The pig, because he has a split hoof, and is cloven-footed, but doesn’t chew the cud, he is unclean to you. Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch; they are unclean to you.
⛓ Read Leviticus 11 forward — the whole chapter and its afterlife →Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.
Allusion1
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
Swine are the paradigmatic unclean animal: 'of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch.' The great herd of pigs (vv.11-13) signals the Gentile, unclean territory and supplies the fitting receptacle for unclean spirits. The legal designation of swine grounds the narrative's purity logic and reinforces the Isaiah 65:4 swine motif.
Medium confidenceEcho2
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
The classification of the pig as unclean (do not eat, do not touch its carcass) gives the swine their symbolic charge as fit vessels for unclean spirits in this Gentile region. Coherence is strong even though Luke does not cite the law.
Medium confidenceThe swine declared unclean grounds the symbolic appropriateness of the demons entering the pigs and the unclean-Gentile setting; thematic coherence with Matthew's purity concerns.
Medium confidence