Greek word · G5519

χοῖρος

choiros

pig

Pig, swine. For Jews it was the clearest example of an unclean animal (Leviticus 11:7; Deuteronomy 14:8). It was also the animal pagans pressed on Jews to eat in the Maccabean persecution (2 Maccabees 6:18; 7:1).

Appears 12 times in 12 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

χοῖρος, -ου, ὁ

[in Sm.: Isaiah 65:4 66:3 ;]

a swine: pl., Matthew 7:6 8:30-32, Mark 5:11-13, 16, Luke 8:32-33 15:15-16 †

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Luke 15:16

Range of meaning

Pig, swine. For Jews it was the clearest example of an unclean animal (Leviticus 11:7; Deuteronomy 14:8). It was also the animal pagans pressed on Jews to eat in the Maccabean persecution (2 Maccabees 6:18; 7:1).

Against the English

'Pigs' and 'swine' are both accurate. What English cannot carry by itself is the religious and social disgust a first-century Jew felt.

Used elsewhere in the period

Mishnah Bava Qamma 7:7: 'One may not raise pigs anywhere' in the land of Israel. Later rabbinic sayings curse the man who raises pigs (b. Bava Qamma 82b). Compare the herd at Gerasa in Gentile territory (Luke 8:32–33).

From the study of Matthew 7:6

Range of meaning

Pig, swine (young pig in classical Greek, any pig later). In Jewish law an unclean animal that could not be eaten (Leviticus 11:7; Deuteronomy 14:8). It was linked with pagan sacrifice and Gentile life.

Against the English

'Swine' (KJV, BSB, NASB) or 'pigs' (NIV, ESV, WEB). Both are accurate.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isaiah 65:4 and 66:17 condemn eating pig's flesh as idolatrous. In 1 Maccabees 1:47 and 2 Maccabees 6:18–7:42 Jews die rather than eat pork. Proverbs 11:22: 'like a gold ring in a pig's snout.' Pig herds were kept in the largely Gentile Decapolis (Matthew 8:30–32). Luke 15:15–16: feeding pigs as the lowest point of degradation.

From the study of Matthew 8:30

Range of meaning

In classical Greek χοῖρος could mean a young pig, a porker. By the Koine period (the everyday Greek of the New Testament era) it was the ordinary word for any pig. Its partner word ὗς (hys, 'swine, sow') appears in 2 Peter 2:22 and is the word the Greek Old Testament uses in the food laws.

Against the English

'Pigs' (BSB, WEB) and 'swine' (KJV, YLT) both translate it correctly. Neither English word carries the ritual and ethnic weight the animal had for a first-century Jewish reader.

How it drifted

The English word has not changed meaning. The cultural associations around it have. For a modern reader a pig is ordinary farm livestock. For Matthew's Jewish-Christian audience it stood for impurity and paganism.

Used elsewhere in the period

Lev 11:7 and Deut 14:8 forbid eating pig. Isa 65:4 condemns people 'who sit among the graves… who eat the flesh of pigs.' 1 Maccabees 1:47 says Antiochus IV ordered pigs to be sacrificed, and 2 Maccabees 6:18–7:42 tells of Jews who died rather than eat pork, which made refusing pork a test of loyalty. Mishnah Bava Kamma 7:7 rules that 'an Israelite may not raise pigs anywhere.' Archaeology shows pig bones almost missing from Jewish sites of the period but common at Gentile ones. Elsewhere in the New Testament the same word appears in Matt 7:6 ('do not throw your pearls before pigs') and in Luke 15:15–16, where the lost son feeding pigs in a foreign land has hit rock bottom.

Where it appears

Matthew · 4

  1. Matthew 7:6 χοίρων pigs

    Do not give dogs what is holy; do not throw your pearls before swine. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.

    Here: Pigs. For Jews, unclean animals that were forbidden as food (Leviticus 11:7). Together with dogs they made the standard pair of 'unclean beasts.'

  2. Matthew 8:30 χοίρων of pigs

    In the distance a large herd of pigs was feeding.

    Here: Pigs. For Jewish hearers the pig was the clearest example of an unclean animal (Lev 11:7; Deut 14:8) and a symbol of pagan, Gentile life. The word tells the reader at once that this is Gentile territory.

  3. Matthew 8:31 χοίρων. of pigs.

    So the demons begged Jesus, “If You drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.”

    Here: Pigs, which Jewish law classed as unclean (Leviticus 11:7; Deuteronomy 14:8). A Jewish hearer would find it fitting that unclean spirits ask to go into unclean animals, and would notice that the scene is in Gentile territory.

  4. Matthew 8:32 χοίρους, pigs,

    “Go!” He told them. So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and died in the waters.

    Here: The everyday Koine Greek word for pigs. To a Jewish hearer these were the unclean animal above all others (Lev 11:7). Their presence shows the story takes place in Gentile country.

Mark · 4

  1. Mark 5:11 χοίρων of pigs

    There on the nearby hillside a large herd of pigs was feeding.

  2. Mark 5:12 χοίρους pigs

    So the demons begged Jesus, “Send us to the pigs, so that we may enter them.”

  3. Mark 5:13 χοίρους, pigs,

    He gave them permission, and the unclean spirits came out and went into the pigs, and the herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the water.

  4. Mark 5:16 χοίρων. pigs.

    Those who had seen it described what had happened to the demon-possessed man and also to the pigs.

Luke · 4

  1. Luke 8:32 χοίρων of pigs

    There on the hillside a large herd of pigs was feeding. So the demons begged Jesus to let them enter the pigs, and He gave them permission.

  2. Luke 8:33 χοίρους, pigs,

    Then the demons came out of the man and went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

  3. Luke 15:15 χοίρους. pigs.

    So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.

  4. Luke 15:16 χοῖροι, pigs,

    He longed to fill his belly with the pods the pigs were eating, but no one would give him a thing.

    Here: Pigs. To a Jewish hearer they were the unclean animal above all others (Leviticus 11:7). Envying their food marks the lowest point of his fall.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.