One who aims at fuller understanding of the holy Scriptures must not neglect the careful examination of the proper names in it. Concerning Palestinian place names the Greek copies are often incorrect, and one might be misled by them. The displacement of the swine, who were driven down a steep place by the demons and drowned in the sea, is said to have taken place in the country of the Gerasenes.^[1] Now, Gerasa is a town of Arabia, and has no sea or lake near it. The Evangelists would not have made a statement so obviously and demonstrably false; for they were men who informed themselves carefully of all matters connected with Judea. But in a few copies we have found, into the country of the Gadarenes. On this reading, Gadara is described as a town of Judea. In its neighborhood are the well-known hot springs. There is no lake there with overhanging banks, nor any sea. But Gergesa, from which the name Gergesenes is taken, is an old town in the neighborhood of the lake now called Tiberias. On the edge of it there is a steep place bordering on the lake, from which the pigs could have been driven down by the demons. Now, the meaning of Gergesa is the dwelling of the one who drives out, and may contain a prophetic reference to the response of the citizens toward the Savior. They begged him to depart out of their coasts.^[2]

Behold where is he, who was promised all the glories of this world, found to dwell— where?—in the tombs!^[1] Compassed about with the putrid rottenness of dead bodies. ^[2] BEREFT OF REASON. Prudentius:

Then a man bereft of reason, dwelling in sepulchral caves,

Bound with cruel and grinding fetters and with raging frenzy torn,

Rushes forth and kneels in worship, as the saving Christ draws near.^[1] HYMN 9.^[1]

Neither could anyone tame him.^[1] Give me a reprobate who is impetuous, foul-mouthed and overbearing. With few words the Lord will render him as gentle as a lamb. Give me one who is covetous, avaricious, grasping. The Lord will restore him to liberality, and he will dispose of his resources bountifully of his own hand. Show me one who trembles at the idea of pain and of death, and soon I will show you one who has learned to disdain crosses, flames and the bull of Perillus.^[2] Even one who is sensual, adulterous and gluttonous can be made sober, chaste and abstinent.^[3]

Obviously he would not be expelling evil spirits and pillaging idols if he were impotent, for the evil spirits would not obey one who was impotent. If, on the other hand, the very naming of him drives them forth, he clearly is not powerless. The spirits especially see through what is unseen by human eyes. They could tell if Christ was vulnerable and refuse him any obedience at all. As it is, what human disbelief doubts, the evil spirits see clearly: that he is God. For that reason they flee from him and fall at his feet, still crying out even as they once cried when he was in the body, We know who you are, the holy one of God,^[1] and, Ah, what have I in common with you, Son of God? I implore you, do not torment me.^[2]

Yes, he is recognized by demons,^[1] drives out demons,^[2] drowns deep a legion of spirits^[3] and sees the prince of demons falling like lightning.^[4] He is stoned, yet not hit;^[5] he prays yet he hears prayer.^[6] He weeps,^[7] yet he puts an end to weeping.^[8] He asks where Lazarus is^[9]—he was man; yet he raises Lazarus^[10]—he was God.

Look too at Legion:^[1] when in anguish he begged, our Lord permitted the demons to enter into the herd. He asked for respite, without deception, in his anguish, and our Lord in his kindness granted this request. His compassion for the demoniac is a rebuke to the demons, showing how much anguish his love suffers in desiring that humans should live. Encouraged by the words I had heard, I knelt down and wept there, and spoke before our Lord: Legion received his request from you without any tears. Permit me, with my tears, to make my request.

One should also bear in mind that God antecedently wills all to be saved and to attain to his kingdom.^[1] For he did not form us to be chastised, but to share his goodness, because he is incomparably good. Yet, because he is just, it is required that sin be punished. So, the first form of the will of God is called his antecedent will and blessing, which has God as its cause. The second is called God’s consequent will and permission, of which we are a participating cause. What God wills as a consequence of our sinning is twofold: either that which God permits to continue by his gracious dispensation for our instruction and salvation, or that which God finally abandons to certain chastisement. These, however, belong to those things which do not depend upon us. As to the things which do depend upon us, whatever is good God wills antecedently and blesses. Whatever is evil he neither wills antecedently nor consequently, but permits them to the free will. If something is done under compulsion, it cannot be a virtuous act or according to reason, since virtue must be chosen. In these ways God provides for all creation. Through all creation God does good and teaches, and he may even use the demons themselves for this purpose of instruction, as he did in the case of Job and in the gospel narrative of the swine.^[2]

