Church Fathers Commentary Matthew 8:28-34

"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. And behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time? Now there was afar off from them a herd of many swine feeding. And the demons besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, send us away into the herd of swine. And he said unto them, Go. And they came out, and went into the swine: and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep into the sea, and perished in the waters. And they that fed them fled, and went away into the city, and told everything, and what was befallen to them that were possessed with demons. And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought [him] that he would depart from their borders." — Matthew 8:28-34 (ASV)

St. John Chrysostom: Because there were some who thought Christ was only a man, the demons came to proclaim His divinity. This was so that those who had not seen the sea raging and then becoming still might hear the demons crying out what happened when He came to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, where two men possessed by demons met Him.

Rabanus Maurus: Gerasa is a town in Arabia beyond the Jordan, close to Mount Gilead, which was in the possession of the tribe of Manasseh, not far from the Lake of Tiberias, into which the swine were thrown headlong.

St. Augustine of Hippo: While Matthew relates that there were two men afflicted with demons, Mark and Luke mention only one. You should understand that one of them was a prominent person for whom the whole country was in grief. There was great concern for his recovery, which is why the fame of this miracle spread more widely.¹

St. John Chrysostom: Alternatively, Luke and Mark chose to speak of the one who was more severely afflicted, which is why they also add a further description of his calamity. Luke says that he broke his bonds and was driven into the desert, while Mark tells that he often cut himself with stones. But neither of them says that there was only one, which would contradict Matthew.

The detail that they "came from among the tombs" alludes to the harmful opinion that the souls of the dead become demons. For this reason, many soothsayers are accustomed to killing children so that they might have their souls to cooperate with them, and demon-possessed people also often cry out, "I am the spirit of such-and-such a person." But it is not the soul of the dead man that cries out; the demon assumes his voice to deceive the listeners.

For if a dead man's soul had the power to enter another's body, it could much more easily enter its own. It is also unreasonable to suppose that a soul that has suffered cruelty would cooperate with the one who injured it, or that a person could have the power to change an incorporeal being—like a human soul—into a different kind of substance, such as that of a demon. Even with a material body, this is beyond human power; for example, no one can change a human body into the body of a donkey.

Furthermore, it is not reasonable to think that a disembodied spirit would wander to and fro on the earth. The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God (Wisdom 3:1); therefore, the souls of young children must also be, seeing they are not evil. And the souls of sinners are immediately carried away from here, as is clear from the story of Lazarus and the rich man.

Because no one dared to bring these men to Christ due to their fierceness, Christ went to them. Their fierceness is implied when the text adds they were "exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass that way." So those who prevented everyone else from passing that way now found someone standing in their way. For they were being tortured in an unseen manner, suffering intolerable things from the mere presence of Christ. And behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of David?

St. Jerome: This is not a voluntary confession that would be followed by a reward for the one who spoke, but one forced by necessity. When a runaway slave sees his master for the first time after a long while, he immediately thinks only of begging to be spared the whip. In the same way, the demons, seeing the Lord suddenly moving upon the earth, thought He had come to judge them. Some absurdly suppose that these demons knew the Son of God while the Devil did not, because their wickedness was less than his. But all the knowledge of the disciple must be assumed to be in the Master.

St. Augustine of Hippo: God was known to them only to the extent that He willed to be known, and He willed to be known only to the extent that was necessary. He was known to them, therefore, not as He is—Eternal Life and the Light that enlightens the good—but by certain temporal effects of His excellence and signs of His hidden presence, which are more visible to angelic spirits, even evil ones, than to the weakness of human nature.²

St. Jerome: But both the Devil and the demons may be said to have suspected, rather than known, that Jesus was the Son of God.

Pseudo-Augustine: When the demons cry out, "What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God?" we must suppose them to have spoken from suspicion rather than knowledge. For had they known him, they never would have suffered the Lord of glory to be crucified (1 Corinthians 2:8).³

Remigius of Auxerre: But as often as they were tortured by His excellent power and saw Him working signs and miracles, they supposed Him to be the Son of God. When they saw Him hungry, thirsty, and suffering such things, they doubted and thought Him a mere man. It should be considered that even the unbelieving Jews who said that Christ cast out demons by Beelzebub, and the Arians who said that He was a creature, deserve condemnation not only by God's sentence but also by the confession of the demons, who declare Christ to be the Son of God. They rightly say, "What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God?" which means, "Our malice and Your grace have nothing in common," according to what the Apostle says: There is no fellowship of light with darkness (2 Corinthians 6:14).

St. John Chrysostom: So that this would not be thought of as flattery, they cried out what they were experiencing: Art thou come to torment us before the time?

St. Augustine of Hippo: This was either because their torment came upon them unexpectedly—something they indeed expected but thought was more distant—or because they thought their perdition consisted in this: that once they were known, they would be despised. Or it was because this was happening before the day of judgment, when they will be punished with eternal damnation.⁴

St. Jerome: For the presence of the Savior is the torment of demons.

St. John Chrysostom: They could not say they had not sinned, because Christ had found them doing evil and damaging the workmanship of God. This is why they supposed that because of their greater wickedness, their final punishment would not wait for the day of judgment, but would come upon them sooner.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Although the words of the demons are reported differently by the three Evangelists, this presents no difficulty. For they either all convey the same meaning, or we may suppose that all the different phrases were spoken. Nor is it a problem that in Matthew they speak in the plural, while in the others they speak in the singular. For even the other two Evangelists relate that when the man was asked his name, he answered, "Legion," showing that the demons were many.⁵

Now, not far from them there was a herd of many swine feeding, and the demons begged Him, saying, If thou cast us out hence, send us into the swine.

