Is Legion the Strong Man?

[Giuseppe]

Compare both the two episodes:

Mark 3:27
In fact, no one can enter a strong man's house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man's house

Mark 5:

They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes.[a] 2 When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. 3 This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. 4 For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. 7 He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!” 8 For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”

9 Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” 10 And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.

11 A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. 12 The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” 13 He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

14 Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. 15 When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 16 Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. 17 Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.

18 As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. 19 Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 20 So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed

In the gerasene episode, the demons recognize who is Jesus: he is the son of the creator. Hence they recognize him as their master and lord since the Demiurge is their Lord.

To accuse Jesus of being possessed by Satan is equivalent to accuse Jesus of being allied with the demons. In the Gerasene episode Jesus seems effectively allied with the demons insofar they are discussing with him how they can escape him in relative safety.

But the final fate of the demons secures the reader that, even if Jesus exorcises the demons apparently with their help, Jesus punishes them by making falling the pigs into the lake. Hence who accuses Jesus of being evil as the his father is evil (his father the Demiurge) is absolutely wrong.

Therefore both the episodes are anti-Gnostic in nature.

The Gnostics were accusing the Messiah of the Demiurge of being as his father: satanic.

But the evangelist concedes that the Gnostics have reason at least in a point: the demons recognize that Jesus is the son of their same god.

Evidently, the god of the gnostics was absolutely alien and unknown by any being of the world of the demiurge.

[Giuseppe]

The evangelist "Mark" is doing a rehabilitation of the Christ of the Demiurge under the assumption that the Demiurge was hated by the Gnostics.

He concedes that the demons recognize the rule of the demiurge but he emphasizes that this doesn't mean a secret alliance between the demons and the demiurge to simulate only a real exorcism.

He concedes that the demiurge killed the Jesus ("my god, why have you cursed me?") but he emphasizes that this doesn't mean that Jesus was not his loved son ("you are my beloved son").

He concedes that the mother of Jesus was the Sophia who gave birth to the Demiurge and that therefore she believed that his son was "crazy", but he emphasizes that this doesn't mean that Jesus was not loved by the his mother and the other women who followed him.

He concedes that Jesus was hated by Christian Nazarenes as Demiurge ("Carpenter") but he emphasizes that this doesn't mean that Jesus is a false prophet.

He concedes that the Messiah of the Demiurge has to be "king of Jews", but he emphasizes that Jesus was killed on a Roman cross.

This last point is important: the Roman crucifixion of the Son of Demiurge served to make accept him as a symbol of the Roman power on the entire world, but he emphasizes that the world is his, of the demiurge.

The power of Rome (allegorized by the cross) becomes the power of the demiurge (allegorized by the his christ crucified).

[Giuseppe]

So it is not true that:

"Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's."

...is based on Romans 13:1 :

"Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God and those which exist are established by God."

...But both the passages are derived from the same judaizing need of making the demiurge a positive figure worthy of worship: if the Messiah crucified by Romans is an implicit symbol of submission to the Roman power (just as the Roman archontes are to be served by the Christians), then the same Messiah on a Roman cross becomes symbol of the power that the demiurge has on the entire his creation (just as on the same spiritual archontes). The message is that the concrete power is demiurgical and therefore right per se: if you adore the cruelty of the Roman cross as symbol of victory of the demiurge, then there is not more an obstacle to adore the same demiurge as unique Lord of the entire creation. Because his is the cruelty and the glory.

This is the final evidence of the Judaizing nature of the First Euhemerizer.