Exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac

The story was interpreted by Saints Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas to mean that Christians have no duties to animals.

People had tried to tie him down but he was too strong to be bound, even with chains, for he would always break out of them; night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

The man is now seen, dressed and restored to sanity: he asks to be included among the disciples who travel with Jesus, but he is refused and instructed to remain in the Decapolis region, to tell of "the great things the Lord has done ... and [how He] has had compassion on you".

The King James Version in (Matthew 8:28) has the location as "Gergesenes" which corresponds to the modern Kursi, although this identification is disputed since Gergasa is not known to have existed prior to late antiquity nor does it appear in early manuscripts.

The story appears to be set close to the Sea of Galilee, since it takes place as soon as Jesus gets out of the boat, but neither Gadara nor Gerasa is on the shore itself.

[8] The differing geographical references to Gadara and Gerasa can be understood in light of the social, economic, and political influence each city exerted over the region.

[9] The city of Gerasa had been a major urban center since its founding, and during the Roman period it was the more widely known among the ten-city league known as the Decapolis.

Historically, the cities of the Decapolis were outside of the territory of Roman province of Judaea and had a minimal Jewish presence during the time period of Jesus' ministry.

The Land of the Gadarenes is also the terminology used in the Peshitta, which a minority of scholars as well as many Syriac churches claim to be the original Gospel that was later translated into Greek.

[19] Saint Augustine of Hippo concluded from the story that Christians have no duties towards animals,[4] writing: Christ himself shows that to refrain from the killing of animals and the destroying of plants is the height of superstition, for judging that there are no common rights between us and the beasts and trees, he sent the devils into a herd of swine and with a curse withered the tree on which he found no fruit.

[20]Similarly, Thomas Aquinas argued that Jesus allowed the demons to destroy the pigs in order to make the point that his purpose was primarily for the good of men's souls, not their bodies or property (including their animals).

[5] This interpretation has been shared by a long line of commentators up to the present day, including I. Howard Marshall and Mark Driscoll.

[5] However, other commentators have attempted to make the story consistent with a Jesus who shows "care and concern for animals", as John Austin Baker wrote.

"[21] On Girard's account, then, the uneasy truce that the Gaderenes and the demoniac had worked out was that the evil power in him was contained and thereby neutralized.

Jesus' arrival on the scene introduced a spiritual power stronger than Legion, which upset the social balance by removing the scapegoat.

Contrasting the self-destruction of the herd of pigs with the typical motif of an individual evil-doer being pushed over a cliff by an undifferentiated mob (cf.

[21]According to Warren Carter, the story contains "military language" that alludes to Roman imperialist practices, which were often sexual in nature.

[23][24] Historically, the areas associated the miracle were all located outside of Judaea in the Gentile lands of the Decapolis, a Hellenized region that was home to a mixed Greek, Roman, Arab and Nabataean population.

Kursi is located within the portion of the Golan Heights that was annexed by Israel and is currently home to both a state park and a museum operated by the Israeli government.

In the modern era, there have been a number of archaeological digs conducted by international teams of archaeologists, and work continues to this day preserving the sites.

This has led some scholars to question the veracity of the site's claims, both historic and modern, and whether such a city even existed during the time of Jesus.

[37] Some have connected the archaeological site at Hippos, located within the State of Israel's pre-1967 borders, with a number of incidents related to the ministry of Jesus, including the exorcism of the Gedaran demoniac.

[39] Most of the archaeological finds associated with Hippos are of non-Christian pagan origin, and the city did not begin to practice Christianity until almost the time of its abandonment.

[40] The story is the origin of the English proverbial adjective Gadarene, meaning "involving or engaged in a headlong or potentially disastrous rush to do something".