Luke 8:32

And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:22-40 Those that put to sea in a calm, even at Christ's word, must yet prepare for a storm, and for great peril in that storm. There is no relief for souls under a sense of guilt, and fear of wrath, but to go to Christ, and call him Master, and say, I am undone, if thou dost not help me. When our dangers are over, it becomes us to take to ourselves the shame of our own fears, and to give Christ the glory of our deliverance. We may learn much out of this history concerning the world of infernal, malignant spirits, which though not working now exactly in the same way as then, yet all must at all times carefully guard against. And these malignant spirits are very numerous. They have enmity to man and all his comforts. Those under Christ's government are sweetly led with the bands of love; those under the devil's government are furiously driven. Oh what a comfort it is to the believer, that all the powers of darkness are under the control of the Lord Jesus! It is a miracle of mercy, if those whom Satan possesses, are not brought to destruction and eternal ruin. Christ will not stay with those who slight him; perhaps he may no more return to them, while others are waiting for him, and glad to receive him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See this passage explained in the Matthew 8:23-34 notes, and Mark 5:1-20 notes.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Lu 8:26-39. Demoniac of Gadara Healed.

(See on [1602]Mt 8:28-34; and Mr 5:1-20).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 8:26"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And there was there an herd of many swine,.... About two thousand, Mark 5:13,

Feeding on the mountain; See Gill on Mark 5:11.

And they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them; which they could not do, without his leave:

and he suffered them: See Gill on Mark 5:12, Mark 5:13

Geneva Study Bible

And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 8:32. χοίρ. ἱκανῶν: for a large number, often in Lk.; his equivalent for Mk.’s 2000.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

32. a herd of many swine] St Mark says “about 2000.” Of course, if the owners of these swine were Jews, they were living in flagrant violation of the law; but the population of Peraea was largely Greek and Syrian.

that he would suffer them to enter into them] The Jews, as we have already seen, believed that physical and mental evil was wrought by the direct agency of demons, and attributed to demons not only the cases of “possession,” but many other classes of illness (melancholia, brain- disease, heart-disease, &c.) which we do not usually regard in this light. They also believed that demons could take possession even of animals, and they attributed to demons the hydrophobia of dogs and the rage of bulls. “Perhaps,” says Archbishop Trench (On the Miracles, p. 185), “we make to ourselves a difficulty here, too easily assuming that the whole animal world is wholly shut up in itself, and incapable of receiving impressions from that which is above it. The assumption is one unwarranted by deeper investigations, which lead rather to an opposite conclusion—not to the breaking down of the boundaries between the two worlds, but to the shewing in what wonderful ways the lower is receptive of impression from the higher, both for good and for evil.” Further than this the incident leads into regions of uncertain speculation, into which it is impossible to enter, and in which none will dogmatize but those who are least wise. Milton seems to find no difficulty in the conception that evil spirits could ‘incarnate and imbrute’ their essence into a beast: in at the serpent’s mouth

“The devil entered; and his brutal sense

The heart or head possessing, soon inspired

With act intelligential.” Par. Lost.

Comp. Dante, Inf. xxv. 136, “L’anima, ch’era fiera divenuta Si fugge,” &c.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 32. - And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them. For what end was this request? Was it simply the way they chose to enter the abyss by? We know that the lives of the creatures, after the permission was given, lasted but a few minutes at most. Was it a desire to do more mischief during their brief sojourn on earth? Theophylact (eighth century) suggests that the purpose of the evil spirits, in their request, was to injure Jesus in that part of the country by arousing fears among the covetous inhabitants lest they too might lose, in a similar way, their herds. But to the writer of this note it seems best to confess that no satisfactory answer can ever be given here. We know so little of these dread spirits of evil. The reason of the Lord's permission is more obvious. Some such visible proof as the sight of the evil and unclean forces that had mastered him so long, transferred to the bodies of other creatures and working their wild will upon them, was probably a necessary element in his perfect cure. It is likely also that Jesus wished to show his indignation at the flagrant disregard of the Mosaic Law, at the open disobedience to the Divine injunctions respecting swine, which was shown by the presence of so vast a herd of these animals pronounced unclean by the Mosaic Law under which these people were professedly living (St. Mark gives the number as two thousand). In this district the large majority of the inhabitants were Jews. The keeping or the rearing of swine was strictly forbidden by the Jewish canon law. Other Oriental peoples also held these animals as unclean. Herodotus (it. 47) tells us that in Egypt there was a special class of swineherds, who alone among the inhabitants of the country were forbidden to enter a temple. This degraded caste were only allowed to marry among themselves. The eating of swine's flesh is referred to by Isaiah (Isaiah 65:3, 4)as among the acts of the people which continually provoked the Lord to anger. Luke 8:32