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 region.
All Commentaries on Matthew 8:34 Go To Matthew 8
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
De. Cons. Evan., ii, 24: Whereas Matthew relates that there were two who were afflicted with daemons, but Mark and Luke mention only one, you must understand that one of them was a person of note, for whom all that country was in grief, and about whose recovery there was much care, whence the fame of this miracle was the more noised abroad.
City of God, book 9, ch. 21: God was so far known to them as it was His pleasure to be known; and He pleased to be known so far as it was needful. Hewas known to them therefore not as He is Life eternal, and the Light which enlightens the good, but by certain temporal effects of His excellence, and signs of His hidden presence, which are visible to angelic spirits though evil, rather than to the infirmity of human nature.
Quaest. V. et. N.T., 9, 55: When the daemons cry out, “What have we to do withthee, Jesus, thou Son of God?” we must suppose them to have spoken from suspicion rather than knowledge. “For had they known him, they never would have suffered the Lord of glory to be crucified.” .
City of God, book 8, ch. 23: Either because that came upon them unexpectedly, which they looked for indeed, but supposed more distant; or because they thought their perdition consisted in this, that when known they would be despised; or because this was before the day of judgment, when they should be punished with eternal damnation.
De Cons. Evan., ii, 24: Though the words of the daemons are variously reportedby the three Evangelists, yet this is no difficulty; for they either all convey the same sense, or may be supposed to have been all spoken. Nor again because in Matthew they speak in the plural, in the others in the singular number; because even the other two Evangelists relate that when asked his name, he answered, Legion, shewing that the daemons were many. "Now there was not far from thence a herdof many swine feeding; and the daemons prayed him, saying, If thou cast us out hence, send us into the swine.
