Читать книгу The Story of Jesus - Roy A. Harrisville - Страница 17

The form or structure of the exorcisms is simple and uncomplicated: Each event is comprised of four and often five “constants” or ingredients. The first sets the scene for the activity to be described. The scene or venue of the first exorcism is the Capernaum synagogue (Mark 1:21); of the second, the house of Simon and Andrew (Mark 1:32, 34); of the third Jesus’ departure to the sea of Galilee (3:7); of the fourth Jesus’ and his disciples’ arrival at the country of the Gerasenes (5:1), and the scene or venue of the fifth is the crowd’s encounter with Jesus and the disciples following the Transfiguration (9:14). The second constant or ingredient is the evangelist’s statement of the problem or dilemma, and not always in terse fashion. The first exorcism involves the man with an “unclean spirit” (Mark 1:23–24); the second involves those who were sick or possessed with demons (Mark 1:32, 34); the third has to do with “unclean spirits” (Mark 3:11); the fourth with the “unclean spirit” living among the tombs (Mark 5:2–7), and the fifth involves the boy with a “spirit” (Mark 9:17–18). The third constant or ingredient marks Jesus’ advance to the problem. In the first instance he rebukes the unclean spirit: “Be silent, and come out of him!” (Mark 1:25); in the second it is merely stated that he cast out many demons (Mark 1:34); in the third it is repeated that he cured many, among them the unclean spirits (3:10). In the fourth instance Jesus commands, “come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” (Mark 5:8), and in the fifth he says, “You spirit that keeps this boy from speaking and hearing, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again!” (Mark 9:25). The fourth ingredient marks the result of Jesus’ action. In the first exorcism narrative, the unclean spirit, convulsing the man and crying with a loud voice, comes out of him (Mark 1:25). In the second, it is simply stated that many were cured (Mark 1:34); in the third, the unclean spirits fall down before him and shout, ‘You are the Son of God!” (Mark 3:11); in the fourth, the Gerasene demoniac, Legion, enters the herd of swine (Mark 5:13), and in the fifth, the spirit cries out, convulses the boy, and comes out (Mark 9:26). The fifth ingredient may be described as “the chorus,” indicating the response of the witnesses to the act. In the first instance, the synagogue members are amazed, herald the newness of Jesus’ teaching, coupled with his command over the spirits, and his fame spreads throughout Galilee (Mark 1:27–28). In the second, absent the “chorus,” the narrative concludes with Jesus’ ordering the demons to be silent because they know him (Mark 1:34). In the third, the “chorus” consists of the Phariseers’ conspiring with the Herodians to kill Jesus (Mark 3:6). In the fourth, the demoniac proclaims in the Decapolis what Jesus did for him, and all are amazed (Mark 5:20: In the fifth and last, the disciples ask Jesus why they could not heal the boy with the spirit, to which he replies, “this kind can come out only through prayer” (Mark 9:28–29).

Clearly, the references to the persons involved do not yield a medical diagnosis, but denote a condition that renders impossible genuine participation in the religious community. The persons involved have “unclean” spirits. These references, together with the Baptist’s description of the one to come as “more powerful” (1:7, in Greek the comparative adjective“ strong-er” is used), and Jesus’ parable in response to the charge that he is in league with the devil (“no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man”) all take their force from the temptation event in which the “strong man,” Beelzebul, or Satan, is tied and bound.

Jesus as exorcist, or more precisely, Jesus as victor over the demonic powers, is the portrait yielded by the exorcism narratives of Mark’s Gospel, a role suited to the Messiah in the ancient Jewish literature, rife with parallels to Mark 1:21–28. For example, in the pseudepigraphical Book of Enoch 55:4 (written under an alias), an apocalypse dating from ca. 160 BC, the author writes:

Ye mighty kings who dwell on the earth, ye shall have. To behold Mine Elect One, how he sits on the throne of glory and judges Azazel, and all his associates, and all his hosts in the name of the Lord of Spirits.21

The Testament of Levi 18, another pseudepigrapical book, written before AD 70, perhaps before 70 BC, reads:

