If the miracle took place in the Decapolis or on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River, the audience would likely have been Gentile. If it took place on the western side of the Sea of Galilee, the onlookers would have been Jewish.

If the audience is Gentile, it shows the paradox between how open the Gentiles were to Jesus’ ministry compared to the resistance that Jesus received from the Jews (e.g., Mark 7:1–23). The Gentile response anticipates the confession at the cross where the first human to acknowledge Jesus as God’s son is a Gentile. It also assured Mark’s Roman readers that their inclusion in salvation was not an accident but part of God’s providence, deriving from the ministry of Jesus himself.¹