Gadarenes meaning

Meaning

The Walled In Ones, The Silent Objectors

Etymology

From Gadara, from the noun גדר (gader), wall.

Related names

• Via גדר (gader): Beth-gader, Geder, Gederah, Gederathite, Gederite, Gederoth, Gederothaim, Gedor

The land of the Gadarenes serves in the New Testament as the setting of the Miracle of the Swine, and is mentioned in Matthew 8:28, Mark 5:1, Luke 8:26 and 8:37 only. Depending on the manuscript, this name Gadarenes (i.e. the people of the city Gadara) alternates with Gerasenes (the people of Gerasa) and Gergesenes (people of Gergesa).

The original versions of the story probably spoke of Gadarenes and Gerasenes, after the two prominent cities of the Decapolis. Since Gerasa was located rather far from the Sea of Galilee (about 50 kilometer), early commentators on the story (particularly Origen) decided that referring to the coast as the land of the Gerasenes was unacceptable and changed it to the land of the Gadarenes, after Gadara, which indeed sat on the coast.

Gadara was also located too far to the north to be included in the Decapolis, which means that Origen sacrificed an important literary allusion for the sake of geographic convenience. To most other readers, the story of the Miracle of the Swine is rather obviously broadly allegorical, most clearly evidenced by the name of the demoniac, Legion, which was also the name of the Roman army. This name is mentioned only in the more elaborate version of Mark and Luke. The version of Matthew depicts two nameless ones.

But regardless of the version, our story takes place in (or rather comments upon the spiritual situation of) the area of the Decapolis, or Ten Town. The numerical reference in this name does not so much relate to the actual number of urban centers (there were more than ten) but rather them being some sort of union or federation or unified collective. In Biblical jargon, the number ten usually refers to some multitude whose oneness is more definitive than the arithmetically exact amount of its elements: the ten commandments aren't actually ten, and neither were the ten camels of Abraham (Genesis 24:10). Most obviously, the figurative Union-of-Ten would have reminded the Jews of the proverbial Ten Tribes, who had been deported and were never heard from again. The first tribes to separate (although still on friendly terms) were Reuben, Gad and Manasseh, who settled to regions east of the Jordan, precisely where Decapolis would much later be.

The "Town that was Many" appears to serve in our many-varied story also to explain the nature of the "Human who was Many", and whose contemporary infestation in turn was explained by the name Legion (the name of the Roman army), whose apparent union was brought about by fear, force and violence and didn't last five minutes in the presence of the One whose unity was brought about by love and the fulfilment of God's perfect law of freedom (James 1:25).

The name Gadara, of the town of the Gadarenes, comes from the noun גדר (gader), meaning wall:

The name Gadara means Fortification or Walled Place, and this deployed in our highly allegorical story would make the "Gadarenes" characterized by excessive defensiveness. And that either due to fear and a lack of confidence or the sort of dumb arrogance that would have a man bring a knife to a gun fight. Or rather, have him imagine that a few rows of stone will prevent the Roman army from waltzing right in.

Even in the ancient world it was highly unusual for any city or citizen to not have to pay taxes to some overlord somewhere, who happened to have shown up with a bigger army. And while the spin doctors proclaim the belief that there is much difference between paying taxes to Rome rather than Athens, or Berlin rather than London, or Washinton rather than Moscow, there very clearly is not to the person paying the taxes. National capitals and national borders have one and only one function, and that has nothing to do with culture and pride and forefathers and all that, and only with the direction in which one's tax money flows. And as long as at least half of any person's productive momentum gets invested in the machinery that keeps that person enslaved, it makes not a lick of difference to that person where the tax money goes.

As long as the bullies abide, all of us are forced to pay tribute or "protection money" to some regime somewhere — regimes who levy taxes solely to retain control, not out of care for the people they exploit, and rather waste it on insane vanity projects than hospitals and schools that would only breed uppitiness. And that simply means that as long as a society is not liberated by love and the fulfilment of God's perfect law of freedom, the next best thing is to fork over whatever the bullies want forked over, and otherwise live as best and virtuously as possible without fear of reprisal or "punishment" for tax evasion.

And that, of course, does not mean surrender or complacency! It means that a successful war of resistance against bullies is never fought on the bullies' terms: never in the way in which the bullies excel. Instead, a successful overthrow of military bullies can only result from compliance first and then a barrage of diplomatic, intellectual, literary, philosophical, artistic and technological resistance. Any attempt to militarily defeat the bullies will always result in victory of the bullies (which is why such bullies routinely invest much effort in inspiring lesser bullies and potential-threat bullies to take up arms).