The fourth episode of the second season of the Retelling the Bible Podcast is posted today (May 16, 2018). You can listen to the episode and subscribe to the podcast by following one of these links or by searching for the podcast on your favourite platform:

There is a bit of a trigger warning with this episode. It includes references to rape and sexual violence.

SHOW NOTES

This episode is a retelling of the story that is told in Mark 5:1-19 in the New Testament of the Bible. (Click the reference to read the original story). Any direct biblical quotations in the episode are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.

Here are a few of my thoughts on the episode.

THE HISTORY BEHIND THIS STORY

This story is an account of a particular time when Jesus cast multiple demons out of a man in a place referred to as the Country of the Gerasenes. Nobody seems to be quite sure where this place is — not even the earliest copiers of the gospel manuscript who transcribed the word “Gerasenes” in a variety of ways. The story is also told in almost identical terms in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke with one significant change in Matthew’s account: He reports two demoniacs instead of one

We cannot verify, of course, whether or not this specific event happened in this particular location, but Mark likely included the story in his gospel as a representative account of the kind of exorcism work that I have no doubt that Jesus did engage in on a fairly regular basis.

How should we Approach Accounts of Demon Possession?

I do not believe that various physical, mental and psychological disorders are caused by supernatural spirits or demons. In fact, I believe that that is a very dangerous idea and it has caused untold damage to people who suffer from various conditions. Of course, I would like to believe that Jesus rejected this destructive idea as well, that he somehow knew better than everyone else who lived in his age, but the evidence seems to indicate that Jesus’ thinking on this matter was quite in line with the common thinking of his time. Jesus may have been the incarnation of the divine (I believe that he was), but he was also a full human being of his own time and place and had no special insight into modern neurology, psychology or medicine.

That means that we must ask we ought to read the various accounts of demon possession and exorcism in the Bible. We should not reject what modern science has taught us, but to appreciate what these stories meant to the people who first told them, we must we willing to use their language to speak of things that we would understand differently.

That is why I have chosen to tell this story using the vocabulary of the time while providing a backstory that makes sense to us as modern people. My thinking is that the man in the story is not suffering from any particular disorder but rather that his circumstances have caused him to behave in extremely disruptive ways which would have been seen as evidence of demonic influence by first-century people.

Clues to the Causes of the Man’s Behaviour

Obviously, the particular details of Shemayon’s story (including his name) are my own invention. But I do believe that there are indications in the gospel story of what may have caused him and others like him to behave in the way that he did.

The surprising appearance of the word Legion in the story is one strong indicator. Mark, the gospel writer, seems to find no special significance in the word and simply states that it is an indication that the man is possessed by a multitude of demons, as if legion was a simple synonym for many. But, of course, it is not. Legion is, in fact, a Latin word — the only Latin word to appear in the entire Greek manuscript of this gospel. It is also a Roman military term and the legions were instrumental to the ongoing occupation of the region.

If the “demon possessed” man wanted a word to take as his name in his altered state and that would indicate that a multitude of supernatural forces were at war within him, he could have chosen any number of Greek or Aramaic terms. The fact that he chose a Latin military term is a strong indication that the legionaries had, in some way, played a role in what brought him to his state. Given that history offers endless examples of atrocities committed by occupying troops, it is not too hard to imagine what the legion might have done to him.

The importance of the pigs to the story, of course, offers another angle on the man’s backstory. Sure, Jews generally disliked swine and avoided them as much as possible because they were unclean, but this man seems to have a particular animosity towards the animals. For him to need to see a number of pigs destroyed in order to be freed from the rage that has consumed him strongly suggests to me that he has been injured by pigs in some symbolic way.

What I Learned from this Retelling

If I met a person like the Shemayon that I have described in this story — someone so consumed by rage that he or she had become extremely antisocial, I would not describe that person as possessed by a demon as an ancient person might, but that does not mean that I would embrace him or her easily. I would be very much inclined to avoid such a person, not to engage.

The most important thing that Jesus does for this man in this story is engage with him. He engages him where he is without judgment or fear. It is this, more than anything else, that begins the process of healing for this man. This stands as an example to me, and I hope to all of us, for how we might make a difference through engagement with difficult people.

In order to understand the origins of this man’s demons, I felt that I needed to create a backstory for him. My most important discovery in this exercise is that a backstory, even a fictitious one, creates sympathy and empathy. Always remember that everyone, no matter how difficult, damaged or damaging, has a backstory. I think we would all be well served to discover the empathy that is available through those stories.

Where I got some of this.

For the past couple of years, I have been writing a book called, “The Seven Demons of Miryam of Magdala.” I borrowed some of the things I learned about Mary Magdalene through that process and have applied them to this story. Look out for this book sometime in the future!

Please do tell people about this podcast. If you can write a review and give a rating on iTunes or on any other platform, that will help other people to find the podcast. I welcome your comments and questions here or on twitter (@retellingbible) or Facebook (Facebook.com/RetellingtheBible).

See you next week when we dive into another New Testament story that I have always wanted to write: “When Saul became Paul.” (Note, probably not the story that you think it is.)

Music in this Episode

“AhDah” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

“Curse of the Scarab” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/