The devil’s legion would not have had power over the herd of swine^[1] unless they had gotten it from God. Thus they are far from having power over the sheep of God. Even the bristles of the swine were counted by God, just as were the hairs of the heads of the just.^[2] The devil, it must be admitted, seems indeed to have power—in this case really his own—over those who do not belong to God. In relation to God the idolatrous nations are all counted as a drop in the bucket, as dust on the threshing floor, as spittle in the mouth,^[3] and so thrown open to the devil as if they were a free possession. But the devil has no power over those who belong to the household of God, and cannot treat them as if they were his own. The cases marked out in Scripture show when and for what reasons he may touch the faithful. Indeed to vindicate faith, the power of trial of a believer is sometimes temporarily granted to the devil to test and challenge faith.^[4] Or to elicit repentance the sinner may be temporarily handed over to the devil as though he were an executioner to whom belonged the inflicting of punishment, as we see in the case of Saul.^[5]

It need not disturb anyone that by the Lord’s command two thousand swine were slain by the agency of demons, since those who witnessed the miracle would not have believed that so great a multitude of demons had gone out of the man unless an equally vast number of swine had rushed to ruin, showing that it was a legion that impelled them.

Was it just that two thousand swine perished so one soul might be saved? One seeking purity of heart had best not become preoccupied with the natural prerogative of the demonic legion or animals. It is better that each single reader reflect upon his own soul, his own way of life, and the rarity of true excellence. Remember when the whole of Judea was led into captivity when Nebuchadneser came, and thousands were displaced into Babylonia as prisoners^[1]—Jeremiah alone was left praising God. And they threw him into a muddy cistern.^[2] Nevertheless, the soul of this one man was more decisive for the destiny of Israel^[3] than all the rest.

I asked this too, whether Paradise was sufficient in size for all the righteous to live there. I asked about what is not written in Scripture, but my instruction came from what is written there: Consider the man in whom there dwelt a legion of all kinds of demons.^[1] They were there although not apparent, for their army is of a stuff finer and more subtle than the soul itself. That whole army dwelt in a single body. A hundred times finer and more subtle are the bodies of the righteous when they are risen at the resurrection.^[2] They resemble the mind that is able, if it so wills, to stretch out and expand, or, should it wish, to contract and shrink, so as either to focus on one place or to expand to encompass all places. Listen and learn: A lamp with thousands of rays can exist in a single house. Ten thousand scents can exist in a single blossom. Though located in a small space, they have ample room to extend themselves. So it is with Paradise: though full of spiritual beings, it is amply spacious for their habitation.

He did this so that you might know that the demons would have done the same thing to human beings and would have drowned them if God had allowed them to do so. But he restrained the demons, stopped them, and allowed them to do no such thing. When their power was transferred to the swine, it became clear to all witnesses what they would have done to persons. From this we learn that if the demons had the power to possess swine, they also could have possessed humans.

Driven forth, the wily demons, legion named that evil scourge,

Seize upon the sordid foulness of a herd of filthy swine

And into the muddy waters plunge themselves with maddened beasts.^[1] HYMN 9.^[1]

After this, let the deacon say: Go out, catechumens,^[1] in peace. And after they have gone out, let him say: You energumens,^[2] afflicted with unclean spirits, pray, and let us all earnestly pray for them, that God, the lover of humankind, through Christ, may rebuke the unclean and wicked spirits, and deliver the faithful from the dominion of the adversary. May he that rebuked the legion of demons, and the devil, the prince of wickedness, even now rebuke these demons which have turned away from piety. May God deliver his own workmanship from their power, and cleanse those creatures which he has with great wisdom created.

A legion of demons has been, as I believed, cast out of me. I would prefer merely to forget all of this that I have known and simply to rest at the feet of the Savior. But lo it is said to me, so strongly as to compel me against my will, Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.^[1]

Behold, a legion hurls headlong the swine

Of Gerasenes, and once enchained in tombs,

It loudly grunts with pain. From lips possessed

It had cried out: O Jesus, Son of God,

Offspring of David’s royal line, we know

Who you are and why you have come, what power

Expels us, at your coming filled with dread.^[1]

Has not this voice, Judea, reached your ears?

True, but it has not pierced your darkened mind

And, driven back, has from the threshold fled.^[2]

Now sets the evening sun, where he who beholds

The rosy dawn beholds the Lord’s advent.

