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Mat_8:28 ff. Comp. Mar_5:1 ff.; Luk_8:26 ff. Comp. Ewald, Jahrb. VII. p. 54 ff.
Γερασηνῶν ] Since Gerasa, the eastern frontier town of Peraea (Joseph. Bell. iii. 3. 3, iv. 9. 1), which Origen and others look upon as even belonging to Arabia, stood much too far to the south-east of the Sea of Tiberias, as the ruins of the town also still prove (Dieterici, Reisebilder aus d. Morgenl. 1853, II. p. 275 ff.; Rey, Voyage dans le Haouran, 1860); since, further, the reading Γεργεσηνῶν has the preponderance of testimony against it, and since that reading has gained currency, if not solely on the strength of Origen’s conjecture (on Joh_1:28; Joh_2:12; Opp. iv. p. 140, ed. de la Rue), at least mainly on the strength of his evidence; since, again, no trace is found of a Gergesa either as town (Origen: πόλις ἀρχαία ) or as village (Ebrard), Josephus, in fact, Antt. i. 6. 2, expressly stating that of the ancient Γεργεσαίοι (Gen_15:21; Gen_10:16; Deu_8:1; Jos_24:11) nothing remains but their names; since, finally, the reading Γαδαρηνῶν has important testimony in its favour (see the critical remarks), being also confirmed by Origen, though only as found ἐν ὀλίγοις , and harmonizes with geographical facts,—we are therefore bound to regard that as the original reading, whilst Γερασηνῶν and Γεργεσηνῶν must be supposed to owe their origin to a confusion in the matter of geography. Even apart from the authority of Origen, the latter reading came to be accepted and propagated, all the more readily from the circumstance that we are made acquainted with actual Gergesenes through the Old Testament. On Gadara, at present the village of Omkeis, at that time the capital of Peraea (Joseph. Bell. iv. 7. 3), standing to the south-east of the southern extremity of the Sea of Tiberias, between the latter and the river Mandhur, consult Ritter, Erdk. XV. p. 375 ff.; Rüetschi in Herzog’s Encykl. IV. p. 636 f.; Kneucker in Schenkel’s Bibellex. II. p. 313 ff. According to Paulus, who defends Γερασηνῶν , the district of Gerasa, like the ancient Gilead, must have extended as far as the lake; the πόλις , however, Mat_8:33-34, he takes to have been Gadara, as being the nearest town. The context makes this impossible.
δύο ] According to Mark and Luke, only one. This difference in the tradition (Mat_9:27, Mat_20:30) is not to be disposed of by conjectures (Ebrard, Bleek, Holtzmann think that, as might easily enough have happened, Matthew combines with the healing of the Gadarenes that of the demoniacs in the synagogue at Capernaum, Mar_1:23 ff.), but must be allowed to remain as it is. At the same time, it must also be left an open question whether Matthew, with his brief and general narrative (Strauss, de Wette), or Mark and Luke (Weisse), with their lively, graphic representations, are to be understood as giving the more original account. However, should the latter prove to be the case, as is probable at least from the peculiar features in Mark (comp. Weiss, op. cit., p. 342), it is not necessary, with Chrysostom, Augustine, Calvin, to hit upon the arbitrary method of adjustment implied in supposing that there were no doubt two demoniacs, but that the one—whom Mark (and Luke) accordingly mentions—was far more furious than the other. According to Strauss and Keim, the change to the singular has had the effect of giving a higher idea of the extraordinary character of a case of possession by so many demons; Weisse and Schenkel hold the reverse; Weiss thinks the number two owes its origin to the fact of there having been a great many demons. Mere groundless conjectures.
The demoniacs are lunatics, furious to a high degree; they took up their abode among the tombs (natural or artificial grottoes in the rocks or in the earth) that were near by, driven thither by their own melancholy, which sought gratification in gloomy terrors and in the midst of impurity (Lightfoot in loc., and on Mat_17:15; Schoettgen, p. 92; Wetstein in loc.), and which broke out into frenzy when any one happened to pass by. Many old burial vaults are still to be seen at the place on which Gadara formerly stood.