(27) And ware no clothes.--The English is stronger than the Greek warrants. Better, wore no cloak, or outer garment. (Comp. Note on Matthew 5:40.) Singularly enough, St. Luke is the only Evangelist who mentions this fact. It is as though he had taken pains to inquire whether this case of frenzied insanity had presented the phenomenon with which his experience as a physician had made him familiar in others.
Verse 27. - There met him out of the city a certain man; better rendered, there met him a man of the city. He had been a dweller in Gergesa in old days before the terrible possession began. St. Matthew, in his account, tells us of two demoniacs. SS, Mark and Luke, however, both only mention one, the other for some reason or other had passed out of their thoughts - possibly the malady was much less severe, and the strange dialogue and its results had not taken place in his case. Which had devils long time; better, daemons (daimonia). One of the current Jewish traditions was that these evil spirits were not fallen angels, but the spirits of wicked men who were dead (see Josephus, 'Bell. Jud.,' 7:06. 3). The plural form "devils" - bitterly referred to later by the sufferer, when he was asked his name - seems in his case to speak of a very aggravated form of the awful malady. And ware no clothes, neither abode in anyhouse. These were no uncommon features of the soul-malady - the horror at any bodily restraint, either connected with clothes or dwellings; a similar shrinking is not unusual even in the comparatively modified modern phases of madness. But inthe tombs. Until the teaching and spirit of Jesus had suggested, even among men who had no faith in his Name, some thought and consideration for the helpless sufferers of humanity, neither hospital, nor home, nor asylum existed where these unhappy ones could find a refuge. In these gloomy tombs hollowed out of the rock on the mountain-side - polluted spots for the living, according to the Jewish ritual - these maniacs found the utter solitude they craved for.
8:22-40 Those that put to sea in a calm, even at Christ's word, must yet prepare for a storm, and for great peril in that storm. There is no relief for souls under a sense of guilt, and fear of wrath, but to go to Christ, and call him Master, and say, I am undone, if thou dost not help me. When our dangers are over, it becomes us to take to ourselves the shame of our own fears, and to give Christ the glory of our deliverance. We may learn much out of this history concerning the world of infernal, malignant spirits, which though not working now exactly in the same way as then, yet all must at all times carefully guard against. And these malignant spirits are very numerous. They have enmity to man and all his comforts. Those under Christ's government are sweetly led with the bands of love; those under the devil's government are furiously driven. Oh what a comfort it is to the believer, that all the powers of darkness are under the control of the Lord Jesus! It is a miracle of mercy, if those whom Satan possesses, are not brought to destruction and eternal ruin. Christ will not stay with those who slight him; perhaps he may no more return to them, while others are waiting for him, and glad to receive him.
And when he went forth to land,.... The Persic and Ethiopic versions read,
when they went forth to land; when Christ and his disciples came out of the ship, and went ashore:
there met him out of the city a certain man; or rather, there met him a certain man of the city; that is, one that belonged to, and was an inhabitant of Gadera, or some city thereabout; who had been born and brought up, and had lived there; for certain it is, that he did not now come out of the city, but out of the tombs, as in Matthew 8:28 and to which agrees the account of him that follows here; in the Vulgate Latin version, these words, "out of the city" are omitted; which the interpreter not understanding, might leave out, as carrying in it a seeming contradiction to the accounts of him:
which had devils long time. The Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Persic, and Arabic versions, read in the singular number, which had a devil: and which agrees with Luke 8:29 for though more are after mentioned, yet the many might be under one head, and chief of them; but in all the copies, it is read in the plural number, "devils"; and to this agrees the name of legion, for there were many devils in him, and they had a possession of him a long time which aggravates the miserable condition of this man, and illustrates the power of Christ in freeing him from them:
and wore no clothes; but went naked, and when any were put upon him, would tear them in pieces:
neither abode in any house, but in the tombs; See Gill on Mark 5:3.
when they went forth to land; when Christ and his disciples came out of the ship, and went ashore:
there met him out of the city a certain man; or rather, there met him a certain man of the city; that is, one that belonged to, and was an inhabitant of Gadera, or some city thereabout; who had been born and brought up, and had lived there; for certain it is, that he did not now come out of the city, but out of the tombs, as in Matthew 8:28 and to which agrees the account of him that follows here; in the Vulgate Latin version, these words, "out of the city" are omitted; which the interpreter not understanding, might leave out, as carrying in it a seeming contradiction to the accounts of him:
which had devils long time. The Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Persic, and Arabic versions, read in the singular number, which had a devil: and which agrees with Luke 8:29 for though more are after mentioned, yet the many might be under one head, and chief of them; but in all the copies, it is read in the plural number, "devils"; and to this agrees the name of legion, for there were many devils in him, and they had a possession of him a long time which aggravates the miserable condition of this man, and illustrates the power of Christ in freeing him from them:
and wore no clothes; but went naked, and when any were put upon him, would tear them in pieces:
neither abode in any house, but in the tombs; See Gill on Mark 5:3.