“And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine.”
Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man — and told about the pigs as well — the eyewitness report covers both aspects of the event: what happened to the man and what happened to the pigs. The telling about the pigs suggests that the economic dimension is significant in the community's processing of the event. Two thousand pigs represents an enormous financial loss. The simultaneous report of the man's healing and the herd's destruction forces the community to weigh these two outcomes against each other — and the next verse shows which side the scale tips toward.
Church Fathers on Mark 5:16
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
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
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