Demons and unclean spirits in Mark.

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Ben C. Smith
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Demons and unclean spirits in Mark.

Post by Ben C. Smith »

Two very different words are used for the same basic phenomenon in Mark: πνεύματα ἀκάθαρτα ("unclean spirits") and δαιμόνια ("demons") or δαιμονίζομαι (the related verb, "to be possessed by demons," in Mark found only as a participle). Is there any pattern to be discerned in the usage of these disparate terms?

(Unclean) spirits in Mark:

Mark 1.23-28: 23 And just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, 24 saying, "What do we have to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are: the Holy One of God!" 25 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be quiet, and come out of him!" 26 And throwing him into convulsions, the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice, and came out of him. 27 And they were all amazed, so that they debated among themselves, saying, "What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him." 28 And immediately the news about Him went out everywhere into all the surrounding district of Galilee.

Mark 3.11: 11 And whenever the unclean spirits beheld Him, they would fall down before Him and cry out, saying, "You are the Son of God!"

Mark 3.30: 30 ...because they were saying, "He has an unclean spirit."

Mark 5.1-14a: 1 They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes. 2 When He got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him. 3 And he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain; 4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones. 6 Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him. 7 And shouting with a loud voice he said, "What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!" 8 For He had been saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!" 9 And He was asking him, "What is your name?" And he said to Him, "My name is Legion; for we are many." 10 And he began to implore Him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain. 12 They implored Him, saying, "Send us into the swine so that we may enter them." 13 Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea. 14a Their herdsmen ran away and reported it in the city and in the country.

Mark 6.7: 7 And He summoned the twelve and began to send them out in pairs; and He was giving them authority over the unclean spirits....

Mark 7.24-25: 24 And from there He arose and went away to the region of Tyre. And when He had entered a house, He wanted no one to know of it; yet He could not escape notice. 25 But after hearing of Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet.

Mark 9.14-29: 14 And when they came back to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. 15 And immediately, when the entire crowd saw Him, they were amazed, and began running up to greet Him. 16 And He asked them, "What are you discussing with them?" 17 And one of the crowd answered Him, "Teacher, I brought You my son, possessed with a spirit which makes him mute; 18 and whenever it seizes him, it dashes him to the ground and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth, and stiffens out. And I told Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not do it." 19 And He answered them and said, "O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me!" 20 And they brought the boy to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling about and foaming at the mouth. 21 And He asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood. 22 "And it has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!" 23 And Jesus said to him, "'If You can!' All things are possible to him who believes." 24 Immediately the boy's father cried out and began saying, "I do believe; help my unbelief." 25 And when Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again." 26 And after crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, "He is dead!" 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up. 28 And when He had come into the house, His disciples began questioning Him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?" 29 And He said to them, "This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer."

The holy spirit: Mark 1.8, 10, 12; 3.29; 12.36; 13.11.
The spirit of Jesus: Mark 2.8; 8.12.
The spirit of humans: Mark 14.38.

Demon(iac)s in Mark:

Mark 1.32-34: 32 And when evening had come, after the sun had set, they began bringing to Him all who were ill and those who were demon-possessed. 33 And the whole city had gathered at the door. 34 And He healed many who were ill with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He was not permitting the demons to speak, because they knew who He was.

Mark 1.39: 39 And He went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out the demons.

Mark 3.14-15: 14 And He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him, and that He might send them out to preach, 15 and to have authority to cast out the demons.

Mark 3.22: 22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, "He is possessed by Beelzebul," and "He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons."

Mark 5.14b-20: 14b And the people came to see what it was that had happened. 15 They came to Jesus and observed the man who had been demon-possessed sitting down, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they became frightened. 16 Those who had seen it described to them how it had happened to the demon-possessed man, and all about the swine. 17 And they began to implore Him to leave their region. 18 As He was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed was imploring Him that he might accompany Him. 19 And He did not let him, but He said to him, "Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you." 20 And he went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.

Mark 6.12-13: 12 And they went out and preached that men should repent. 13 And they were casting out many demons and were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them.

