Matthew Index





Matthew's deletions and redaction
of Mark's story of the herd of swine


Matthew's editing of Mark's gospel


Episodes from Mark's Gospel that were deleted in Matthew's edited versionMatthew deletions of Mark's version of the swine story

     Another example of how Matthew edits Mark is found in the edited and shortened version that Matthew gives of Mark's swine story. Different versions of certain stories are found in the gospel accounts because the authors of the gospels had ideological agendas that were not always in agreement. (One common apologetic dodge is to suggest that ‘this was another time when an almost identical, but slightly different, incident took place, but it is obvious that what we see here is evidence for the hand of a later editorial redactor at work, and this accounts for the discrepancies between the versions of tales found in different accounts.)

     Matthew's deletions of Mark are best understood as being made for ideological reasons, and that Matthew was a free handed redactor of Mark's account is apparent when considering the editing Matthew did of Mark's swine story. According to Mark's account,

"They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when he had come out of the boat, there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who lived among the tombs; and no one could bind him any more, even with a chain; for he had often been bound with fetters and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the fetters he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out, and bruising himself with stones. And when he saw Yeshua from afar, he ran and worshiped him; and crying out with a loud voice, he said, "What have you to do with me, Yeshua, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me." For he had said to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!" And Yeshua asked him, "What is your name?" He replied, "My name is Legion; for we are many." And he begged him eagerly not to send them out of the country. Now a great herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside; and they begged him, "Send us to the swine, let us enter them." So he gave them leave. And the unclean spirits came out, and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea. The herdsmen fled, and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. And they came to Yeshua, and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. And those who had seen it told what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine. And they began to beg Yeshua to depart from their neighborhood. And as he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. But he refused, and said to him, "Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you." And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Yeshua had done for him; and all men marveled. Mark chapter 5 verse 1

Matthew's considerably shortened version of this story follows:

"And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. And behold, they cried out, "What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?" Now a herd of many swine was feeding at some distance from them. And the demons begged him, "If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of swine." And he said to them, "Go." So they came out and went into the swine; and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and perished in the waters. The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told everything, and what had happened to the demoniacs. And behold, all the city came out to meet Yeshua; and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their neighborhood." Matthew chapter 8 verse 28

     The first change that Matthew makes to the account is to introduce ‘two demonaics' who were so fierce that no one could pass that way. Matthew completely does away with Mark's silly sounding story about ‘one demoniac' who alone was so fierce that no one could pass that way, and was also notorious for such super powered deeds as snapping chains, being so powerful that he could not be subdued. Apparently Matthew found the chain snapping story to lack credibility, as most people would, and also thought that perhaps two fierce demonaics would sound more credible than one lone fierce demonaic. The bit about the demonaic pounding himself with stones day and night was also considered lacking in credibility by Matthew and was deleted, and the author also cut the part about the demonaic first coming to ‘worship' the Christ and then asking the Messiah not to torment him. Apparently demons do not ‘worship' in the gospel of Matthew. Matthew also deleted the bit about the demoniac begging to come with Yeshua on the boat, and the bit about being told to ‘Go home and tell the people all that happened to you.' This line is inconsistent with the constant refrain in Mark's gospel that ‘no one was to tell anyone about their miracles or that Christ was the Messiah' and this inconsistency might explain why Matthew cut the lines. Another small difference is that in Mark's account when the people see the fierce man with the demon in his right mind, they beg Yeshua to leave their neighborhood, whereas in Matthew's account when they see Christ, they beg him to leave their neighborhood, and nothing more is said about Matthew's ‘two fierce demonaics'.

     Now it is a good question to ask why Mark would spread around such a ridiculous story. For example, you could chain any mentally ill person on the face of the planet in heavy chains, even, as Mark suggests, using the heaviest chains you could find, and not once in long ages of history have any of them ever been known to snap heavy chains. Even Mark should have known that such a foolish story could not have been true, and this more than likely explains why Matthew ditches the whole business in his shortened version of this obviously tall tale. This does leave us to wonder why Matthew did not just cut the story all together, but perhaps we can think of this as an attempt at ‘damage control' on Matthew's part, at least in his own mind. Now as for there suddenly being the two of them, in Matthew's edited version, instead of just the one, well it would be more credible for ‘two fierce demonaics' to control that territory than it would be for one lone demonaic to do so, no matter how fierce he might have been, so two it becomes for that very reason. Matthew also ditches the bit about the possessed man begging on behalf of the demons that possessed him that they ‘not be forced to leave the country'. Luke however, was quite the teller of tall tales himself, as the silly stories that open his book illustrate, and pretty well follows Mark on this one, with a few embellishments (for example the demons begged not to be forced into the ‘abyss' in Luke's version, rather than begging not to be ‘sent out of the country' in Mark's version).





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A Unified Field Theory

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The Unified Field Theory
is also available as a zip file -> unified.zip

Introduction :The Pioneer Effect and the New Physics. A brief description of the new physics required to explain the 'Pioneer Effect', which is the constant deceleration of space craft as they fly through space.










Principles of Evolution: A Study in the Evolution of Bedbugs


A couple of years ago my bedroom was invaded by bedbugs. There were two variant genetic lines. One type of bedbug was an enlongated, thin, tubular insect, and the second genetic line was a flat, perfectly circular insect. The result of the cross breeding of these two genetically distinct variants was the production of a bedbug with charcteristics of both, an enlongated, flat bedbug with a central bulge (such that the shape of the bedbug was somewhere between 'long' and 'circular'). The long skinny bedbugs were such strange and unfamiliar looking insects that at first I did not recognize them as being bedbugs, and considered them to be a seperate species of insect. However, as the photographs of bedbugs above indicate, enlongated and skinny bedbugs are not uncommon, and the photographs also show the variants that are produced by genetic combinations that result in an insect somewhere in between 'circular' and 'enlongated'.

