word in the love of it, who go to him to learn of him and to be healed by him, or who want to be employed by him in his cause, may make sure of a full-handed welcome by him.

2. Its reception by our Lord. We know that this is cordial and full of blessing. "If any man... open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" If, when Jesus Christ offers himself to us as our Teacher and Saviour, we heartily welcome him as such, there will be for us an enrichment of soul surpassing all that we can imagine reconciliation to the living God; his own blessed and unfailing friendship; a life of sacred service, holy usefulness, and abiding joy; a death of peace and hope; an immortality of glory. C.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Matt. ix, 1; Mark v, 18.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

besought

Unconscious of their own need, the Gadarenes beseech the Lord to depart -- His power terrifies and condemns them; whilst he whose need has been met beseeches Him that he may follow Him.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

37. ἠρώτησαν … ἀπελθεῖν. The opposite to the request of the Samaritans (Joh 4:40). Unlike Peter, they meant what they said. Preferring their swine to Christ, they felt that His presence was dangerous to their greed. And our Lord acted on the principle of not casting that which was holy to dogs, nor pearls before men whose moral character tended to become like that of their own swine. At Gadara the worst iniquities were prevalent. It may be that if they had not deliberately begged Christ to leave them they might have been spared the fearful massacre and ruin—fire, and sword, and slavery—which befel them at the hands of the Romans in less than 40 years after this time (Jos. B. J. III. 7, § 1, IV. 7, § 4). But

“We, ignorant of ourselves,

Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers

Deny us for our good.”

For other instances of prayers fatally granted see Exo 10:28-29; Num 22:20; Psa 78:29-31; on the other hand, a refused boon is sometimes a blessing. 2Co 12:8-9. The result of their wilful sensuality was that the time never came when

“E’en the witless Gadarene,

Preferring Christ to swine, shall learn

That life is sweetest, when ’tis clean.”

συνείχοντο. ‘They were oppressed.’

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

37. ἅπαν τὸ πλῆθος. The desire that He should depart was universal, and all three narratives mention it. The people feared that His miraculous power might lead to further losses: and this feeling was not confined to the inhabitants of the πόλις close at hand (ver. 34); it was shared by the whole district. Comp. 4:29, 9:53, and contrast 4:42; Joh 4:40. Although Keirn rejects the incident of the swine, yet he rightly contends that this request that Jesus should leave the place gives the impression of a sober historical fact. There is nothing like it elsewhere in the history of Jesus; and neither it nor the locality is likely to have been invented. Why should a myth take Jesus across to Gerasa? Some historical connexion with the locality is much more probable. Here, as in vv. 30, 36, Syr-Sin. abbreviates.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They were taken [συνειχοντο] . See on ch. Luk 4:38. The same word as of the fever.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.