was befallen to the possessed of the devils. (34) And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus: and
when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts‖.
Even the demons know their time is limited. The demons begged Y‘shua in Luke 8:31: ―And they besought
him that he would not command them to go out into the deep‖. Most scholars accepted this place as the
―Bottomless pit‖. Their dread and terror of the pit (abyss) was so great that they would rather be incarnated
into the swine.
It is a place or compartment under Sheol (known in most places in the Tanach as Hades) to restrain or hold
beings (extremely evil/demonic spirits) which have come under the judgement of YHWH.
This is the place that will be opened during the Tribulation period:
(1) ―And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given
the key of the bottomless pit.
(2) And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great
furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit‖. (Rev 9:1-2)
The country of the Gergesenes
In Isaiah 9:1, it is prophesied that the Messiah would make his earthly appearance in the Galilee, near the
area of heavy Gentile occupation. The prophet says: ―Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those
who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future
he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan‖.
Indeed, in Y‘shua‘s time, there were many Gentiles living in the Galilee just as there are today. One large
area of Gentile domination was known as the Decapolis. This area had its historical beginnings after the
invasion of Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C. It was in Alexander‘s heart to thoroughly spread
Hellenism with its culture and religion. He left in his wake great Hellenistic cities like Alexandria in Egypt and
the ten cities of the Decapolis.
The Decapolis
These city-states of the Decapolis had for their capital, Scythopolis; or Bet Shean on the west side of the
Jordan. However, for the most part their areas fell east of the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee. Two of
the states either bordered or else were close to the Sea of Galilee. One was Gadara to the south, which had
a harbour on the lake; and the other more geographically prominent one was Hippos or Susita. The unusual
dome-shaped hill where Hippos once stood is still visible on the east side of the lake, just behind the fishing
kibbutz of Ein Gev.
Interestingly, Y‘shua commanded his disciples not to enter these lands. In Matt 10:5-6 it is said: ―These
twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ̳Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the
Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel‘‖. For this reason, Y‘shua and His disciples ministered
primarily in the Jewish cities to the north and western shores of the Sea of Galilee. These were the cities of
Capernaum, Bethsaida and Korazin. Perhaps on only one or two occasions did Y‘shua actually venture
through Decapolis as is mentioned in Mark 7:31. This instruction of Y‘shua concerning Gentiles sets a clear
precedent in Scripture, that the Gospel must go to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.
Y‟shua visits KursiOne day Y‘shua likely instructed his disciples to get into the boat that they might go to Decapolis. Perhaps
He made this announcement after listening all night to the screams of a demon-possessed man as they
wafted across to Capernaum on the quiet Sea. We can almost imagine the astonishment of these disciples
as they heard Y‘shua‘s direction. They might have queried him: "Excuse us Sir, Did - did you say -
Decapolis?"
What was wrong with a good Jewish disciple going to Decapolis? The immediate problem was that Jews did
not mix with the Gentiles and Decapolis was predominately a Gentile area. They did not eat Gentile food, or
intermarry, or even mix socially to any large degree with Gentiles. YHWH had given this command in order to
keep his people separate from the nations (Deut 7:3-6). YHWH knew that if his people intermingled with the
nations they would soon become like the nations and worship the gods of the nations. Some Jews had gone
to the extreme to teach that even if the shadow of a Gentile fell on a Jew, the latter would become defiled.