In his intriguing interpretation of the exorcism in Mark 5, Nick Perrin notes that the allusions to the Roman occupation go beyond the demonic name “Legion.” The swine, he suggests, supplied the Roman garrison in nearby Hippos. By sending the pigs over the cliff into the sea, Jesus is depriving “the legionnaires of a staple delicacy. In this way, Jesus’ measures amounted, albeit in an indirect way, to an act of political sabotage.”
Further, “the wild boar was the mascot of the Tenth Legion, which occupied Palestine and therefore also Hippos.”
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
A Catholic Approach to Immigration
In the USCCB’s recent Special Pastoral Message, the bishops of the United States highlight the suffering inflicted…
The Classroom Heals the Wounds of Generations
“Hope,” wrote the German-American polymath Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, “is the deity of youth.” Wholly dependent on adults, children…
Still Life, Still Sacred
Renaissance painters would use life-sized wooden dolls called manichini to study how drapery folds on the human…
