Mark 5:1

The Gadarene Demoniac.

On the eastern shore of the lake: And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.

The journey across the sea, which ordinarily took only a few hours, was prolonged, on account of the storm, to last all night. The next day they landed in the country of the Gergesenes, or Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee, Matthew 8:28; Luke 8:26. It was known by both names, from the chief cities of the neighborhood. "We read. that Jesus and His disciples 'came to the other side of the sea to the country of the Gerasenes. ' The Authorized Version reads: 'to the country of the Gadarenes. ' The country to which Jesus came at this time cannot have been that of the Decapolitan city Gerasa, for, as we have seen, that lay far to the south. It was in a direct line nearly fifty miles from the Sea of Galilee. Neither can it have been to the region of Gadara that He came, for Gadara lay at least five miles to the south across the deep valley of the Yarmuk. There was, however, on the east shore of the Sea of Galilee a town called Gergesa, the modern Kursi. This place was near the city of Hippos, and possibly one of the towns subordinate to Hippos. As Jesus and the disciples walked back from the sea, they met the demoniac, whom Jesus healed. " The whole region or district southeast of the Sea of Galilee was indiscriminately called that of the Gadarenes and Gerasenes. It was predominantly heathen.