Now indicates a transition in the narrative. Good News Translation introduces a new paragraph. Here it can be translated as “It happened that…” or “There was a herd of swine….”

The presence of a herd of … swine indicates that Jesus is in Gentile territory. Swine is a word for “pigs.” The text indicates there were many of them. In English, “a large herd of pigs” is more natural than “a herd of many pigs,” but languages will vary on this.

At some distance (so Bible en français courant) or “In the distance” (New English Bible) is representative of most translations. Both New Jerusalem Bible and New American Bible have “some distance away,” while Good News Translation and Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition have “Not far away.”

It seems that at some distance does not indicate a great distance, since the pigs can be seen. Translations can either follow Good News Translation or have a phrase like “Nearby” or “A little ways away.” Notice that in most languages it is more natural to put the expression near the beginning of the sentence, not at the end.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .