there was never a prophecy that the kosher laws would be removed, so the verse is coming completely from left field. And if he missed one, he didnt do it perfectly. And sadly, neither of the two Johns considered Gods extreme love for His Creation when giving their interpretations. He is utterly sovereign. (Matthew 8:28; Mark 5:1; Luke 8:26) In Gerasenes in place of Gadarenes. 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. They are unclean for you. (So much for those latter revelations or new religions arriving centuries later.). The Messiah gave every Jew there that day a glimpse of the judgement to come. In, David was a good example of what Jesus meant by , 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. The main reason God limits righteous people to a select group of clean/pure animals is for the purpose of holiness. Theyre written as factual history. Scripture makes it clear that Ashers tribal land-boundary ended around the coastal city of Tyre (Joshua 19:29). Peter, the thick-headed captain of the Tedious Twelve, needed a hammer of a vision to get it across to him that Gentiles not ham and back bacon are clean and Jews could fellowship with them. And His promise to make a new promise (covenant) with Israel and with Judah in Jeremiah 31:31-32 does not repeal the first promise (the covenant that Israel broke), it strengthens it. However, the pastors assumptions are perplexing. Gerasa was a city situated near the Jabbok River about eighteen m. E of the Jordan, about twenty m. SE of Pella, and twenty m. N of Philadelphia. He also makes excursions into Gentile territory, such as when he exorcizes the Gerasene/Gadarene demoniac (Mark 5:1-20). While animal-abuse cases arent normally rampant among church-goers, its no thanks to this bishops official policy. God designated the descendants of Abraham, the Israelites, as His chosen people. That's even more unexpected than not being angry because in Paul's case, it was the other way around. Sproul writes in his commentary Mark that the compassion of Jesus "drove Him to destroy the pigs for the sake of one human life. Lots of non-Jews lived there. Bibliography W. A. Thomson, The Land and the Book (1882), 333-338, 353, 359; C. H. Kraeling, Gerasa, City of the Decapolis (1938); The Westminster Historical Atlas to the Bible (1946), 64, 117; M. F. Unger, Archaeology and the NT (1962), 139-141; E. Lohmeyer, Das Evangelium des Markus (1963), 93f; C. F. Pfeiffer, The Biblical World (1966), 252-254. I asked him how could it be that Jesus carried on an intelligent, protracted, two-way conversation with an illness after the illness was excised out of the man. And based roughly on current prices, Jesus caused hundred of thousands of dollars in damages. But are these good pastors on the right track? A wonderful verse that reveals Him to us and probably the most heartwarming is the commandment in the Torah that mother animals are allowed to stay with their newborns for at least seven days before the offspring can be taken for food or for sacrifice (Exodus 22:30; Leviticus 22:27). 7 ) The pigs werent for eating. There's nothing that they can do to restrain His mighty arm. Even city officials who were Pauls friends were scared for Pauls life (Acts 19:31). He specifically banned pig in. There he meets a man seized with an unclean spirit (Mark) or with demons (Luke). View our current career opportunities. Such a pat answer to such a serious question is as irritating as it is ridiculous. If Paul got himself into hot water because of a Gentile speculating about declining silver sales, how could Jesus have avoided a ton of hot water for killing hundreds of Gentile-owned swine? Lastly, based on culture, human-nature and most importantly, on specific Scripture passages, we know the demoniac could not have been a Gentile but was most assuredly Jewish, living in a Jewish town surrounded by Jewish-owned pigs. Jesus then asked him, What is your name? And he said, Legion, for many demons had entered him. Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. Instead of recklessly freeing the doves into the air (as erroneously shown in The Jesus Film and other Bible movies), Scripture records with precise detail that Jesus only knocked over the chairs of the pigeon owners, and/or told them to take their feathered property and leave (Matthew 21:12; Mark 11:15; John 2:16) he didnt use his whip on the birds or fling them into the air to be attacked by falcons or eagles. Such a statement is irresponsible because the Law was not written for a single person. Gods Law even has two commands that equate domestic livestock with wild animals. When Jesus and his disciples landed on the other side, it was in a region known as the Gerasenes, Gentile territory. In retaliation for the massacre of the Jews at Caesarea, the Jews sent several raiding parties into the Gentile cities of the Decapolis. Note: Demetrius was angry only because of speculation of what Pauls preaching might do to business Paul had not physically caused any damage. Paul talked about going to Spain in Rom 15:24-28, so part of this is certainly within the realm of possibilities. The Syrians made reprisals, and took many prisoners. It's in Luke chapter 8, verse 18. Lets use his recording to the event as our jumping off point: Every Bible passage is either a historical narrative piece (such as the one we just read), a legal and/or