Chapter # 5 Paragraph # 1 Study # 8
January 11, 2021
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(Download Audio)
(197)
Thesis: The unclean spirits are presented as being represented by the unclean pigs as to their insanity and end.
Introduction: In our last study we considered the significance of the name of the horde of unclean spirits so that we might understand the particular "point" Mark sought to make: Jesus is absolute in His "might" as to His authority over the "spirit world".
This evening we are going to look into Mark's "point" regarding the pigs feeding on the mountain.
- I. A Continuation of Mark's Characterization Of The Confrontation of the Demoniac: 5:8-13.
- A. Mark organized his thoughts non-chronologically.
- B. Mark's major point: the unclean spirit(s) recognized Jesus' absolute authority over him/them.
- C. The Particulars of the Demoniac's Loud Cry (indicating emphatic content, needful of 'hearing').
- D. The issues of the name of the unclean spirit.
- E. The "great herd of swine" denouement.
- 1. The details.
- a. "de" there was toward (an interesting use of pros, given that the pigs were "on") the mountain...
- b. A large herd of swine feeding...
- c. "kai" they summoned Him saying...
- d. Send us into the swine in order that into them we should enter...
- e. "kai" He gave permission to them...
- f. "kai" the unclean spirits, having departed, entered into the swine...
- g. "kai" the herd 'rushed' down the steep bank into the sea...
- h. As two thousands, "kai" they choked in the sea.
- 2. The significance.
- a. This may well be a large metaphor of "unclean spirits/unclean pigs" "feeding off of a 'mountain motif '.
- 1) The swine "toward the mountain" fixes our attention upon "the mountain", which has already figured into our understanding in Mark as a "metaphor" of sovereign rule; a "kingdom" (there are numerous "metaphor links" in Mark's choice of words).
- a) This "mountain" is the "region" of the swine as "the land of the Gerasenes" is the "region" of the Legion.
- i. Mark's references to "mountain"... started with 3:13 where Jesus chose the future leaders of His Kingdom (Matthew 19:28/Luke 22:30); continued with 5:5, 11 (our present context); then to 6:46 where Jesus went to pray because the crowd He had just fed were determined to "make Him king" (John 6:15); then to 9:2, 9 where the focus is "seeing the kingdom come with power" (9:1); then to 11:1 where Jesus made preparation for His entrance into Jerusalem to be "officially" identified as the Davidic Messiah (11:10); and on to 11:23 where Jesus encourages His disciples to "say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea'..."; and then 13:3 where the perspective of the coming wrath of the Lamb is established as "from the mountain"; then 13:14 where the mountains are the refuge of the people of God during that time; and, finally, 14:26 where the Coming King is arrested on the very mountain to which He will come in His victory (Zechariah 14:4).
- ii. The "unclean spirits" are sent into the "unclean pigs" who, then, flee from the mountain into the "death" of the sea.
- b) Primary focus: the "swine" were "feeding" off of "the mountain" just as the Legion were "feeding" off of the "region" of the demoniac and his countrymen.
- i. The use of the verb "feeding" (bosko) is used in nine texts of the New Testament and seven of them are in context with "swine" (including the record of the prodigal: Luke 15:15).
- ii. The issue of "feeding" is "sustaining the life of the eaters".
- c) The "swine" formed "a great herd" (numbering two thousands) just as the "Legion" were "many" (the number only given by the 'name').
- d) The "greatness" of the herd is parallel (by the use of "megas") to the "greatness" of the voice of the unclean spirit.
- 2) The "summoning" of Jesus by Legion implies a kind of "commonality" (what do we have in common with you?) between Jesus and His mountain and Legion and their mountain.
- a) The conflict between the "kingdoms" is front and center.
- b) The unclean spirits are still attempting to exercise "authority" where there is none.
- 3) The unclean spirits' "request"/"demand" is, ultimately, totally "unclean" (i.e., disastrous in terms of objectives sought).
- 4) Jesus' "permission" was simply His way of turning the "spirits'" stupidity back upon themselves.
- 5) That the swine could not be controlled by the spirits so that they self-destructed by means of a plunge into the "death" that is inherent to the "sea" for air breathing creatures continues a large dependence by Mark upon "metaphors already given".
- 6) The "steepness" of the incline of the mountain contributed to the death of the pigs as they could not restrain their own momentum, just as the insanity among humans in respect for their lust for power over others is a deadly momentum.
- b. Mark's graphic point: lusting for power is deadly; a lesson "disciples" desperately need to learn since they have been "placed into Jesus' mountain" as both a high privilege and a deadly temptation (Note Luke 10:20 in context).
