This is about Mark 5:1-20
Quote:
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Originally Posted by vulkus
Actually there is plenty of room for more than one spirit to inhabbit a human. From this alone, there is plenty of room inside one person for a host of demons, it goes on further to state:
So it would appear that there is at least enough room for 2000 spirits.
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This is one of countless stories where the
Bible attempts to undermine the previous pagan view of spirits that was that they weren’t automatically negative or to be feared. Early Christianity was a merged governmental-religious bureaucracy that systematically & VERY brutally exterminated the existing religions. The previous religion(s)
sacred daemon that is our higher self, was twisted into the demon to be feared.
Jesus Restores A Demon Possessed Man NIV Mark 5:1-20
1 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[b] how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.
This is a classic example of the Bible stories that seek to convince us that demons are more powerful than us & that we are powerless. Both are utter disinformation.
The madman is presented as out of control & having super human behavior because of the demonic influence, even being able to break free of chains. V6 has the conflicting actions of the demon possessed man running to Jesus, yet asking in V7 not to be tortured. While this seems to be intended to show the demons fear Jesus, if they are in control of the man why would they go to someone who could send them away? Who they knew was more powerful. Implausible. When Jesus asks the demon(s) to identify their self, they are evasive w/ the legions reply. This is clearly an huge inconsistency given that when the demons supposedly negotiate w/ Jesus to be allowed to leave the man into the 2000 pigs that if one would believe the demon’s response, ‘"My name is Legion," he replied, "for we are many." A legion of soldiers was 6000+ men, so what happened to the est. 4000 or so other demons that were in excess of the 2000 drowned pigs? Therefore, one could place any number on the amount of demons supposedly in the madman. This number of a legion (6000), then showing 1/3 that amount is clearly allegorical representation & isn’t meant to be taken literally. If this is meant to be literal, did 3 demons piggyback (pun intended) in each pig? Or were 4000 demons still roaming around.
What is noteworthy is in V10 where the demon begs, ‘Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.’
This clearly acknowledges that the demons have to obey a higher energy & this is the lesson that is really to be gleaned apart from organized religion’s attempt to use metaphysics to scare their followers.
V11-16 are interesting as Jews were forbidden to have pigs, so the owners of the pig herd could be considered to be non-Jews. That Jesus
allowed the demons to negotiate is laughable, so it is likely the intent of the killing of an enormous pig herd which would have been a substantial amount of meat, even in modern times, was a VAST hardship to these non-Jews. The message here is that you will not be protected if you are not Christian & your whole tribe will be left to starve by God (read- the Romans who were co-opting the religion as their own).
The really interesting V17 notes, ‘Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.’ LOL. This is explained both by the loss of the enormous pig herd & the people being fearful of there being a power more awesome than the demons in Jesus. They were fearful of this power. This is part of the running theme in the Bible of
God’s wrathful power. Fear it or have your entire food supply wiped out heathens. Isn't that special! One more GOD-FEARING message to whip the populace in line.
What was the
real purpose of this story? As Greeks believed in spirits, but didn’t automatically consider them evil, this was attempting to convince them that all spirits were evil. This was part of the continued destruction of the older pagan religions & pushing the new Christian religion. This story is
meant to instill fear. As w/ all messages now or in any time, any writings intended to generate fear are likely NOT from an enlightened being, no matter how institutionalized they have become.
The spirits wanting to go to the pigs associates them & their owners w/ being unclean. This is not subtle at all & is a major part of the story. This drives home a message that those who are unclean, by having the pigs, are
deserving of having their food destroyed w/o it being an issue of concern for Jesus. Jesus shows up, allows the demons to kill their food source, then leaves. No concern is shown for the townspeople other than to tell the man who the demon was cast from to go tell the townspeople of this story. Jesus could, of course, have cast out a demon(s) w/o their causing the huge herd of 2000 pigs to die. Given there was no refrigeration in these times, it is unlikely that there would have been sufficient salt to be able to attempt to salvage the meat from 2000 dead pigs. Processing the slaughtering by hand would have only saved a small % of their food source. This story tells those who lost their pigs that they are faulty &
deserving of the demon’s destruction, so it is a warning for those who don’t expect to be subjected to this treatment needed to get in line w/ the new religion.
As w/ some Biblical information there is a nugget or 2 of decent metaphysical information that remains visible past all the fear & ugliness about fearing God's power.
V10 is worth pointing out again as it shows that the problematic spirit is automatically aware that it is subject to whatever a higher energy commands. Besides observing how the Roman empire manipulated the populace through this document to be fearful of spirits that they formerly didn’t fear to entrench their merged political-religious bureaucracy, V10’s lesson that
higher frequency energies are MUCH more powerful than low frequency ones is the real lesson in Mark 5:1-20.
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