The fervent gospel word

Has thawed the Scythian frosts and Hyrcanian snows,

So that Rhodopeian Hebrus, freed from ice,^[3]

Flows from Caucasian cliffs, a gentler stream. A ^[1]

Those who are sick do not lay down the conditions of how they are to be cured. They only want to be made well. But this man was a ruler of the synagogue, and versed in the law. He had surely read that while God created all other things by his word, man had been created by the hand of God. He trusted therefore in God that his daughter would be recreated, and restored to life by that same hand which, he knew, had created her. . . . He who laid hands on her to form her from nothing, once more lays hands upon her to reform her from what had perished.

The woman with the hemorrhage had spent all that she had on doctors. Hungering and thirsting, her spirit had died within her. Having lost everything she possessed, because her life was wasting away within her, she cried out to the Lord in anguish. Her touch on the hem of his garment was the cry of a believing heart. In this she is the figure of the assembly of God gathered from all nations.

No seas were ever so troubled by the ebb and flow of the tide, as the mind of this woman, pulled to and fro by the sway of her thoughts. After all the hopeless strivings of physicians, after all her outlay on useless remedies, after all the usual but useless treatment, when skill and experience had so long failed, all her substance was gone. This was not by chance, but divinely ordered, that she might be healed solely through faith and humility, whom human knowledge had failed through so many years. At a little distance apart from him stood this woman, whom nature had filled with modesty, whom the law had declared unclean, saying of her: She shall be unclean and shall touch no holy thing.^[1] She fears to touch, lest she incur the anger of the religious leaders, or the condemnation of the law. For fear of being talked about, she dares not speak, lest she embarrass those about her, lest she offend their ears. Through many years her body has been an arena of suffering. Everyday, unceasing pain she can endure no more. The Lord is passing by so quickly. The time is short to think what she must do, aware that healing is not given to the silent, nor to the one who hides her pain. In the midst of her conflicting thoughts, she sees a way, her sole way of salvation. She would secure her healing by stealth, take in silence what she dares not ask for, guarding her respect and modesty. She who feels unworthy in body, draws near in heart to the physician. In faith she touches God. With her hand she touches his garment, knowing that both healing and forgiveness may be bestowed on this stratagem, undertaken due to the demands of modesty, and not as she otherwise would have preferred. She knew the gain she sought by stealth would cause no loss to him from whom she took it. . . . In an instant, faith cures where human skill had failed through twelve years.

Glory to you, hidden Son of God, because your healing power is proclaimed through the hidden suffering of the afflicted woman. Through this woman whom they could see, the witnesses were enabled to behold the divinity that cannot be seen. Through the Son’s own healing power his divinity became known. Through the afflicted woman’s being healed her faith was made manifest. She caused him to be proclaimed, and indeed was honored with him. For truth was being proclaimed together with its heralds. If she was a witness to his divinity, he in turn was a witness to her faith. . . . He saw through to her hidden faith, and gave her a visible healing.

Note the separate stages; mark the progress. As long as she was hemorrhaging, she could not come into his presence. She was healed by faith and then came before him. She fell at his feet. Even then she did not yet dare to look up into his face. As long as she had been cured, it was enough for her to cling to his feet. She told him all the truth.^[1] Christ himself is the truth. She was giving praise to the truth. She had been healed by the truth.

Few are they who by faith touch him; multitudes are they who throng about him.^[1]

Some seeing see not, and hearing do not hear.^[1] So also some who touch, touch not, when they approach the Lord not in simplicity of soul, but in doubt or in duplicity.

Provide remedies suitable to every patient’s case. Cure them, heal them by all means possible. Restore them soundly to the church. Feed the flock, not with insolence and contempt, as lording it over them,^[1] but as a gentle shepherd, gathering the lambs into your bosom, and gently leading those which are with young.^[2]

Members filled with leprous ulcers,

flesh corrupted and decayed,

Go and wash them, I command you;

what he ordered then is done;

Wounds are healed by pious cleansing,

swollen flesh grows smooth again.^[1]

Now on eyes, by lifelong darkness,

shrouded from the light of day

Thou dost spread a clay of healing, made

with nectar from thy lips;

Soon the blinded orbs are opened and

rejoice in late-found sight.^[2]

Thou dost chide the angry tempest

and the savage hurricane,

Which upheave the tossing billows

and beset the fragile boat;

At thy bidding winds are subject,

and the rolling waves are stilled.^[3]

Then a woman, weak and timid, touched

his sacred garment’s hem: Instant was the blessed healing, and

the pallor left her cheek,

As the hemorrhage she had suffered

through so many years was stopped.^[4]

