So I’m re-reading Matthew (once in a while I actually pick up the Bible and read some of it), and I come across the well-known story of the Gaderene swine. So, for absolutely no reason I can see, a thought pops into my head: Why would there be a herd of swine in a country where eating pork is a huge taboo? The parable of the prodigal son raises the same question. When the prodigal son hits bottom, he takes a job as a swineherd, which I assume is pretty much the lowest rung on the social ladder in ancient Israel. So who gave him the job? A pagan or another Jew?
I’ve speculated a bit about this, but I haven’t come up with anything in which I feel any confidence.
I thought maybe there were small populations of pagans in Israel at the time of Jesus, but it seems to me that the Jews weren’t all that tolerant of pagans at the time. The only other option would be that there were Jews who kept herds of swine, and hired down-and-outers to herd them, but that seems even less likely to me than any substantial population of pagans in the Israel of Jesus Christ. After all, the prohibition against eating pork goes back to Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
Even so, why would anyone be keeping a herd of swine in ancient Israel in the first place?
Please understand this is not supposed to be a debate about the reliability or unreliability of the Gospels. The author of Matthew would never have simply made up that detail, as it could be easily refuted if it wasn’t true.
Still, I’m stuck with this awkward anomaly. Who would keep swine in ancient Israel?
Matthew 8:32-33 (KJV)
32 And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.
33 And they that kept them (“those tending the pigs” in the NIV) fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils.
Well, I find that doubtful. considering that the ancient Jews regarded pagans with loathing and horror. If you can come up with some source showing that there were substantial populations of pagans in ancient Israel, I’ll be more likely to change my mind.
Not likely that anyone would hire a swineherd to herd feral pigs.
The event took place in the region of the Gadarenes or the Gesarenes, depending which gospel you read. Either way, both were over the border of Israel. Both towns were crossroads of Hellenistic (Greek Empire), Roman, Jewish, and other local tribes. Since it wasn’t a primarily Jewish town it was perfectly ordinary for there to be swine herding there.
It’s important to remember that over 900 years before the birth of Jesus, Israel had a civil war of the North (called Israel) v. the South (called Judah, where we get the term, ‘Jew’). This was right after Solomon’s reign and the two kingdoms lived side by side for about about two hundred years until Israel was sacked by the Assyrians the the ‘ten tribes of Isreal’ (the lost ten tribes) were assimilated into Assyrian culture. Their descendants were, at the time of Jesus, the Samaritans which practiced a religion close to Judaism, but different enough to make them hated (think North v. South Ireland in the 70s).
Anyway, the upshot of all this is that Jesus was born and grew up in this northern region which was not a strictly Jewish region. It was full of Samaritans, Jews, and Gentiles (both Greek and Roman). The only time Jesus is in a strictly Jewish ‘neighborhood’ is when he heads to Jerusalem in the south located in Judah.
So, the vast majority of the time during Jesus’ public ministry, he is traveling to mostly Jewish settlements around the Sea of Galilee (which is in the north) but also entering towns that are mixed Jewish and Samaritan and Gentile. Remember, “Caesarea Philipi” is a Greek settlement. And “the Decapolis” is Roman.
And, of course, it’s after sundown on a Friday so the observant Jews of the Dope can’t chime in until tomorrow night, but if I recollect from prior threads most Jews today follow the prohibition on eating pork but don’t regard using pigs for other purposes to be forbidden.