<p>8:28<i>&nbsp;And when he had arrived on the other side</i>- The Gospel records often paint a broad scene and then zoom in upon the person of Jesus. Mark does this by using a plural verb&nbsp;<i>without an explicit subject</i>&nbsp;to paint a picture of the disciples or crowd generally; and then follows this by a singular verb or pronoun referring specifically to Jesus. Here are some examples: &quot;They came to the other side... and when He had stepped out of the boat&quot; (Mk. 5:1,2); &quot;when they came from Bethany, he was hungry&quot; (Mk. 8:22); &quot;they went to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples...&quot; (Mk. 14:32). The grammatical feature is more evident in Greek than in English. If the writer of Mark had been a cameraman, he'd have taken a broad sweep, and then suddenly hit the zoom to focus right up close upon Jesus Himself. This is what is being done with words, and it reflects the Christ-centeredness of the whole narrative and preaching of the Gospel, of which the Gospels are transcripts.</p>
<div><i>In the country of the Gadarenes</i>- The &quot;Girgashites&quot; of Dt. 7:1, some of the original inhabitants of Canaan who had never been cast out of the land as intended by God. These men stopped anyone passing along the way or road. The point may be that those whom Israel should've 'cast out' to secure their inheritance of the Kingdom were finally cast out by Christ. This lays the basis for the language of 'casting out' the demons into the lake.<br />
<br />
<i>There met him two possessed with demons-&nbsp;</i>Mark and Luke focus upon just one of them, Legion. Luke says that Peter went to the Lord's tomb after the resurrection, yet several other disciples also went there (&quot;some of our number&quot;). Luke chose to focus upon only Peter; and here too, he chooses to focus upon only one of the two demoniacs.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
<br />
<i>Coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could go that way</i>- See on 8:34.&nbsp;</div>
<p>For a detailed study on this incident, see my discussion of it in <a href="http://www.realdevil.info/4-3-1.htm"><i>The Real Devil</i></a><i>. </i>See too commentary on Mark 5 and Luke 8.</p>