Luke 8

Luke's brief but significant notice that women traveled with Jesus and the twelve and contributed to their support out of their own means — Mary Magdalene, Joanna wife of Chuza Herod's household manager, Susanna, and many others — is without parallel in the other gospels at this point in the narrative. It is consistent with Luke's larger pattern of attending to women who are otherwise invisible to the period's historiography. The parable of the sower follows: a farmer scatters seed on four surfaces, with only the seed on good soil bearing a hundredfold yield. When disciples ask about the parable's meaning, Jesus gives a private allegorical explanation: the seed is the word of God; the path represents those from whom the devil takes the word before it can root; the rock represents those who receive joyfully but have no root; the thorns represent those in whom the word is choked by cares and riches and pleasures; the good soil represents those who hear and hold fast the word and bear fruit with patience. The section closes with sayings about a lamp not being hidden and about the family of Jesus being those who hear and do the word.

The four miracles that follow demonstrate authority over successive domains. At sea, a windstorm threatens to swamp the boat while Jesus sleeps; he wakes, rebukes the wind and the waves, and the storm stops. The disciples' question — who then is this? — is left unanswered. At Gerasa, a man who has lived among the tombs, uncontrollable and unclothed, is possessed by a multitude of demons who call themselves Legion; Jesus sends them into a herd of two thousand pigs that rush into the lake. The man is found seated at Jesus's feet, clothed and in his right mind; the townspeople ask Jesus to leave. On the return a woman who has had a hemorrhage for twelve years touches the edge of his cloak in the crowd and is immediately healed; Jesus perceives that power has gone out from him, identifies the woman, and tells her that her faith has saved her. The chapter ends with the raising of Jairus's daughter: by the time Jesus arrives at the house she has died, he puts the mourners outside, takes her by the hand, and calls her to arise. She returns to life immediately; he tells her parents to give her something to eat.