were the gerasenes gentiles

And thirdly, they are forgetting the fate of this man with an immortal soul who was in danger not only of a continuous life of torment, but an eternal separation from God. Such alternative readings include arguments that the swine were meant to represent the Roman army or "unclean and unfaithful" people; that pigs were considered "unclean", so destroying them might be consistent with care for other animals; and that Jesus did not actually "send" the devils into the pigs. An inscr. Its totally contrary to what we would expect. The miracles that are recorded here, just like the one that we saw last week, are seen by that small circle of disciples that is following Jesus around. But when Jesus explained that the commandment was the old one from Leviticus, Love one another, they signed with relief, seeing how he was just underscoring the command that God already gave (Leviticus 19:18). The Syrians made reprisals, and took many prisoners. In any event, the apparent differences in the texts prob. It isnt a long list. Now I must say that that really boggles my mind because Luke's main point is so crystal clear and it's set in the context of three other stories that are crystal clear. And the thing that I love the most is the utter contrast in his attitude toward the Lord Jesus Christ. 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. I want you to see a person in the thrall of sin. were badly damaged in major He specifically banned pig in. Ive not heard that theory before. He was Jewish and tragically lost. 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. I would have wanted a herd of swine had I been an Israelite in the desert. WebThe Gadarenes was the place where Jesus confronted a man whose possession by demons gave him a level of superhuman strength like Samson (Mark 5:3 - 5, Luke 8:27). They need to face the cracks in their theologies. Echoes of Exodus in the Land of theGerasenes, Wesleys Eschatological Optimism Explains itAll, The Prophet in the Hometown A Pilgrim in Augsburg, The Methodist Million Dollar Appeal in World WarII. In other words, to paraphrase what Gertrude told Hamlet, Methinks the good pastor doth protest too much. Therefore, as we have seen from the Deuteronomy and Revelation, and Jesuss own words, he was not allowed to adjust the Law of God and he had no intention of doing so. But now this is an extraordinary case. But it struck me as interesting that Bertrand Russell had the exact same reaction to this miracle that the people of the Gerasenes had. We use cookies to provide you with a great user experience. Gods Word has to agree with Gods Word. Because of his righteousness and his love for God, Peter and Andrew and John and thousands more loved Jesus and followed him. Jesus came to teach a better way of life that you could have abundantly! And Christ went sadly.He had wrought for them a signOf Love, and Hope, and Tenderness divine;They wantedswine.Christ stands without _your_ door and gently knocks;But if your gold, or swine, the entrance blocks,He forces no man's holdhe will depart,And leave you to the treasures of your heart. Third, I want you to see the change that results in this man after he is not only liberated from these demons, but after he clearly, because of a change of heart, becomes a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead, his conscious act of casting the demons into the swine resulted in the entire herds destruction. No one cares where he sleeps when hes busy trying to keep himself from killing himself. As for Matthew, he quoted Jesus as commanding the demons, and used the plural form of the verb, go. JESUS DIDNT SEND THE DEMONS INTO THE DEEP; I would think that it shows that demons would enter anything that could be unclean including a human being. And her addition to Gods commandment led to her disobedience and to Adams, and then God added some amazing plagues to mankind, just as John says (Revelation 22:18) will happen to those who add to His Word (and not just the book of Revelation). The man howled day and night and cut himself with stones. The vision stumped the poor apostle; clearly, Peter forgot about the amazing four Greek words of Mark 7:19b. And were you aware that the New Testament repeats the same two commands from Deuteronomy? That is, they appear contrary, except for one thing: Gods Law forbids righteous people from eating pork. Also, wouldnt that be a type of sin and another example of how he may not have perfectly kept the Law? Next, what if our imaginary Jew damaged a ton of Gentile property under their very noses. there was never a prophecy that the kosher laws would be removed, so the verse is coming completely from left field. That amazing phrase, all of you be holy for I am holy did not start with Peter (1 Peter 1:16), because the apostle is quoting Leviticus. Thats the exodus that Israel needs. This was a Gentile town so they had pigs. Pastor MacArthur would do well to learn from his Jewish counterparts. Test your knowledge - and maybe learn something along the way. And there's a lesson in each of these things for all of us. The Greeks were believers in the spirit Since demons are by most accounts fallen angels to begin with, they already know to Whom they are ultimately accountable. Go be a witness to Me as My disciple.. A may also be a combination of two or more genres. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. They ask Him if they can enter some nearby pigs, and He lets them. To run Money Maker Software properly, Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 or higher version is required. It may well be a picture of the reverse of what happened in the Garden of Eden. This now then is our fifth fact in a nutshell. We should ask the good pastors if love thy neighbour as thyself has any bearing on killing your neighbours livestock. Gerasa. We usually think of Jesus as the loving, forgiving guy from Galilee, right? iii. The best text in Matthew reads Gadarenes, in Mark and Luke it reads Gerasenes, whereas some MSS preserve Gergesenes and Gergustenes (cf. 