She was a comely Young Woman
and not without prospects.
Therefore it was heartbreaking to Her Mother
that she would enter into marriage
with William Munny,
a known Thief and Murderer,
A Man of notoriously viscous
and intemperate disposition.
When she died,
it was not at His Hands as Her Mother
might have expected but of smallpox.
That was 1878.
The exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac, frequently known as the Miracle of the (Gadarene) Swine and the exorcism of Legion, is one of the miracles performed by Jesus according to the New Testament.
The story shows Jesus exorcising a demon or demons out of a man and into a herd of swine,
causing the swine to run down a hill into a lake and drown themselves.
One detail that the Lucan gospel has but the other gospel writers lack is a reference to both the demoniac’s nakedness and his subsequent clothing.
At Luke 8:27, the gospel writer notes that the demoniac wore no clothes. Then he notes that he “was clothed and in his own mind” (Luke 8:35).
Clothing is an important prop in the Lucan narrative (see Biblical clothing), which in this scene portrays the demoniac’s development from his animal-like state to his restoration as a human being.
Initially the possessed man has been expelled from the human race — that is, he is no better off than an animal without clothing
—
but, after his exorcism, his humanity is fully restored and he rejoins the human race,
“clothed and in his right mind” (Luke 8:35).
EXT --- DAY.
William Munny's farm.
KID
You don't look like no rootin-tootin,
son-of-a-bitchin, cold-blooded assassin.
MUNNY
Say what?
KID
My guess is you're calling yourself
Mister William Munny
MUNNY
You have me confused with someone else, mister.
KID
The same one who shot Charlie Pepper
up in Lake County
BOY
Pa! Hey Pa!
MUNNY
Yeah, What's up son
BOY
Two more hogs got the fever
KID
You shot Charlie Pepper, didn't you.
You're the one who killed William Harvey
and robbed that train over in Missouri.
MUNNY
Now hold on, Mister.
Son, you get those hogs separated there,
Penny, why don't you help Your Brother out.
PENNY
That one's sick too!
MUNNY
Yeah. (to Kid) We'll talk inside.
Interior - Munny's house
MUNNY
So you're Pete Sothow's nephew, huh?
I thought maybe you was someone come to kill me
for something I done in the old days
KID
I could have. Easy.
MUNNY
I guess maybe so.
KID
Like I was saying, you don't look no meaner-than-hell,
cold-blooded damn killer.
MUNNY
Maybe I ain't
KID
Well, uncle Pete says you was the meanest god-damned
son of a bitch alive, and if I ever wanted a
partner for A Killing you were the worst one....
meaning the best on account of you're as cold as the
snow and you don't have no weak nerve, nor fear.
MUNNY
Pete said that, huh.
KID
Yeah. Yeah he did.
I'm A Killer myself, except I ain't
killed as many as you because of my youth.
The 'Schofield Kid' is what they call me.
MUNNY
Why? Are you from Schofield
KID
No, it's on account of my Schofield model
Smith and Wesson pistol.
How about it, Will?
MUNNY
How about what?
KID
How about being My Partner.
I'm heading up North in through Niobrera to Wyoming.
I'm gonna kill a couple of no-good cowboys.
MUNNY
For what?
KID
For cuttin' up a lady.
They cut her face, cut her eyes out,
cut here ears off, hell,
they even cut her teats,
MUNNY
Jesus
KID
A Thousand Dollars reward, Will.
Five hundred apiece.
BOY
Pa, I can't move those damn pigs!
MUNNY
Watch your cussin now, will you?
Do The Best You Can with it
and go to the pump and get yourself cleaned up.
MUNNY
I ain't like that anymore, Kid.
It was whiskey done it as much as anything else.
I ain't had a drop of it in over ten years.
My Wife, she cured me of that,
cured me of drink and wickedness
KID
Well, you don't look so prosperous.
You could buy her a new dress with your half.
We could kill them two, you could buy your wife one fancy...
MUNNY
She's passed on.
KID
What?
MUNNY
She's been gone near three years now
KID
Oh.
Exterior - Day - Munny's porch
KID
Don't tell no one else about the reward and all.
I don't need no other gunmen trying to collect.
MUNNY
We don't see no one out here
KID
Yeah. Well, if you change your mind might be you can
catch me. I'll be riding due west for the western
trail heading north into Wyoming.
MUNNY
(to children)
Come on. Let's separate those hogs.
PENNY
Pa. two of them others, I think they got the fever!
`EXT DAY
DAVEY and MIKE ride into Big Whiskey with a group of ponies behind them.
The women watch them as they ride toward Skinnys
SKINNY
Took you boys a while. Couple more days and
I was going to call on the sheriff, how about that?
DAVEY
The River was all swolled up, we couldn't cross it.
SKINNY
I'll bet. Sleepy, get them horses into the livery.
Neil, take that one over around back.
(the ponies move towards the barn)
Yeah, come on.
Whoo! Now get on.
(he walks toward the pony which DAVEY has held back)
Oh, now here's a beauty.
DAVEY
You got two of mine!
This one here ain't yours.
SKINNY
Oh, we going to see about that.
suddenly The Women begin pelting MIKE and DAVEY with rocks
Chaos ensues as they ponies begin to bolt.
WOMEN
Get out of town! Get out!
Take your girlfriend with ya, you butcher!
DAVEY
This here pony I brung for The Lady.
The one my partner cut.
She's the best of the lot, better than the ones I gave him.
She can sell her or do what she wants.
ALICE
A Pony? She ain't got no face left,
you're going to giver her a god damn mangy pony?
