to pasture · verb — present active participle, nominative plural masculine
swine
χοῖροςchoîros
G5519
a hog
fled
ἔφυγονephugon
G5343
to run away (literally or figuratively) · verb — second aorist active indicative, 3rd person plural
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
told
ἀναγγέλλωanangéllō
G312
to announce (in detail)
in
εἰςeis
G1519
to or into (indicating the point reached or entered) · preposition
city
πόλινpolin
G4172
a town (properly · noun — accusative singular feminine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
in
εἰςeis
G1519
to or into (indicating the point reached or entered) · preposition
country
ἀγρούς.agrous
G68
a field (as a drive for cattle) · noun — accusative plural masculine
And
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
out
ἐξέρχομαιexérchomai
G1831
to issue (literally or figuratively)
see
ἰδεῖνidein
G1492
used only in certain past tenses · verb — second aorist active infinitive
what
τίti
G5101
an interrogative pronoun · interrogative pronoun — nominative singular neuter
was
ἐστίestí
G2076
he (she or it) is
done
γεγονός.¶gegonos
G1096
to cause to be ("gen"-erate) · verb — second perfect active participle, nominative singular neuter
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Matthew 8:33 And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils.
Luke 8:34 When they that fed them saw what was done, they fled, and went and told it in the city and in the country.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Mark 5:1-20
We have here an instance of Christ's dispossessing the strong man armed, and disposing of him as he pleased, to make it appear that he was stronger than he. This he did when he was come to the other side, whither he went through a storm; his business there was to rescue this poor creature out of the hands of Satan, and when he had done that, he returned. Thus he came from heaven to earth, and returned, in a storm, to redeem a remnant of mankind out of the hands of the devil, though but a little remnant, and did not think his pains ill bestowed.
In Matthew, they were said to be two possessed with devils; here it is said to be a man possessed with an unclean spirit. If there were two, there wa…
The swine - Instead of τους χοιρους, BCDL, three others, Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Vulgate, and Itala, read αυτους, them - And they that fed Them fled. Griesbach has adopted this reading.
John Gill on Mark 5:14
And they that fed the swine,.... Not the owners, but the keepers of them, the swine herds, "fled"; being astonished at the power of Christ, affrighted at the noise of the devils, and terrified at the sight and loss of the swine:
and told it in the city and country; or "in the fields": they went into the city of Gadara, and told the story of the dispossession of the devils out of the man, that had been for some time troublesome in those parts; and of their entrance into the swine, and the destruction of them: and they went into the fields, or country adjacent; they went to the "villages" thereabout, as the Syriac and Ethiopic versions render the word; or to those houses that were in the fiel…
Mark 5:1-20
Matthew 8:28-34
Mark 5:1-20
Luke 8:26-39
28. And when he had come to the opposite bank, [542] into the country of the Gergesenes, two demoniacs, who had come from among the tombs, met him: and they were fierce beyond measure, so that no man could pass along that road. 29. And, lo, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, Son of God? Hast thou come hither before the time to torment us? 30. And at a distance from them there was a herd of many swine feeding. 31. And the devils entreated him, saying, If thou cast us out, permit us to remove into the herd of swine. 32. And he said to them, Go. And when they had gone out, they went away into the heard of swine.…
The Church Fathers
But the herdsmen also took to flight, lest they should perish with the swine, and spread the same fear amongst the inhabitants of the town. Wherefore there follows: And they that fed them, &c.
But those who fed them fled, and reported it in the city and in the fields. That the shepherds of the pigs, fleeing, reported these things, signifies that even some leaders of the impious, although they flee from the Christian law, nonetheless proclaim its power among the nations with awe and wonder.
And they went out to see what had happened. And they came to Jesus and saw the man who had been possessed by demons sitting, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid, etc. It is written in the Gospel of Luke, "Sitting at his feet." It signifies that the multitude, delighted by their old life, honors indeed but does not want to endure the Christian law, saying that they cannot fulfill it, yet admiring the faithful people who have been healed from their former lost way of life. To sit at the Lord's feet is for him from whom demons had exited, just as those corrected from sins with fixed intention of the mind, to stare at the tracks of their Savior which they follow. To be clothed again is to receive with a sound mind the pursuit of virtues that the insane had lost. This figure fits aptly with that parable of the Lord in which the prodigal and extravagant son, returning to the father, is immediately dressed in the first robe with a ring, clearly indicating that whoever truly repents with a heart for what was lost can, by the grace given by Christ, recover the first works of righteousness they had fallen from, along with the ring of unbroken faith.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Crucifixion — A common mode of punishment among heathen nations in early times. It is not certain whether it was known among the ancient Jews; probably it was not. The modes of capital punishment according to the…
Demoniacs — This word is frequently used in the New Testament, and applied to persons suffering under the possession of a demon or evil spirit, such possession generally showing itself visibly in bodily disease…
Devil — (Gr. diabolos), a slanderer, the arch-enemy of man’s spiritual interest (Job 1:6; Rev. 2:10; Zech. 3:1). He is called also “the accuser of the brethen” (Rev. 12:10). In Lev. 17:7 the word “devil” is…
Gergesa — =Gerasa, identified with the modern Khersa, “over against Galilee,” close to the lake. This was probably the scene of the miracle, Mark 5:1-20, etc. “From the base of the great plateau of Bashan,…
Demons · 8:28-34; — 8:28-34;
Gadarenes · Jesus visits and works miracles among, but is rejected — Jesus visits and works miracles among, but is rejected
Swine · Jesus sends — Jesus sends
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The spirits’ persistent begging shows Jesus’ mastery over them. They were permitted to enter a herd of about 2,000 pigs, whose presence marks this as Gentile territory. Some have focused on the economic loss of the pigs or have speculated about why Jesus let the demons destroy them, but Mark and his readers were interested in how Jesus saved the man.
