SWIFT
56
SWINE
Brit, and Amer, Authors, S.V.; Chulmers, Btoff. Diet. s.v.\ ' general one which forbade any of the mammalia as food
Enijlish Cyclop, s. v. ; Darliiit;, Cyrlop. Jiibliiri. s. v.
Swift, Seth, brother of Job Swift, was a Congrega- tional minister. He was born in Kent, Conn., Oct. 30, 174'.>. graduated at Yale in 1774, studied theology under Dr. Bellamy, and was ordained pastor of the Church in AVilliamstown, Mass., INIay 27, I77(!, which charge he retained until his death, Feb. 13, 1«07. He was greatly beloved by his people, and honored and revered by the whole community. . See Sprague, Annuls of the Amer. Pulpit, i, (i45.
Swj/t Beast. See Camel.
Swindell, Touias, an English clergyman, was rec- tor of Cuxton, Kent, in 1G88, and vicar of Shorne in 1689. He died in 1719. He published, Sermon on Luke xi, 2 (1713, 8vo) : — .-1 n KiKpiinj into the Nature and Place of JFfell, which he locatecl in the sun (Lond. 1714,8vo; trans- lated into French by Biou [Amst. 1728, 8vo], and Ger- man). See AUibone, Diet, of Brit, and Amer. A ulhors, s. v.
Swine ("I'^^n- d/azir; Sept. vq, veiog, avg; New Test, xo^poc)- Allusion will be found in the Bible to these animals, both in their domestic and in their wild state. See Tristram, Xaf. Hint, of the Bible, p. 145 ; Wood, Bible A itinuds, p. 292.
1. The flesh of swine was forbidden as food by the Levitical law (Lev. xi, 7 ; Deut. xiv, 8). The abhorrence which the Jews as a nation had of it ma}' be inferred from Isa. Ixv, 4, where some of the idolatrous people are represented as "eating swine's flesh," and as having the " broth of abominable things in their vessels ;" see also Ixvi, 3, 17, and 2 Mace, vi, 18, 19, in which passage we read>that Eleazar, an aged scribe, when compelled by Antiochus to receive in his mouth swine's flesh, "spit it forth, choosing rather to die gloriously than to live stained with such an abomination." The use of swine's flesh was forbidden to the Egyptian priests, to whom, says Sir G.Wilkinson {Anc. Eriypt. i, 322), "above all meats it was jjarticularly obnoxious" (see Herodotus, ii, 47; ^Elian, De Nut. Anim. x, 16; Josephus, Apion, ii, 14), though it was occasionally eaten by the people. The Arabians also were disallowed the use of swine's flesh (see Pliny, //. iV. viii, .52; Koran, ii, 175), as were also the Phoenicians, ^Ethiopians, and other nations of the East.
Xo other reason for the command to abstain from
wnicii did not literally fullil the terms of the detinition of a "clean animal," viz. that it was to be a cloven- footeil ruminant. The i)ig, tlierefore, though it divides the hoof, but does not chew the cud, was to be consid- ered unclean; and consequently, inasmuch as, unlike the ass and the horse in the time of the Ivings, no use could l)e made of the animal when alive, the Jews did not breed swine (Lactant. Instit. iv, 17). It is, how- ever, probable that dietetical considerations may have influenced JMoses in his prohibition of swine's flesli. It is generally believed that its use in hot countries is li- able to induce cutaneous disorders; hence in a people liable to leprosy the necessity for the observance of a strict rule. " The reason of the meat not being eaten was its unwholesomcness, on which account it was for- bidden to the Jews and Moslems" (Sir G. Wilkinson's note in Kawlinson's /Jerodtttu.t, ii, 47). Ham. Smith, however (Kitto, Cyclop, s. v.), maintains that this re- puted unwholesomcness of swine's flesh has been much exaggerated ; and recently a writer in Colburn's New Monthly Mayazine (Jul}' 1, 1862, p. 266) has endorsed this opinion. Other conjectures for the reason of the prohibition, which are more curious than valuable, may be seen in Bochart {IJieroz. i, 806 sq.). Callistratus (apud Plutarch. /Sympos. iv, 5) suspected that the Jews did not use swine's flesh for the same reason which, he says, influenced the Egyptians, viz. that this animal was sacred, inasmuch as bj' turning up the earth with its snout it first taught men the art of ploughing (see Bochart, Hieroz. i, 806, and a dissertation by Cassel, en- titled De JudiEorum Odio et Abstinentia a Porcina ejus- que Causis [Magdeb.] ; also Michaelis, Comment, on the Laws of Moses, art. 203, iii, 230, Smith's transl.). Al- though the Jews did not breed swine during the great- er period of their existence as a nation, there can be little doubt that the heathen nations of Palestine used the flesh as food. See Plumptre, Bible Educator, i, 280 sq.
At the time of our Lord's ministry it would appear that the Jews occasionally violated the law of INIoses with respect to swine's flesh. Whether "the herd of swine" into which the devils were allowed to enter (Matt, viii, 32 ; Mark v, 13) were the property of the Jewish or Gentile inhabitants of Gadara does not ap- pear from the sacred narrative; but that the practice of keeping swine did exist among some of the Jews seems clear from the enactment of the law of Hyrcanus,
swine's flesh is given in the law of Moses beyond the i "ne cui porcum alere liceret" (Grotius, Annot. ad Matt.
loc. cit). Allusion is made in 2 Pet. ii, 22, to the fondness which swine have for "wal- lowing in the mire ;" this, it appears, was a proverbial ex- pression, with which may be compared the " arnica Into sus" of H(jrace (£)). i, 2, 26). Sol- omon's comparison of a "jew- el of gold in a swine's snout" to a " fair woman without dis- cretion'" (Prov. xi, 22), and the expression of our Lord, " nei- ther cast ye your pearls before swine," are so obviously intelli- gible as to render any remarks unnecessary. The transaction of the destruction of the herd of swine already alluded to, like the cursing of the barren fig-tree, has been the subject of most unfair cavil : it is well answered by Trench (Mira- cles, p. 173), who observes that " a man is of more value than many swine;" besides which it must be remembered that it is not necessarj' to suppose