146
5 (Sir. da” αὐτῶν © ἀγέλη χοίρων πολλῶν © βοσκοµένη.
f same phe. Θεοῦ; ἦλθες ὧδε ’ πρὸ ‘katpod βασανίσαι ἡμᾶς; 30. Ἡν δὲ μακρὰν
41. ot δὲ δαίµονες
ghereand παρεκάλουν αὐτόν, λέγοντες, “Ei ἐκβάλλεις ἡμᾶς, ἐπίτρεψον ἡμῖν
parall.
h Mk. v. 14. ἀπελθεῖν 1 εἷς Lk. viii. Ξ 2; XV. 15. Me Υπάγετε. ος χι ο oF 9 9 15,17. Χοίρων”: καὶ iparall.and α | im Acts xix. TOU κρηµνου
29 (Acts Vii. 57, ἐπί τινα).
j parall.
τὴν ἀγέλην τῶν χοίρων.
32. Καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς,
οἱ δὲ ἐξελθόντες ἀπῆλθον eis τὴν ἀγέλην τῶν ἰδού, ' ὥρμησε πᾶσα ἡ ἀγέλη τῶν χοίρων 5 J κατὰ εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν, καὶ ἀπέθανον ἐν τοῖς ὅδασιν.
1 For the reading επιτρεψον ηµιν απελθειν in T. R. SB have αποστειλον; adopted
by modern editors.
The T. R. conforms to Lk. (viii. 32).
2 For εις την αγελην των χοιρων NBC have τους χοιρους (Tisch., W.H.).
ΣΝΒΟΔΣ omit των χοιρων.
readily surrendered themselves. Men with shattered reason also felt the spell, while the wise and the strong- minded too often used their intellect, under the bias of passion or prejudice, to resist the force of truth. In this way we may account for the prompt recogni- tion of Jesus by the Gadarene demoniac. All that is necessary to explain it is the Messianic hope prevalent in Gadara as elsewhere, and the sight of Jesus acting pn an impressionable spirit ” (Bruce, The Miraculous Element in the Gospels p. 187).---πρὸ καιροῦ: before the appointed time of judgment. The article wanting here before κ. as in other phrases in N. T., ¢.g., ἐν καιρῷ, Matt. xxiv. 45.— βασανίσαι, to torment with pain in Hades, described as a place of torment in Lk. xvi. 28, cf. ver. 23.
’ Ver. 30. μακρὰν: the Vulgate renders non longe, as if ov had stood in the Greek before pak. But there are no variants here. Mark and Luke have ἐκεῖ, which gives rise to an apparent discrepancy. Only apparent, many contend, because both expressions are relative and elastic: at a distance, yet within view; there, in that neighbourhood, but not quite at hand. Elsner refers to Lk. xv. 20: μακρὰν, “et tamen in conspectu, ut, Luc. xv. 20: “Ett δὲ αὐτοῦ μακρὰν ἀπέχοντος, εἶδεν αὐτὸν 6 πατήρ”. On ἐκεῖ he remarks: ‘‘docet in ea regione et vicinia fuisse, nec distantiam descri- bit”. Weiss against Meyer denies the relativity of μακρὰν, and takes it as meaning ‘‘a long way off,” while visible. —Bookopévy: far removed from ἦν, and not to be joined with it as if the feeding were the main point, and not rather the existence of the herd there. The ill attested reading βοσκοµένων brings out the meaning better: a herd of swine
which were feeding in the hill pastures. The swine, doubtless, belonged to Gen- tiles, who abounded in Perw#a.—Ver. 81. ot δαίµονες: unusual designation, commonly απ. the request was made by the possessed in the name of the ἀεπιοη5.---ἀπόστειλον: the reading of the T. R. (ἐπίτρεψον ἀπελθεῖν) taken from Luke expresses, in a milder form, Christ’s share of responsibility ina transaction of supposed doubtful charac- ter. The demoniac would have no scruple on that score. His request was: if you are to cast us out, send us not to hell, but into the swine.—Ver. 32. ὑπάγετε: Christ’s laconic reply, usually taken to mean: go into the swine, but not necessarily meaning more than ‘‘be- gone”. So Weiss, who holds that Jesus had no intention of expressing acquiescence in the demoniac’s request. (Matt. Evan. and Weiss-Meyer, '' Hin- weg mit euch ’’.)—oi δὲ. .. χοίρους: the entrance of the demons into the swine could not, of course, be a matter of observation, but only of inference from what followed.—i8ot, introducing a sud- den, startling ενεηί-- ὥρμησεν πᾶσα ἡ ἀγέλη---ἔπε mad downrush of the herd over the precipice into the lake. Assum- ing the full responsibility of Jesus for the catastrophe, expositors have busied them- selves in inventing apologies. Euthy. gives four reasons for the transaction, the fourth being that only thereby could it be conclusively shown that the devils had left the demoniacs. Rosenmiller suggests that two men are worth more than ever so many swine. The lowest depth of bathos in this line was touched by Wetstein when he suggested that, by cutting up the drowned swine, salting the meat or making smoke-dried hams (fum- osas pernas), and selling them to Gen-