“And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel.”
So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed — the man's obedience is immediate, and his mission field is the entire Decapolis — the ten-city Gentile region. He goes to the places where word of the pigs and the exorcism has already spread and provides the personal testimony that contextualizes the events. The amazement of those who hear is the appropriate response that was absent in his hometown — the community that asked Jesus to leave is replaced by the Decapolis community that hears with wonder. The Gerasene man is the first Gentile missionary, commissioned by Jesus and sent back into his own people.
Church Fathers on Mark 5:20
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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