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Matthew 8: Healings in Capernaum and a storm on the way to the Gadarenes

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Matthew 5:35ESV

or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by , for it is the city of the great King.

ESV

When he had entered , a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him,

ESV

And when he came to the other side, to the country of the , two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way.

Matthew 10:15ESV

Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of and than for that town.

Matthew 5
Matthew 10

Coming down from the mountain, Jesus cleanses a leper, then enters Capernaum, where he heals a centurion's servant at a word and Peter's mother-in-law in Peter's house (8:5-15). He gives orders to go over to the other side, and on the sea a great storm swamps the boat until he rebukes the winds and the sea (8:23-27). On the far side, in the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men meet him; the demons go into a herd of pigs that rushes down the steep bank into the sea, and the city begs him to leave their region (8:28-34).

Map of Matthew 8: Healings in Capernaum and a storm on the way to the Gadarenes — 3 sites plotted

Regions on this map

Verses 5 to 27: Capernaum, where the centurion's servant and Peter's mother-in-law are healed, and the sea crossed in the storm.

  • Jesus enters Capernaum in 8:5, where a centurion asks him to heal his servant lying paralyzed at home (8:6), and he is still there when he enters Peter's house in 8:14. The gazetteer puts it at Tell Hum on 860 votes, on the north shore of the lake.

    Today: Tell Hum, on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee

  • The chapter calls it only "the sea": the storm rises on it while Jesus sleeps (8:24), he rebukes the winds and the sea (8:26-27), and the herd of pigs drowns in it (8:32). Matthew 4:18 names it the Sea of Galilee. The gazetteer's point, on 500 votes, is the middle of the lake.

    Today: Lake Kinneret, Israel (representative point)

Verses 28 to 34: the country of the Gadarenes on the other side, where two demon-possessed men meet him and the herd of pigs drowns.

  • 8:28 brings Jesus to "the country of the Gadarenes" on the other side of the sea, the land of the town of Gadara. All 500 votes put the town at Umm Qais, on the heights south-east of the lake. The chapter names the country, not the town; the city the herdsmen run to in 8:33 is not named.

    Today: Umm Qais, northern Jordan

Matthew 8, verse by verse

  1. Matthew 8:5When he had entered , a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him,
  2. Matthew 8:28And when he came to the other side, to the country of the , two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way.