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]

• Allison, Dale C., Jr. (2007). "57. Matthew". In Barton, John; Muddiman, John (eds.). The Oxford Bible Commentary (first (paperback) ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 844–886. ISBN 978-0199277186. Retrieved February 6, 2019.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Coogan, Michael David (2007). Coogan, Michael David; Brettler, Marc Zvi; Newsom, Carol Ann; Perkins, Pheme (eds.). The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books: New Revised Standard Version, Issue 48 (Augmented 3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195288810.