The Gerasene Demoniac
Plain English Version (PEV)
Mat 8:28–34
Mrk 5:1–20
- 1 Then they went in the boat to the country called Gerasene on the other side of the lake.
- 2 There was a man there that was full of bad spirits. He was mad. He camped in the cemetery there. Before Jesus came to that place, that man walked around in the cemetery and all over the hills there and yelled out and screamed all the time, in the day time and at night time. And he cut himself with stones. People couldn’t tie him up, not even with chains. They tried many times to tie up his hands and his feet, but it was no good. He was too strong. He just broke those chains. Nobody could hold him or make him sit down quiet. When Jesus got out of the boat
- 3 that madman saw him from a long way off. He ran right up to Jesus and got down on his knees in front of him, to show him respect.
- 4 Jesus said to the bad spirit, “Come out of this man.” But the spirit in him screamed, “Why have you come here? I know you. You are Jesus. You are the son of God. He is the big boss of everything. Promise me truly that you will not hurt me.”
- 5 Jesus asked the man, “What is your name?” He said, “My name is Big Mob. You see, we are a mob of bad spirits inside this man.
- 6 Please don’t send us away from this country.”
- 7 There were about 2,000 pigs having a feed on the hill nearby.
- 8 The bad spirits asked Jesus, “Can we go into that big mob of pigs over there?”
- 9 Jesus let those bad spirits go out of the man and go into the pigs. Then those pigs went mad and ran down the steep hill into the lake and drowned themselves in the water.
- 10 The men that looked after the pigs were frightened and they ran back to their community and told everyone what happened. They talked to the people in the town and the people that lived outside of the town too. A lot of people wanted to see for themselves,
- 11 so they ran out to that place where Jesus was. They saw that man sitting down quiet and wearing clothes. He wasn’t mad any more. Then those people got frightened.
- 12 The men that looked after the pigs told them the whole story about the man and the pigs.
- 13 Then all that mob started to ask Jesus strongly to go away from their country and leave them alone.
- 14 Jesus listened to them and started to get into the boat. Then the man, that used to have the bad spirits in him, asked Jesus strongly, “Can I come with you?”
- 15 Jesus said, “No, I want you to go back to your family and to your own mob. I want you to tell everybody about the good things God did for you. Tell them that God was really good to you.”
- 16 Then that man went all over that country called Ten Towns and told everybody that story. He told them all about the good things Jesus did for him. Everybody got a really big surprise.
- 17 Jesus and his followers got back into the boat and went to the other side of the lake. A really big mob of people was waiting for them there beside the water.
- 18 A man called Jairus came up to them. He was one of the bosses of a Jewish meeting place. He saw Jesus and went close to him and got down on his knees in front of him, to show him respect.
- 19 He strongly asked Jesus to help his daughter. He said, “My little girl is really sick and I think she will die. Please come and put your hands on her. I know you can make her better so that she will not die.”
- 20 Jesus listened to the man and started to go with him. The big mob of people followed them. They came up really close and pushed up against him Jesus, all around him.