Of the Gadarene story, Dr. Wace, with all solemnity and twice over,
affirms that he "believes it." I am sorry to trouble him further, but
what does he mean by "it"? Because there are two stories, one in
"Mark" and "Luke," and the other in "Matthew." In the former, which I
quoted in my previous paper, there is one possessed man; in the
latter there are two. The story is told fully, with the vigorous
homely diction and the picturesque details of a piece of folklore, in
the second gospel. The immediately antecedent event is the storm on
the Lake of Gennesaret. The immediately consequent events are the
message from the ruler of the synagogue and the healing of the woman
with an issue of blood. In the third gospel, the order of events is
exactly the same, and there is an extremely close general and verbal
correspondence between the narratives of the miracle. Both agree in
stating that there was only one possessed man, and that he was the
residence of many devils, whose name was "Legion."
In the first gospel, the event which immediately precedes the Gadarene
affair is, as before, the storm; the message from the ruler and the
healing of the issue are separated from it by the accounts of the
healing of a paralytic, of the calling of Matthew, and of a discussion
with some Pharisees. Again, while the second gospel speaks of the
country of the "Gerasenes" as the locality of the event, the third
gospel has "Gerasenes," "Gergesenes," and "Gadarenes" in different
ancient MSS.
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