Interestingly, if you obey the latter, and take just the babies or the eggs but release the dame, God promises you a long and successful life. If you're carrying a sheep, is it still a "piggy" back ride? It is a logical thesis based on historic accounts (Josephus, etc) Feel free to challenge this thought or pursue it from another angle. Learn how your comment data is processed. 2 The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. The best text in Matthew reads Gadarenes, in Mark and Luke it reads Gerasenes, whereas some MSS preserve Gergesenes and Gergustenes (cf. This food is unclean and defiling for you. In a similar way, we see that Scripture is the same; it doesnt change. Its architecture was of the Corinthian order, quite lavish and imposing, with columns from three to four ft. in diameter and about thirty ft. high. Don't they know their Bibles? Many will rush for cover behind the last four Greek words of this verse, despite all of its textual, translation and interpretation problems. I agree the counter-arguments look flawless on the surface and that will be partially exposed now. (Please dont hold up Mark 7:19b, Jesus made all food clean. Relying on that isolated, half-verse with textual problems makes God look flippant, and therefore, unpredictable and untrustworthy. They have therefore made important decisions about the proper treatment of animals. Most Christians believe Messiah is the Second Person of the Trinity. Gergesenes means "those who come from pilgrimage or fight." And he is sent out to negotiate with Aragorn and Gandalf, and the others. The list in the first chapter of Leviticus contains only bovine, sheep, goats and pigeons; all typified later, in Leviticus 11, as clean/pure animals. Actually, killing the pigs was also out of his mercy because instead of judging the farmers directly, the Messiah threw his anger against the pigs. They were ..ummm ..for producing manure to fertilize crops. What happened to the demons when the pigs died? 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. 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. And he said that a good and virtuous man could not have allowed something like that to happen and therefore, Jesus was not the best and most virtuous of men and therefore Christianity was disproven. War II. Jerash (aka Gerasa, Gerash or Gerasha) is the capital and the largest city of the Jerash Governorate in Jordan, but in ancient times it was one of the wealthiest and most cosmopolitan cities in the ancient Near East.Settled by humans as early as the Neolithic period (c. 7500-5500 BCE) and founded as a Hellenistic city in the 2nd century BCE, Jerash is Jesus ministered to and did miracles for the Gentiles there. WebGadarenes. Thats really why they were sent. California - Do Not Sell My Personal Information. That is, they appear contrary, except for one thing: Gods Law forbids righteous people from eating pork. Its the exodus that Jesus has come to lead, an exodus from slavery to the prince of this world. --ED.). 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. All we know now is that the demoniac could have been either: Jew or Gentile. A main street with columns on both sides leads out of the forum. Scripture also makes it abundantly clear that God Almighty cannot change, and no one, not even the Lord's Anointed Messiah can change the Law which they both wrote. "Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged [Jesus], saying, 'Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.' He couldnt introduce a new religion. Show us the only hope of deliverance from those sins and teach us these things from this passage. Top Ten Reasons Why There Were Pigs in Gerasenes (Lk 8 ) 10 ) It was the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee, the area of the Decapolis. For one, Leviticus 22:28 forbids righteous farmers from killing a cow and its calf on the same day. I wouldn't care to speculate how many demons possessed this man, but the man can only identify himself as a person who is possessed by an almost innumerable host of evil spirits and he doesn't even remember his own name. In fact, the next thing the name did was to take a steel bar, place it in his teeth, and proceed to bend it with his hands and with his teeth. 3. Logically we understand that no person on Earth could say something in strong terms over and over, and then just one day say, Oops, can I retract that? So could or would God Almighty flip flop? Mr. Hippo read Mark 5 and convinced himself that Jesus did not care about swine, or any other animals, and therefore, spread a church doctrine that Christians have no genuine duty to animals. Note that Jesus never touched the demon-inhabited individual: He merely spoke to him, commanding the evil to depart. 5 ) They werent real Jews They were JINOs! Since I believe the word of God is our playbook for life, what is Jesus telling us? 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. Do you remember when a serpent, an animal, came and exercised authority over God's man and woman, Adam and Eve, who had been made in His image so that instead of them ruling over the animals, the animals ruled over them? With such a track record, what difference would Legions size or strength make? I dont know of any illness that can do that. }. WebThe name Gergesa has led to the supposition that the Girgashites, one of the seven Canaanitish nations, originally occupied this territory. Archeologists identify it with the modern Jarash. Was it correct to destroy so many for just one (or two men). Webwere the gerasenes gentiles. After all, racism wasnt invented in the 21st century. However, it is anticipated that the following verses will be thrown up as excuses, as pat answers, and as proof that God has changed, the Law is fulfilled (a.k.a. 3 And so they begin crying out, Don't cast us into the abyss.. One moose, two moose. He has authored, co-authored, edited, or contributed to numerous books. We pray that he would find liberation in Jesus Christ and see his life and family restored, but my friends, any one of us, any one of us, can be in the same thralldom today. Something else to ponder about the Son of God is his other title, The Good Shepherd: David, the son of Jesse, was another selfless, compassionate shepherd. For our Creator, one lost person saved is worth the death of many animals. To suggest God retracts or repeals laws tarnishes His Dignity. 