In the mind of the Judaizer called «Mark»: some examples

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Giuseppe
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In the mind of the Judaizer called «Mark»: some examples

Post by Giuseppe »

John 3:14–15
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

I think that John 3:14-15 helps greatly to explain the presence of the two crucified thieves with Jesus:

Mark 15:24, 27, 32:
And they crucified him … They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left. ... Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.


Exodus 7,8–13 :
8 Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,
9 “When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, ‘Work a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.’ ”
10 So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and thus they did just as the Lord had commanded; and Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent.
11 Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts.
12 For each one threw down his staff and they turned into serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.
13 Yet Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had said.]

I think that there is a particular pattern in how Mark builds the his story:

1) he takes a previous myth (myth, not story or legend)

2) and he historicizes it by inventing human figures for the circumstance.

Another example:

Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

(Mark 6:3)

The «carpenter» is the demiurge. «Mary» is Sophia, the mother of the demiurge. The people of Nazareth are scandalized to recognize Jesus as the figure of the creator still only partially rehabilitated in the eyes of the Judaizers. In this way, «Mark» confirms us in the total rehabilitation of the creator as the supreme god. Something as:
«Ok, we know that the demiurge is going to be rehabilitated gradually, but don't fear, in the my story the process of rehabilitation of the demiurge, in the form of a human messiah called Jesus, is complete».


Another example still:

And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.

(Mark 1:13)

The scene is anti-edenic. The «wilderness» is the anti-Eden, the «wild beasts» are the animals found in this anti-Eden, and Jesus is put there as a new Adam, having even the «angels» in the his service.

The Garden of Eden is now a Wilderness because of the Original Sin.

But then who is «Satan»? He is the «Serpent» who tempted Adam and Eve. In this way the Judaizer «Mark» is claiming that the creator is the supreme god, and not the Serpent adored by the gnostics as a positive figure. But here is again the same pattern in action: the figures of the gnostic myth are used by Mark to invent a new story in order to debunk that previous myth.
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
Giuseppe
Posts: 13732
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2015 5:37 am
Location: Italy

Re: In the mind of the Judaizer called «Mark»: some examples

Post by Giuseppe »

Another occurrence of the same pattern is seen in Mark 12:18-27:
18 Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 19 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. 21 The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. 22 In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. 23 At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”

24 Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25 When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 26 Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”


The seven brothers are the seven Archons of this aeon.

They are asking to themselves:

At the end, which Archon (among us seven) will be the Prince of this world, since we all have ruled on this world in different times and/or spaces?

The answer of Jesus reveals the coming end of the power of these Archons: by the resurrection, the evil Archons will be reduced to nothing.

In this case the rivalry between the Archons is euhemerized by the rivalry between the seven brothers, about who will be the possessor of the woman. The woman who is fallen pray of these 7 Archons may be the Gnostic Sophia or the humanity.

By inventing this story, Mark isn't approving the Gnostic sense of the previous myth. What matters to him is simply to historicize any more or less disturbing feature of that previous and rival myth, to reiterate the point that the source of all that speculation (more or less "heretic") was the Jewish Messiah and the his supreme god: the creator.

The idea of a higher god than the creator has to be exorcized and eclipsed behind the judaizing "normal" context invented by "Mark".

Note that for the Gnostics, the creator was only one of these 7 archons.
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
Giuseppe
Posts: 13732
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2015 5:37 am
Location: Italy

Re: In the mind of the Judaizer called «Mark»: some examples

Post by Giuseppe »

The Gospel of Mark is a subtle anti-Gnostic parody meant to prove that the supreme god is the creator. This is another example:


They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. 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.

Mark is using the Gnostic myth: the possessed Gerasene is crazy like the demiurge.

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!”

in the Gnostic myth, the demiurge considered the abyssal distance between him and the supreme god as evidence of the existence of only himself as only deity. But, by reducing the demiurge to a mere gerasene, the message vehicled by Mark is now that the creator himself is the "Most High God" (Jesus being the his son).

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.

In the Gnostic myth, the demiurge was only one of 7 archons.

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.

in the Gnostic myth, the divine sparks were considered imprisoned in only an elite of human beings, the so-called "pneumatics". "Mark" (author) is deriding the Gnostic elitism: the divine sparks inside themselves are now (by parody) the demons, hence they, as human recipients of these divine sparks, are mere pigs (by parody).

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


in the Gnostic myth, the goal of the so-called "pneumatics", the elite of true Gnostics who had the divine spark in themselves, was to return to the "pleroma", the Gnostic paradise, by joining themselves with the supreme god. "Mark" (author) casts this "pleroma" in a "lake" where, by parody, the "pigs"/pneumatics were destined to fall in.

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 Gnostic myth, at the end the demiurge was forgiven by the supreme god (so Eznik). But now, by this anti-Gnostic parody, the supreme god who forgives an inferior "god" is the creator.

Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
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