demons' petition, according to the Received Text, takes the form,
'Suffer us to go,' while the reading adopted by most modern editors is
'Send us.' The former reading seems to be taken from Luke (viii. 32),
while Mark has 'Send' (not the same word as now read in Matthew). But
Mark goes on to say, not that Jesus sent them, but that He 'suffered
them' or 'gave them leave' (the same word as in Matthew, according to
the Received Text). Thus, Jesus' part in the transaction is simply
permissive, and the one word which He speaks is authoritative indeed in
its curtness, and means simply 'away,' or 'begone.' It casts them out
but does not send them in. He did not send them into the herd, but out
of the men, and did not prevent their entrance into the swine. It should
further be noted that nothing in the narrative suggests that the
destruction of the herd was designed even by the demons, much less by
Jesus. The maddened brutes rushed straight before them, not knowing why
or where; the steep slope was in front, and the sea was at its foot, and
their terrified, short gallop ended there. The last thing the demons
would have done would have been to banish themselves, as the death of
the swine did banish them, from their new shelter. There is no need,
then, to invent justifications for Christ's destroying the herd, for He
did not destroy it. No doubt, keeping swine was a breach of Jewish law;
no doubt the two demoniacs and the bystanders would be more convinced of
the reality of the exorcism by the fate of the swine, but these
apologies are needless.

The narrative suggests some affinity between the demoniac and the animal
nature, and though it is easy to ridicule, it is impossible to disprove,
the suggestion. We know too little about either to do that, and what we
cannot disprove it is somewhat venturesome hardily to deny. There are
depths in the one nature, which we cannot fathom though its possessors
are close to us; the other is removed from our investigation altogether.
Where we are so utterly ignorant we had better neither affirm nor deny.
But we may take a homiletical use out of that apparent affinity, and
recognise that a spirit in rebellion against God necessarily gravitates
downwards, and becomes more or less bestialised.

No wonder that the swineherds fled, but, surely, it is a wonder that
eagerness to be rid of Jesus was the sole result of the miracle. Perhaps
the reason was the loss of the swine, which would bulk largest