Chapter # 5 Paragraph # 1 Study # 9
January 18, 2021
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(200)
1901 ASV
14 And they that fed them fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they came to see what it was that had come to pass.
15 And they come to Jesus, and behold him that was possessed with demons sitting, clothed and in his right mind, even him that had the legion: and they were afraid.
16 And they that saw it declared unto them how it befell him that was possessed with demons, and concerning the swine.
17 And they began to beseech him to depart from their borders.
18 And as he was entering into the boat, he that had been possessed with demons besought him that he might be with him.
19 And he suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go to thy house unto thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and how he had mercy on thee.
20 And he went his way, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men marvelled.
- I. The Impact Of The Destruction Of The Herd Of Swine: 5:14-20.
- A. The report of it.
- 1. The "feeders" (i.e., those herding the pigs in their daily feeding) fled.
- a. These "feeders" are described as "those who are feeding (present participle in the nominative case) them" (third person plural pronoun in the accusative related to "the swine" which is also plural and in the accusative in 5:11). The use of the present participle with the aorist indicative of the verb "flee" is, again, Mark's way of pulling us into the story. However, it additionally emphasizes their "present tense actions": they "are feeding" pigs!
- b. The "feeders" is a noun related to the verb in Jesus' instruction to Peter to "feed My lambs" in John 21:15.
- c. The "problem" for the feeders is the same for the owners: their livelihood has been seriously damaged as to their "how?" issues. "How am I going to make a living now?"
- d. The uses of the verb "to flee" in Mark always refer to people who "ran away" because of fear over "what has happened", "what is happening", or "what might happen". This is the same word and theme in John 10:5 and 12 where, on the one hand, the sheep "flee" from a false shepherd (because they are afraid of him and, on the other hand, "hirelings" flee from the wolf (because they are afraid of it) and leave the sheep to be killed by it.
- e. The entire herd was dead because of uncontrollable chaos caused by "unclean spirits" entering into the bodies of the pigs. And, Jesus' accusers would naturally say, "He is the one responsible for this great disaster that has come upon us". And they would be correct. Why should "The Mighty One" put up with the "nose thumbing" of puny creatures who set about to "make a living" promoting what God has called "unclean"? They are simply fortunate that it was their pigs that died and not themselves. The extreme wickedness of those who despise and taunt the God of Love and Truth is beyond comprehension, though it exists at all levels of society and culture to this very day and in increasing degree. This, according to Hebrews 10:26-31, is an extremely dangerous thing to do.
- f. The "feeders" could actually do nothing else: just "run away" from the scene of this great "economic" disaster, and, if "sense" ever dawns upon the mind, "give thanks" that God has spared your life once again in gracious patience (Acts 17:30-31).
- 2. These "feeders" announced the disaster into the city and into the agricultural areas around it.
- a. This is Mark's third reference to a "city" (out of eight). The first is 1:33 and the second is' 1:45, both of which focus upon "a large number of people who make 'the ministry' difficult".
- b. This is Mark's first reference to a "country" (out of nine). The meaning is typically "the area outside of towns/cities that is given over to agricultural pursuits".
- c. There is, on the basis of both "the city" and the plural noun mis-translated "the country" by both the Authorized Version and the NASB, this probable reality: there were multiple owners of the 2,000 pigs, some of which lived in "the city" and some of which owned "agricultural holdings" outside of "the city". It is also likely that the "feeders" lived in the two places (the city and the agricultural holdings) and that they told their own families and acquaintances.
- 3. The overall point: the event became known everywhere in that "region" ("the country of the Gadarenes" in 5:1 and 10, and "their coasts" in 5:17 as well as "Decapolis" in 5:20).
- B. The impact of the report.
- 1. "They" came to see "what it is that had come to pass". These unidentified "they" are most likely the various owners of the herd, and those most affected by the "economic disaster".
- 2. Then "they" saw, both their own significant economic disaster and the "delivered" man.
- 3. "They" were terrified: this verb was first used in 4:41 (just previous to our current text) and is now re-used with the focus still upon "Jesus" and "Who" He is.
- 4. "They" were informed as to how the demonized came to be clothed and in his right mind and what had happened to the pigs.
- 5. "They" began to "summon" Jesus to depart from their "boundaries" (the same "spelling" of the word translated "mountain" except that it has a "rough" breathing accent whereas the word "mountain" has a "smooth" breathing accent. This may be linked back to Israel's "boundaries" when the Lord assigned certain geographical areas to each of the tribes because some of those "boundaries" were specific mountains. Liddell and Scott Greek-English Lexicon identifies the word with the smooth breathing as both "mountain" and "canton" or "parish" -- possibly recognizing the issue of specified "boundaries" being tied to "mountains" in the sense of "boundary marks" (as in Joshua 15). In any case, the issue of a "region" as a governed territory mixes well with the metaphor of a "mountain" being related to a "kingdom".