Mark 7.26-30: 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, of the Syrophoenician race. And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 And He was saying to her, "Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." 28 But she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children's crumbs." 29 And He said to her, "Because of this answer go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter." 30 And going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, the demon having departed.

Mark 9.38-40: 38 John said to Him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to hinder him because he was not following us." 39 But Jesus said, "Do not hinder him, for there is no one who shall perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. For he who is not against us is for us."

Mark 16.9: 9 Now after He had risen early on the first day of the week, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons. [From the longer ending of Mark.]

Mark 16.17: 17 "And these signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues...." [From the longer ending of Mark.]

I have colored the four actual exorcism stories orange, blue, green, and red. As you can see, two of the stories (those of the Gerasene demoniac and the Syrophoenician woman) can be cleanly divided in twain, with all instances of "unclean spirit" in the first part and all instances of "demon" or "demon-possessed" in the second. The other two stories (the exorcism in the Capernaum synagogue and the exorcism of the boy) have "spirit" or "unclean spirit" throughout.

Most of the rest of the instances come in summary statements, which show a slight bias toward "demon" or "demon-possessed" but twice employ "unclean spirit" instead.

The Beezebul incident has no actual exorcism in Mark (though it does in Matthew and Luke), but the accusation by the scribes in 3.22 that Jesus casts out demons by the ruler of demons turns into a callback in 3.30 to the effect that Jesus has an unclean spirit.

So what do you think? Can any insights be gleaned from this distribution of terms which are basically synonyms?

Ben.
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Giuseppe
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Re: Demons and unclean spirits in Mark.

Post by Giuseppe »

I don't see a clear pattern.

Only, this has derived my attention:
Mark 3.22: 22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, "He is possessed by Beelzebul," and "He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons."
Is there some causal link between the provenance of the scribes "from Jerusalem" and their accusation that Jesus is friend of the (Galilean?) demons?

This would seem as an accusation of Pagan idolatry or Pagan origin of Jesus (the demons being - docet Rylands - exclusively the Pagan gods possessing the Gentile Galilea) by the Judaizers.
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
Stefan Kristensen
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Re: Demons and unclean spirits in Mark.

Post by Stefan Kristensen »

Good layout here, Ben. I think it shows that there is no clear pattern. You are right about the two passages with the Gerasene Demoniac and the Syrophenician Woman, that the terms are not 'mixed' so that it doesn't go spirit-->demon-->spirit or demon-->spirit-->demon, but only spirit-->demon. But with the Syrophenician Woman it starts off with just a single instance of spirit (7:25) and then the rest is all demon (7:26, 29, 30), and as such, I think, it is not really different from 1) the Beelzebul Incident, and 2) the Mission (which starts with demon in 3:15 and becomes spirit in 6:7).

But in the Gerasene Demoniac the consistency of the terminology seems abit striking: First three times of 'spirit' (5:2, 8, 13) and from then on just 'demon' (also three times: 5:15, 16, 18).

It seems to me that the different terms are used interchangeably in a manner that suggests randomness. For Mark they are the exact same thing, and I think the changes in terms mostly reflect that he just randomly felt like he wanted to use the one term or the other, because I don't really see any rules that governs his use.

But he must, however, be aware of the fact that for non-Christian, non-Jewish gentiles, "demons" are not "unclean spirits" in this way, i.e. ritual purity. The 'spirit' terminology used in gMark makes explicit the aspect of ritual purity which the 'demon' terminology does not (although demon-terminology indeed implies ritual uncleanness for Christians, including Mark, we must suppose).

This means that there must at least be one rule that governs Mark's use of these terms: He cannot have the term "unclean spirit" in the mouth of gentile characters. Maybe this is why he shifts the terminology in the Gerasene Demoniac? So that it fits better when the narrative shifts to the local (gentile) people coming to see what has happened with this man with the unclean spirit - or as they would understand it, the man with the demon. They don't understand that the problem is ritual purity, because they don't know God.