And Beliar shall be bound by him (the high priest of the Messianic age), And he (the high priest) shall give power to His children to tread upon the evil spirits.22

The Testament of Zebulun 9 reads:

He shall redeem all the captivity of the sons of men From Beliar; And every spirit of deceit shall be trodden down.23

The Assumption of Moses 10:1, still another pseudepigraphical work, written before AD 30, reads:

And then (in the blessed age of consummation) His Kingdom shall appear throughout all His creation, And then Satan shall be no more.24

It has been argued that the whole of the story of Jesus is regarded by Mark as the continuation of the climactic struggle between the Spirit and Satan begun at the temptation, a struggle relived in the story of the Christian Church. Jesus thus opens the battle and carries it on as the “Son of God” equipped with the Spirit. His exorcism of the demons manifests his struggle and victory. It is the “beginning of miracles” at Capernaum, the commission of the Twelve (3:15), and proof of supreme power at the transfiguration (9:14–29). Power over the demons is the assurance that Jesus is “the Holy One of God” (1:24, 34; 3:11–12; 5:7), the basis on which the Twelve are brought to this conviction (4:39–41). As Benjamin W. Bacon of Yale put it years ago, “exorcism. . .is the nucleus and core of Markan Christology.”25 Matthew and Luke give much less attention to exorcisms. Matthew repeats the narrative of the Gerasene demoniac (8:28), as well as Jesus’ response to his enemies’ charge that he is an agent of Beelzebul, though altering the occasion to the exorcism of a deaf and mute (Matthew 12:22), to which he then adds Jesus’ parable of the return of the unclean spirit (Matthew 12:43–45). The second evangelist includes only one other exorcism, that of the epileptic boy following the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:14–21). In Luke references to exorcisms are drastically reduced. The charge against Jesus is repeated, and as in Matthew its occasion is altered to the exorcism of a mute, not deaf, demon (Luke 11:14). This is the one lone reference in Luke, aside from an earlier general note regarding Jesus’ healing those troubled with “unclean spirits” (Luke 6:18). Exorcisms are totally absent from the Fourth Gospel.

If this gradual elimination of exorcisms indicates that Matthew, Luke, and John were wary of casting Jesus in the role of a wonder-worker, of the “divine man” of pagan or even Jewish tradition, Mark was not in danger of it. Framing the exorcism with references to the crowd’s astonishment (Mark 1:22, 27), he clearly coupled Jesus’ teaching with the exorcism as evoking the crowd’s fear and amazement. The reference to the crowd’s reaction to Jesus’ teaching (Mark 1:22: “They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes”), has its proper exposition in the narrative of the exorcism. Likewise, the reference to the crowd’s reaction following the exorcism (Mark 1:27, as I prefer to translate: “What is this? A new teaching! With authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him”), makes clear that what is involved is more than something heard. It is something seen, a revelation, an epiphany. This same conjunction of amazement at Jesus’ teaching and his deeds occurs at his appearance in Nazareth: “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands!” (Mark 6:2). For both events at Capernaum and Nazareth Mark uses the same verb to describe the crowd’s reaction.

A significant number of interpreters has argued that whereas the healing narratives and miracle stories reported of Jesus are almost without exception legendary, all of them transferred to Jesus since the Son of God in the first century could only be considered a wonder-worker, Jesus nevertheless healed the possessed, and in the earliest Christian communities exorcisms were among the signs of an apostle.26 In response, I believe that restricting belief to Jesus’ performance of exorcisms reflects influence from the side of psychology, the assumption being that his casting out of demons may be explained in terms of the treatment of psychic disorders, whereas his miracles of healing cannot. However, attempts to explain the exorcisms in this fashion comes a cropper over the fact that in each instance of an exorcism, the result is sudden and instantaneous, whereas the treatment of such psychic disturbances as are assumed for these narratives is not, but requires time for their resolution. We are left with the alternative that the exorcisms are to be set down to the legendary or mythical, or are to be believed as having actually occurred.