In my post Bible Contradiction? How many men were possessed with demons at the country of the Gadarenes? I have already shown that there is not a logical contradiction between Matthew 8:28 pitted against Mark 5:12 and Luke 8:26-27 which mentioned there are two men and one man Jesus healed respectively.
A sister in the Lord asked a follow up question:
What then is the significance of Matthew saying 2 versus Mark and Luke saying “a man”? Since most details in God’s Word have a reason or significance behind it, I’m wondering if there’s a deeper meaning/reason behind why each account mentioned the number the way they did?
I don’t think this is easy to answer. Still I think its a fruitful exercise to consider the question by examining more deeper the Scriptures. I will first make some observations and close with some thoughts on its significance.
Here are my observations and thoughts:
- One obvious reason for why Matthew states there were two demon possessed man was simply because there were two demon possessed man. This is of course a foundation for everything else that follows below but still we must not forget that, that if one of Matthew’s intention is to inform us factually of what happened he would mention at least one of the demon possessed man and if not also both of them.
- I think it is also helpful to compare Matthew with the other Gospels for further insights. The other three Gospels can serve as foils for the purpose of compare and contrast.
- Matthew as one of Jesus’ original disciple/Apostle would have been a witness of this event and no doubt his additional detail of what happened in this account would be more vivid than Mark or Luke who wrote based upon other eyewitness sources.
- Remember Matthew was a tax collector (see What was the name of the tax collector who was called by Jesus?). For tax collectors counting people is important, it is something they are use too for their occupation. So we won’t be surprised that Matthew will focus on numbers of people involved with an event. In fact Matthew’s personality as a tax collector of counting people has his fingerprint in this account. He mentioned two demon possessed man while the other gospels don’t focus on numbers but the main demon possessed man name “Legion.” It is an interesting observation that Matthew doesn’t mention the main demon possessed man was named “Legion” while the other Gospels named the main demon possessed man as Legion (Mark 5:9 and Luke 8:30). In fact Matthew has a habit of mentioning numbers of people than their names throughout his Gospels (credit to this source for pointing this out). For example Matthew 4.18 mentioned “two brothers” who were fisherman but the parallel in other writing mentioned the names of the brothers were “Simon and Andrew” (Mark 1.16). Also Matthew 4.21 mentioned “two brothers” but another Gospel mentioned the brothers’ names were “James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother” (Mark 1.19).
- Matthew mentioning of the number “two” seems to be consistent with Matthew’s focus on numbers in general more than the other Gospels and not just with counting people. As a sample I did a search on Biblegateway of the number “two” and it shows Matthew has more of the word appearing than the other Gospels. Likewise with the frequency of the word three,and seven. Four and six Matthew has the same amount of frequency as with one of the other Gospels. With five though the Gospel of Luke leads. (I didn’t search “eight” and “ten” since I don’t have the time to sort it out from words with “eight” and “ten” such as “weight,” “freight,” and “tent” and “often.”). So with Matthew’s personality of focusing on numbers we wouldn’t be surprised with Matthew’s observation that there were two demon possessed men.
- Based upon this compilation there are 37 miracles in the four Gospels that Jesus performed. Matthew mentioned more accounts of Jesus’ miracles than the other Gospels. Here’s the breakdown. Matthew: 22 miracles. Mark: 20. Luke: 21. John: 7. Maybe this tells us something about Matthew’s intention with mentioning two individuals healed. Consistent with the intent of the book it seems Matthew emphasize more of the miracles Jesus performed more than the other authors of the other three Gospels. By mentioning not one individual but two demoniac that was healed it seems therefore Matthew’s intention is to say “Hey, there’s more than one miracle in this account that happened!”
- Why did God have Matthew emphasize more miracles than the other Gospels? The Gospel of Matthew’s original recipients were Jews. Recall Paul told us “For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom” (1 Corinthians 1:22). Perhaps the reason why God has more miracles in the Gospel of the Matthew including the reference two demoniac being healed instead of just focusing on one was to reach the original recipients who were Jews since miracles was what they were looking for to believe in Jesus Christ. How do we know Matthew’s intended audience was the Jews? There are numerous reasons we believe that, but for the sake of time I will mention two. The first reason is that the Gospel of Matthew quotes more from the Old Testament more than the other three Gospels. Second reason is the early church fathers understood the Gospel of Matthew was originally for the Jews. For example an early church father Irenaeus wrote “Matthew also issued a written gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect” (Against Heresies 3:1). Other church fathers held similar view.
