Matthew 8:28

Healing the Gadarene Demoniacs

8:28 When he came to the other side, to the region of the Gadarenes, 1  two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were extremely violent, so that no one was able to pass by that way.

Matthew 26:39

26:39 Going a little farther, he threw himself down with his face to the ground and prayed, 2  “My Father, if possible, 3  let this cup 4  pass from me! Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

1 tc The textual tradition here is quite complicated. A number of mss (B C [Δ] Θ al sys,p,h) read “Gadarenes,” which is the better reading here. Many other mss (א2 L W Ë1,13 Ï [syhmg] bo) have “Gergesenes.” Others (892c latt syhmg sa mae) have “Gerasenes,” which is the reading followed in Luke 8:26. The difference between Matthew and Luke may be due to uses of variant regional terms.

sn The region of the Gadarenes would be in Gentile territory on the southeastern side of the Sea of Galilee across from Galilee. Luke 8:26 and Mark 5:1 record this miracle as occurring “in the region of the Gerasenes.” “Irrespective of how one settles this issue, for the [second and] Third Evangelist the chief concern is that Jesus has crossed over into Gentile territory, ‘opposite Galilee’” (J. B. Green, Luke [NICNT], 337). The region of Gadara extended to the Sea of Galilee and included the town of Sennabris on the southern shore – the town that the herdsmen most likely entered after the drowning of the pigs.

2 tn Grk “ground, praying and saying.” Here the participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

3 tn Grk “if it is possible.”

4 sn This cup alludes to the wrath of God that Jesus would experience (in the form of suffering and death) for us. See Ps 11:6; 75:8-9; Isa 51:17, 19, 22 for this figure.