Luke 8 Study Notes

8:28-31 The demon who spoke identified Jesus, just as the demons did in 4:34 and Ac 16:17. Son of the Most High was the wording used by the angel in speaking to Mary (see note at 1:31-33). Don’t torment me probably refers to sending the demon to the abyss, a place where some of the demons are currently confined (Rv 9:1-2,11). Demons enabled people whom they possessed to perform feats of great strength (he would snap the restraints). It is not clear whether Jesus was asking the name of the man or the demon, but the demon answered. A legion of Roman soldiers was a force of six thousand. Thus many demons possessed this man.

8:32-33 The presence of a large herd of pigs indicates that the region of the Gerasenes was heavily Gentile because Jews considered pigs to be unclean animals (Lv 11:7-8) and would never herd them. The cruel destructiveness of demons is seen in that, as soon as Jesus permitted them to enter the pigs, they caused them to drown in the lake (the Sea of Galilee).

8:34-37 Sitting at Jesus’s feet is the position of a disciple (i.e., the pupil; see 10:38-42). The people were afraid when the demon-possessed man returned to normal, for Jesus had exercised a power that revealed his supernatural identity.

8:38-39 Because he had been asked to leave, Jesus told the healed man to stay in that region and testify to what God had done for him. The man obeyed by proclaiming how much Jesus had done for him.

8:40-42 Jesus returned to Galilee. He likely had met this Jairus before. He had spoken in most of the synagogues in Galilee, and Jairus was a leader (Gk archon, “ruler”; probably the chief elder who conducted the services) in the local synagogue.

8:43-46 The account of the woman suffering from bleeding for twelve years interrupts the narrative to show that delay during a critical hour of the girl’s illness could not keep Jesus from healing her. As for the woman, her bleeding was probably menstrual hemorrhaging, which had made her ceremonially unclean for all this time (Lv 15:25-31). As a doctor, Luke was especially sensitive to the fact that this woman had spent all her resources on doctors and yet could not be healed. Even with the crowd pressing against Jesus from all sides, he was immediately aware of the touch of the woman who was instantly healed of her bleeding. No explanation is given for how he knew that healing power had gone out from him.

8:47-48 The woman was instantly healed, but she was understandably fearful when Jesus singled her out. After hearing her explanation, Jesus stated that her faith in him had saved her.

8:49-50 During the delay caused by Jesus’s interaction with the bleeding woman, the daughter of the synagogue leader died. The natural conclusion was that she was now beyond the help of Jesus. However, he stated that the same kind of faith that had brought about the healing of the bleeding woman would bring the dead girl back to life.

8:51-53 In this passage Peter, John, and James are set apart by Jesus as the inner circle of the apostles (9:28; Mt 26:37). The sense of finality by the child’s parents and, apparently, even the apostles was so profound that the people in the house laughed at Jesus when he seemingly denied that the girl was dead (she is not dead but asleep).

8:54-56 When Jesus commanded, Child, get up, her spirit returned to her body. Then she got up and had something to eat. It is not known why Jesus insisted that her parents not tell about him raising their daughter from the dead. The crowd outside knew that the girl had genuinely died. Now she was alive just after Jesus went in to see her. There could be no hiding the fact that Jesus raised her.