- While we began with the question why did Matthew mentioned two demon possessed another important question would be “Why did Mark and Luke mentioned only one demoniac?”
- With Mark’s brevity he’s going to focus on the main demoniac that was name “Legion” (Mark 5:9). According to early Church History Mark was originally written for Roman soldiers and if that is so the brevity of the Gospel of Mark in terms of length makes sense since soldiers would want to carry something light.
- Unlike the book of Mark the Gospel of Luke is obviously a bigger book in length than Mark. In terms of the function of the literary device of omitting the second demoniac it allows readers to focus on the main demoniac that had the most demons name “Legion.” This reason is applicable to the Gospel of Mark as well.
- One possible reason why Matthew mentioned two individuals and the other Gospels focused on the one main one is because the other Gospels is assuming you know the Matthew’s version is available for more details. In the beginning of Luke’s Gospel in Luke 1:1-3 the author tells the original recipient that other accounts have already been written about Jesus but Luke’s purpose is to write with a more organized style. So that means the other Gospels were already written and known before Luke was written. While there’s debate of whether Mark or Matthew comes first still (I take the historical church fathers’ position that Matthew was written first) this might be true too for Mark. Again it goes back to Mark and Matthew’s desire to focus on the main demoniac.
Hare are my observations and thoughts:
- Matthew wants us to know Jesus healed a lot of people. More people than some of the other Gospel mentioned. Are you amazed?
- Again Matthew wants us to know Jesus healed a lot of people. More people than some of the other Gospel mentioned. That’s proof that Jesus is the Messiah! Have you trusted in Him as the Messiah?
- Don’t miss the lesson that God uses us with our personality. God used Matthew, a person who is a tax collector with a personality focus on numbers. Yet there’s Mark who is focus more on persons with people’s names in his writing, in contrast to Matthew. God uses all of us despite our differences from others to reach others for Christ.
- While the Gospel is something we can never change nevertheless we need to know our audience.
[…] Why Matthew said two men were possessed with demons at the country of the Gadarenes? […]
Thank you for this! All glory to God!
Jim, the fake pigs photo is just hysterical! LOL!!!!
Thanks lol. Lighten the mood for a heavy post! How are you doing brother? Please know I have prayed for your job situation
Did you make the photo yourself? Just too funny.
Thanks for praying! The family and I are well and can easily hold out for months. I’m adopting a new lifestyle which includes waiting for and being the first to read the weekly presupp links roundup. It’s the Van Til version of being a ‘big game hunter’. I’m on the prowl!
Thanks, brother! I appreciate all of your work and insights here regarding Matthew in comparison to the other Gospel. Yes, it makes perfect sense that former tax collector, Matthew, would be focused on number specifics that Mark and Luke would not be.
You’re welcome! Wow my wordpress has a glitch right now. I didn’t get notified of your comment even when I refreshed and checked again and yet I see your comment here on the post itself. Sometimes we step back and think more deeply about what we know from the text itself and it’s amazing how the rest of Scripture illuminates what’s going on. I’m blown away studying for this post; I’m sure you get the same feeling with your own time in the with with how harmonious and illuminating the Bible is for specific passages!
RE: how harmonious and illuminating the Bible is for specific passages!
Yup, I really enjoy my “deep dive” Bible studies for that reason. Have gotten away from those recently and need to do a “deep dive” every Saturday. Hope WordPress gets their act together for you. I get WP glitches like that now and then, too.
Ha! I just found two comments sent to my blog that weren’t posted on the usual notification sidebar. You’re not the only one!
Wow! What great insight. Thanks for putting this together.
Excellent work and insight Pastor Jim.
Thank you.
