ring, or ignorant of, all this, to tell us that Gadara had a
Hebrew population, bound by the Mosaic law.

In the face of all this evidence, most of which has been put before
serious students, with full reference to the needful authorities and
in a thoroughly judicial manner, by Schuerer in his classical
work,[104] one reads with stupefaction the statement which Mr.
Gladstone has thought fit to put before the uninstructed public:

Some commentators have alleged the authority of Josephus for
stating that Gadara was a city of Greeks rather than of
Jews, from whence it might be inferred that to keep swine
was innocent and lawful. This is not quite the place for a
critical examination of the matter; but I have examined it,
and have satisfied myself that Josephus gives no reason
whatever to suppose that the population of Gadara, and still
less (if less may be) the population of the neighbourhood,
and least of all the swine-herding or lower portion of that
population, were other than Hebrews bound by the Mosaic law.
(Pp. 373-4.)

Even "rapid judgment" cannot be pleaded in excuse for this surprising
statement, because a "Note on the Gadarene miracle" is added (in a
special appendix), in which the references are given to the passages
of Josephus, by the improved interpretation of which, Mr. Gladstone
has thus contrived to satisfy himself of the thing which is not. One
of these is "Antiquities" XVII. xiii. 4, in which section, I regret to
say, I can find no mention of Gadara. In "Antiquities," XVII. xi. 4,
however, there is a passage which would appear to be that Mr.
Gladstone means; and I will give it in full, although I have already
cited part of it:

There were also certain of the cities which paid tribute to
Archelaus; Strato's tower, and Sebaste, with Joppa and
Jerusalem; for, as to Gaza, Gadara, and Hippos, they were
Grecian cities, which Caesar separated from his government,
and added them to the province of Syria.

That is to say, Augustus simply restored the state of things which
existed before he gave Gadara, then certainly a Gentile city, lying
outside Judaea, to Herod as a mark of great personal favour. Yet Mr.
Gladstone can gravely tell those who are not in a position to check
his statements:

The sense seems to be, not that these cities were inhabited
by a Greek population, but that they had politically been
taken