THE GADARENE SWINE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 28 October 1922, Page 10

THE GADARENE SWINE.

FAMOUS CONTROVERSIES RECALLED.

I Who has; not, from time to time, heard certain of the Bible miracles called into question? Any fresh facts regarding them are, therefore, of extreme interest. Dr. Schofield, an eminent authority on Scriptural matters, has recently returned from Palestine, where, in collaboration with Professor Sellin, the Austrian archaeologist, he made many intensely interesting discoveries which have an important bearing on the miracles of both the Old and New Testament. Dr. Schofield relates these discoveries in an article in Pearson's Magazine, and backs up Ms statements hy many unique photographs. Taking the miracle of th& Gadarene swine, which rushed down a steep place into the Sea of Galilee, Dr. Schofield writes: "This was "the subject of the famous controversy between Huxley and Gladstone, the former seeking io discredit all miracles, comparing them with a chain which could not be stronger than its weakest link, which he declared was the miracle at Gadara. Jt was at Gadara, or Gergesa, the swine were said to run down the steep hill into the sea, and if this could be disproved Huxley considered all miracles (including that of the Resurrection) fell with it. He succeeded in showing that Gadara lay twenty miles to the south of the Sea of Galilee, and Gergesa twenty miles to the east, so that the swine in either case would have to gal Too for hours and theri cross a rive? to drown themselves in the lake. Not only so, but even if they got to the lake, it was everywhere surro^hded by a flat border, about half a. ftrile

I 1 before the mountains began. I knew J that it was only recently, by diligent search, that the little town of Ghersa had been identified as the site of the i miracle, but I was not prepared for the I immediate discovery of the 'steep | place' shown in my photograph. The | cliff shown, absolutely running into the I water, is the only one, as far as I know, in the whole circuit of the lake. I Moreover, the cliff is at the very site of the miracle as now established, so that we cannot say that even the weakest link of the miracle has yet given wa>j. fr