There are three accounts in the gospels of the demoniac being set free and the demons entering into a herd of pigs. These are found in the gospels of Matthew, Luke and Mark.

Matthew 8:30-31 (NIV)

³⁰ Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding.

³¹ The demons begged Jesus, "If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs."

The gospel of Matthew says that it was a large herd of pigs and this is a good translation because it uses general terms without being too specific about the number.

Luke 8:32 (NIV)

³² A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into them, and he gave them permission.

The gospel of Luke also uses the term "large herd" to describe the number of pigs in general manner without giving too much detail.

Mark 5:11-13 (NIV)

¹¹ A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside.

¹² The demons begged Jesus, "Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them."

¹³ He gave them permission, and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

The gospel of Mark however uses a more specific number saying that the large herd of pigs was about 2,000 in number.

The number of pigs really is not important but I gained some insight into this scripture when my father (who raised pigs for over forty years) said that this figure of 2,000-pigs was a large number of pigs!

He was not calling into question the truth of the bible but rather from his real-life experience with pigs he knew that this was a large number to be fed out in the open fields.

Pigs are not grazing animals like sheep or cattle which eat part of the grass and move on leaving some remaining grass to rejuvenate again. Pigs will root up and completely destroy a pasture within a matter of hours! Pigs cannot sweat so they will root up big holes in the ground in order to capture rain so they can create a mud-hole in order to cool themselves. Pigs cool themselves by rolling in the mud.

So, to have a herd of about 2,000-pigs in one field or on a grassland is a lot of pigs which could ruin that field completely leaving nothing but dirt and mud holes within a number of hours!

Also, the volume of feed that a herd of pigs (of this size) could consume is enormous! This is why my father remarked that the number of 2,000 was a lot of pigs because he knows how much feed it would take to provide for this many animals.

Modern agriculture uses machines which enables farmers to produce great volumes of grain. My father raised 1,500-pigs per year (this number is considered a small hobby farm compared to the large producers who raise many times that number). He would grind tons of feed every week to keep the bulk feed bins full. These bins were part of an automated system which would dispense feed for the pigs kept in the confinement building but these bulk bins had to be refilled weekly!

We were raising pigs constantly with new pigs being born and mature pigs being sent to market so if they are born and marketed six-months later that would be half that number on feed at any given time. So, during a six-month period there might be only about 750-pigs consuming tons of feed weekly! The total number produced and sold for the entire year (12-month period) was 1,500 head of pigs.

Even though this is considered a small pig producing operation in modern times, there is naturally no way that this number of pigs could have been raised during biblical times simply because they were without modern machinery.

My father had a batch feed grinder that held about 2.5 tons of feed and he repeatedly filled that when grinding feed for the pigs once per week in order to fill all of the large capacity bulk feed tanks to provide enough feed to last one week.

The amount of feed consumed by 750-pigs on feed (for a six-month period) is enormous (not including the whole annual total of 1,500-pigs per year and what they can consume in 12-months)! The grain we used for feed was stored in a 20,000-bushel grain bin and it would require numerous fully loaded semi-trucks to move this amount of grain!

The point to make here is that during biblical times they did not have machines to produce large volumes of grain and did not have grain bins and semi-trucks and feed grinders and tractors to prepare and move that amount of feed for feeding large numbers of pigs.

Only 750-pigs on feed can consume many tons per week and if they were fed using manual labor and primitive tools in biblical times then this many pigs could not be fed for even one day!

Matthew 16:9-10 (NIV)

⁹ Do you still not understand? Don't you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?

¹⁰ Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?

I do believe that Jesus fed over 5,000-families on one occasion and over 4,000-families on another occasion because he was God and he had faith to supernaturally multiply the food for this many people to eat!

Mark 5:16-17 (NIV)

¹⁶ Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man--and told about the pigs as well.

¹⁷ Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.

These were Gentile pig farmers because Jewish people did not raise pigs or eat them or even touch them. These same Gentile pig farmers came out to see Jesus and were told what happened to the man formerly possessed by demons and what happened to the pigs which were drown when they ran into the lake and choked to death! So, these people pleaded with Jesus to leave their region (possibly they thought this Jewish preacher was bad for their pig raising business)!

The point to make here is that these Gentile pig farmers were not people of faith who would believe God to multiply the feed for the pigs in supernatural manner (in the way that Jesus fed 5,000 and 4,000 families)! This means these pig farmers were limited in faith and they were limited naturally in the amount of feed production they could grow (without machinery) and they were limited in how many pigs they could feed (without the machinery needed to process and distribute that feed to the pigs).

