The Bible In History And The Modern World

Matthew 8: 28 deals with the second phenomenon story. This miracle story emphasizes Jesus sovereignty and demonstrates his power over the devils. Matthew 8: 28 in the NRSV Hebrew Bible reads as such “when he came to the other side, to the country of Gardarenes, two demoniacs coming out of the tombs met him. They were so fierce that no one could pass that way”. The issue associated with this particular Bible passage is the translation of other ancient authorities and the location of the exorcism. In the NSRV Bible it is noted that the place of Gardarenes is also referred to as Gergesenes or other times Gerasenes as the Gospels of Mark and Luke say.

With all the theories floating around it is extremely hard trying to depict the exact location of this biblical passages. Not only is the location an issue, the number of demoniacs is also a widely discussed topic. In Thomas Howe and Norman Geisler’s book When critics ask: a popular handbook on Bible difficulties the authors mention that these are indeed textual problems. (Howe; Geisler 1992, 289)The book of Matthew refers to the area as Gadarenes. The authors draw attention to a potential explanation. “Gadara may have been the capital of the region” (Howe; Geisler 1992, 290) meaning that the book of Matthew was referring to the entire country of Gardarenes which would lead the people of the region whether or not they lived in to be called Gadarenes. Gospels of Mark and Luke although according to the authors give a more generalized reference to the country of Gerasenes which directs attention to a much larger span of area. However most of the textual evidence supports the theory of Gadara being the location where the exorcism took place. A suggestion of a scribe misinterpreting the reference in Matthew is another possible explanation. Howe and Geisler mention that it could’ve been a possibility of a scribe mistaking the reference in Matthew for the people of Gadara (referred to as Gadarenes) rather than the actual location of the country, producing the different named locations.

The book of Matthew chapter 8 reports the encounter between Jesus and two demoniacs. Yet the books of Mark 5: 1 and Luke 8: 26 only report one demoniac approaching Jesus. The authors suggest that nowhere in the Gospels of Mark or Luke does it say that ONLY one demoniac approached Jesus, they could just not have mentioned the other because it did not play a significant role. However, Howe and Geisler do draw attention to a fundamental mathematical law, where there are two there is always one. (Howe; Geisler 1992, 291) This mathematical law could potentially proof a contradiction, if and only if the book of Mark and Luke would have stated there was ONLY one demoniac. Since neither of them included the word ONLY there is no legit evidence for a contradiction in the Bible. Although commentators have many different opinions of where this biblical passage took place scholars do agree that this is not a problem of contradiction or error (Howe; Geisler 1992, 290). The location is rather a problem which developed as a result in transcription since there is no evidence which would or could pinpoint a conflict in the original manuscript. The number of demoniacs healed however is much more difficult to explain and may or may not be a contradiction. Yet the problem may not be with the Bible, instead it may be with the critic who has to change the text in order for it to contradict. After all the textual problems found in various translations of the Bible, the Bible itself may not be issue instead the problem is due to the critic or scribe.