Matthew 8:28

δύο, two, in Mark and Luke one. According to some, e.g., Holtzmann (H. C.), the two includes the case reported in Mark 1:23-27; Luke 4:31-37, omitted by Matthew. Weiss' hypothesis is that the two is an inference from the plurality of demons spoken of in his source (vide Matt.-Evan., p. 239). The harmonists disposed of the difficulty by the remark that there might be two, though only one is spoken of in the other accounts, perhaps because he was the more violent of the two (so Augustine and Calvin). ἐκ τῶν μνημείων : the precipitous hills on the eastern shore are a limestone formation full of caves, which were doubtless used for burying the dead. There the demoniacs made their congenial home. χαλεποὶ λίαν, fierce exceedingly; λίαν, one of our evangelist's favourite words. These demoniacs were what one would call dangerous madmen; that, whatever more; no light matter to cure them, say by “moral therapeutics”. ὥστε μὴ ἰσχύειν : again ὥστε with infinitive (with μὴ for negative). The point is not that nobody passed that way, but that the presence of the madmen tended to make it a place to be shunned as dangerous. Nobody cared to go near them. Christ came near their lair by accident, but He would not have been scared though He had known of their presence.