It is for this reason that the number 2,000 was a large number for biblical times when they did not have modern machinery that can produce and process and distribute the amount of feed needed to care for 2,000 animals at one time!

Therefore, since these Gentile pig farmers were not using faith to multiply pig feed and they had no machinery to produce and process the feed needed to care for this many animals then this figure of 2,000 could have been a translation error. Possibly when the account was written in Greek a scribe could have added a zero by mistake so the number 200 could have been made into 2,000. It should be noted that even 200-pigs is still a large herd and it would be difficult to feed that many under primitive conditions without any modern means of producing grain and processing pig feed.

Typically, one or two pigs might be kept by a Gentile family as a garbage disposal and they fed all of the family food waste to them to turn this waste into bacon. But to have a herd of 2,000 pigs in biblical times is a vast number of pigs and natural wisdom shows that this would be nearly impossible to feed this many pigs in one herd (especially for these unbelieving Gentiles who pleaded with Jesus to go away)! These unbelieving people are not likely to use faith to multiply their pig-feed when they did not even want Jesus to remain in their region at all!

Spiritual Adolescent Faith Defender

I have to confess at this point that when I was an immature believer in my teenage years and my father made the statement that 2,000-pigs was a lot of pigs to have in one-herd like that, then I got defensive! I said that if the bible says 2,000 then it was 2,000! But in fact, there was no need for me to assume the role of a spiritual adolescent "faith defender" and try to defend the bible because my pig-farmer father was not trying to challenge the truth of God's word! He was only stating facts from real life experience about how much feed would be required to feed that many pigs!

I believe the bible is true but now after I matured spiritually, I finally see what my pig-farmer father was saying. This is a large number of pigs and these people during biblical times did not have the machinery to produce that much grain or process it into feed for that many pigs.

We would fill a 2.5-ton feed grinder many times trying to fill the bulk feed bins once a week in order to feed only about 750-pigs on feed at any given time of year. So, no doubt my father was right that 2,000 pigs really is a big number!

But if the Greek translator people made a scribal error and accidentally added one zero onto the figure 200 then it would change the figure into 2,000 instead. This is highly possible because even 200 is still a huge number of pigs to raise without the benefit of mass grain production and feed processing machinery and the trucks and bulk bins and augers needed to move that amount of feed into feeders for the pigs.

Even a whole town full of people would not produce enough food waste to feed a whole herd of 2,000 pigs.

Mark 5:13 (NIV)

¹³ He gave them permission, and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

If I was to translate this verse, I would do the same as the gospel of Matthew and Luke and just use the general term "large herd" because even 20 or 200 animals in a herd of pigs is still a large number in biblical times. But using the specific number 2,000-poses some logistical problems when modern pig farmers are fully aware of just how many tons of feed can be consumed in a single day by a herd of 2,000 pigs!

Present day urbanite people have no idea how much feed is consumed by modern livestock growing operations! These animals do not eat air and 2,000 animals cannot be fed with food waste from the kitchen table of a single family!

Using the term "large herd" is not being an atheist nor is it a means of disproving the truth of the bible! A large herd can be 20 or 200 but 2,000 is more than large but rather it is "outrageous" when they did not have the modern machinery to produce the grain or process that grain into feed for this number of animals.

Again, it is better to use more general terms rather than trying to be too specific in number. If a Greek scribe got the number wrong by adding an extra zero by mistake then that does not in any way take away from the divine inspiration of God's word. God's word is 100% true even if the number 2,000 could have been a scribe copy mistake by adding an extra zero!

So there is no reason for any spiritual adolescent to get up in arms as a "faith defender" if someone says that 2,000 is a big number (because in fact this is a huge number of pigs to feed without modern machinery to produce volumes of grain and process that grain into feed and move that amount of feed to care for this many animals)!

Now I am ashamed of my bad reaction when I was just a teenager who falsely assumed it was my duty to defend the truth of God's word! The word of God needs no defense and it is true whether or not some scribe messed up and added an extra zero onto the figure or not. The number is not what is important but the principle behind the story.

Demons Require no Physical Space

It should also be noted that demons are fallen angels and as such they are spirit beings without physical bodies.

See the link "Origin and Operation of Demons" for more details.

A spirit being does not require physical space to occupy the way that a human body made of flesh and bones requires physical space to occupy. This means that 100,000-demons could occupy the space the size of a head of a pin or one demon could occupy the space over an entire city that is hundreds of square kilometers in size. They are spiritual beings so they do not require physical space to occupy.

