1They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. 2When he had come out of the boat, immediately a man with an unclean spirit met him out of the tombs. 3He lived in the tombs. Nobody could bind him any more, not even with chains, 4because he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him, and the fetters broken in pieces. Nobody had the strength to tame him. 5Always, night and day, in the tombs and in the mountains, he was crying out, and cutting himself with stones. 6When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and bowed down to him, 7and crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have I to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, don’t torment me.” 8For he said to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”
9He asked him, “What is your name?”
He said to him, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” 10He begged him much that he would not send them away out of the country. 11Now on the mountainside there was a great herd of pigs feeding. 12All the demons begged him, saying, “Send us into the pigs, that we may enter into them.”
13At once Jesus gave them permission. The unclean spirits came out and entered into the pigs. The herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and they were drowned in the sea. 14Those who fed the pigs fled, and told it in the city and in the country.
The people came to see what it was that had happened. 15They came to Jesus, and saw him who had been possessed by demons sitting, clothed, and in his right mind, even him who had the legion; and they were afraid. 16Those who saw it declared to them what happened to him who was possessed by demons, and about the pigs. 17They began to beg him to depart from their region.
18As he was entering into the boat, he who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. 19He didn’t allow him, but said to him, “Go to your house, to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you and how he had mercy on you.”
20He went his way, and began to proclaim in Decapolis how Jesus had done great things for him, and everyone marveled.
21When Jesus had crossed back over in the boat to the other side, a great multitude was gathered to him; and he was by the sea. 22Behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, came; and seeing him, he fell at his feet 23and begged him much, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Please come and lay your hands on her, that she may be made healthy, and live.”
24He went with him, and a great multitude followed him, and they pressed upon him on all sides. 25A certain woman who had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26and had suffered many things by many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better, but rather grew worse, 27having heard the things concerning Jesus, came up behind him in the crowd and touched his clothes. 28For she said, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be made well.” 29Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
30Immediately Jesus, perceiving in himself that the power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
31His disciples said to him, “You see the multitude pressing against you, and you say, ‘Who touched me?’”
32He looked around to see her who had done this thing. 33But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had been done to her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.
34He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be cured of your disease.”
35While he was still speaking, people came from the synagogue ruler’s house, saying, “Your daughter is dead. Why bother the Teacher any more?”
36But Jesus, when he heard the message spoken, immediately said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Don’t be afraid, only believe.” 37He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James. 38He came to the synagogue ruler’s house, and he saw an uproar, weeping, and great wailing. 39When he had entered in, he said to them, “Why do you make an uproar and weep? The child is not dead, but is asleep.”
40They ridiculed him. But he, having put them all out, took the father of the child, her mother, and those who were with him, and went in where the child was lying. 41Taking the child by the hand, he said to her, “Talitha cumi!” which means, being interpreted, “Girl, I tell you, get up!” 42Immediately the girl rose up and walked, for she was twelve years old. They were amazed with great amazement. 43He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and commanded that something should be given to her to eat.
The exact place of where Jesus allowed demons to leave two men and go into a heard of swine has never been exactly located, mostly due to variations of the name used by the Gospel writers, and textual variants within the copies of the Gospels. There are several locations that the church, scholars, and archaeologists have argued is the place of this event.
Part of the issue is where the “country of the Gergesenes” is located. There are three different principle readings in the manuscript copies: Gadarenes, Gerasenes, and Gergesenes. Normally the earliest and most reliable manuscripts are the preferred reading. However, the three readings here in 8:32 and in the parallel passages to this (Mark 5:1 and Luke 8:26) are spread across several important manuscripts. Although the copy with “Gerasenes” is considered one of the best manuscripts, it is all but impossible that Gerasa (Jerash) was the area where Jesus performed the miracle because it is over thirty miles from the Sea of Galilee (in Jordan), and has no church tradition of being the site. Some have argued for Gadera (located five miles southeast of the Sea of Galilee) based on slightly better textual attestation, as well as the testimony of Josephus and numismatology (the study of ancient coins). Josephus says that the “villages of Gadara” were “situated on the borders of Tiberias,”[1] that is, the Sea of Galilee. Coins from Gadera sometimes featured ships.[2]
The oldest and probably best church tradition locates the Gergesenes at a village near the eastern shore of the Sea, opposite Tiberias. Church fathers identified this place as Gergesa, today known as Kursi or Kersa.
Kursi is located at the mouth of the Wadi Samak, also known as the Valley of Kursi. The area is said to “provide excellent grazing areas, particularly for hogs, which are best suited to these rocky hills.”[3] The slopes of the hills in the area run steeply down to the Sea, and it is the only area around the Sea of Galilee that satisfies the geographical criteria of the Gospel account. All three accounts of the miracle say the area where it took place was “on the other side” of the lake (Luke 8:22, Mark 5:1) from the area where Jesus was previously ministering.
The area was excavated and surveyed from 1970-1973 and again in 1980. Other excavators returned to the site again from 2001-2003. In Kursi itself excavators discovered a large Byzantine monastery area, probably built in the early sixth century. Small Roman and Byzantine settlements were discovered on the ridge above the site, and many caves were found in the slopes above Kursi. Near the shore, a Roman-era fishing village was also discovered.[4]
Archaeologists also excavated a site approximately 650 feet south of the Byzantine monastery and halfway up the slope of a steep hill. The site appears to have been a chapel constructed at the same time as the monastery, around a large boulder, and may have commemorated the likely spot where Jesus cast the demons into the swine. The chapel was oriented so that pilgrims could look at the boulder and the sea while sitting on a circular bench under a shelter carved into the rock of the hillside.[5]
The Kursi site appears to have been abandoned during the end of the eighth century after the Muslim conquest and a severe earthquake.
[1] Josephus, Life, 9.42.
[2]See Bruce Metzger, et al. Eds., A Textual Commentary of the New Testament, 2nd Ed.(New York: United Bible Societies, 1994)18. Metzger says the committee only gave this reading a tentative preference with some difficulty coming to a decision.
[3] Vassilios Tzaferis, “A Pilgrimage to the Site of the Swine Miracle” BAR Vol. 15, N0. 2 (March/April 1989) Online: http://members.bib-arch.org/publication.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=15&Issue=2&ArticleID=1 (accessed March 3, 2010).
[4] Vassilios Tzaferis, The Excavations of Kursi-Geresa, ‘Atiquot, English Series, Vol. 16 (Jerusalem, 1983)
[5] Vassilios Tzaferis, “A Pilgrimage to the Site of the Swine Miracle” BAR Vol. 15, N0. 2 (March/April 1989): 44-51.