New Testament 137

New Testament 137 April 17, 2015

 

 

Decapolis map
A map of the Decapolis, showing both Gadara and Gerasa (which is probably Jerash, still a spectacular ruined city in today’s Jordan)

 

Matthew 8:28-34

Mark 5:1-20

Luke 8:26-39

 

Did this incident, reported in all three of the synoptic gospels, occur in Gadara, Gerasa, or Gergesa?  Were there two demoniacs, or was there only one?

 

The various accounts of Joseph Smith’s First Vision typically speak of a visitation of the Father and the Son, but one speaks only of an appearance of the Son (which, it’s important to note, isn’t saying that the Father didn’t appear, or that the Son was the only person to appear).

 

Many of those who attack Joseph’s accounts as contradictory on this point — which, logically speaking, they’re not — are fundamentalist Protestants, who remain serenely unbothered by the variation in the number of angels at Christ’s tomb, and by Gadara/Gergesa/Gerasa, and by the number of the (Gerasene) demoniacs.

 

On a recent attempt to harmonize the various accounts of the First Vision, by the way, see this.

 

Incidentally, the area east of the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan was far more Greco-Roman in the time of Christ than it was Jewish.  Hence the herd of (Gadarene) swine.

 

 


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