Mark 5:13 (NIV)

¹³ He gave them permission, and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

If the Greek scribe who wrote Mark 5:13 falsely presumed that demons needed to occupy physical space then he may have "boosted" the number of pigs by adding a zero thinking that an entire legion of demons would need a larger herd of pigs to occupy!

Mark 5:9 (NIV)

⁹ Then Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" "My name is Legion," he replied, "for we are many."

But again, this would be utter nonsense because an entire legion of demons could easily occupy the body of one demon-possessed man. The Roman legion (comprised of human warriors) could have up to 5,000-soldiers in one military legion but demonic legions could have even more. But this is a moot point because demons do not require physical space so if there were a million demons in one man it would make no difference because they are spirit beings and do not require physical space to occupy.

Again, it is better to say it was a large herd without trying to give a specific number because it would not matter if there was 20 or 200 or 2,000 pigs that were drown in the lake. In no way does it detract from the truth of God's word to utilize the term "large herd" instead of saying a specific number of 2,000 pigs!

Sometimes getting "too specific" and "too technical" can call into question the figures given. It is better to be more "general" when translating some scriptures for this reason.

Example of Incorrect Numbers

2 Samuel 15:1-7 (NASB)

¹ Now it came about after this that Absalom provided for himself a chariot and horses and fifty men as runners before him.

² Absalom used to rise early and stand beside the way to the gate; and when any man had a suit to come to the king for judgment, Absalom would call to him and say, "From what city are you?" And he would say, "Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel."

³ Then Absalom would say to him, "See, your claims are good and right, but no man listens to you on the part of the king."

⁴ Moreover, Absalom would say, "Oh that one would appoint me judge in the land, then every man who has any suit or cause could come to me and I would give him justice."

⁵ And when a man came near to prostrate himself before him, he would put out his hand and take hold of him and kiss him.

⁶ In this manner Absalom dealt with all Israel who came to the king for judgment; so Absalom stole away the hearts of the men of Israel.

⁷ Now it came about at the end of forty years that Absalom said to the king, "Please let me go and pay my vow which I have vowed to the LORD, in Hebron.

The NASB is the most literal English translation available but here it literally translates from the original Hebrew text that Absalom spent "Forty" years weaning the citizens of Israel away from King David so the Absalom could steal away their devotion for himself using flattery. The original Hebrew text says that Absalom was engaged in this deception and flattery of the people for "Forty" years!

But common sense and logic says that this figure of "Forty" years is absurd because if Absalom was already a mature adult at this time and then if he spent another "Forty" years flattering the people then he would be an old man by the time he was ready to proclaim himself king in the place of his father David!

It is better to understand that the original Hebrew was botched up by a scribe who must have accidentally added a "zero" on the number "4" and thus changed it from four to forty. Later bible translators following the original Hebrew then faithfully translated the same mistake of "Forty" years into all of the various languages the bible has been translated into from the original Hebrew.

Again, it would make more common sense to assume the figure was "4-years" not "40-years" as some bible translations say. There are a number of modern translations however that have recognized this mistake and have adopted the term "4-years" which seems to be more appropriate than "40-years" used by some literal bible translations.

This thing about adding an extra "zero" on the number "4" (making it into 40) is similar to adding an extra "zero" to the number "200" (making it 2,000) in our pig example. But again, this in no way detracts from the truth of God's word.

2 Peter 1:21 (NKJV)

²¹ for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

The men who recorded the words of the bible were those who were moved by the Holy Spirit to record divinely inspired words from God. But if some scribes made some mistakes while copying out the bible text and added a "zero" to a number then this in no way cancels out the divine inspiration of God's word!

2 Timothy 3:16 (NASB)

¹⁶ All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;

All scripture is divinely inspired by God so this means that the words of the bible are inspired by the Holy Spirit and are unlike any book derived of merely human origin. But errors can occur with those who translate the bible into other languages or those who copy out the words for the bible to be printed as it is in its present form.

A human copy error or translation error is easy to spot when it does not conform to the big-picture principles of the entire bible as a whole. But there is no doubt that the big-principle truth of God's word is fully inspired by God and the bible is true even if some humans might have made a mistake with a "zero" when copying out a few numbers. A few errors in translation or scribal copy errors does not detract from the truth of God's word in any way! God's word is still truth and will stand the test of time for all eternity because the bible is the only book that is divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit of God!