MONDAY-February 3 Mark 5: 1-20 “My name is Legion.” Another translation has ‘Mob’. ‘Mob’ suits a madman: it conveys the sense of being invaded by chaotic forces (legions are all discipline). Which madmen does it suit especially? All of us! A good way to read the Scriptures is to put oneself in the shoes of everyone in the story. It is certainly a dramatic story. In his book, Why I am Not a Christian, Bertrand Russell brought up this story to support his claim that Jesus was not a perfect man. The philosopher was focusing on the pigs and the fate they met at the hands of Jesus. But there are other characters in the story: in particular, a deeply troubled human being. St Jerome thought there must have been two thousand demons, since there were two thousand pigs. One demon one pig. The text doesnt quite say that. Never mind: no one could be so interested in demons – or in pigs, for that matter – as to keep an exact tally of them. No one, that is, except Tertullian (3rd century), who wrote: “Even the bristles of the pigs were counted by God, just as were the hairs of the heads of the just.” That would have consoled Bertrand Russell. He was certainly partial to pigs: he was no vegetarian, and probably never came face to face with a pig that wasn’t cooked. Ninety-nine years of bacon and sausages would account for quite a large herd of pigs, possibly even two thousand; and all of them suffered more gruesome deaths than their distant relatives in the story. Mark’s focus is the sorely tormented human being. It is a story full of symbolic meanings. Every element is significant. The story is full of unclean things. Demons, of course, were unclean. Jews could not touch a dead body or a tomb without becoming ritually unclean (this is why sepulchers were whitened; because of their greater visibility, people were less likely to bump into them accidentally); but this man even lived in the tombs. Pigs were regarded as unclean animals, and would never be found in Jewish territory. In addition, Jews had a great fear of water; they were no sailors; for them the sea was the abode of Leviathan, the monster of the deep. So the possessed man was surrounded and invaded by vile forces. By the end of the story the demons have left the man and taken up residence in the pigs, the most appropriate place for them; and the pigs have plunged into the water to join Leviathan. Meanwhile, the man is “clothed and in his right mind,” and is told by Jesus to go home to his family and friends. Everything has returned to its proper place.... If it were a film it would end with a short of Bertrand Russell seated at home enjoying his breakfast. DGCI
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 13:48:35 +0000
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