You’re welcome! This post turned out to be quite the work and I went to sleep at 4:30 AM. Wanted to ask if you can pray for my online teaching for my night time tonight which is your morning for an overseas seminary that has a lot of security risk?
I have been praying for your online ministry Pastor Jim 🙏
You’re right, Jim. Thank you for enlightening us on Matthew and the way he does his accounts [like a modern day accountant]. Nice lego of pigs.
You’re welcome and thanks for your comment. For some reason there’s a glitch on my WordPress account and haven’t been getting notification with people commenting or commenting back. Are you having that problem with your account, and did you get notification with this comment?
Yes, it occurred to me yesterday, Jim. A comment was not registered in its proper section (under notifications) and it was Tom’s. I discovered it in list of all comments. So, I went to the site/webpage, just to respond. There was a glitch.
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
That’s some skillful handling of the Word. Never thought about this question before nor would have I have seen these answers and observation on my own.
Wow! Great insight again brother. I have never noticed this. Thanks for clarifying
You’re welcome! I’m having a weird glitch right now with WordPress, let me know if you can see my comment on your notification as ExCatholic Tom and I both can’t see other people commenting being notified to us though we spot them when we check our posts or comment section. Do you have the same problem too Efua?
I can see your comment. Not sure if the issue has now been fixed
LOL, interesting timing. Today there was a post on Facebook about a ministry that a close friend and I did together for fifteen years, naming just my friend as the one who ran it. Every time this happens, it shows me how far I have to grow, depending on how upset I feel about not getting mentioned. I guess if I were in this story I would be the second man, the one who gets mentioned less often, who stays in the background, but nevertheless is blessed just as much as the one in the spotlight.
Wow thank you for sharing that, tgat was personally convicting for me to learn of that since we can all for uneasy when someone don’t give us rightful credit. But we see here with this other healed demoniac that we don’t need to be the focus of attention. Was glad you commented on that since I didn’t even think of that application from this study! Thank you so much for sharing that; sister I have been having wordpress problem and so has Ex-Catholic Tom in which comments are not popping up on my notification. Let me know and comment back if you saw this comment!
I saw it! Thanks.
Very concise.
Thanks I try to be with something that can get so complex! Thanks for your love and support. My wordpress is giving me problems where I don’t get notified when someone comments unless I see the post itself; if you read this comment from me can you confirm it that you saw my comment? Thanks!
Yes. I saw the comment.
Amazingly insightful
This goes into great details more than I could have imagine for this question
[…] « Why Matthew said two men were possessed with demons at the country of the Gadarenes? […]
I got a little behind in reading blogs, catching up this morning. Thank you for this explanation, my friend!
It seems to me, that of two demon possessed individuals, one would be dominate over the other. Perhaps the other Gospels focused on that one since it would seem that Christ would be interacting with him more.
Wow that’s a powerful point RG; after all being demon possessed one can dominate over the other and the likely one to dominate is the one who was called “Legion” and had many demons. Man, thanks for that insight, I really believe we need others in the study of Scriptures! Others can point out things they see; how scary is the prideful man that says me alone, with the Bible, and no teacher and others, right?
Absolutely! The Good Lord has Blessed me with many teachers and I needed them desperately.
[…] To further drive the point that there’s not a contradiction here we ask and answer Why Matthew said two men were possessed with demons at the country of the Gadarenes? […]
Well done. Have you already addressed the two blind men/blind man named Bartimaeus at Jericho? J.
I have written about it here: https://veritasdomain.wordpress.com/2018/10/04/bible-contradiction-how-many-blind-men-were-healed-near-jericho/ Have you written something on it or any particular reason this comes to mind?
It’s just that, more than once, Matthew seems to see two healed men where Mark and Luke see only one. On the other hand, Matthew only mentions one angel at Christ’s tomb where Luke describes two. Definitely not contradictions, as you well describe.
Never saw that much details before. Well researched!
Wow impressive exegetical work
I liked how you applied these observations from Scripture to our lives. I’m encouraged to trust in His sovereignty that He uses our personality.
I can tell you put a lot of study behind this!
[…] Why Matthew said two men were possessed with demons at the country of the Gadarenes? […]