The Miracle of the Swine
by Anna Lewis
Among the miracles performed by Christ is the Miracle of the Swine, alluded to in lines 27-28 of “This Huge Leviathan” (Emblem 42). He exorcises a group of demons (who call themselves “Legion”) from a man by transferring them into a herd of pigs. When they become possessed, the pigs run into the sea and drown. The story appears in the New Testament in Matthew 8:28–34, Mark 5:1–20, and Luke 8:26–39.
Mark 5:1-13
- And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.
- And when he [i.e., Jesus Christ] was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out
- of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,
- Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains:
- Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been
- plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man
- tame him.
- And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting
- himself with stones.
- But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,
- And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the
- most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.
- For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.
- And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for
- we are many.
- And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.
- Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding.
- And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into
- them.
- And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into
- the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were
- about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea.
Authorized King James Version - Bible. Original italics have not been retained.