Lazarus for four days buried, hidden in the sunless tomb,

He restores to life and vigor, giving power to breathe again,

And the soul returning, enters flesh now crumbling to decay.^[5] HYMN 9.^[1]

When the chief of the synagogue asked him about his daughter, Jesus said to him: Only firmly believe and your daughter shall live.^[1] He believed and so his daughter lived and arose. Similarly when Lazarus died, our Lord said to Martha, If you believe, your brother shall rise. Martha said to him, Yes, Lord, I believe.^[2] And he raised him after four days. . . . So let us draw near then, my beloved, to faith, since its powers are so many. For faith raised up [Enoch] to the heavens^[3] and conquered the deluge.^[4] Faith causes the barren to sprout forth.^[5] It delivers from the sword.^[6] It raises up from the pit.^[7] It enriches the poor.^[8] It releases the captives. It delivers the persecuted.^[9] It brings down the fire.^[10] It divides the sea.^[11] It cleaves the rock, and gives to the thirsty water to drink.^[12] It satisfies the hungry.^[13] It raises the dead, and brings them up from Sheol.^[14] It stills the billows.^[15] It heals the sick.^[16] It conquers hosts.^[17] It overthrows walls.^[18] It stops the mouths of lions,^[19] and quenches the flame of fire.^[20] It humiliates the proud, and brings the humble to honor.^[21] All these mighty works are wrought by faith. Now this is faith; when one believes in God the Lord of all, Who made the heavens and the earth and the seas and all that is in them. He made Adam in his image. He gave the law to Moses. He sent his Spirit upon the prophets. Moreover he sent his Christ into the world, that we should believe in the resurrection of the dead; and should also trust in the efficacy of our baptism. This is the faith of the church of God. So distance yourselves from all divinations and sorceries and Chaldean arts and magic, and superficial prayers and rites and moons and seasons, from fornication and lewd music, from vain doctrines which are instruments of the adversary, from the allure of honeyed words, from blasphemy and from adultery. Do not bear false witness or speak with a double tongue.

Someone may wonder or ask: Why are these three apostles always chosen and the others sent away? Even when he was transfigured on the mountain, these three were with him.^[1] Yes, these three were chosen: Peter, James and John. But why only three? First there is the mystery of the Trinity embedded in this number, a number sacred in itself. Second, according to Moses, Jacob set three peeled branches in the watering troughs.^[2] Finally, it is written: A three-ply cord is not easily broken.^[3] Peter is chosen as one upon whom the church would be built.^[4] James is the first of the apostles to be crowned with martyrdom.^[5] John is the beloved disciple^[6] whose love prefigures the state of virginity.

And what shall I say about the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, at whose death the people were mourning and the flute players were playing their music?^[1] On the assumption that she was indeed dead, solemn funeral services were already being performed. But her spirit returned immediately at the voice of the Lord. She arose with revived body and partook of food to furnish proof that she was alive.^[2]

He comes to the house, and finds the customary funeral rites already underway, and he says to them, Why do you make a tumult and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping.^[1] He spoke the truth. She was in a certain sense asleep—asleep, that is, in respect of him, by whom she could be awakened. So awakening her, he restored her alive to her parents.

Let us, if it is pleasing to you, speak for a moment of the pains and anxieties which parents take upon themselves and endure in patience out of love and affection for their children. Here, surrounded by her family and by the sympathy and affection of her relations, a daughter lies upon her bed of suffering. She is fading in body. Her father’s mind and spirit are worn with grief. She is suffering the inward pangs of her sickness. He, unwashed, unkempt, is absorbed wholly in sorrow. He suffers and endures before the eyes of the world. She is sinking into the quiet of death. . . . Alas! why are children indifferent to these things! Why are they not mindful of them? Why are they not eager to make a return to their parents for them? But the love of parents goes on nevertheless; and whatever parents bestow upon their children, God, the parent of us all, will duly repay.

For whenever he raised anyone from the dead^[1] he ordered that food should be given him to eat, lest the resurrection should be thought a delusion. And this is why Lazarus after his resurrection^[2] is described as being at the feast with our Lord.

For since eating is appropriate for those living this present life, the Lord necessarily demonstrated this by means of eating and drinking, thus proving the resurrection of the flesh to those who did not think it real. This same course he pursued in the case of Lazarus and of Jairus’ daughter. For when he had raised up the latter he ordered that something should be given her to eat.^[1]