The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus Christ, by Levi H. Dowling, [1920], at sacred-texts.com
Chapter 118
The Christines are in Gadara. Jesus casts a legion of unclean spirits out of a man. The spirits go into vicious animals which run into the sea, and are drowned. The people are in fear and request Jesus to leave their coast. With his disciples, he returns to Capernaum.
1. The morning came; the Christines landed in the country of the Geracenes.
2. They went to Gadara, chief city of the Peracans, and here for certain days they tarried and they taught.
3. Now, legends hold that Gadara is sacred to the dead, and all the hills about are known as holy ground.
4. These are the burial grounds of all the regions round about; the hills are full of tombs; and many dead from Galilee are here entombed.
5. Now, spirits of the lately dead that cannot rise to higher planes, remain about the tombs that hold the flesh and bones of what was once their mortal homes.
6. They sometimes take possession of the living, whom they torture in a hundred ways.
7. And all through Gadara were men obsessed, and there was no one strong enough to bring relief.
8. That they might meet these hidden foes and learn the way to dispossess the evil ones the master took the foreign masters and the twelve into the tombs.
9. And as they neared the gates they met a man obsessed. A legion of the unclean ones were in this man, and they had made him strong;
10. And none could bind him down, no, not with chains; for he could break the stoutest chains, and go his way.
11. Now, unclean spirits cannot live in light; they revel in the dark.
12. When Jesus came he brought the light of life, and all the evil spirits were disturbed.
13. The leader of the legion in the man called out, Thou Jesus, thou Immanuel, we beg that thou wilt not consign us to the depths. Torment us not before our time.
14. And Jesus said, What is your number and your name?
15. The evil spirit said, Our name is legion, and our number is the number of the beast.
16. And Jesus spoke; and with a voice that shook the very hills, he said, Come forth; possess this man no more.
17. Now, all the hills were filled with unclean animals that fed, and carried forth and spread the plague among the people of the land.
18. And when the evil spirits begged that they might not be driven forth without a home, the master said,
19. Go forth and take possession of the unclean quadrupeds.
20. And they, and all the evil spirits of the tombs went forth and took possession of the breeders of the plague,
21. Which, wild with rage, ran down the steeps into the sea, and all were drowned.
22. And all the land was freed of the contagion, and the unclean spirits came no more.
23. But when the people saw the mighty works that Jesus did they were alarmed. They said,
24. If he can free the country of the plague, and drive the unclean spirits out, he is a man of such transendent power that he can devastate our land at will.
25. And then they came and prayed that he would not remain in Gadara.
26. And Jesus did not tarry longer there, and with the other masters and the twelve, he went aboard the boats to go away.
27. The man who had been rescued from the unclean legion stood upon the shore and said, Lord let me go with you.
28. But Jesus said, It is not well; go forth unto your home and tell the news that men may know what man can do when he is tuned with God.
29. And then the man went forth through all Decapolis and told the news.
30. The Christines sailed away, re-crossed the sea and came again into Capernaum.