Divine
Warfare. The conflict between Jesus and the evil spirits is also
understood to have its background in the exodus/new exodus. This theme is
treated in detail in a specifically Markan context by Watts. Historically the
exodus first recounted the superior power of Israel’s God over the king,
magicians, and even gods (Exod 12:12) of Egypt. The overthrow of the Egyptian
hosts in the Red Sea was celebrated as a great victory for Yahweh over his
enemies (Exod 15:1-12). This same divine might was again displayed in God going
forth to fight against the inhabitants of Canaan at the time of the conquest
(e.g., Exod 23:23, 27; Deut 20:4). Eschatologically Isaiah depicts God as
victorious over the nations, delivering his people from their power (e.g., Isa
42:22-23; 49:9). Just as he had destroyed the Egyptians in the sea, so he will
overthrow Israel’s oppressors (43:16-17; 51:9-10). In so doing God demonstrates
his superiority over Israel’s oppressors (43:16-17; 51:9-10). In so doing God
demonstrates his superiority over the idol-gods which epitomized those Gentile
nations (e.g., 41:1-5; 43:8-13).
The Gospel
shows Jesus exercising divine power in expelling, not the Gentile oppressors,
but the evil spirits. Watts states:
Mark
continues to build his case that in Jesus Israel’s long-awaited eschatological
new exodus from exile has begun. . . . [T]he enemy is no longer Babylon or Rome
and their idols, but rather their demons. . . . Jesus’ casting out of demons,
unlike those of his contemporaries . . . is uniquely identified with both the
inbreaking and the powerful kingly rule of Israel’s Yahweh-Warrior himself and
his true-Israel servant. (Watts, “Mark,” 148)
Swartley is
clearly in agreement with Watts in this understanding of the casting out of the
demons and its relation to the exodus when he writes:
[T]he
theology of the exodus affirms not Moses, but Yahweh as the actual Liberator,
indeed, as the Warrior who has triumphed gloriously (Exod 15:1-3). Just as
Yahweh-Warrior conquered through miracles . . . so Jesus is depicted by Mark as
God’s Warrior, attacking Satan’s stronghold through his exorcisms as well as
his healings. Jesus’ method of subduing the enemy fully within the divine
warfare miracle tradition: the word (of God) in and through Jesus is the
power that smites the demons. The exodus type behind Jesus’ work is thus
not Moses, but Yahweh. (Swartley, Israel’s Scripture Tradition, 56)
One exorcism
will be mentioned, that of the Gerasene demoniac (Mark 5:1-20), which does not
merely fit into the general exodus/new exodus motif, but which also has
particular features especially evocative of details appearing in the historical
narrative. Here, as in the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, the sea figures
prominently. Once the demons are cast out of the man into the pigs, the latter
rush into the sea and are “drowned” (5::13), sharing a fate identical to that
of Israel’s Egyptian oppressors (Exod 14:28-30; 15:19). (Longman and Reid, God
is a Warrior, 116) Both accounts include the fear of those who learn of
this great deliverance (Exod 15:14-16; Mark 3:5, 17). Both also use the phrase
“the things the Lord has done” (Exod 14:31, α επιησεν κυριος; Mark 5:19, οσα ο κυριος . . . πεοποιηκεν). The juxtaposition of the
Gerasene exorcism with the pericope relating Jesus and his disciples crossing
the sea and Jesus’ authority over the wind and waves (4:35-41) serves to
corroborate the exodus connection. (Longman and Reid God is a Warrior,
144)
All such
exorcisms in the Gospel are a manifestation of Jesus’ binding of the “strong
man [του ισχυρου]”
(Mark 3:27) that his possessions may be plundered. This, claims Watts, is an
evident allusion to Isaiah 49:25, “Even the captives of the mighty man will be
taken away, and the plunder of the strong man [ισχυοντος] will be rescued; for I will
contend with the one who contends with you, and I will save your sons,” words
uttered at the heart of Isaiah’s new exodus prophecies.
The
interpretation put forward by Longman and Reid further advocates this
exodus-conquest background to the exorcisms:
In this
pericope [Mark 3:22-27] and elsewhere, the word typically used of Jesus’ work
is ekballō (“cast out,” “drive out”). In the LXX this Greek verb is used
to translate the Hebrew verb gāraš. While this term can be used in
numerous contexts, it is frequently and memorably used with reference to Israel,
Yahweh, his angel or the “hornet’ driving out the Canaanites from the land of
promise.
As we have
seen, the Conquest was the archetypal act of Yahweh, the divine warrior. If
Jesus regarded himself as performing the eschatological work of the divine warrior,
it would have been appropriate for him to refer to his encounters with demons
in language derived from the Conquest tradition. . . . [F]or Jesus, the enemy
was perceived as highly individualized—demonic powers who exercised control
over actual men and women within the borders of Israel. . . . From an
eschatological perspective, Jesus was carrying out a new Exodus and Conquest,
routing the enemy that had occupied the land and held individuals in his
thrall. God’s reign could not be established apart from defeating the occupying
forces. By binding the strong man and plundering his property, Jesus actually
advanced the kingdom. (Longman and Reid, God is a Warrior, 108-9)
(Nicholas P. Lunn, The Original Ending of Mark: A New Case for the
Authenticity of Mark 16:9-20 [Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2014],
252-54)
