when He was come. This miracle of the two demoniacs was not the same as that recorded in Mark 5:1-20 and Luke 8:26-40. Here, there were two men; in the later miracle there was one. here, they landed opposite the place whence they set sail (Gergesenes); there, the Gadarenes (not Gadera) not opposite; here, no name is asked; there, the name is "Legion"; here, no bonds used; there, many; here, the two were not afterwards used, and the Twelve not yet called; there, the one man was used, and the Twelve had been called. The consequents also are different. See App-97.
to. into. Greek. eis.
Gergesenes. Probably Girgashites, so called from one of the original Canaanite nations (Genesis 10:16; Genesis 15:21; Deuteronomy 7:1.Joshua 3:10; Joshua 24:11; 1 Chronicles 1:14.Nehemiah 9:8; Nehemiah 9:8). Not Gadarenes, as in Mark and Luke. "Gergesenes is the reading of the vast majority of MSS. of both families; of the Coptic, Ethiopic, and Armenian versions". Origen is the great authority; but Wetstein "imagined" that it was Origen's "gratuitous conjecture". Critics have followed Wetstein, but Scrivener is right (as usual in retaining Gergesenes.
two. In the later miracle only one. Compare "we", Matthew 8:29.
possessed with devils: i.e. demoniacs. Greek. daimonizomai..
no man might pass. one was not able to pass.