St. Gregory the Great: For the Devil knows that by his own power he can do nothing, because he does not even exist as a spirit by his own power.⁶

Remigius of Auxerre: They did not ask to be sent into men, because they saw the One by whose excellence they were tortured existing in human form. Nor did they ask to be sent into sheep, because sheep are by God's institution clean animals and were then offered in the temple of God. Instead, they requested to be sent into the swine rather than into any other unclean animals, because the pig is the most unclean of all animals. This is why it has its Latin name porcus, as being "filthy" and delighting in filth; and demons also delight in the filth of sin. They did not pray to be sent into the air because of their eager desire to harm men.

And He said to them, Go.

St. John Chrysostom: Jesus did not say this as if He were persuaded by the demons, but with many purposes in mind. One was to show the mighty power to harm that these demons, who had possessed the two men, had. Another was so that all might see that the demons had no power even against the swine without His permission. A third was to show that they would have done more grievous harm to the men—since they hate men more than irrational animals—if the men had not been helped by Divine Providence even in their calamities.

By this it is clear that no one exists who is not supported by Divine Providence. And if all are not supported equally or in the same way, this is the highest characteristic of Providence: that it is extended to each person according to his need.

Besides the things mentioned above, we also learn that He cares not only for the whole group, but for each person in particular. One may see this clearly in these demon-possessed men, who would have been choked in the deep long ago if divine care had not preserved them. He also permitted the demons to go into the herd of swine so that those who lived in that region might know His power. For in a place where He was not known to anyone, He made His miracles shine forth, that He might bring them to a confession of His divinity.

St. Jerome: The Savior commanded them to go, not as if yielding to their request, but so that through the death of the swine, an opportunity for man's salvation might be offered.

But they went out (that is, out of the men) and went into the swine; and, behold, the whole herd rushed violently headlong into the sea, and perished in the waters.

Let the Manichaeans blush at this. If the souls of men and of beasts are of one substance and one origin, how could two thousand swine have perished for the sake of the salvation of two men?

St. John Chrysostom: The demons destroyed the swine because they are always striving to bring people into distress and they rejoice in destruction. The greatness of the loss also added to the fame of what was done, for it was publicized by many people: namely, by the men who were healed, by the owners of the swine, and by those who fed them. As it follows, But they that fed them fled, and went into the town, and told all, and concerning them that had the daemons; and, behold, the whole town went out to meet Jesus. But when they should have adored Him and wondered at His excellent power, they cast Him out, as it follows: And when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts.

Observe the mercy of Christ in His excellent power. When those who had received benefits from Him tried to drive Him away, He did not resist but departed. He left those who had pronounced themselves unworthy of His teaching, giving them as teachers the very men who had been delivered from the demons, as well as the swineherds.

St. Jerome: Alternatively, this request may have proceeded from humility as well as pride. Like Peter, they may have considered themselves unworthy of the Lord's presence: Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord (Luke 5:8).

Rabanus Maurus: Gerasa is interpreted as "casting out the dweller," or "a stranger approaching." This represents the Gentile world, which cast the Devil out from it. This world was at first far off but has now been brought near, being visited by Christ through His preachers after the resurrection.

St. Ambrose of Milan: The two demon-possessed men are also a type of the Gentile world. For Noah had three sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth—and Shem's descendants alone were taken into the inheritance of God, while from the other two sprang the nations of the Gentiles.⁷

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Thus the demons held the two men among the tombs outside the town—that is, outside the synagogue of the Law and the Prophets. In other words, they infested the original dwelling places of the two nations, the abodes of the dead, making the way of this present life dangerous to passersby.

Rabanus Maurus: It is not without reason that he speaks of them as dwelling among the tombs, for what else are the bodies of the unbelieving but tombs of the dead, in which the word of God does not dwell, but where the soul, dead in sins, is enclosed? He says, "So that no man might pass through that way," because before the coming of the Savior the Gentile world was inaccessible.

Alternatively, by the two, understand both Jews and Gentiles, who did not remain in the house—that is, they did not rest in their conscience. Instead, they dwelt in tombs—that is, they delighted in dead works and allowed no one to pass by the way of faith, a way which the Jews obstructed.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Their coming out to meet Him signifies the willingness of people flocking to the faith. The demons, seeing that there is no longer any place left for them among the Gentiles, pray that they may be allowed to dwell among the heretics. These heretics, seized by them, are drowned in the sea—that is, in worldly desires—by the promptings of the demons, and they perish in the unbelief of the rest of the Gentiles.

The Venerable Bede: Alternatively, the swine represent those who delight in filthy lifestyles; for unless one lives like a swine, the devils do not receive power over him, or at most, only to test him, not to destroy him. That the swine were sent headlong into the lake signifies that even when the people of the Gentiles are delivered from the condemnation of the demons, those who still will not believe in Christ perform their profane rites in secret, drowned in a blind and deep curiosity.

That those who fed the swine fled and told what was done signifies that even the leaders of the wicked, though they shun the law of Christianity, do not cease to proclaim the wonderful power of Christ. When, struck with terror, they entreat Him to depart from them, they signify a great number of people who, well satisfied with their old way of life, show themselves willing to honor the Christian law while at the same time declaring themselves unable to follow it.⁸

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Alternatively, the town is a type of the Jewish nation, which, having heard of Christ's works, goes out to meet its Lord to forbid Him from approaching their country and town, for they have not received the Gospel.

1. De. Cons. Evan., ii, 24
2. City of God, book 9, ch. 21
3. Quaest. V. et. N.T., 9, 55
4. City of God, book 8, ch. 23
5. De Cons. Evan., ii, 24
6. Mor., ii, 10
7. Ambrosiaster, in Luc. 3. 30
8. Luc., 3