A Discussion of The Gadarene Swine
First of all I have to say that I’m no biblical scholar. I’m just interested in these things and in particular trying to make sense of what I was taught as a child and didn’t make sense to me then. I have read all the gospels, but I probably pay too much attention to populist writers and make too much use of AI in my research. However I like to stimulate discussion, and perhaps people who know more about these things than I do can put me right where I make mistakes.
One of the miracles of Jesus that puzzled me as a child was the story of the Gadarene Swine, it always seemed a bit hard on the poor pigs, what had they done to deserve their fate? Of course the author of Mark sets the story in Gerasa and as the story originates with Mark that’s the version we will use. Gerasa, the modern Jerash in Jordan, was a major Decapolis city about 35 miles southeast of the Sea of Galilee, far too far for pigs to run into the lake from the city itself. However “Country of the Gerasenes” can refer to the broader region associated with this well-known city. I still have this vision of a huge herd of pigs racing across 35 miles of countryside, closely followed by Jesus, closely followed by twelve disciples, and the whole lot pursued by a mob of baying Geraseans. Perhaps that’s why Luke moved the location to Gadara which was closer some 8 miles southeast of the southern end of the lake. Its territory reached the lakeshore and seemed a more geographically appropriate location for the miracle.
Jesus crosses the Sea of Galilee with his disciples into Gentile territory in the region of Gerasa where they seem quite happy to keep herds of pigs. Here he heals a man of unclean spirits or demons and casts them into the pigs. The pigs, all 2000 of them, promptly run into the sea and drown. Not surprisingly the people of Gerasa who work looking forward to some nice bacon sandwiches don’t take kindly to this and Jesus is asked to depart.
You’d think that this would cause a bit of a stir. That perhaps we’d find such an extraordinary event in Josephus.
“It came to pass, while Pontius Pilatus was governor Judea (26-36) that a certain charlatan, whose name was Jesus, persuaded a great many people to take their effects with them, and follow him to the Sea of Galilee; for he told them he was a prophet, and that he would, by his own command, afford them an easy passage over it. Many were deluded by his words. Upon attaining the land of Decapolis he caused by sorcery the drowning of some 2000 swine; so that the populace became enraged and drove him from their lands exhorting him never to return. (Jewish Antiquities 20.97-98)”
Except of course Josephus didn’t write this and doesn’t mention it, and for a very good reason. It didn’t happen. Like a lot of Mark it is an allegory. Scholarship highlights clear allegorical elements.
The mad man who is healed is asked his name. He replies ‘Λεγιὼν ὄνομά μο ὅτι πολλοί ἐσμεν’ meaning ‘Legion is the name for me, since I am many’. Note that ‘Λεγιὼν’ (just Legion in the Greek alphabet) is not a Greek word, it is a Latin term (as ‘Legio’) for a Roman military unit (typically 5,000+ soldiers). Furthermore it is emphasised by being placed at the beginning of the sentence. We might think an accurate rendering would be ‘Roman Legion that is my name’.
Under Roman occupation, this name would evoke the imperial army oppressing Judea/Galilee. The demons (Roman Legions) beg not to be “sent out of the country”. Romanes eunt domus as Monty Python would have it! I did three years Latin at school and that’s probably the best I could have managed as well.
Pigs are unclean to Jews. A boar was the symbol of the Legio X Fretensis that helped crush the rebellion in Judea which fought in the brutal siege of Jerusalem and later captured the mountain fortress of Masada. Sending the legion of pigs to drown in the sea mirrors Pharaoh’s army drowning and symbolises the self-destruction of imperial oppression.
The healed man who was originally naked, tomb-dwelling and uncontrollable represents the occupied people of Judea “possessed” by empire; Jesus liberates him, but the locals reject the liberator foretelling the crucifixion.
