Albert Barnes Commentary Matthew 8:28

"And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, there met him two possessed with demons, coming forth out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man could pass by that way." — Matthew 8:28 (ASV)

The other side. The other side of the Sea of Tiberias.

Country of the Gergesenes. Mark 5:1 says that he came into the country of the Gadarenes. This difference is only apparent. Gadara was a city not far from the Lake Gennesaret, one of the ten cities that were called Decapolis. (See Barnes' note on Matthew 4:25).

Gergesa was a city about twelve miles southeast of Gadara and about twenty miles east of the Jordan. Therefore, there is no contradiction in the evangelists. He came into the region in which the two cities were situated, and one mentioned one, and the other another.

This shows that the writers had not agreed to impose on the world, for if they had, they would have mentioned the same city. It also shows they were familiar with the country. No one would have written in this manner except those who were acquainted with the facts. Impostors do not mention places or names if they can avoid it.

There met him two. Mark and Luke speak of only one who met him. Mark 5:2 says, "There met him out of the tombs a man," and Luke 8:27 says, "There met him out of the city a certain man," etc. This difference of statement has given rise to considerable difficulty. It is to be observed, however, that neither Mark nor Luke says that there was no more than one.

For particular reasons, they might have been led to fix their attention on one of them who was more notorious, furious, and difficult to manage. If they had plainly denied that there was more than one, and if Matthew had affirmed that there were two, there would have been an irreconcilable contradiction.

As it is, they relate the affair as other people would. This shows that they were honest witnesses. If they had been impostors, and if Matthew and Luke had agreed to write books to deceive the world, they would have agreed exactly in a case as easy as this. They would have told the story with the same circumstances. Witnesses in courts of law often differ in unimportant matters. Provided the main narrative coincides, their testimony is thought to be more valuable.

Luke has given us a hint as to why he recorded only the cure of one of them. He says there met him "out of the city," a man, etc.; or, as it should be rendered, "a man of the city," a citizen. Yet the man did not live in the city, for Luke adds in the same verse, "neither abode he in any house, but in the tombs." The truth of the case was that he was born and educated in the city; he had probably been a man of wealth and eminence, was well known, and the people felt a deep interest in his case.

Luke was, therefore, particularly struck with this man's case; and as his cure fully established the power of Jesus, he recorded it. The other individual whom Matthew mentions was probably a stranger, or a person less notorious as a maniac, and Luke felt less interest in that cure. Consider if two people were to go into a mental institution and meet two mentally unwell individuals, one of whom was exceedingly fierce, ungovernable, and well known as having been a man of worth and standing. If they conversed with them, and if the more violent one attracted the principal attention, these two people would very likely give the same kind of account that Matthew and Luke do. No one would doubt that their statement was correct.

Possessed with devils. (See Barnes' note on Matthew 4:24).

Coming out of the tombs. Mark and Luke say that they lived in the tombs. The sepulchres of the Jews were commonly caves, beyond the walls of the cities in which they lived, or excavations made in the sides of hills, or sometimes in solid rocks.

These caves or excavations were sometimes of great extent. People descended to them by flights of steps. These graves were not in the midst of cities but in groves, mountains, and solitary places.

Therefore, they afforded retreat and shelter to mentally unwell persons and demoniacs. These individuals delighted in these gloomy and melancholy recesses, as being congenial to the wretched state of their minds.

Josephus also states that these sepulchres were the haunts and lurking-places of those desperate bands of robbers that infested Judea. (A more detailed description can be found in Barnes' note on Isaiah 64:4).