Additionally, it would have been foolish for the Apostles to claim hundreds and thousands of witnesses (1 Cor 15:1-6). And so this man comes to Jesus, he seeks Him out, and Jesus says to him, What is your name? And the man doesn't know his name. Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
were the gerasenes gentiles Reading the Word of God is wonderful. 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. ; Mark v.; Luke viii.) (Quite likely David would have let the lion and the bear free, if not for the fact that they came back at him: 2 Samuel 17:35). What about cattle? viii. My research shows swine kill poisonous snakes. Was He asking us the impossible because He had nothing better to do or is He sadistic? 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, The good pastor John MacArthur assumes in his video, [I stretch my hand out to the Jews] who sit by the graves and lodge over night in the tombs, who eat the flesh of pigs and the broth of corrupted meat from their pots. Last Update: Jan 03, 2023 Out of the three, Marks gospel presents the most information about the herd. And because they did not hear Him, they lost even what they had. Am I forgiven by saying, I just, The Land of Israel is/was no place for two thousand pigs. Fear and selfishness prompted the prayer. Its not possible for either of them to change, and therefore, inconceivable that Jesus would modify one iota of what he helped write. So many beautiful verses and motivating passages are in Scripture. Theories of men that attack statements made by God evolution for example are sadly creeping into the minds of Christian leaders. There was a logic in this. The good pastor John MacArthur assumes in his video Dominating Powers, Part 2 (Mark 5:1-20), that Jesus must have been in Gentile territory because, as everyone knows, Jewish men and women dont hang around tombs even if they are demon possessed! Paul talked about going to Spain in Rom 15:24-28, so part of this is certainly within the realm of possibilities. This picking and choosing is completely unbiblical. Indeed, some believe that Jesuss single option was to let Legion loose on the animals. In any event, the apparent differences in the texts prob. It's not every day that you meet someone inhabited by a host of demons, but every time you meet a Christ-less soul, you meet someone who is utterly captive to sin. Those people were Jews in Nazareth. Why? As for Matthew, he quoted Jesus as commanding the demons, and used the plural form of the verb, go. Oh, you mean THOSE pigs!! What's going on here? Ptolemy says Gerasa was a city in Coele-Syria, thirty-five travel m. from Pella. Instead they joke around and give pat answers. So these four miracles show Jesus reaching out to Gentiles, either in Galilee or even in even more Gentile territory across the river. Now the big-mouth irking this Greek artisan was our good friend, the Apostle Paul. He is the dividing line here. Yet they tried to throw one of their own off a cliff (, 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. 2 And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. In a recent online essay on the Gospel of Mark, Peter Leithart wrote. 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. 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). Surely He could have demonstrated real power over real demons, right? All you need to know right now, if youre interested in that I'm happy to talk about it until the cows come home, but all you need to know is each of those places the regions of the Gergesenes, the Gadarenes, and the Gerasenes it's all on the other side of the Lake of Galilee.
Gergesa - Wikipedia What care we for his soul?What good to us that Thou hast made him whole,Since we have lost our swine? The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with Him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you. And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.. Fourthly, Jesus specifically went to the land of the Gentile Gadarenes or Gerasenes, east of the Sea of Galilee, to minister to them. Later, Leviticus 11 explains to His Chosen People that He had chosen only ritually clean/pure animals for them to eat. They even allowed themselves to go ballistic on the Sabbath, which shows how angry they really were. 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, Yet a complete interpretation of Mark 5 needs to clear up one last point: the pigs were forbidden but did they, Christ kept kosher and cleaned up the town, I can of Myself do nothing. I cannot offer you a proof-text for this observation. Also, any every person who wants to please God is forbidden the heartless act of boiling a calf in its mothers milk (Exodus 23:19; Exodus 34:26; Deuteronomy 14:21), as well as the abominable practice of cutting and eating the leg of a live animal, only to leave the poor creature hobbling around with its three remaining legs (Deuteronomy 12:23; explanation). I could have come up with better arguments against Christianity than Bertrand Russell, but in the course of this book in one of the chapters, he says it is this story that led him to the conclusion that Jesus was neither the best nor the most virtuous of men. Or are we with those who love what we want and what we have more than we love the Word of life from the only One who can give life? viii. Many of you have seen, maybe fewer of you have read, a book by the famous British philosopher and skeptic, Bertrand Russell.