This reading sees the story as coded resistance literature. Jesus defeats the Roman legion without direct confrontation. Mark is writing just after the revolt that was crushed finally in 73 AD. Mark is at great pains throughout his gospel to explain why Jesus, the Messiah, has not used his powers to destroy Rome and liberate Judea.
In occupied Judea/Syria and among Christians in Rome the the word “Legion” and unclean pigs would be obvious to bilingual or bicultural hearers. Jewish prophetic tradition often used symbolic narratives for political critique. Greco-Roman audiences were also used to miracle stories in biographies that carried moral or political symbolism. While some might have taken it purely as a power demonstration, attentive readers, particularly those experiencing Roman rule, would catch the layered meaning.
Mark presented this story as a historical-theological narrative. Ancient biography often blended fact, symbolism, and teaching. His gospel is not a modern biography. Miracles proved Jesus’ divine authority and First-century Jews expected prophets to perform symbolic acts. Gentiles knew divine men performed wonders with meaning. The audience would not have forced a false choice between “literal history” and “allegory” - both coexisted, as in Jesus’ own parables.
Luke and Matthew, who use Mark as a source, both copy the story. Luke stays closer to Mark than Matthew does but still shortens and shapes the material:
He emphasises on the man’s nakedness before the healing and being clothed and in his right mind afterward. Clothing is a recurring motif in Luke that highlights restoration from a dehumanized state to full humanity. Luke highlights the personal restoration and the missionary commission of the healed man (sometimes called the “first apostle to the Gentiles”).
Matthew’s version is more concise and focuses on Jesus’ authority over demons in Gentile territory and he significantly shortens the story as he often does with Markan material. He describes two demoniacs instead of one who are described as so fierce that no one could pass that way. The presence of two is often explained as Matthew supplying fuller information (or emphasizing two witnesses, fitting a Jewish audience). Mark omits the name “Legion,” the detailed description of the man’s strength and self-harm, Jesus’ question about the name, the healed man’s request to follow Jesus, and Jesus’ commission to proclaim the news. Matthew seems uninterested in Jesus as a messianic deliverer from the Romans. The demons address Jesus as “Son of God” and ask if he has come to torment them “before the time.” Matthew always seems keen on prophesies and perhaps the demons prophesy their punishment after the apocalypse.
One of the miracles of Jesus that puzzled me as a child was the story of the Gadarene Swine, it always seemed a bit hard on the poor pigs, what had they done to deserve their fate? Of course the author of Mark sets the story in Gerasa and as the story originates with Mark that’s the version we will use. Gerasa, the modern Jerash in Jordan, was a major Decapolis city about 35 miles southeast of the Sea of Galilee, far too far for pigs to run into the lake from the city itself. However “Country of the Gerasenes” can refer to the broader region associated with this well-known city. I still have this vision of a huge herd of pigs racing across 35 miles of countryside, closely followed by Jesus, closely followed by twelve disciples, and the whole lot pursued by a mob of baying Geraseans. Perhaps that’s why Luke moved the location to Gadara which was closer some 8 miles southeast of the southern end of the lake. Its territory reached the lakeshore and seemed a more geographically appropriate location for the miracle.
Jesus crosses the Sea of Galilee with his disciples into Gentile territory in the region of Gerasa where they seem quite happy to keep herds of pigs. Here he heals a man of unclean spirits or demons and casts them into the pigs. The pigs, all 2000 of them, promptly run into the sea and drown. Not surprisingly the people of Gerasa who work looking forward to some nice bacon sandwiches don’t take kindly to this and Jesus is asked to depart.
You’d think that this would cause a bit of a stir. That perhaps we’d find such an extraordinary event in Josephus.
“It came to pass, while Pontius Pilatus was governor Judea (26-36) that a certain charlatan, whose name was Jesus, persuaded a great many people to take their effects with them, and follow him to the Sea of Galilee; for he told them he was a prophet, and that he would, by his own command, afford them an easy passage over it. Many were deluded by his words. Upon attaining the land of Decapolis he caused by sorcery the drowning of some 2000 swine; so that the populace became enraged and drove him from their lands exhorting him never to return. (Jewish Antiquities 20.97-98)”
Except of course Josephus didn’t write this and doesn’t mention it, and for a very good reason. It didn’t happen. Like a lot of Mark it is an allegory. Scholarship highlights clear allegorical elements.
