“And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done.”
Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened — the herdsmen are the first witnesses and the first reporters. Their report produces the community's response: people went out from the town and countryside to see for themselves. The report is not described as persuasive or unpersuasive — the people simply go to investigate. What they find will produce a response as surprising as the Legion's request: not celebration but fear, and ultimately a request that Jesus leave.
Church Fathers on Mark 5:14
Those who were in the ship enquired among themselves, 'What manner of man is this?' and now it is made known Who He is by the testimony of His enemies. For the demoniac came up confessing that He was the Son of God. Proceeding to which circumstance the Evangelist says, 'And they came over unto the other side, &c.'
Geraza is a noted town of Arabia, across the Jordan, near mount Galaad, which the tribe of Manasseh held, not far from the lake of Tiberias, into which the swine were precipitated.
Though Matthew says that there were two, Mark and Luke mention one, that you may understand that one of them was a more illustrious person, concerning whose state that country was much afflicted.
Read all 23 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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