Matthew 8:30 is the 30th verse in the eighth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament.
In the original Greek according to Westcott-Hort, Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority, this verse is:
In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:
The New International Version translates the passage as:
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]
Cum audisset inter pueros quos in Syria Herodes rex Iudaeorum intra bimatum iussit interfici filium quoque eius occisum, ait: Melius est Herodis porcum esse quam filium. transl. la – transl. But hearing these words, Herod, King of the Jews within the two years in length between
the boys whom they gave orders to have been killed in Syria and the son of his, too, had been
slain, and he said: It is better to be Herod's swine than his son