procedural document (the majority of the Five Books of Moses), or it is a poetic passage (like Psalms, Proverbs and much of the Prophets). GotQuestions has three articles alone on the subject: here is their best. 2023. Coincidentally, three Gentiles showed up for lunch, and the following day, he met a Roman convert when finally Peter figured it out and declared the Lords view of Gentile believers, But God has shown me that I should not call ritually impure or defiling any man (Acts 10:28). (Jos. e. When they ask Jesus to leave, he does so without any objection; Jesus ministry will not be imposed on those unwilling to receive it. In fact, they beg Jesus to leave. The modern village Jarash is situated on the hillside above the ruins, built with stones from the ruins. They need to face the cracks in their theologies. When Jesus said, A new commandment I give unto you (John 13:34), he instantly had the undivided attention of the Tedious Twelve disciples because they knew changing the Law was forbidden. We ask that You would open our eyes to behold wonderful things in it and open our ears, we pray, to hear Your Word rightly. 10 ) It was the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee, the area of the Decapolis. But it struck me as interesting that Bertrand Russell had the exact same reaction to this miracle that the people of the Gerasenes had. He said, If you love me, keep my commandments (John 14:15). And guess what this week's focus is on? In actual fact, when you stop to think about it, If our faithful, unchanging Heavenly Father God made a straightforward decisive yet divisive decision and repeated it, Fourth Fact: Gods Enduring, Unchangeable Word, As was just so elegantly discussed, the destruction of the herd, Your word, O LORD, is everlasting; it is firmly fixed in the heavens. If the Eternal One, blessed be He, had said just once that pork was unclean and forbidden, that should be enough. viii. I cannot offer you a proof-text for this observation. Furthermore, how upset must God get seeing a doctor reach into the womb of a mother and murder her unborn child? That was a very large farming operation, even by the modern European and North American standards of today which typically do not have such giant herds. Was He asking us the impossible because He had nothing better to do or is He sadistic? It's back just a few verses, the answer is back just a few verses. When Jesus said that he had not came to destroy the Law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17), he was not talking to the Jews who already knew the Law was permanent, he was looking into future centuries and talking to those Christians who would try to destroy it. Sinai. Herod had massive building projects all over Israel. Christ's journey into "the country of the Gerasenes" (Mark 5:1) was somewhat unusual. This leads the third observation: just as the disciples had been terrified by both the storm and Jesus calming of it on the way over to the Gerasenes, the local people here respond with fear. Our ways are not as Thine. WebThe Gerasenes were the people of the district of which Gerasa was the capital. Learn a new word every day. He showed mercy to the men who were possessed and brought judgement on the pig farmers. The story is about the power of Jesus and, even his name, to rid humans of demons and also to show that his power was for Gentiles as well. 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. Thats the exodus that Israel needs. That is how valuable human life is." If you eat a swine/hog that has killed eaten a poisonous snake and you eat that hog, you will be poisoned and die. But John is more precise, saying none should add or remove words. The power of the Lord Jesus Christ over Satan. Not that I believe my case has holes. War III. So he's drawing our attention to an extraordinary event, but the reason he's drawing our attention to that extraordinary event is because there are actually truths which transfer across the last 2,000 years, right to where we are today, that we are to learn out of this passage. Its odd that dispensationalist preachers dont preach this obvious, permanent truth. Therefore, when it came to sacrifices on it, the menu was even shorter. So instead of working or hammering away at the embarrassing elephant in the room, the good pastors spoon out interpretations to us that are not biblical, or dish up corny one-liners, all in the hope that well swallow them or be too busy laughing to connect the dots ourselves. I wonder why?). 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. He wouldnt have lived long enough to get to a cross to die. They ask Him if they can enter some nearby pigs, and He lets them. noted the official establishment of Christianity and discontinuance of pagan worship in the 5th cent. So why did the meek n merciful Son of Man cast countless defiling demons into two thousand piglets, sows and boars? 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. These demons of the Gadarene Demoniac wanted to stay in this territory where worship of Baal was predominant. And Jews are forbidden by God and His eternal commands to own pigs. neither the four Greek words, nor any idea similar to them, are ever repeated in Scripture, whereas the destruction of the swine herd is thrice-repeated and uses a few more than four words. }. From the readings of the best texts and from the unsuitability of the locality around Gadara it appears that the proper reading should be "Gerasenes" and the place located at Karsa, on the left bank of the Wadi Samak, near the sea of Galilee. The fact anyone dreamed up dispensationalism, They say, None, but Jesus, kept the Law perfectly. Is there actually a real reason why the Gospel accounts shouldnt be taken as factual history? That is the exact opposite of other godly men (compare with 1 Samuel 24:24 and 1 Chronicles 21:24). Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, [Let me just pause right there. The tricky bit is finding the correct reason why gentle Jesus dumped hundreds of murderous, unclean spirits on so many swine. Sadly, the rest of the verse is not quoted in GotQuestions best article and preachers rarely preach it, though it reveals more about the true character of the Messiah. Apparently Gerasa was rebuilt by the Romans before the revolt began, prob. And was the Master doing the right thing sacrificing someone elses pigs. Demons do not care about the person they possess hence all the cutting and harm the man did to himself. His sermon should have given us some point, some excuse, or some logical explanation for it all. He is the freest man in the world. But today, if you said to anybody, Tiger Woods is a slave to his desires, they would recognize it. War IV. (Cf. And he sends out his representative, a man who is known only as the Lieutenant of the Tower of Barad-dr, the black gate. I think so. Do not add upon it and do not reduce it. Now, if a Jew can be treated so badly by fellow Jews, lets put on our thinking caps and imagine what happens to a Jew walking straight into a big group of Gentiles. *sigh*). Jewish rabbis, when interpreting the Word of God, follow an important principle: no word in Gods Word is superfluous or pointless. His fellow citizens tried to restrain him in chains a horrible way to treat mental illness, by the way but he always broke free. In other words, they believe the one who killed the pigs with the demons is equal to the Father. Plus, when Jesus chased the sellers out of the Temple courts (Matthew 21:12-13; Mark 11:12-19; Luke 19:45-48; John 12:13-16), there is a small, but wonderful, detail that is in complete harmony with Matthew 10:29. --ED.). These pastors have, Look at the prophets; they also prove Scripture doesnt change. Why doesn't the good pastor entertain that avenue of possibility or is he too busy making one-liners to connect any dots? Since demons are by most accounts fallen angels to begin with, they already know to Whom they are ultimately accountable. Now you understand what sitting at the Savior's feet means? SO Jesu said later in the NT, that meats going in the mouth does not defile because we excrete it out in the draught, solid and liquids, so physically our body cleans itself if there were toxins, and It is whatever comes out of the mind, is what taints a person, whatever he or she thinks. Test your knowledge - and maybe learn something along the way. Wipf & Stock Publishers. This city was better known than Gadara or Gergesa; indeed in the Roman age no city of Palestine was better known. They sailed to the country of the Gerasenes which is opposite Galilee. Theories of men that attack statements made by God evolution for example are sadly creeping into the minds of Christian leaders. Unfortunately, Pastor John is not alone, joking at the expense of this tragedy. The story of the Gerasene demoniac thereby foreshadows the mission to the Gentiles that would begin in full force with the conversion of the Apostle Paul and Peter's ministry to Cornelius (Acts 910). iii. 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. Wasnt this just a temporary fix to a bigger problem? During the time of Christ, the ten cities of Decapolis and the surrounding region were inhabited mostly by Gentiles, not Jews, and the area had a strong Greek influence. Delivered to your inbox! After stilling the storm while crossing the Sea of Galilee, Jesus lands with his disciples on the eastern shore of the lake. Therefore, if Paul had taken a single silver goddess Diana doll and tossed it into the Aegean Sea, what kind of a hornets nest of trouble would the apostle have stirred up for himself? He's no longer under the domination of demons or his own sin. Note that Jesus never touched the demon-inhabited individual: He merely spoke to him, commanding the evil to depart. Who were the gerasenes in the bible? Other than that my friends, I don't know. This was a Gentile town so they had pigs. The church fathers treated them as literal history. Deuteronomy 4 and 12 only state that none should add or remove what Moses was commanding, which sounds a little nebulous. In Luke 4 and 5, great multitudes are following Jesus Christ when He does His miracles. He should know that centuries before the prophet Isaiah spoke against Jews eating pork and hanging around in tombs. Gadara). Money Maker Software is compatible with AmiBroker, MetaStock, Ninja Trader & MetaTrader 4. Worse yet, dont trust one who says Scripture evolves. It's a picture of His great commission outreach, not just to Jews but to Gentiles also. Gergesa is located, with relative certainty, midway along the E bank of the Sea of Galilee; Gadara is six m. SE from the S end of the Sea of Galilee; and Gerasa is some thirty-five m. SE. 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.