382 KEEPERS OF THE HERD OF SWINE x 



no conceivable motive for altering facts here ; lie 

 speaks of contemporary events, in which he him- 

 self took an active part, and he characterises the 

 cities in the way familiar to him. For Josephus, 

 Gadara is just as much a Gentile city as 

 Ptolemais ; it was reserved for his latest commen- 

 tator, either ignoring, or ignorant of, all this, to 

 tell us that Gadara had a Hebrew population, 

 bound by the Mosaic law. 



In the face of all this evidence, most of which 

 has been put before serious students, with full 

 reference to ' the needful authorities arid in a 

 thoroughly judicial manner, by Schurer in his 

 classical work, 1 one reads with stupefaction the 

 statement which Mr. Gladstone has thought fit to 

 put before the uninstructed public : 



Some commentators have alleged the authority of Josephus 

 for stating that Gadara was a city of Greeks rather than of Jews, 

 from whence it might be inferred that to keep swine was inno- 

 cent and lawful. This is not quite the place for a critical ex- 

 amination of the matter ; but I have examined it, and have 

 satisfied myself that Josephus gives no reason whatever to 

 suppose that the population of Gadara, and still less (if less may 

 be) the population of the neighbourhood, and least of all the 

 swine-herding or lower portion of that population, were other 

 than Hebrews bound by the Mosaic law. (Pp 373-4.) 



Even " rapid judgment " cannot be pleaded in 

 excuse for this surprising statement, because a 

 " Note on the Gadarene miracle " is added (iii a 

 special appendix), in which the references are 



1 Geachichtcdesj-'dischcn VoUces im Zeitolter Christi, 1886-90. 