biblegateway.com 8:513) and the Syrophoenician woman whose daughter was possessed (Mark 7:2430), the Jews received the bulk of His attention, and He spent most of His time in the predominantly Jewish regions of Galilee and Judea. The action is no different than Revelation 14:14-15 where we see the Son of Man brandishing a sharp sickle. Jesus enters enemy territory in two ways. Anyway, it was the demons that would have decided where, and if, he slept. 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 (, All of these commandments and more are still taken literally by many Jews today. But MacArthurs logical is funny for another reason. get to know the Bible better! This man, when Jesus says, What is your name? effectively says, I do not know my name. 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. Some will respond to my rhetorical question, Why on earth would Jesus come to earth, by giving me the usual pat answer. If you have your Bibles I'd invite you to turn with me to Luke chapter 8 and this great story of the man who was possessed by demons, liberated by the Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps a tenth, or a quarter, or a half of the 613 commandments were fulfilled by Jesus, but not all. Three witnesses! Luke doesn't think that it's an every day occurrence for a person to be possessed by a host of demons. The stories in the gospels may or may not have happened but, regardless, they are told in a way that makes a theological point and were never intended to be understood as factual history. When Jesus and his disciples landed on the other side, it was in a region known as the Gerasenes, Gentile territory. The next allusion to Gerasa concerns its capture during Vespasians campaign. 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. Worse yet, dont trust one who says Scripture evolves. He's a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ now. Pastor MacArthur would do well to learn from his Jewish counterparts. They sailed to the country of the Gerasenes which is opposite Galilee. He was constrained to act just like the other prophets before him. WebMany New Testament manuscripts refer to the "Country of the Gadarenes" or "Gerasenes" rather than. 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. This, Also, this study shows that Jesuss actions in Mark 5 were on the surface contrary to the deep-rooted Jewish respect for domestic and/or wild animals. 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 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. We "are of more value than many sparrows" (Matt. Every place the Master went on his travels it was to minister to a Jew, just as Paul said, To the Jew first (Romans 1:16 and Romans 2:9-10; ever notice that the New Testament never mentions Christians, just Jews and Gentiles?! And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. 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. He's set free. But we should never get too smug, thinking that we have corned the market on truth.
Did Jesus Heal and Preach to Only Jews? No! - NCR : A similar remark came from Mosess lips when he described God as eternally faithful and then connected Gods faithfulness to His faithful love. Ha, ha.. yeah lemme ummm.. tell ya about those pigs.., 2 ) Like any rational redneck, they smelled their Gentile neighbors having a pork BBQ and said DAAAANG, Hoss! Wnsche, Neue Beitrge zur Erluterung der Evangelien aus Talmud und Midrasch, p. 119. For less than $5/mo. His fellow citizens tried to restrain him in chains a horrible way to treat mental illness, by the way but he always broke free. The church fathers treated them as literal history. Tyre and Sidon were Gentile cities north of Israel, and Jesus had been sent to the Jews ( Matthew 15:24 ). Ruins of the temple of Artemis, some columns still standing, are on another hillside above the ruins. ITS LIKE THE WITCH ON TGE WIZARD OF OZ (Matt 15:24). 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. And he is sent out to negotiate with Aragorn and Gandalf, and the others. Demons, Jesus, and the Pigs The Outlaw Bible Student, http://www.linearconcepts.com/archives/2011. 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). He's been set free by Jesus.
Definition of Gadarenes (Gergesenes) in the Bible - Bible The normally merciful Messiah destroyed the pigs in accordance with Gods Law about clean and unclean meat. The modern village Jarash is situated on the hillside above the ruins, built with stones from the ruins. Here, it may well be that a herd of unclean animals has been used to take thousands of demons to their doom in the lake in anticipation of the final judgment. 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. and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea. Post the Definition of Gerasene to Facebook, Share the Definition of Gerasene on Twitter, More than 250,000 words that aren't in our free dictionary, Expanded definitions, etymologies, and usage notes. Also, Orthodox Jews see a clear connection between Deuteronomy 12:32, do not add, and what happened in the Garden of Eden. The gospels. And Luke intends this to be a display of an extraordinary case. Jesus is saying that Jesuss commandments are the same as the Fathers. (Pastor Piper was right after all, almost!)
The Man Jesus Renamed | Reformed Theological Seminary And this identical detail was written down in three different texts to remind us of the Son of Mans normally tender nature. If you eat a swine/hog that has killed eaten a poisonous snake and you eat that hog, you will be poisoned and die. All of these commandments and more are still taken literally by many Jews today. She needs someone strong enough to cast a legion of demons into the sea, like Pharaoh and his hosts. 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).