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. And Jews are forbidden by God and His eternal commands to own pigs. Was it correct to destroy so many for just one (or two men). And if I remember correctly, I think there is some tradition about other Apostles going to Spain. * And if one doesnt believe demons exist ..same question: why invent a false story to make the point that Jesus has power over demonic creatures that dont exist? Lastly, even if Mr. Pipers explanation were true, look what its application could mean. Christ's primary focus was on "the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt. He was constrained to act just like the other prophets before him. Suddenly, Mark 5 is clear. It's His person and His power that we're having our attention draw to and there are four things in particular that I want you to see in this passage. So lets have an exquisite examination of Scripture to better appreciate what happened beside the lake and why the pigs ended up in it. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts. The demons sent the pigs off the banks of the sea and into the water, where they drowned (Mark 5:1213). Archeology. It was a leading city of Syria in commerce, culture, and religion. Just as God defeated Pharaohs army at the Red Sea, so Jesus defeats Satans army in the land of the Gerasenes. Webwere the gerasenes gentiles. But it was what they loved and they preferred it to everlasting blessing in Jesus Christ. Some will respond to my rhetorical question, Why on earth would Jesus come to earth, by giving me the usual pat answer, None can keep the nasty old Law, so Jesus came to fulfill it perfectly, and now I dont have to do anything, at all, whatsoever, just believe, hallelujah! 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). For our Creator, one lost person saved is worth the death of many animals. Well Ill explain that too, later on. While foretelling death and doom was often, Fifth Fact: The True Author(s) of Scripture. 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. A city in Transjordania, situated about thirty-five m. SE of the S end of the [[Sea of Galilee]], one of the cities of the Decapolis; the Not that I believe my case has holes. Instead they joke around and give pat answers. In his description of the boundaries of Perea, Josephus mentions Gerasa as one of the cities on the eastern boundary between Perea and Arabia, the other border cities being Philadelphia and Sebonitus (Jos. Jun 21, 2021. But the height of ignorance, the most foolhardy statement is, Jesus fulfilled the whole Law so we dont have to. Only a person who knows absolutely zero about Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy would say such a thing. Now not only did the Jewish people not eat bacon, and not only were they forbidden by Moses to eat bacon, but they were not allowed to raise bacon even to sell it to the Gentiles. But John is more precise, saying none should add or remove words. That is how valuable human life is." Wasnt this just a temporary fix to a bigger problem? WebThe terrified Gerasenes beseeching Jesus to leave them. A great deal of the Law applies only to priests (Leviticus 6:3) and to Levites (Numbers 7:9), so how could Jesus, of the tribe of Judah, keep one of those commandments? Last week we said the focus was on the power and the person of Jesus Christ. That is all I know. Now I want to say very quickly, my friends, that there is no power in this universe that can cause a rationale being to sin. It was part of the Greco-Roman region known as the Decapolis, or ten towns. It was Gentile territory, the land of foreign gods, a place of idolatry. These forces plundered Gerasa, Philadelphia, Pella, and others (Jos. Am I forgiven by saying, I just, The Land of Israel is/was no place for two thousand pigs. Does he really believe Mark 5 is Biblical material just for laughs? This page from an Orthodox website partially shows how Judaism views their responsibility. Plus, these additions by John connect back to other passages in interesting ways. He used another pseudonym, Julian Ross. 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. founders day speech by students were the gerasenes gentiles. His sermon should have given us some point, some excuse, or some logical explanation for it all. I say that Christians have turned Jews off because church-goers claim Jesus destroyed the Law and that Jews are blind for following the Law of Moses still. Their dead bodies you must not touch. Gergesa (). Answer: the impurity of the swine. Doesnt Pastor MacArthur know his Bible? 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. Thus, in him, God found a man after His own heart (1 Samuel 13:14 and 1 Samuel 16:1). Isnt this what hes paid for? He was possessed of extraordinary strength but he was aware that there was a man of God in his presence. Sinai. Yet this is exactly what Christians believe; Jesus came to fulfill (but think annul) the Law and then start a whole new religion. Seven Forgotten Facts clarify our interpretation, One possible reason the Son of David chose the pigs was that he had, 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. It deeply disturbed Bertrand Russell that Jesus allowed a herd of two thousand pigs to be destroyed. But as for God, what reason did He give Mr. Merciless for not destroying Nineveh? = He's a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ now. Show us the only hope of deliverance from those sins and teach us these things from this passage. Somewhere I read that that region actually raised pigs and worshipped them or considered them as idols so study about the region and style of worship for that region. Systems of Transliteration Citation of Proper Names. 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. Of course not. 