Martin Klatt wrote: ↑Wed Oct 10, 2018 6:05 am
If I remember correctly Jöris indeed took the same track you sketched. He too looked at the sources in Exodus especially and the rest of scripture and other non-biblical Jewish writings and even relevant Greek literature establishing the base meanings, to build his case. For every instance of γενεα in Mark he did a structure and form analysis of the pericope, but you have to read it yourself as I don't remember all details.
The strange case of the γενος in Mark 9:29 has my attention also. It feels out of place and incoherent as it is translated now. I entertain the possibility that the pericope got corrupted somehow and it originally also read γενεα and was meant to convey the meaning that the scribes who were mentioned as disputing with the disciples were the reason for their failure. In that case the disciples were unable because the scribes interfered. The scribes, as know it alls of scripture would have competed in exorcisms, the official Jewish procedure being reciting prayers and psalms.
I've given alot of thought to the idea that the interconnection between the concepts of faith and prayer is one fundamental background to understand 9:29 in its context. Because the context, as I see it, is not just the Epileptic Boy, the context embraces the whole section from Peter's confession and the first 'passion prediction' right through to 9:29, and one unifying theme in this section is that of
the hardships of the "way" and of mission and the reward.
Explaining fully how on earth I can find this particular theme within the story of "the Epileptic Boy" takes too long for the time I have right now. But let me explain it anyway, unstructured as it comes off the top of my head.
First, I would not call this pericope the story of "the Epileptic Boy" as much as the story of "the Resuscitation of the Tormented Mute Son". This is a desciption of the incident that can better bring out the symbolism that I suggest is in there. As such there runs a thread from Jesus' first passion predicton where he is "speaking the Word openly (παρρησια)" in 8:32, through 8:34-9:1 with "me and the gospel" and eternal life, through the Transfiguration with "this is my son, hear him", through 9:9-14 with the disciples not speaking until the resurrection, to this incident with the mute son that no one hears who "is like dead", but "rises" as he is healed by Jesus. The accompanying motif all along, except specifically the Transfiguration scene in 9:2-8, is suffering and resurrection: the hardships of being a Christian and a missionary, the same hardship Jesus overcomes as the first proto-missionary to walk "the way" to the end and receive the reward, to enter the kingdom of God in the resurrection to eternal life.
To me, these observations tell us something fundamental about the context of 9:29. In my suggested reading, the dramatic imaging of the epileptic seizures of the poor mute boy are symbolic of the hardship of the missionaries post-easter, which is most explicitly spoken of in 13:9-14, but also dramatized as the danger at sea, the missionaries being "fishers of men" (cf. the Stilling of the Storm and Walking on the Lake). And in this hardship the human, fleshly inclination towards fear that opposes the gospel being preached "openly/without fear" (παρρησια, 8:32) is dramatized explicitly with Jesus in Gethsemane. But here Jesus shows his "faith/confidence in God" (Mark 11:22) with his prayer which he prays in order to get the strength to go through his own "witnessing", i.e. his martyrdom 'on account of the gospel message' (8:35; 14:62). He then goes on to "witness" the Word "openly/without fear" (παρρησια). His prayer in Gethsemane, then, is fully a part of the same idea as the prayer spoken of in 9:29, I suggest. It is a prayer that shows and even causes confidence (i.e. πιστις) that God can and will come through even though I am now suffering in the flesh. A confidence (or faith, "πιστις") that the father of the epileptic boy does not show (at first).
So, I suggest that "this kind" of spirit is: the kind that tries to shut up the missionary by somehow 'triggering' (or what it is Satan does) his fleshly inclinations towards fear and anxiety about having to "witness" to the gospel message in the face of hatred, shame and even persecution, i.e. martyrdom. Maybe Mark is thinking specifically about a concrete form of spiritual being, one of Satan's minions, Satan's way to try and derail martyrdom and God's plan (cf. 8:33). Maybe Mark is just using this spiritual being in this incident with the epileptic boy as a didactic symbol for this general human anxiety.
In any case, I think it should be clear to all that for Mark the theme of the hardship that comes with being a faithful Christian and missionary is an
extremely central one. It pops up everwhere, even as Mark imports Jonah's fear of preaching God's word which the poor prophet then does only after "three days and three nights" in "sheol" (Jon 1:17; 2:2), cf. the Stilling of the Storm where the disciples' fear of the dangerous stormy sea is a parallel to Peter's reaction to the passion prediction, and Jesus' rebuke in both places as the remedy. And it is this theme he narrates even also in the incident with "the Epileptic Boy", I suggest. The epileptic seizures, like the roary sea, being another symbol of the dreadful conditions of the Christians and the missionaries. "Fear not, only have faith!" (5:36)
That's also the explicit reason given on the surface level narrative in Mark 16 for the women's failure to tell of the resurrection: "because they feared". So did Jesus, but then he prayed to God, so that his anxieties could come out by his faith in God's abilities. Because "this kind can only come out by prayer". And it does, the moment the father of the epileptic boy believes in Jesus' abilities and prays: "Help my faithlessness!" At fist he didn't have faith, and neither did the "faithless" disciples (9:19). For their anxieties to come out, so that they can speak "after the son of man has risen from the dead" (9:9), it takes prayer and faith. It takes prayer to overcome this fear, so that the gospel can be spread, and the prayer is confidence in God's (and Jesus') willingness and ablitiy.
I need to stress that I'm aware that much of this is probably ridiculous speculation, but it's a suggestion based on many observations, not just these in gMark but also in the whole of NT, where, imo, a term such as "παρρησια" helps to show how there are deep themes running through all of NT theology, helping to construct greater complexes of ideas among all these ancient theologians, which then also are the fundamental building blocks for Mark's theology which expressses itself through his peculiar narration of it. And atm I feel confident that this is at least the right avenue of interpretion.