The mad man who is healed is asked his name. He replies ‘Λεγιὼν ὄνομά μο ὅτι πολλοί ἐσμεν’ meaning ‘Legion is the name for me, since I am many’. Note that ‘Λεγιὼν’ (just Legion in the Greek alphabet) is not a Greek word, it is a Latin term (as ‘Legio’) for a Roman military unit (typically 5,000+ soldiers). Furthermore it is emphasised by being placed at the beginning of the sentence. We might think an accurate rendering would be ‘Roman Legion that is my name’.
Under Roman occupation, this name would evoke the imperial army oppressing Judea/Galilee. The demons (Roman Legions) beg not to be “sent out of the country”. Romanes eunt domus as Monty Python would have it! I did three years Latin at school and that’s probably the best I could have managed as well.
Pigs are unclean to Jews. A boar was the symbol of the Legio X Fretensis that helped crush the rebellion in Judea which fought in the brutal siege of Jerusalem and later captured the mountain fortress of Masada. Sending the legion of pigs to drown in the sea mirrors Pharaoh’s army drowning and symbolises the self-destruction of imperial oppression.
The healed man who was originally naked, tomb-dwelling and uncontrollable represents the occupied people of Judea “possessed” by empire; Jesus liberates him, but the locals reject the liberator foretelling the crucifixion.
This reading sees the story as coded resistance literature. Jesus defeats the Roman legion without direct confrontation. Mark is writing just after the revolt that was crushed finally in 73 AD. Mark is at great pains throughout his gospel to explain why Jesus, the Messiah, has not used his powers to destroy Rome and liberate Judea.
In occupied Judea/Syria and among Christians in Rome the the word “Legion” and unclean pigs would be obvious to bilingual or bicultural hearers. Jewish prophetic tradition often used symbolic narratives for political critique. Greco-Roman audiences were also used to miracle stories in biographies that carried moral or political symbolism. While some might have taken it purely as a power demonstration, attentive readers, particularly those experiencing Roman rule, would catch the layered meaning.
Mark presented this story as a historical-theological narrative. Ancient biography often blended fact, symbolism, and teaching. His gospel is not a modern biography. Miracles proved Jesus’ divine authority and First-century Jews expected prophets to perform symbolic acts. Gentiles knew divine men performed wonders with meaning. The audience would not have forced a false choice between “literal history” and “allegory” - both coexisted, as in Jesus’ own parables.
Luke and Matthew, who use Mark as a source, both copy the story. Luke stays closer to Mark than Matthew does but still shortens and shapes the material:
He emphasises on the man’s nakedness before the healing and being clothed and in his right mind afterward. Clothing is a recurring motif in Luke that highlights restoration from a dehumanized state to full humanity. Luke highlights the personal restoration and the missionary commission of the healed man (sometimes called the “first apostle to the Gentiles”).
Matthew’s version is more concise and focuses on Jesus’ authority over demons in Gentile territory and he significantly shortens the story as he often does with Markan material. He describes two demoniacs instead of one who are described as so fierce that no one could pass that way. The presence of two is often explained as Matthew supplying fuller information (or emphasizing two witnesses, fitting a Jewish audience). Mark omits the name “Legion,” the detailed description of the man’s strength and self-harm, Jesus’ question about the name, the healed man’s request to follow Jesus, and Jesus’ commission to proclaim the news. Matthew seems uninterested in Jesus as a messianic deliverer from the Romans. The demons address Jesus as “Son of God” and ask if he has come to torment them “before the time.” Matthew always seems keen on prophesies and perhaps the demons prophesy their punishment after the apocalypse.
