Disquisitio philol. de Iudaeorum odio et abstinentia a porcina, eiusque c ausis

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except, after death, by providing utility through its flesh and fat, so in the Jews the hatred toward the swine genus increased immensely by the force of the divine law, by which its touch and eating were entirely prohibited to them, and so no use at all—not even the least—was to be expected by the Jews from pigs, whether alive (since they were held to be unclean) or slaughtered (which it was a sin to eat). And what good finally redounds to Christians from that beast? CLEMENS of Alexandria answers acutely, Stromata, Book VII, nothing πλὴν ὑστριχες, κρεας, πηλος τε και βοῃ except bristles, flesh, mud, and clamor. To all these things was added the violent eating of this flesh in the persecutions of the Gentiles, which was very often attempted upon the Jews, so that the Jews preferred to suffer the harshest torments rather than fail the divine law by eating this flesh. a) Let the old man Eleazar be an example, who could not be brought to eat pork by the most atrocious threats, torments, or enticements: 2 Maccabees 6:18. Likewise, seven brothers with their mother endured the extreme, 2 Maccabees 7. Wherefore from that time, namely after the tyranny of Antiochus, they are said to have established the law: ולא יגדל ישראל חזירי בכל מקום Let no Israelite raise pigs in any place. See JOSEPHUS, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XII, 6. More could have been added in this entire exercise, especially to strengthen our reasons further, had not all those things already been anticipated in the chapters which explain the use of pigs among the Greeks and Romans in the sacrifices of many gods. Meanwhile, I am glad to have had the most solid theologian CAMPEGIUS VITRINGA agreeing with me in some things, in his posthumous booklet, On Symbolic Theology, p. 210.

§. XII.

A single question still, so that we leave nothing untouched, is to be dissolved briefly: Namely, since mention is made of pigs a few times in the New Testament, was it not lawful for Jews to raise swine?

a) The celebrated BUDDEUS judges this not to be the last among the various reasons for this hatred, Ecclesiastical History, Vol. I, p. 686.