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. Start your free trial today and get unlimited access to America's largest dictionary, with: Gerasene. Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Gerasene. But let me just suggest that one thing that might be happening here is a picture of Jesus future judgment on the demonic forces that are arrayed against God. The Law of God states that the Sabbath is a day of rest for all livestock (Deuteronomy 5:14). Search the web and you will find many opinions about why the pigs died. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.". WebGERASA, GERASENES (, ). borrowed from Anglo-French, borrowed from Medieval Latin galilea, probably after Galilea, Galilaea galilee, from a monastic and clerical comparison of the church porch, where the laity gathered, to biblical Galilee, regarded, in opposition to Judaea, as a country of Gentiles (as in Matthew 4:15) Furthermore, how upset must God get seeing a doctor reach into the womb of a mother and murder her unborn child? And because these repeated commands are at the end of the Christian Bible, but the original commands are at the beginning of the Hebrew Bible, we get the impression that no new commands are allowed in the whole of Scripture, and no more books either. Yet a complete interpretation of Mark 5 needs to clear up one last point: the pigs were forbidden but did they have to be destroyed? And what about trees or rocks? We have seen that God Almighty loves animals as much as humans, so Jesus randomly killing two thousand swine seems senseless, unless we remember God has commanded righteous people to avoid defiling food, such as pork. HDB, II, p. 158, 159 for a detailed description.). And John nicely parallels Jesus who said, not the smallest letter nor the smallest comma will pass away from the Law (Matthew 5:18). 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.

. For these reasons, the writers of the gospels gave no explanation and the Twelve asked no question about why Jesus destroyed all the swine. We do not find demons under every pew and under every rock. Besides the jokes being in poor taste, they make his sermon seem less than professional. 1), and apparently occupied these cities with Jewish patriots. At the end of the gospel, however, Jesus tactic changes. So whats the point because Pastor John Piper feels the pigs were less important and John LOL MacArthur just jokes about the slaughter neither reaction seems sensible. There was a logic in this. 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. This means that these miracles are especially meant to teach believers something. David ran after the lion that had grabbed his sheep and with just his staff, and his wits, he forced the lion to drop it. Did you know that one of the 7 ingredients in underwater concrete was animal blood? Ill take Mark at his word; hes thinking of an army of demons, not an army of human soldiers. Am I forgiven by saying, I just allowed the kids to have the grenade? 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. Still, Jesus was not in Gadarenes for judging; he was there for mercy and for judgement. And at the end of the passage, look how he is described. The power and the person of Jesus Christ. Now the big-mouth irking this Greek artisan was our good friend, the Apostle Paul. Now it's not a very profound book. "It became one of the proudest cities of Syria." And the only real bargaining chip according to this interpretation was offering them the two thousand big pink chips. I beg you, do not torment me. And then the demons beg not to be cast into the abyss. And so the demons call out His name Jesus, the Son of the Most High God and it has no effect on Him. For these reasons, the writers of the gospels gave no explanation and the Twelve asked no question about why Jesus destroyed all the swine. (For many a time it had seized him. WebWhy were there pigs in gerasenes? (This sad fact may have something to do with Christians telling Jews to junk the Law which they love and to just believe and receive.) Neither common sense, nor the text, let Jesus off the hook. Are you seeing this? Secondly, I want you to look at the Lord Jesus Christ Himself because His power over Satan is on display full force in this passage. Many year later, Messiah went to Israel as a prophet to get the people of Israel back to his Law. So now they don't even bother to read it.]. So why were these pig owners on the east side of the lake afraid? Remember that the Law reveals to us the mind and personality of God. Basically, a vision told Peter three times to eat defiling animal meat (at least that was how it seemed to him) so Peter logically replied that he had never eaten anything , Once more, we have half of an unclear verse, that people use to make up a, Gods Word has to agree with Gods Word. 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. 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. Only this interpretation explains the farmers restrained reaction over the slaughter of the swine, and their tremendous terror of the Messiah. Demonic forces seem to be territorial; i.e., they have assigned areas of domain. Learn a new word every day. Archeologists identify it with the modern Jarash. That is exactly what is happening here. Yet being part of the Godhead means Messiah cannot not flip-flop his opinions. Compared to the accounts of the same event in Matthew and Luke also written in simple narrative prose some details vary. Either way, dispensational charts ultimately commit both acts against the Word of God. To all of you who have been liberated from the captivity of your sin by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, receive God's blessing. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.) It's a glorious picture of Jesus love for lost souls, even a Gentile. To top it off, Jesuss farmers see Jesus and see their property floating belly up in the surf, but they dont throw him after them!

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