DAVEY
She ain't mangy, ma'am.
WOMEN
Get out of here! We don't need your Charity!
Get out of our town.
INT DAY - MUNNY'S HOUSE
MUNNY is digging through a box.
We see a picture of His Wife.
He looks at it momentarily and then continues His Hunt.
He finds what he is looking for.
EXT DAY - MUNNY'S FARM
We see MUNNY firing at a pistol at a can which set up on a stump. He misses with each shot.
PENNY
Did pa used to kill folks....?
MUNNY storms into the house and then comes back out with a shotgun.
He aims at the can and shoots hitting it on the first shot.
INT DAY - MUNNY'S HOUSE
MUNNY is shaving in preparation for A Journey.
As he glances out the window we catches sight of
His Wife's Grave and stares at it for a time.
EXT DAY - MUNNY'S FARM
MUNNY is on the porch saying goodbye to his children.
His Son holds the horse which is saddled
and ready to ride
MUNNY
Penny, I could tell your ma liked those
flowers I gave her
BOY
She ain't hardly A Saddle Horse no more, Pa.
She ain't used to the feel.
MUNNY
Now you take care of Your Sister now, Son.
And you kill a few chickens if you have to,
and keep those hogs that got the fever separate.
If you have any problems
go see Sally Two Trees at Ned Logan's.
MUNNY
(trying to mount horse)
Woah! Woah!
MUNNY
Ain't hardly been in The Saddle myself in a while.
This Horse is getting even with me for
The Sins of My Youth.
In My Youth, before I met Your Dear departed Ma,
I used to be Weak and given to mistreating animals.
(to horse)
Come on, Come on.
This Horse and Those Hogs over there are getting
even with me for The Cruelty that I inflicted.
I used to be able to cuss and Whip A Horse like this
but Your Ma, rest Her Soul, showed me
The Error of My Ways.
Now I'll be back in a couple of weeks.
You remember how
The Spirit of Your Dear Departed Ma
watches over you.
Classical theological commentary cited this story to argue that animals have no moral importance in Christianity.11 Saint Augustine of Hippo concluded from the story that Christians have no duties towards animals, writing:
Christ himself shows that to refrain from the killing of animals and the destroying of plants is the height of superstition, for judging that there are no common rights between us and the beasts and trees, he sent the devils into a herd of swine and with a curse withered the tree on which he found no fruit.
Similarly, Thomas Aquinas argued that Jesus allowed the demons to destroy the pigs in order to make the point that his purpose was primarily for the good of men’s souls, not their bodies or property (including their animals).
This interpretation has been shared by a long line of commentators up to the present day, including I. Howard Marshall and Mark Driscoll.
However, other commentators have attempted to make the story consistent with a Jesus who shows “care and concern for animals,” as John Austin Baker wrote.123 Such alternative readings include arguments that the swine were meant to represent the Roman army or “unclean and unfaithful” people; that pigs were considered “unclean”, so destroying them might be consistent with care for other animals; and that Jesus did not actually “send” the devils into the pigs. He merely allowed the demons to go where they themselves chose to go.
René Girard’s Scapegoat Theory
This episode plays a key role in the literary critic René Girard’s theory of the Scapegoat.
In his analysis, the opposition of the entire city to the one man possessed by demons is the typical template for a scapegoat.
Girard notes that, in the demoniac’s self-mutilation, he seems to imitate the stoning that the local villagers would likely have attempted to use against him to cast him out of their society, while the villagers themselves show by their reaction to Jesus that they are not primarily concerned with the good of the man possessed by demons:
Notice the mimetic character of this behavior. As if he is trying to avoid being expelled and stoned in reality, the possessed brings about his own expulsion and stoning; he provides a spectacular mime of all the stages of punishment that Middle Eastern societies inflict on criminals whom they consider completely defiled and irredeemable.
First, the man is hunted, then stoned, and finally he is killed; this is why the possessed lived among the tombs.
The Gerasenes must have had some understanding of why they are reproached or they would not respond as they do.
Their mitigated violence is an ineffective protest. Their answer is: ‘No, we do not want to stone you because we want to keep you near us. No ostracism hangs over you.’
Unfortunately, like anyone who feels wrongfully yet feasibly accused, the Gerasenes protest violently, they protest their good faith with violence, thereby reinforcing the terror of the possessed.
Proof of their awareness of their own contradiction lies in the fact that the chains are never strong enough to convince their victim of their good intentions toward him.”
On Girard’s account, then, the uneasy truce that the Gaderenes and the demonic had worked out was that the evil power in him was contained and thereby neutralized. Jesus’ arrival on the scene introduced a spiritual power stronger than Legion, which upset the societal balance by removing the scapegoat. This reversal of the scapegoat mechanism by Jesus is central to Girard’s entire reading of Christianity, and this reversal is on display in this story as well.
Contrasting the self-destruction of the herd of pigs with the typical motif of an individual evildoer being pushed over a cliff by an undifferentiated mob (cf. Luke 4:29), Girard comments:
But in these cases it is not the scapegoat who goes over the cliff, neither is it a single victim nor a small number of victims, but a whole crowd of demons, two thousand swine possessed by demons. Normal relationships are reversed. The crowd should remain on top of the cliff and the victim fall over; instead, in this case, the crowd plunges and the victim is saved. The miracle of Gerasa reverses the universal schema of violence fundamental to all societies of the world.
Proverbial use
The story is the origin of the English proverbial adjective Gadarene, meaning “involving or engaged in a headlong or potentially disastrous rush to do something”.
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