Matthew 8:29 (ASV)

Passage

And behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?

Nearby Context

Matthew 8:27 And the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?

Matthew 8:28 And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, there met him two possessed with demons, coming forth out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man could pass by that way.

Matthew 8:29 And behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?

Matthew 8:30 Now there was afar off from them a herd of many swine feeding.

Matthew 8:31 And the demons besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, send us away into the herd of swine.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "behold", "cried", "saying", "thee", "thou", "come", and "hither". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "behold" and "cried", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 28's "And when he was come to the..." into verse 30's "Now there was afar off from them...", so "behold" and "cried" belong inside that flow. In Matthew context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "behold" and "cried" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.