Is Jairus allegory of the Demiurge? And his ''house'' the world itself?

Discussion about the New Testament, apocrypha, gnostics, church fathers, Christian origins, historical Jesus or otherwise, etc.
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Giuseppe
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Is Jairus allegory of the Demiurge? And his ''house'' the world itself?

Post by Giuseppe »

I agree surely with Carrier when he quotes Covington who agrees with him:
I think it remains to be adequately explained why John, the [purported] writer of Revelation, would have written this, unless he thought this was how it happened. Why place Jesus’ birth in a heavenly realm for symbolic reasons? On the other hand, it seems peculiar that in Matthew 2:13-23 we read a story about a wicked earthly ruler (Herod) trying to kill the savior after his birth. Carrier thinks the gospels [might contain] stories about what happened in heaven disguised as (fictional) stories about what happened on Earth. It’s a funny thing that Revelation presents us with a story of a heavenly Savior being sought for slaughter by an evil heavenly ruler (Satan), and later Matthew writes a (provably fictional) story about an earthly savior being sought for slaughter by an evil earthly ruler (Herod).
(my bold)
https://www.richardcarrier.info/archives/13387

But if the proto-catholic Matthew introduced in the Gospel a so evident allegory of a heavenly event (obviously, also in view of the polemic against the docetic deniers of the human birth of Jesus), then why didn't the Gnostics do the same thing with some their Gospel that preceded Matthew? For example, in proto-Mark?

Note also that Revelation was written against the paulines in ''mythicist'' times (i.e., before the knowledge of the Gospel Jesus), according to Couchoud.

About the episode of the daughter of Jairus, already Parvus had said that the two women allegorize respectively the Sarah (saved by grace) and Agar (saved by Law) of pauline memory:

Now it strikes me that this Markan episode easily lends itself to the kind of allegorical interpretation Paul gave to the slave and free women in Galatians. Something along the lines of: “Now this is an allegory. The dying daughter of the leader of a synagogue corresponds to the Twelves’ mission to the Jews. That mission died or nearly died (after 70 CE?). The woman who had bled for twelve years corresponds to the Gentile mission. She is portrayed as bleeding because the Twelve were insisting that Gentile converts be circumcised.  Jesus’ action in saving the bleeding woman by faith prefigures Paul’s preaching of salvation by faith and his refusal to allow his Gentile converts to be circumcised. And Jesus’ raising back to life of the daughter of the synagogue leader prefigures Paul’s ultimate saving of the mission to the Jews.”
(my bold)


In my Gnostic interpretation of Paul and proto-Mark, the woman of Gal 4:4 (born by woman, born under the Law'') alludes to Sophia, the divine Aeon enslaved by the Demiurge, born as an ''abort'' by the same Sophia. In the Gnostic myth of the Creation, when Sophia realizes what she had done by giving birth to the Demiurge (i.e., all the evil in the world), suffers. The Demiurge is not able to console her. Therefore, just as the Demiurge had asked the divine spark of light from a highest god (the famous ''fiat lux!'' of Genesis), he asked now to Jesus, in the person of Jairus, the healing of the daugther/Sophia.

21 When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. 22 Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. 23 He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” 24 So Jesus went with him.
A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
35 While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”
36 Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
37 He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. 38 When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. 39 He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” 40 But they laughed at him.
After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). 42 Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. 43 He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.
(Mark 5:21-43)


Note the apparently invisible actor in the background: the ''house'' of the ''synagogue leader''.

That ''house'' is the world created by the Demiurge: this world.

Jesus is effectively saving all the people of that house by simply ''putting them all out''. In other terms, he is saving the creatures of the Creator God from the Creator himself.

But Jesus doesn't save (by putting them inside the house) just the three Pillars plus Jairus and his wife.
Or better, he will save the Sophia/daughter of Jairus in that ''house''/world, but he doesn't reveal his true identity to Jairus and his wife (and the three Pillars). Ignorance of the true God is condemnation of the Demiurge.

If the daughter of Jairus represents not Sophia but Israel (as Parvus says), then the episode says us which is the fate of the ''daughter of Jairus'': to remain in the ''house'' of the Demiurge/''Jairus'', the same fate that Marcion reserved for the followers of Judaism. Only the Jews had to continue the cult of the Demiurge.
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: Is Jairus allegory of the Demiurge? And his ''house'' the world itself?

Post by Giuseppe »

So it is explained why Jesus uses the aramaic words ''Talita Kum'' to save the daughter of Jairus. He is simply helping the Demiurge, since it was his request to him.

Moral: the Demiurge is not different from the same his creatures, when he asks help to the Unknown God above him.
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
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