Perhaps this is also the case with the Syrophenician Woman, that the talk shifts to demon as soon as it is declared that she is a gentile. For Mark it is a cleansing of the gentiles (cf. Mark 7:1-23 which leads up the Syrophenician Woman), but the gentiles themselves don't understand that they are ritually impure.

And also, Mark seems to redefine ritual purity (he doesn't do away with it), so that it is only ethical, or inwardly (Mark 7:1-23), which kind of indicates that all these healings from disease, i.e. from "unclean spirits" and "demons" (also the unclean leper in 1:40-45), must also be understood in a transposed, or 'ethical', sense: It symbolizes conversion, or "μετανοια" ('repentance', Mark 1:4, 15; 4:12; 6:12). That is, it symbolizes the later Christian conversion, after the "gospel" has been revealed to the world (after Mark's narrative is over). As such there really is no difference between a healing and an excorcisms, and this understanding (that disease and possession is a matter of 'ethics', i.e. sinfulness and sin) is backed up also by the saying in 2:17, where "sinners" is equated with "the sick" and Jesus with a "doctor". [Edit: And of course also with the Healing of the Paralytic in 2:1-12, where healing and remission of sins are equated]

What do you think, Ben? Is there a pattern or not, and what does it mean?
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Ben C. Smith
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Re: Demons and unclean spirits in Mark.

Post by Ben C. Smith »

Stefan Kristensen wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2017 1:40 amThis means that there must at least be one rule that governs Mark's use of these terms: He cannot have the term "unclean spirit" in the mouth of gentile characters. Maybe this is why he shifts the terminology in the Gerasene Demoniac? So that it fits better when the narrative shifts to the local (gentile) people coming to see what has happened with this man with the unclean spirit - or as they would understand it, the man with the demon. They don't understand that the problem is ritual purity, because they don't know God.

Perhaps this is also the case with the Syrophenician Woman, that the talk shifts to demon as soon as it is declared that she is a gentile. For Mark it is a cleansing of the gentiles (cf. Mark 7:1-23 which leads up the Syrophenician Woman), but the gentiles themselves don't understand that they are ritually impure.

....

What do you think, Ben? Is there a pattern or not, and what does it mean?
Well, that is a very good idea, at any rate, about the gentiles and their relationship to the terms at hand.

It may be, however, that the distribution in the Gerasene demoniac story admits of another explanation. Once the unclean spirits have been expelled, they are no longer around, and only their former victim remains. I do not think there really is a nice, single word for "one who has been possessed by an unclean spirit," but there is a nice participle for "demon-possessed" (δαιμονιζομένος), and it is the participle of the verb δαιμονίζομαι which is used all three times toward the end of the pericope.

In other places I, too, fail to discern a pattern. Does it seem a bit odd to you that Mark has Jesus' enemies use the "demon" terminology in Mark 3.22, when elsewhere they are disgusted by Jesus' alleged uncleanness (and hanging out with the unclean)?
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Charles Wilson
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Re: Demons and unclean spirits in Mark.

Post by Charles Wilson »

Hello Ben --

I believe there is a Pattern to this. You also have to see women, for example, as Symbols of nations and peoples (leading to Mary and Martha).

"Unclean Spirits": Roman Sycophants. The Godly (esp. the Priests) have been given the Way to God and there is no way that Rome, conquering the Holy People by force, could be followed. There is already a Godly Rule - "Aren't there Settlements in Galilee for the Priests?" - and the Unclean Romans will be overthrown.

Also see that the Stories make sense in a time during Herod's reign and earlier. He is not even a Jew, he builds Temples to foreign gods, This is the end of the Hasmonean Dynasty. Jannaeus was seen as the King and much of his Rule is rewritten into the "Jesus" character.