Therefore it is my hypothesis that evolution occurs by means of the transfer of dominate genes, with the production of such dominant genes being the product of 'biological algorithms', a genetic software program that brings physical characteristics into harmony with behavior, such that when behavior changes, and a conflict then exists, this acts as a trigger and causes the release of dominant genes. The result is rapid evolution of species. The bedbug is a relatively new insect, not the product of millions of years of evolution but rather an insect that is evolving in real time. The newly emerging dominant form of the insect is the flat, round ciruclar insect, well adapted to living in human bedrooms (it is flat, rather than tubular, thus allowing it to hide in the smallest cracks, living a stealthy lifestyle, and it is round, which gives the insect a maximum storage capacity such that it must endanger itself only a few times a month by emerging to feed.

Other examples of rapid evolution include the development of long legs in an invasive species of toad in Australia. As the toads move into the mountainous regions of Australia, and their behvaior changes, making them 'climbing toads', over the course of just a couple of decades the toads in the highlands have grown long legs specially adapted to climbing. It is worth noting here that the toads are poisonous, and are a successful invasive species because they have no natural predators in Australia, and so it would not be the case that the toads with long legs were 'the fittest survivors', because all the toads are survivors, and therefore predation does not explain the rapid emergence and spread of such well adapted, long legged toads. Once again we see evidence for the existence of biological algorithms and the rapid spread of dominant genes through a population, which once introduced proceed to overwhelm the older genes which are being replaced (making toad long legged and a bed bug round and flat).


A Theological Experiment

My interest in pursuing the Unified Field Theory is spurred on by my need to discover the theoretical explanation of a new form of propulsion (as explained on this page: Why the Unified Field Theory?). The experiment involving the bedbugs came out of nowhere.

I also believe that it is possible to justify theological propositions using experimental methods. If a thing is an objective truth then it can be verified and proven true by means of experimentation. Such a theological proposition is of more value than a ‘divine revelation’, since such revelations depend upon nothing more than establishing authority figures which requires the creation of artificial hierarchies, for the only reason why I might be encouraged to believe an authority figure who orders me to believe unsubstantiated opinions is if I could somehow be convinced that this authority possessed a mind that was somehow superior to mine, and thus was fit to express opinions as though opinions were unquestionable facts and thus worthy of being elevated to the status of absolute dogma.

There is a self evident human inequality which is visibly apparent. Some people are ‘beautiful’ and thus are the true elite on this planet, and some people are not. It is this sexual inequality and the degeneration that follows upon beauty that is the true driving force behind all the evil that happens on earth. The need for ruthless oppression and the pursuit of wealth and the consequent creation of suffering and poverty which must follow upon this practice is for the purpose of creating an artificial alpha elite.

The true elites are the young and the beautiful. The artificial elite are the rich and the wealthy. The elite aging rich artificial alpha male has no good looks, for he is physically degenerate, but he will be found escorting beauty because he has a beautiful wallet. If he loses his wallet he will be found at home with all the other unattractive aged beta males sitting in a rocking chair watching reruns of Bonanza. No money, no sex. It is for this reason that the alpha males are found to be so ruthless and so violent in pursuit of their goal. The alpha male has fallen. The beta male has arisen and now the whole planet is full of ruinous destruction for it.

We see in religion a confused and contradictory reaction to this reality. On the one hand religion preaches a sexless heaven where castration and the clitorectomy create ‘pure spirits’. Muslims throw women under sacks. On the other hand religion supports hierarchy and is the prop of the elite alpha male. It is for this reason that religion is incoherent when it comes to speaking about sex.

Now we see this same principle at work in all of nature. Guppies dance and show off their colorful tails and the guppy who dances with the most colorful tail is the sexually successful guppy. Therefore it is the doctrine of the ruthless oppressor which teaches that the solution to human sexual violence is to be found in castration and the creation of pure ghosts. This would be equivalent to damning an aardvark for having the ‘sinful aardvark nature’ or prosecuting an anteater for the high crime of ‘ant genocide’.

Therefore it was my theological hypothesis that the correct solution to this problem is to give every guppy a beautiful colorful tail. I compare this solution to the classic religious solution which is to cut off every tail since having a tail is ‘sinful’. If having a tail is sinful then God must be sinful for no human being has any choice in deciding whether or not they would be born with a colorful tail, or whether they would not.

When I was young I was a beautiful guppy with a lovely tail. So everyone seemed to think. I am older now. My nose became very badly sunburned and destroyed. It seemed good to me to test my hypothesis by using these ‘biological algorithms’ to correct this problem. I healed half my nose as you can see by the line separating the still very dark patch on the side in the photograph below.





I documented my experiment on these pages. one two t hree four fi ve six


I have confirmed to my own satisfaction that my theological proposition is correct and that religious dogma is erroneous, being based as it was upon nothing more than ‘divine revelation’ which is just a form of opinionated speculation. For the time being I am not continuing this experiment, for I must wait until the weather on this planet improves, and the dark clouds of ruthless oppression break letting a little sun shine come through so that I can show the world the truth about God, by showing people how God goes about giving an old guppy back his beautiful colorful tail.


Until then I will have to sit on the sidelines, while all my scientific breakthroughs are deliberately ignored, while I wonder to myself what ever in the world could be wrong with the human race, because what this all will prove at the end of it all is that there definitely was something wrong with the people on this planet.