Mark 5:10

“And Matthew indeed relates that they said, “Art Thou come hither before the time to torment us?” but the other evangelists have added, that they also entreated and adjured Him not to cast them into the deep.” — editor's note: Mark v. 10; Luke viii. 31.

Those who were in the ship enquired among themselves, “What manner of man is this?” and now it is made known Who He is by the testimony of His enemies. For the demoniac came up confessing that He was the Son of God.…

Geraza is a noted town of Arabia, across the Jordan, near mount Galaad, which the tribe of Manasseh held, not far from the lake of Tiberias, into which the swine were precipitated.

Nevertheless the exact reading contains neither Gadarenes, nor Gerasines, but Gergesenes. For Gadara is a city of Judaea, which has no sea at all about it; and Geraza is a city of Arabia, having neither lake nor sea…

Though Matthew says that there were two, Mark and Luke mention one, that you may understand that one of them was a more illustrious person, concerning whose state that country was much afflicted.

Or else, Mark and Luke relate what was most worthy of compassion, and for this reason they put down more at length what had happened to this man; for there follows, “no man could bind him, no, not with chains.” They…

Now the assembly of the devils had prepared itself to resist the Divine power. But when He was approaching Who had power over all things, they proclaim aloud His eminent virtue. Wherefore there follows, “But when he…

See how the devil is divided between to passions, fear and audacity; he hangs back and prays, as if meditating a question; he wishes to know what he had to do with Jesus, as though he would say, “Do you cast me out…

And how great is the impiety of the Jews, to say that He cast out devils by the prince of the devils, when the very devils confess that they have nothing in common with Him.

Then praying to Him, he subjoins, “I adjure thee by God, that Thou torment me not.” For he considered being cast out to be a torment, or else he was also invisibly tortured. For however bad the devils are, they know…

For it is a great torment for a devil to cease to hurt a man, and the more severely he possesses him, the more reluctantly he lets him go. For it goes on, “For He said unto Him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.”

Consider the unconquerable power of Christ; He makes Satan shake, for to him the words of Christ are fire and flame: as the Psalmist says, “The mountains melted at the presence of the Lord, [Ps 97:5] that is, great…

The Lord indeed asks, not that He Himself required to know, but that the rest might know that there was a multitude of devils dwelling in him.

Lest he should not be believed, if He affirmed there were many, He wishes that they themselves should confess it; wherefore there follows, “And he saith unto Him, Legion, for we are many.” He gives not a fixed…

But by the public declaration of the scourge which the madman suffered the virtue of the Healer appears more gracious. And even the priests of our time, who know how to cast out devils by the grace of exorcism, are…

Luke, however, says, “into the abyss.” [Luke 8:3] For the abyss is the separation of this world, for devils deserve to be sent into outer darkness, prepared for the devil and his angels. This Christ might have done,…

Also that by fighting with us, they may make us more expert. It goes on, “Now there was there about the mountain a great herd of swine feeding.”

What Mark here says, that the herd was about the mountain, and what Luke calls on the mountain, are by no means inconsistent. For the herd of swine was so large, that some part were on the mountain, the rest around…

The devils entered not into the swine of their own will, but their asking for this concession was that is might be shewn that they cannot hurt men without Divine permission. They did not ask to be sent into men,…

And He gave them leave, that by the killing of the swine, the salvation of men might be furthered.

He wished to shew publicly the fury which devils entertain against men, and that they would inflict much worse things upon men, if they were not hindered by Divine power; because, again, His compassion would not…

But the herdsmen also took to flight, lest they should perish with the swine, and spread the same fear amongst the inhabitants of the town. Wherefore there follows: “And they that fed them, &c.” The necessity of…

But amazed at the miracle, which they had heard, they were afraid, and for this reason they beseech Him to depart out of their borders; which is expressed in what follows: “And they began to pray Him to depart out of…

Or else, conscious of their own frailty, they judged themselves unworthy of the presence of the Lord. It goes on: “And when He was going to the ship, he that had been tormented, &c.”

For he feared lest some time or other the devils should find him, and enter into him a second time. But the Lord sends him back to his house, intimating to him, that though He Himself was not present, yet His power…

But although He bade others, whom He healed, to tell it to no one, He nevertheless fitly bids this one proclaim it, since all that region, being possessed by devils, remained without God.

He therefore began to proclaim it, and all wonder, which, is that which follows: “And he began to publish.”

Mystically, however, Gerasa or Gergese, as some read it, is interpreted casting out a dweller or a stranger approaching, because the people of the Gentiles both expelled the enemy from the heart, and he who was afar…

Here again the demoniac is the people of the Gentiles, in a most hopeless case, bound neither by the law of nature, nor of God, nor by human fear.

Who dwelt in the tombs, because they delighted in dead works, that is, in sins; who were ever raging night and day, because whether in prosperity or in adversity, they were never free from the service of malignant…

Or by this it is signified that devils enter into those men who live like swine, rolling themselves in the slough of pleasure; they drive them headlong into the sea down the precipice of perdition, into the sea of an…

Or they are choked in hell without any touch of mercy by the rushing on of an early death; which evils many persons thus avoid, for by the scourging of the fool, the wise is made more prudent.

But that the Lord did not admit him, though he wished to be with Him, signifies, that every one after the remission of his sins should remember that he must work to obtain a good conscience, and serve the Gospel for…

For when we have perceived ever so little of the Divine knowledge, we are at once unwilling to return to human affairs, and seek for the quiet of contemplation; but the Lord commands that the mind should first toil…

But the man who is healed preached in Decapolis, where the Jews, who hang on the letter of the Decalogue, are being turned away from the Roman rule.