Perhaps the easiest of the Stories to see is "The Lunatic":

Mark 5:

[1] They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Ger'asenes.
[2] And when he had come out of the boat, there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,
[3] who lived among the tombs; and no one could bind him any more, even with a chain;
[4] for he had often been bound with fetters and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the fetters he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him.
[5] Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out, and bruising himself with stones.
[6] And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped him;
[7] and crying out with a loud voice, he said, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me."
[8] For he had said to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!"
[9] And Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" He replied, "My name is Legion; for we are many."
[10] And he begged him eagerly not to send them out of the country.
[11] Now a great herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside;
[12] and they begged him, "Send us to the swine, let us enter them."
[13] So he gave them leave. And the unclean spirits came out, and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea.
[14] The herdsmen fled, and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened.
[15] And they came to Jesus, and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the man who had had the legion; and they were afraid.
[16] And those who had seen it told what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine.
[17] And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their neighborhood.
[18] And as he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him.
[19] But he refused, and said to him, "Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you."
[20] And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decap'olis how much Jesus had done for him; and all men marveled.

This is an almost completely Jewish recap of the Story of Judea in the "Modern" History of the World. Unclean Spirits? Describes the Herodians and Romans to a "T". IT IS A DESCRIPTION OF A CULTURE WAR. Proven by reference to "The Decapolis".
***
Who was this being described? Probably Alexander Jannaeus. He was attempting to Reunify Greater Israel,

Matthew 15: 24, 30 - 31 (RSV):

[24] He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
...
[30] And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the dumb, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them,
[31] so that the throng wondered, when they saw the dumb speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.

One final note: The Lunatic is fearful as the Demon-Possessed seen earlier. "Do not torment me" is a repetition of "Have you come to destroy us? We know who you are...". The "Jesus" character does not destroy the Lunatic, however. He can be "Rehabilitated". He can go to the Decapolis and put the people on notice there that there is a New Sheriff in Town.

CW

PS: Ben, I realize that this doesn't get very far with you but I invite you to try to "See-it-as" insofar as it relates to Sources rewritten as a "Jesus" story. Not everything must be fitted to the Paradigm of "Jesus". Again, this may serve as the advantage of theft over honest toil from those who constructed the NT.

Thanx.
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Re: Demons and unclean spirits in Mark.

Post by FransJVermeiren »

In another thread I suggested that ‘unclean spirit’ is a code word for ‘Syrophoenician’ in the story of the unclean spirit in the synagogue in Mark 1:23-28.
I believe this interpretation is supported by ‘The mission of the twelve’ story in Mark 6:7-13. In this fragment a civil war situation is depicted with Jews diametrically opposed to Syrophoenicians (unclean spirits in verse 7 and demons in verse 13). Jesus gave his adherents authority over the Syrophoenician inhabitants of Galilee (v. 7), so they expelled them wherever they could (v. 13). Some places (with a Syrophoenician majority?) refused to hear the revolutionary message of the Jews. The Greek verb ἐκβάλλω (to expel, to banish) is mostly used ‘with the included notion of more or less violence’ (Strong’s 1544), so in my opinion verse 13 speaks of ethnic expulsion. The second part of this verse discusses the care given by Jesus’ men to their ethnic brothers and sisters who had been maltreated by the Syrophoenicians - there was violence back and forth. Verse 13 once more illustrates the ethnic dissension in Galilee.

I believe that in Mark 9:25 the ‘unclean’ adjective has been added. Three times in this fragment there is only a spirit, and ‘unclean’ in verse 25 is missing in some manuscripts, which points in this direction.
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Stefan Kristensen
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Re: Demons and unclean spirits in Mark.

Post by Stefan Kristensen »

Ben C. Smith wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2017 6:38 am It may be, however, that the distribution in the Gerasene demoniac story admits of another explanation. Once the unclean spirits have been expelled, they are no longer around, and only their former victim remains. I do not think there really is a nice, single word for "one who has been possessed by an unclean spirit," but there is a nice participle for "demon-possessed" (δαιμονιζομένος), and it is the participle of the verb δαιμονίζομαι which is used all three times toward the end of the pericope.
Makes very good sense.
Does it seem a bit odd to you that Mark has Jesus' enemies use the "demon" terminology in Mark 3.22, when elsewhere they are disgusted by Jesus' alleged uncleanness (and hanging out with the unclean)?
Well, if they regard demons as the same things as unclean spirits, then I don't think it's odd. What do you mean?
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