Matthew 8:30

In the original Greek according to Westcott-Hort, Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority, this verse is:

Ἦν δὲ μακρὰν ἀπ᾿ αὐτῶν ἀγέλη χοίρων πολλῶν βοσκομένη.

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:

And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding.

The New International Version translates the passage as:

Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding.

For a collection of other versions see BibleHub Matthew 8:30.

This verse is a part of the narrative to show Jesus' authority and his relationship to the Gentiles (cf. Matthew 8:5–13). The location in the Decapolis and the fact that swine are being raised nearby indicate a non-Jewish area, along the east coast of the Sea of Galilee where the population was mixed.^[1] The Jews do not eat pork, but Roman soldiers did, so the swine may have been kept to supply the food for the Roman 'legion'.^[2] Augustus was reported to have said that 'it was better to be "Herod's swine than son"',^[3] seemingly implying that Herod did keep swine herds on his estates, perhaps for supplying the Romans.^[2] The scene with pigs in the passage provides irony and humor which are familiar to Matthew's Jewish audience.^[4]