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Someone quoted Mark 5: "11 Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding; 12 and the unclean spirits] begged him, “Send us into the swine; let us enter them.” 13 So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea."
"whether the pigs were wild or owned by a farmer, is killing them needlessly in violation of any Torah command?" Jews are forbidden from raising pigs -- so this tall tale in the Christian bible is false. From the Talmud: אין מגדלין חזירים בכל מקום תנו רבנן כשצרו בית חשמונאי זה על זה היה הורקנוס מבפנים ואריסטובלוס מבחוץ ובכל יום היו משלשים להם בקופה דינרין והיו מעלין להם תמידים The Mishna teaches that one may not raise pigs anywhere. The Sages taught in a baraita the background for this halakha (Jewish law) : When the members of the house of Hasmonean monarchy were at war with each other, Hyrcanus, one of the parties to this war, was inside the besieged Jerusalem, while his brother Aristobulus, the other contender to the throne, was on the outside. And every day the people inside would lower down money in a box from the Temple walls, to purchase sheep to sacrifice, and those on other side would take the money and send up sheep to them over the wall for the daily offerings. היה שם זקן אחד שהיה מכיר בחכמת יוונית אמר להם כל זמן שעוסקין בעבודה אין נמסרים בידכם למחר שילשלו דינרין בקופה והעלו להם חזיר כיון שהגיע לחצי החומה נעץ צפרניו בחומה ונזדעזעה ארץ ישראל ארבע מאות פרסה על ארבע מאות פרסה "There was a certain elder there who was familiar with Greek wisdom, and he said to those besieging Jerusalem: As long as they occupy themselves with the Temple service, they will not be delivered into your hands. The next day they lowered down money in a box as usual, but this time they sent up to them a pig. When the pig reached to the midpoint of the Temple wall it stuck its hooves into the wall, and Eretz Yisrael quaked over an area of four hundred parasangs by four hundred parasangs. "באותה שעה אמרו ארור האיש שיגדל חזירים וארור האדם שילמד את בנו חכמת יוונית ועל אותה שעה שנינו מעשה שבא עומר מגנות הצריפין ושתי הלחם מבקעת עין סוכר: At that time the Sages said: Cursed be the man who raises pigs, and cursed be the man who teaches his son Greek wisdom. And it was concerning that time of siege that we learned in a Mishna: There was an incident in which the barley for the omer offering came from the gardens of Tzerifin, far from Jerusalem, and the wheat for the two loaves of Shavuot was brought from the valley of Ein Sokher. Barley and wheat could not be brought from any nearer because the besiegers had destroyed all the produce around Jerusalem. This concludes the baraita.." Bava Kama 82b. This ruling pre-dated Jesus -- which is why the stories in the Christian bible are nothing more than fiction and a tall tale. The Talmud tells us this rule regarding pigs began thanks to Hyrcanus. Hyrcanus / יוחנן הורקנוס / Yōḥānān Hurqanōs, also known as יוחנן כהן גדול / Yohanan Kohein Gadol / Johanan the High Priest, was a Hasmonean (Maccabean) leader who lived in the 2nd century BCE (born 164 BCE, reigned from 134 BCE and died in 104 BCE). BCE as in 150 to 100 years before Jesus was supposedly born. Ergo NO Jew in Jesus' time would have been raising pigs! See also the Jewish Code of Law, Choshen Mishpat 409:2. Pigs aside, there are laws about taking the property of others (theft) which is what this case would be -- and 2,000 is a BIG number! So Jesus stole those pigs. Why do I say he stole them? Well, ask yourself: did these pigs belong to Jesus ? Nope. Were they running wild? Also “no.” The Christian bible tells us: "Those tending the pigs ran off” Matthew 8:33 and Mark 5:14. So they were someone's property -- even if those "someones" weren't Jews... Destroying those pigs without buying them first constitutes STEALING. Surely a god could kill the demons without destroying some innocent person’s property and thus stealing it (breaking the law against stealing). Why couldn't he simply destroy the demons? And the Matthew 8:14 says there were two men possessed and a “herd” of swine. A “herd” indicates more than two, so why kill the whole herd of, as you pointed out, 2000 per Mark? Why not just put the demons into two pigs and be done with it? (Still stealing, even if just two!)... Halacha (Jewish law) tells us that a thief must provide restitution along with professing guilt (Jesus did neither). A thief must pay double as restitution for what he took: "If a person steals an ox or sheep and then slaughters or sells it, he must repay five oxen for each ox, and four sheep for each sheep." Sh'mot / Exodus 21:37. "If the stolen article is found in his possession, and it is a living ox, donkey or sheep, he must make double restitution." Sh'mot / Exodus 22:3. and let's not forget: "In every case of dishonesty, whether it involves an ox, a donkey, a sheep, a garment, or anything else that was [allegedly] lost, and [witnesses] testify that it was seen, both parties' claims must be brought to the courts. The person whom the courts declare guilty must then make double restitution to the other." Sh'mot / Exodus 22:8. Christians look upon this tall tale as a miracle by Jesus -- yet they never stop to think about reality -- both the laws of the time and the fact that a herd of swine was the property of someone. Taking them without permission so they can all drown is most definitely theft! Jesus didn't bother to ask the herders for permission, let alone the owner -- he just took those poor, innocent, out of place pigs and killed them with no thought to the fact that he probably made some man poor by his actions. Totally false story, ridiculous in fact.
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