Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them. The detail of the pig herd locates the narrative in Gentile territory: Jews did not keep pigs. The large herd — about two thousand in Mark 5:13 — grazing at a distance from the possessed men provides the context for the demons' request. The presence of pigs in a Gentile region also carries symbolic weight: the unclean animals from Leviticus 11 grazing in the place where unclean spirits dwell and possess human beings, all of it outside the boundaries of Jewish covenantal space.

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