I have long pondered what seem to me great similarities between Mark's narrative of the healing of the Gerasene demoniac and Paul's rhetorical "autobiographical" account in Romans 7 of the process of alienation whereby a human being loses control over his own behavior and becomes subject to the enslaving power of sin. It seems to me that Mark and Paul employ quite different literary forms in order to proclaim the same gospel message: that Jesus comes to vanquish the forces that have seized illegitimate control over human beings and that keep them engaged in self-destructive and mutually-destructive behavior in the service of evil, sin, and death; in sum, Jesus has come to raise human existence out of the tombs into life.
I am using the term "alienation" for the psychic phenomenon of involuntary surrender of control over one's behavior to a force or personality that an external observer may recognize and describe by saying that the person in question is "not himself/herself" or "is out of his mind" or "is possessed," while the one subject to this experience may describe his/her condition as loss of control over one's own behavior or as seizure of one's self by an alien force. How this phenomenon is best to be understood is debatable: the modern fashion is to speak of "schizophrenia" or just simply of "insanity" as the disintegration of an integral psyche into elements warring with each other or vying for control over the persons behavior; in antiquity observers had no qualms about explaining this phenomenon as "demonic possession"-- seizure of control over a person by a force or personality that comes from outside of the person thus described. Surely this is consistent with the Marcan description of the Gerasene demoniac who is possessed by a "Legion" of "impure spirits" (πνεύματα ἀκάθαρτα). It is reasonably clear, moreover, that Mark represents these alien spirits as the host of Satan, the "strong man" into whose household Jesus has entered to plunder his chattels, i.e. those poor human creatures who have been enslaved by Satan. While the modern reader who ponders the story may hesitate to acknowledge the existence of an authentic demonic realm whose prince (ἄρχων) is Satan on grounds that such an explanation is either inconsistent with monotheism or that it somehow involves projection of an inner psychic force within the mentally-disturbed person outward into an objective realm, nevertheless we can hardly fail to recognize in this phenomenon something that is truly demonic in that, although it does indeed operate within a human psyche, yet wreaks havoc and constrains the person to act in ways that are self-destructive and hostile or destructive of others. It is authentically demonic, and whether or not one is inclined to identify it with an objective evil force with its own persona or multiple personae, one will not hesitate to call this evil.
That is precisely how the behavior of the Gerasene demoniac is described by Mark in 5:1-20. But can we demonstrate that Paul's account in Romans 7:5-25 describes the same or a very similar experience? I want to offer a very brief analysis of the Pauline text as an attempt at such a demonstration. I offer my own idiomatic translation into English, substituting alternative language for Paul's consistent and repeated use of "flesh" with reference to selfhood subject to control by the powers of Sin and Death, and "spirit" with reference to the judging and willing self which. when alienated, cannot put into action what is deemed good and intended but which, when re-fashioned and assisted by divine initiative, is enabled both to see what is right and to do what one recognizes as right.
Paul's account has much to say about the (Mosaic) Law and the tenth commandment, "You must not crave what belongs to another," as factors in bringing about enslavement to Sin and Death; these features have no analog in Mark's account of the Gerasene demoniac, the origins of whose demonic possession are never disclosed. Where the parallels are readily discernible is in the description of the phenomenology of possession. Finally, it should be noted that although there has been considerable discussion of the question whether Paul's account is autobiographical or a rhetorical representation as personal experience (prosopopoieia) of the state out of which God in Christ redeems sinful humanity or as a translation into a first-person narrative of the primal experience of Adam and Eve succumbing to temptation and falling from grace into sinfulness and mortality, the question, however interesting, cannot really be answered and is ultimately not relevant for the parallelism between Paul and Mark explored here.
It may be argued that demonic possession and sin or sinfulness are two very different things. While that may be a proposition that a theologian will choose to argue at length, I am only attempting here to show, in the first place, that Mark describes demonic possession in much the same manner as Paul describes sinfulness in fallen humanity. But it seems to me that Mark envisions exorcism of demons, forgiveness of sins, and healing afflictions of the body as different aspects of the same saving function (szein) performed by Jesus and, to a lesser extent, by his disciples. Moreover, while Paul speaks relatively little about healing bodily afflictions and exorcising demons, yet he does describe the plight of the self in the sin-sick soul in a manner very much like that which Mark uses to describe the plight of the demoniac. My impression is that Mark's and Paul's understanding of the saving work of Jesus Christ is not very different.
| 7:5 In our former alienated condition,1 there was a pathological sinfulness acting within us owing to the incitement of the Law,2 bringing our efforts to a dead end.3 6 But now we are no longer subject to the Law: that aspect of us which was repressed has died,4 so that now we serve God in the spirit of the New Creation rather than in old-fashioned obedience to the letter of the Law. 5 7 Does that mean that the Law is sinfulness? Hardly! But the truth is that, were it not because of the Law, I would never have come to know what sinfulness is: I wouldn't have understood what lust is if the Law weren't telling me, "You must not lust!" 8 And sinfulness, incited by that commandment set every kind of lust into action in me. When there is no Law, sinfulness is dead.6 9 Time was when for me there was no Law and I was alive, but when the commandment confronted me, sinfulness sprang into life, 10 and I died, realizing, to my chagrin, that the commandment intended to bring life actually brought about death. 11 That is because sinfulness, aroused as a consequence of the commandment, deluded me and thereby brought about my death.7 12 So the Law is sacred, and the commandment is sacred and righteous and good. 13 Does that mean that what is good meant death for me? Hardly! But sinfulness was bringing about my death by exploiting what is good, to show its sinful nature, i.e. to prove to be sinfulness par excellence when taking advantage of the commandment. 14 We know, of course, that the Law is something spiritual, but I-I am alienated, a slave sold into the power of Sinfulness.8 15 The action I perform I do not recognize as my own; what I do is not what I intend to do; rather, what I do is what I despise. 16 But if what I do is not what I intend, that means I assent to the rightness of the Law. 17 As the situation now stands, it's not I any longer that acts, but rather it's the sinfulness inside of me.9 18 I know very well that what is good has no dwelling inside of me-in my alienated self; there's the capacity in me to intend what is good but not to bring it into effect; 19 it's not the good which I intend that I do but rather the evil which I do not intend. 20 But if what I do is what I don't intend, then it isn't I that am acting but rather the sinfulness that is housed inside of me.10 21 So I come to see this governing principle:11 that when I intend to do what is good, all I can do is evil! 23 To be sure, I delight in God's law deep within myself, but I observe a different ruling power within me that makes war against my rational will and takes me captive to the ruling power of sinfulness present within me. 24 Poor me! Who will rescue me from this corpse in which I live?12 25 Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ! So: I do serve God's law in my mind, but in my alienated self I serve the rule of Sinfulness.13 |