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
Jerome
AD 420
This is no voluntary confession followed up by a reward to the utterer, but one extorted by the compulsion of necessity. A runaway slave, when after long time he first beholds his master, straight thinks only of deprecating the scourge; so the daemons, seeing the Lord suddenly moving upon the earth, thought He was come to judge them. Some absurdly suppose that these daemons knew the Son of God, while the Devil knew Him not, because their wickedness was less than his. But all the knowledge of the disciple must be supposed in the Master.
But both the Devil and the daemons may be said to have rather suspected, than known, Jesus to be the Son of God.
For the presence of the Saviour is the torment of daemons.
The Saviour bade them go, not as yielding to their request, but that by the death of the swine, an occasion of man’s salvation might be offered. "But they went out, (to wit, out of themen,) and went into the swine; and, lo, the whole herd rushed violently headlong into the sea, and perished in the waters. "Let Manichaeans blush; if the souls of men and of beasts be of one substance, and one origin, how should two thousands wine have perished for the sake of the salvation of two men? Observe the clemency of Christ next in His excellent power; when those who had received favours from Him would drive Him away, He resisted not, but departed, and left those who thus pronounced themselves unworthy of His teaching, giving them as teachers those who had been delivered from the daemons, and the feeders of the swine.
Otherwise; This request may have proceeded from humility as well as pride; like Peter, they may have held themselves unworthy of the Lord’s presence, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