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. 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). And what about trees or rocks? May God grant us the liberation through Jesus Christ to become what that nameless man became. (we dont invent stories to let people know Jesus has power over the Tooth Fairy, do we?). By submitting your email address, you understand that you will receive email communications from Bible Gateway, a division of The Zondervan Corporation, 3900 Sparks Drive SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 USA, including commercial communications and messages from partners of Bible Gateway. 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. 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. So lets have an exquisite examination of Scripture to better appreciate what happened beside the lake and why the pigs ended up in it. The thinking behind each chart is contrary to the unity and oneness of God. This verse alone puts an interesting twist on the oft-quoted man was not made for the Sabbath but the Sabbath was made for man because originally Scripture makes the point that the Sabbath is for man and mans animals. And then you see in this passage the change of a heart set free. 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. Do you remember at the end of the book, in the sixth book, when the King of Gondor and his captains and the host of Gondor have arrived at the black gates of Sauron Sauron is the evil figure in the book and if you know Tolkien's cosmology, he was actually an apprentice to the Satan figure of Tolkien's writings. Thats why there was a herd of two thousand Youll notice at the beginning of the passage that they go across the lake to the east side and that puts them outside the bounds of Galilee and outside the bounds of Israel and over into Gentile territory on the other side. WebHe calls the inhabitants Syrians, when, at the beginning of the Jewish revolt, the district round Gerasa was laid waste. So why do Christians say no one can when these two did? I definitely dont want to be near that doctor on Judgement Day.). In a recent online essay on the Gospel of Mark, Peter Leithart wrote. They were not. The mountainside has caves and hewn tombs where, according to Mark and Luke, the demoniac had taken shelter. They could, at least, admit to the possibility of what has been discussed here and about the other facts. Why? That is why In some of your Bibles, it may say Gergesenes or Gadarenes in the parallel passages in the gospels. Part of the reason for such a short list is due to the fact that Gods People are special (Exodus 19:5-6) and separate (Deuteronomy 7:6) and unique from others on the earth (1 Peter 2:9). The main reason God limits righteous people to a select group of clean/pure animals is for the purpose of holiness. His actions now make sense in this new light. We pray in Jesus' name. Now Jesus grants this permission. Jesus was Jewish and He said He came for the lost sheep of Israelthe 10 cities of Decapolis were Roman cities but also contained some Jews who were most likely not keeping the Torah or mixing paganism with Judaism..Romans had many pagan gods and sacrifice pigs especially a certain black pig..I believe the man with the unclean spirits was a Jew.a Jew would never hang out in a tomb because that would make him unclean according to Jewish law..satan probably got a kick out of a Jew being forced by his demons to live in one.interesting that unclean spirits went into a unclean animal according to Judaismwhat a sight to see and then told by to go and tell what happened to you and to those pigs to your fellow Jewish friends and family who may not be keeping the Torah..just my opinion. Pork is the most infamous of all-things-not-Jewish and the bad press that pigs receive in Scripture, and in contemporary Western society, is another reason why I accuse both pastors of being less than honest in their explanations about Mark 5. He is the dividing line here. The majority admits they are clueless and throw their hands up, stating the herd was just a , The pastors attempts to laugh off the haunting question about the meek and lowly Son of Man killing all the pigs is, Besides the jokes being in poor taste, they make his sermon seem less than professional. Therefore he had every right to judge the Jews and how they used land. Herod had massive building projects all over Israel. Also, Orthodox Jews see a clear connection between Deuteronomy 12:32, do not add, and what happened in the Garden of Eden. Did Jesus really sacrifice the swine for the man? You know that because the people tell Him to leave. No products in the cart. Now do you see how silly the Jesus-kept-the-Law-perfectly statement is? These pastors have added to Scripture that the God of the Old Testament is different in the New and taken away from it Mosess 613 commandments are now reduced to 2. As I hear, I judge and My judgment is righteous because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me. 4. http://archive.ligonduncan.com/mp3/12.13.2009_Dr_J_Ligon_Duncan_The_Man_Jesus_Renamed_Luke_8_26-39.mp3. 