One of the hot topics for Atheists is the NT's description of Jesus as an exorcist, a man who had power to command the invisible spirits that take possession of humans and cause them to act in erractic ways. Pat Robertson says such spirits often force decent Christians to participate in orgies and extramarital sex. (Hmmm) One of the first stories about Exorcism appears in Mark: So they arrived on the other side of the lake in the country of the Gerasenes.
(Note: Gerasa - the place where the Gerasenes live - is about thirty miles south-east of the Sea of Galilee, and there is no other large body of water around. Matthew shifts the scene to Gadara, which is only six miles from the Sea of Galilee. continuing...)
As Jesus was getting out of the boat, a man in the grip of an unclean spirit (Note: Greek word is pneuma, implying breath or movement of air, something unseen) rushed out to meet him from among the tombs where he was living.
It was no longer possible for any human being to restrain him even with a chain.
Indeed he had frequently been secured with fetters and lengths of chain, but he had simply snapped the chains and broken the fetters in pieces. No one could do anything with him.
All through the night as well as in the daytime he screamed among the tombs and on the hillside, and cut himself with stones.
Now, as soon as he saw Jesus in the distance, he ran and knelt before him, yelling at the top of his voice, "What have you got to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? For God’s sake, don’t torture me!"
For Jesus had already said, "Come out of this man, you evil spirit!"
Then he asked him, "What is your name?" "My name is legion," he replied, "for there are many of us."
Then he begged and prayed him not to send "them" out of the country.
A large herd of pigs was grazing there on the hillside, and the, evil spirits implored him, "Send us over to the pigs and we’ll get into them!"
So Jesus allowed them to do this, and they came out of the man, and made off and were into the pigs. The whole herd of about two thousand stampeded down the cliff into the lake and was drowned.
The swineherds took to their heels and spread their story in the city and all over the countryside.
Then the people came to see what had happened. As they approached Jesus, they saw the man who had been devil-possessed sitting there properly clothed and perfectly sane—the same man who had been possessed by "legion"—and they were really frightened.
Those who had seen the incident told them what had happened to the devil-possessed man and about the disaster to the pigs.
Then they began to implore Jesus to leave their district.
As he was embarking on the small boat, the man who had been possessed begged that he might go with him.
But Jesus would not allow this. "Go home to your own people," he told him, "and tell them what the Lord has done for you, and how kind he has been to you!"
So the man went off and began to spread throughout the Ten Towns the story of what Jesus had done for him. And they were all simply amazed.
_________
Matthew contains a similar story with two victims of possession, but relocates the incident to Gadara.
Autor William Harwood in his book "Mythologies Last Gods: Yahweh and Jesus" suggests that this exorcism might have been a late addition to the original Gospel of Mark, after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 Ad, and the demon called "Legion" was only a veiled reference to Rome's famous Tenth Legion:
"Since the fall of the city a few months earlier [in 70 C.E.], Jerusalem had been occupied by the Roman Tenth Legion [X Fretensis], whose emblem was a pig. Mark's reference to about two thousand pigs, the size of the occupying Legion, combined with his blatant designation of the evil beings as Legion, left no doubt in Jewish minds that the pigs in the fable represented the army of occupation. Mark's fable in effect promised that the messiah, when he returned, would drive the Romans into the sea as he had earlier driven their four-legged surrogates."
Gerasa was one of the few Hellenic cities which did not fall upon and destroy its Jewish inhabitants after the uprising began. Those who wanted to leave were actually conducted to safety
According to Flavius Josephus, War of the Jews, Bk II, Ch XIII, Sn 5 Gadara was the scene of a a great massacre of Jewish rebels by the Roman troops in 69 C.E. Like the pigs, the fleeing rebels were driven into the water.
"Vespasian sent Placidus with 500 horse and 3000 foot to pursue those who had fled from Gadara..."
(Sn 4)
"Placidus, relying on his cavalry and emboldened by his previous success, pursued the Gadarenes, killing all whom he overtook, as far as the Jordan. Having driven the whole multitude up to the river, where they were blocked by the stream, which being swollen by the rain was unfordable, he drew up his troops in line opposite them. Necessity goaded them to battle, flight being impossible... Fifteen thousand perished by the enemy’s hands, while the number of those who were driven to fling themselves into the Jordan was incalculable; about two thousand two hundred were captured..."
