Swine herding is a sure sign that this incident took place in Gentile territory, for Jews would never be involved in that particular form of farming. Pigs were “unclean” to the Jews, that is, not fit for sacrifices or for food, according to the Mosaic Law. Interacting with such people would have been beneath a good, law-abiding rabbi’s repertoire of good deeds. But, encounters with Gentiles were not out of the ordinary for this Rabbi (John 4) nor was dealing with demoniacs (see Matt 4:24).

A few notes of interest should be observed. First, while humans often fail to submit to Jesus, these demons readily recognized His authority over them. Exorcism was a foregone fact. They just hoped to modify the method—so they asked permission to inhabit the herd of pigs. Second, their request to be sent into the swine seems on first consideration to be odd. Bible scholars suggest that disembodied demons seek material experience—inhabiting pigs is better than having no body at all to possess. This could support one interpretation of Genesis 6:1-4 where the “sons of God” refers cryptically to fallen angels which co-habited with the “daughters of men”—resulting in the flood of Noah. Demons, being spiritual beings, aspire to human experience.

The third interesting feature of this story is that after being possessed, the herd of swine ran into the water—another strange thing, unless under God’s direction the demons were consigned to a watery judgment similar to the great flood. See also Matt 12:43 where a cast-out spirit traveled through “dry” or “waterless” places before returning to the body originally possessed. Demons apparently fear water, possibly symbolic of God’s judgment. These, to be sure, are conjectures, but good alternative interpretations are lacking.

Fourth, the pig farmers had more of a concern for their loss of livelihood than for the healing of the two demoniacs—they begged Jesus to leave, probably to avoid any further loss of income.