10:31). And the only real bargaining chip according to this interpretation was offering them the two thousand big pink chips. Such a pat answer to such a serious question is as irritating as it is ridiculous. No, at the very best, Scripture is a dazzling lily that started out as a small flower bud, grew and expanded overtime, until finally it opened to show us all its beauty, a beauty that there inside the bud since the beginning, but not fully shown. Jesus is the lover of our souls. So if you have the ears to hear, the Father and the Son both wrote the Law and gave it to 630,000 men (and women and children) at Mt. Demetrius had to do something with the Jew or go bust. My research shows swine kill poisonous snakes. Its inconceivable that the pigs were owned by Gentiles. James Gibson. But this is not the full explanation or the main one. 1. If you watch the short clip (above) and compare it to the one hour source video Dominating Powers, Part 2 (Mark 5:1-20) you will notice how MacArthurs speaking style changes as soon as he addresses the matter of the pigs. So now they don't even bother to read it.]. Facts are piling up. It isnt a long list. When they ask Jesus to leave, he does so without any objection; Jesus ministry will not be imposed on those unwilling to receive it. 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. The conversation showed that the illness had a will, a coherent sense of past, present and future, knowledge of the supremacy and authority of Jesus Christ, and a compulsion to worship Jesus. It's amazing Jesus comes to shore and it's obvious that He has immediately commanded the spirits to leave the man because they remonstrate with Him. This curse should deter makers of dispensational charts from chopping up Scripture because having my share taken from the Book of Life, or my name wiped out of the Book of Life (Revelation 3:5) doesnt sound very cool. With these, Luke is telling you here that Jesus is sovereign over everything. If I still had some misgivings, Id be man enough to share them here. In this immediate area, steep hills come down to the shoreline and fit the story of the swine rushing headlong into the sea. xviii. His fellow citizens tried to restrain him in chains a horrible way to treat mental illness, by the way but he always broke free. As for Matthew, he quoted Jesus as commanding the demons, and used the plural form of the verb, go. WebMany New Testament manuscripts refer to the "Country of the Gadarenes" or "Gerasenes" rather than. 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. When He speaks, they obey. We gotta git us some!, 1 ) [your turn. And you know what the most frightening thing of all is? It's interesting isn't it Jesus crosses the river, the lake, and no sooner has He set His foot on the other side but this man shows up to meet Him. Pingback: The Prophet in the Hometown A Pilgrim in Augsburg. Most translations interpret the Hebrew to say. They do not bother mentioning Scriptures emphasis on being holy before God. Both of our good pastors assume that the people in Gerasene (Gadarene or Gergesene) were Gentiles in Gentile territory, partially because of the pigs, partially because of the demoniacs and partially because it fits their bias. So its a fair comparison to place Pauls actions in Ephesians side-by-side with Jesuss actions by the Lake of Galilee. He also wrote the poem Greatheart. Would you not agree that theres a certain permanent feeling about a law like that? The two Johns see more than a hint of what I am talking about in the destruction of the swine and it frightens them so they avoid a serious discussion. But what does Leviticus says about, And also the pig; although it has a hoof splitting in half and it has a hoof clearly tearing in two, the pig doesn't bring back up its cud to chew. Swine there because they could eat pork, just not while it is representing a clean sacrifice, which would be representing Jesus as the real sacrifice not yet available until Jesus actually came and died for all of our sins naturally. In either case, the theological point is not helped by a fictitious story. You understand that Legion is not his name. 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. (Please dont hide behind that sensational dispensational chart. Jesus enters enemy territory in two ways. And if he missed one, he didnt do it perfectly. The apostles arent having a pig roast anywhere. If the interpretation from, If a bunch of little children want a ball to play with and I toss them a grenade, am I off the hook if a kid pulls out the pin? were badly damaged in major And holiness means salvation, as Paul wrote in two different letter, without holiness no man [or woman] shall see God (Hebrews 12:14 and Romans 6:22). The opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of any other person, religious organization or governmental entity. The thinking behind each chart is contrary to the unity and oneness of God. What is going to happen, we are told by John the book of Revelation, is that God Himself is going to cast Satan and his demons into the lake of fire. Mark and Luke wrote that Jesus /gave the right to them to enter the pigs much stronger wording and more official than allow. Why does the herd of swine go over the cliff? (, Worse yet, dont trust one who says Scripture. What do you have that youre captive to, that youre enslaved to? Perhaps that is his point. Derek Thomas was reminding me this morning that Ridderbos, in his famous book, The Coming of the Kingdom, records seventeen different interpretations that he had found of this particular parable. The power of the Lord Jesus Christ over Satan. He's a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ now. The prophet Jonah is held up as the merciless messenger of God; not a great title. 141-144). The Spectators probably from all over the world! 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. The list in the first chapter of Leviticus contains only bovine, sheep, goats and pigeons; all typified later, in Leviticus 11, as clean/pure animals. Living in rural Central Africa villages for ten years, I heard many stories from locals about demon spirits living in streams and trees and boulders. We come to understand that the God of the Universe is willing to wait and to stall our own behaviour so as to give mother cows and mother sheep more time together with their babies. The last now appears. He's the friend of sinners. 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. Mark and Luke call it Gerasenes and some English versions translate it as Gergesenes. It is all the same place. Dictionaries Encyclopedias Lexicons. And what about trees or rocks? 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. As the Philistine dead were strewn from Gaza to Ekron, so thousands of Satans dead fell in their own territory. One unambiguous (but hotly debated) verse that supports this doctrine is, If we agree Messiah wrote the Law of God, we should then wonder, (Please dont hide behind that sensational dispensational chart. Amen. noted the official establishment of Christianity and discontinuance of pagan worship in the 5th cent. This is the only sensible interpretation which remains consistent with all Scripture. But this view is shocking because it places Gods Son on an equal footing with the unclean spirits and thus flies in the face of the normal presentation of Jesus in the Gospels. WebThey land in the country of the Gadarenes which is on the North-east shore of the Sea of Galilee about 6 miles southeast across the sea from Capernaum. As a result, our biggest take-away lesson is to never take away from the Word of the Almighty.But dispensational-flavoured pastors ignore this and teach us that Moses and David and even Jesus lived by different rules. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. And the good pastor doesnt give any rationale for a slaughter that huge. While foretelling death and doom was often part of a prophets job description, the real task of each true prophet was to be an example to the people and to get everyone on board, or back on board, with the Law of God. Two Sundays ago Take care then, how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away. They thought those pigs were theirs. Answer: the impurity of the swine. Why explain something that is as plain as the nose on your face? And you can ask yourself a lot of questions Why did Jesus do that? (Take that, Darwin.). Even so, the Bible never puts the worth of animals on the same level as the worth of humanity. If the interpretation from one vague verse contradicts several unambiguous verses, which is wrong? In any event, the apparent differences in the texts prob. Can we imagine our Jew receiving a mostly positive reaction or a negative one? But the sad thing I want you to see at the end is the reaction of the majority of his countrymen, because unlike him, they do not beg to be with Jesus. The Jewish Messiah rid himself of two defiling groups in one blow. Thus, in him, God found a man after His own heart (1 Samuel 13:14 and 1 Samuel 16:1). And that permanence of the Law matches well with the fact that the first time, and the second, He wrote the Ten Commandments in stone: Exodus 31:18 and again, Exodus 34:1. We said the last time that we were together that in Luke 8 you begin four miracle stories, all of which either happen in Galilee or in Gentile lands. For these reasons, the writers of the gospels gave no explanation and the Twelve asked no question about why Jesus destroyed all the swine. Therefore, I repeat again that I believe the pastors are dishonest for not admitting this fact. Twice he is described this way look at verse 35, the man from whom the demons had gone out and then again the man from whom the demons had gone and then in verse 38, the man from whom the demons had gone. When Jesus had asked him, What's your name? The first time he had answered, I'm the man possessed by a countless host of demons. Now, he's the man from whom those demons have gone out. The pastors attempts to laugh off the haunting question about the meek and lowly Son of Man killing all the pigs is pathetic. But we should never get too smug, thinking that we have corned the market on truth. Indeed, some believe that Jesuss single option was to let Legion loose on the animals. Pastor MacArthur would do well to learn from his Jewish counterparts. Sproul also agrees with this preference of people over pigs when he writes, a man is worth more than 2,000 pigs.. I beg You, do not torment me. Then, if you look in verse 38, he begs Jesus that he might be with him. She needs someone strong enough to cast a legion of demons into the sea, like Pharaoh and his hosts. Gods Law has a law that you cannot change Gods Law. The NT references (Mark 5:1; Luke 8:26; cf. All these inescapable facts are so important to getting the right interpretation of Mark 5 and the other gospel records of the same event. Only this interpretation explains the farmers restrained reaction over the slaughter of the swine, and their tremendous terror of the Messiah. For the moment, Jesus was just being ironic. Some will respond to my rhetorical question, Why on earth would Jesus come to earth, by giving me the usual pat answer. John 13:34 was the one single, solitary time that the Master told his disciples, I give you a new commandment. However, the commandment wasnt a new commandment. led to the substitute reading Gergesenes, a reading that was suggested by a study of the geography of the area. Gerasa. Suddenly, Mark 5 is clear. (Note that Luke omits Jesus journey to Tyre and Sidon, see also Mark 7:24-37).
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