- Flavius Josephus, War of the Jews, Bk IV, Ch 7
So, after all the arguments over the illogic of having a modern rite of exorcism in the Catholic Church, could turn out Jesus NEVER exorcised anyone and the stories were just discreet ways of Jewish Christians thumbing their noses at the Romans who destroyed Jerusalem.
Opinions?
(Note: Gerasa - the place where the Gerasenes live - is about thirty miles south-east of the Sea of Galilee, and there is no other large body of water around. Matthew shifts the scene to Gadara, which is only six miles from the Sea of Galilee. continuing...)
As Jesus was getting out of the boat, a man in the grip of an unclean spirit (Note: Greek word is pneuma, implying breath or movement of air, something unseen) rushed out to meet him from among the tombs where he was living.
It was no longer possible for any human being to restrain him even with a chain.
Indeed he had frequently been secured with fetters and lengths of chain, but he had simply snapped the chains and broken the fetters in pieces. No one could do anything with him.
All through the night as well as in the daytime he screamed among the tombs and on the hillside, and cut himself with stones.
Now, as soon as he saw Jesus in the distance, he ran and knelt before him, yelling at the top of his voice, "What have you got to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? For God’s sake, don’t torture me!"
For Jesus had already said, "Come out of this man, you evil spirit!"
Then he asked him, "What is your name?" "My name is legion," he replied, "for there are many of us."
Then he begged and prayed him not to send "them" out of the country.
A large herd of pigs was grazing there on the hillside, and the, evil spirits implored him, "Send us over to the pigs and we’ll get into them!"
So Jesus allowed them to do this, and they came out of the man, and made off and were into the pigs. The whole herd of about two thousand stampeded down the cliff into the lake and was drowned.
The swineherds took to their heels and spread their story in the city and all over the countryside.
Then the people came to see what had happened. As they approached Jesus, they saw the man who had been devil-possessed sitting there properly clothed and perfectly sane—the same man who had been possessed by "legion"—and they were really frightened.
Those who had seen the incident told them what had happened to the devil-possessed man and about the disaster to the pigs.
Then they began to implore Jesus to leave their district.
As he was embarking on the small boat, the man who had been possessed begged that he might go with him.
But Jesus would not allow this. "Go home to your own people," he told him, "and tell them what the Lord has done for you, and how kind he has been to you!"
So the man went off and began to spread throughout the Ten Towns the story of what Jesus had done for him. And they were all simply amazed.
_________
Matthew contains a similar story with two victims of possession, but relocates the incident to Gadara.
Autor William Harwood in his book "Mythologies Last Gods: Yahweh and Jesus" suggests that this exorcism might have been a late addition to the original Gospel of Mark, after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 Ad, and the demon called "Legion" was only a veiled reference to Rome's famous Tenth Legion:
"Since the fall of the city a few months earlier [in 70 C.E.], Jerusalem had been occupied by the Roman Tenth Legion [X Fretensis], whose emblem was a pig. Mark's reference to about two thousand pigs, the size of the occupying Legion, combined with his blatant designation of the evil beings as Legion, left no doubt in Jewish minds that the pigs in the fable represented the army of occupation. Mark's fable in effect promised that the messiah, when he returned, would drive the Romans into the sea as he had earlier driven their four-legged surrogates."
Gerasa was one of the few Hellenic cities which did not fall upon and destroy its Jewish inhabitants after the uprising began. Those who wanted to leave were actually conducted to safety
According to Flavius Josephus, War of the Jews, Bk II, Ch XIII, Sn 5 Gadara was the scene of a a great massacre of Jewish rebels by the Roman troops in 69 C.E. Like the pigs, the fleeing rebels were driven into the water.
"Vespasian sent Placidus with 500 horse and 3000 foot to pursue those who had fled from Gadara..."
(Sn 4)
"Placidus, relying on his cavalry and emboldened by his previous success, pursued the Gadarenes, killing all whom he overtook, as far as the Jordan. Having driven the whole multitude up to the river, where they were blocked by the stream, which being swollen by the rain was unfordable, he drew up his troops in line opposite them. Necessity goaded them to battle, flight being impossible... Fifteen thousand perished by the enemy’s hands, while the number of those who were driven to fling themselves into the Jordan was incalculable; about two thousand two hundred were captured..."
- Flavius Josephus, War of the Jews, Bk IV, Ch 7
So, after all the arguments over the illogic of having a modern rite of exorcism in the Catholic Church, could turn out Jesus NEVER exorcised anyone and the stories were just discreet ways of Jewish Christians thumbing their noses at the Romans who destroyed Jerusalem.
Opinions?
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