A place and people made memorable by the visit of the Lord Jesus. It was a city of Palestine, so called, perhaps, from being walled, from Cedar, surrounded or trooped in. Here it was, that Jesus met the man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs, whom no fetters nor chains could bind, and whom Jesus healed. It forms a most interesting miracle, in the account of Christ’s ministry, (See Mark v. 1 - 30.) Who can say, but that the Lord Jesus directed his steps to this very spot, purposely for the salvation ofthis poor man, and him only? For we are told, that while he sat at the feet of Jesus, (after that the Lord had dispossessed the evil spirit) clothed, and in his right mind: the Gadarenes began to pray Jesus to depart out of their coasts. What higher proofs can be needed to mark distinguishing grace! What an act of mercy had Jesus wrought, not only to the poor demoniac, but to the whole country, in delivering them from his violence and outrage, while under possession of the devil. And yet, though thus freed from allapprehension in future; the presence of Him, that by his sovereign and Almighty power, had wrought the gracious act, is painful to them. "Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways!" (Job xxi. 14.) And awful to say, but too true to be questioned, such is the language of every man’s heart by nature.
Gadarenes’. (These three names, (Gaderenes’, Gersasenes’ and Gergesenes), are used indiscriminately to designate the place where Jesus healed two demoniacs. The first two are in the Authorized Version, Mat 8:28; Mar 5:1; Luk 8:26, in Gerasenes, in place of Gadarenes.
The miracle referred to took place, without doubt, near the town of Gergesa, the modern Kersa, close by the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, and hence in the country of Gergesenes. But as Gergesa was a small village, and little known, the evangelists, who wrote for more distant readers, spoke of the event as taking place in the country of the Gadarenes, so named from its largest city, Gadara; and this country included the country of the Gergesenes as a state includes a county. The Gerasenes were the people of the district of which Gerasa was the capital. This city was better known than Gadara or Gergesa; indeed in the Roman age no city of Palestine was better known.
"It became one of the proudest cities of Syria." It was situated some 30 miles southeast of Gadara, on the borders of Peraea and a little north of the river Jabbok. It is now called Jerash and is a deserted ruin. 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. For those near by, the local name would be used; but in writing to a distant people, as the Greeks and Romans, the more comprehensive and general name would be given. -- Editor).
Gadarenes (găd’a-renez’), country of. Possibly the same as that of the Gergesenes, R. V. "Gerasenes;" Mat 8:28 R. V., but Gergesenes in A. V. Mar 5:1; Gadarenes, A. V., and so in Luk 8:26, but Gerasenes in R. V. in both passages. A region about Gadara, an important city about 6 miles south-east of the Sea of Galilee, and 16 miles from Tiberias; now called Um Keis. The town is about 1215 feet above the sea-level, on the western crest of a mountain. The tomb-caverns are very numerous, and some of them are still inhabited by the Arabs, illustrating Mat 8:28. The place of the miracle of Mat 8:28-33 has been in doubt, but it cannot be Gadara, which is too far from the lake for the herd of swine to rush into it precipitantly in one short run. Recent explorations fix it, with some certainty, about midway of the Lake of Galilee, on its eastern side and near Gerasa, or modern Kersa. Between two wadys, Semakh and Fik, which are 3 miles apart, the hills come within 40 feet of the lake, and present a steep slope, so that a herd of swine running swiftly down it would be carried on into the water. There are various readings of the name in the original text of the Gospels. The reading of Mat 8:28 was probably "Gadarenes" (as in the R. V.), which Origen changed to "Gergesenes." In Mar 5:1 the readings are "Gerasenes" or "Gadarenes;" in Luk 8:26, "Gerasenes," "Gergesenes," or "Gadarenes." The explanation is, Gadara, a chief city, is named, as better known than Gerasa or Khersa.
These are also called GERGESENES and GERASENES in the different Greek MSS. As the Sea of Galilee had various names, so had the inhabitants according as they were associated with different districts in the vicinity. The Gadarenes abode on the east of the Sea of Galilee, where the Lord cured the two demoniacs, though Mark and Luke mention but one. One of them said his name was Legion. The demons obtained permission to go into a herd of swine, which, being possessed, rushed down into the water and were drowned. Travellers have found a place in the locality which has a steep decline into the sea and which exactly answers to the details of the gospel narrative. Mat 8:28-34; Mar 5:1-20; Luk 8:26-39.
By: Executive Committee of the Editorial Board., Joseph Jacobs
Inhabitants of Gadara, known from an alleged miracle of Jesus (Matt. viii.; Mark v.; Luke viii.) in which he transferred the demons afflicting a man to a number of swine, that thereupon rushed down a steep hill and perished. 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. A discussion occurred between Professor Huxley and Mr. Gladstone in "The Nineteenth Century" for 1892 as to the morality of the act, the critical questions being whether (1) Gerasenes were Jews; and (2) if so, was it lawful for them to keep swine? As regards the first question, it would appear that that section of the country was chiefly inhabited by pagans in the first century, and Gerasa is at any rate included by Schürer among the Hellenistic cities ("Geschichte," ii. 141-144). As to the second question, there is no doubt of the illegality, from a ritual point of view, of Jews keeping swine (B. B. vii. 7). The Gemara on the passage gives a historical foundation for the practise in the times of Aristobulus.
Bibliography:
The Nineteenth Century, 1892, passim;
Cheyne, Encyc. Bibl. s.v.;
Wünsche, Neue Beiträge zur Erläuterung der Evangelien aus Talmud und Midrasch, p. 119.
GADARENES.—See Gadara.