The demons and the pigs of the demiurge Polyphemus

[Giuseppe]

Who argues for Mark being based on Odissey mentions in particular this parallelism:

The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

(Mark 5:13b)

[460] should be lightened of the woes which good-for-naught Noman has brought me.’ “So saying, he sent the ram forth from him. And when we had gone a little way from the cave and the court, I first loosed myself from under the ram and set my comrades free. Speedily then we drove off those long-shanked sheep, rich with fat, [465] turning full often to look about until we came to the ship. And welcome to our dear comrades was the sight of us who had escaped death, but for the others they wept and wailed; yet I would not suffer them to weep, but with a frown forbade each man. Rather I bade them

(Odyssey 9:464-465)

Now, I think that in Marcion's Gospel, the herds of pigs running down the rocky cliff to the sea was absent. It can be a Judaizing interpolation to make Jesus a punisher of the pigs/demons, whereas in the Marcion's gospel the point was that Jesus was so Good (as Son of the Good God) that he has the demons escape freely in the pigs without giving them a punition shortly after. The pigs, as symbol of lower matter, were the creatures of the demiurge, hence it is just that the demons entered in them without die.

Even so, I think that here the author of the episode was really basing himself on Homer. It is the only point in all Mark where I concede really this point.

But I think that a more faithful and coherent midrash from Homer doesn't assume the punition of the pigs/demons.

In Homer, the fact that the warriors were able to escape by masking themselves under the pigs (hence, the fact that they save themselves), is not meant as the prelude of a coming punition, shortly after, of these same warriors/"pigs". The sea allegorizes for them the complete salvation from Polyphemus.

This is more expected if the original midrash from Homer (in this precise point) was made not by "Mark" (judaizer) but by Marcion or by a proto-marcionite (Satornilos, Cerdon, etc), insofar the demons are able to save themselves without receiving a punition for their successful act of fugue.

To think that the demons7pigs drowned in the lake as punished by Jesus would be equivalent to think that Polyphemus punished the warriors of Odysseus when they reached the sea. Polyphemus would work as the blind demiurge, here.

Hence, the Gospel of Marcion read probably so:

26 And they sailed down to the country of the Gadarenes,
which is over against Galilee.
27 And when he went forth to land,
there met him out of the city a certain man,
which had demons [a] long time, and wore no cloke,
neither abode in a house,
but among the tombs.
28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him,
and with a loud voice said,
What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high?
I beseech thee, torment me not.
29 (For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.
For oftentimes it had caught him: and he was kept guarded and bound
with chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands asunder,
and was driven of the demon into the deserts).
30 And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name?
And he said, Legion: because many demons were entered into him.
31 And they besought him that he would not command them
to go out into the abyss.
32 And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain:
and they besought him that he would allow them to enter into them.
And he allowed them.

[Giuseppe]

If Polyphemus is the demiurge (afterall, both are blind entities), could he be Paul via the identity Gerasene = parody of Paul? Only a judaizer can raise that equation. As only a judaizer can invent a Paul confessing the activity of persecutor of the Christians.

I don't think that the gerasene converted himself after the exorcism in the original episode. Afterall, the Gerasenes don't convert themselves even after having seen and heard the wonder by Jesus. Hence in the original story there was no conversion of the gerasene as effect of the expulsion of legion. The Judaizer invented the his conversion to make the Gerasenes not believers in the his place, after the miracle. And only so the Gerasene became a parody of Paul, by having him converted contra the Gerasenes.

The emphasis in the original story is on the show of unexpected goodness of Jesus with Legion. Not on the conversion of the gerasene.

The Legion itself is good insofar it is enemy of Jesus originally considered by it as son of the demiurge, a dangerous Terminator going to destroy it.

Translated: even the Roman Legion is a good thing, in comparison to the evil god of the Jews.

[Ethan]

demon and pigs or demon pigs?

[Giuseppe]

I am not denying that the gerasene was identified with Paul to attack Paul and the Gnostics. The identity:

Gerasene = Paul = blind demiurge who converts himself = Polyphemus

...was realized by a Judaizer who had the epistles interpolated with the passages referring to Paul as pre-christian persecutor.

I want to be clear here: I would like that all Paul is falsified rather than accepting as authentic the legend of a Paul persecutor.

But the my point here is that the original story was not focused on the conversion of the gerasene or on the fear of the gerasenes.

The original story had Jesus as liberator of demon Legion.

The Legion realized that Jesus worked in the name of a god distinct from the demiurge. The Legion recognized that Jesus was not the Terminator-Messiah sent by the demiurge.

By making Jesus a liberator of the gerasene in opposition to Legion, the Judaizer ("Mark") was able to raise the anti-marcionite equation:

Gerasene = Paul = blind demiurge who converts himself = Polyphemus

Note that Polyphemus is the demiurge Paul who converts himself when he realizes that another (Odysseus = Mr "Nothing"=the alien god of Marcion) has made him blind.

[Giuseppe]

The historical Satornilos, Cerdon, Marcion hated the demiurge without hope of redemption for him.

But already Marcion was slightly judaized since he denied that the demiurge was evil: he was only forever sadically "just".

After Marcion, the original dualism became ditheism:

The demiurge was doubled: the father Yaldabaoth was the evil demiurge ("carpenter"), the his son Sabaoth (identified with Jesus Christ) was the good demiurge. The son had to hate the father. Hence the origin of the Logion of Luke 14:26.

But even this ditheism was not sufficient:

The Judaizers are fully satisfied only when the supreme god is identified with the demiurge. The goal of "Mark" (judaizer) was to make the spiritual Christ coming from the demiurge (as supreme god) on the mere man Jesus (separationism).

Hence the trend:

Dualism (anti-judaization) ---> ditheism (semi-judaization) ----> monarchianism (full judaization).

[perseusomega9]

[Ben C. Smith]

[Giuseppe]

I go further, ignoring the satire of who may not share the my views about Marcion.


The original episode was without a gerasene at all.

And Jesus asked a chief of demons, saying, What is thy name?
And he said, Legion.

And he besought him that he would not command them to go out into the abyss.

And he allowed them.

Hence the gerasene was introduced entirely by the Judaizer ("Mark") to defame Paul as the true demiurge in the place of the creator. To this point, the possible midrash from Homer is part and parcel of the his judaization.