Wednesday, February 8, 2023

Nicholas P. Lunn on Divine Warfare in the Gospel of Mark

  

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)