Matthew 8:30

Now there was far off from them a herd of swine feeding.

The unbelieving world, in a vain effort to fault the Son of God, has shown the desperate nature of its case by seizing on this incident as grounds for reproach of the Saviour. Will Durant

wondered what the English wool-growers would have done to Jesus if he had sent a flock of their sheep to death as he had done with the Gadarene swine; they "would have made him swing for it," for English law made such an action a capital crime.[9]

Over against English law, of the period mentioned by Durant, was the prior law of God which forbade swine to the Jews; and the implication is overwhelming that these swine were owned by Jews contrary to God's law; however, this cannot be proved. The true justification of Christ's actions here turns upon other principles. He did not destroy the swine; THE DEMONS DID! The argument that he permitted it may be applied with equal force to every disaster, physical or otherwise, that ever happened on earth. See more under Matthew 8:32. Note that Mark places the number of these animals at "about two thousand" (Mark 5:13).