Other articles in this series:
In Part 1 (March 2025) I suggested that Mark understood Jesus as living a life characterized by resistance to the Roman occupation in an effort to sustain Jewish culture and identity. This was illustrated by reference to the story of the woman with a haemorrhage told within the story of the healing of Jairus’s daughter. This double story revealed a series of ways in which the occupation might be resisted.
For those readers who were were either not persuaded by that double story or, although persuaded, nevertheless took it to be a ‘one-off’ in Mark, I now add yet another story.
In Mark 5:1-20, Jesus has ventured out of Galilee into non-Jewish territory, Decapolis, a relatively recent Greek development. Having arrived by boat, he is immediately met by a strong, violent, man who dwells in tombs and is so strong that he cannot be restrained. The spirits, which drive the man, call themselves ‘Legion, for we are many’. Not so far away (a day’s journey?), is Caesarea Philippi. It has been suggested that at this time Caesarea Philippi was a garrison town housing a Roman legion of perhaps some five thousand men1. I take this story to be coded, describing the Roman occupation and the relation of Judaism within it.
You will recall that I have suggested that Mark was writing in such a way that it would be well understood by Jews but not available to gentiles – he had, as it were, asked himself what it was that Jews understood but was opaque to the Romans. What follows is my own interpretation of Mark’s story.
When challenged by Jesus, the spirits seek permission of Jesus to enter a local herd of two thousand swine, who rush downhill, and perish in the sea. I cannot imagine the possibility of a herd of that size, with the consequent destruction of vegetable life that that would entail. Those numbers cannot be anything other than symbolic; much closer, though not equal, to the number of men in a Roman legion. Imagine the story told alongside a possible coded understanding:
- Jesus comes face-toface with the strong man that cannot be restrained. The Jews and the Roman army confront each other.
- Jesus heeds the spirits who drive the strong man, and what they have to say, and gives them permission to do what they want to do. The Jews, finding themselves in confrontation with the Roman army, and heeding what t h e army wants, agree to what the army wants – and it goes ahead.
- The spirits, going ahead, quickly go downhill and perish. The Roman army, will go downhill and will perish2.
- The swineherds and others from the local community came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind. When the Roman empire collapses, those who were under their occupation will be restored to their proper, healthy, selves.
As I understand it, Mark is making an important point here. He is reminding his Jewish readers that empires come and go – the burden of the Book of Daniel – whilst Jews and Judaism survive. They have survived a number of empires in their history: Assyrian, Babylonian and Greek and, given time, the Roman empire, too, will disappear. Meanwhile, it is both possible and necessary to live a quality of life that is drawn from Jewish history and practice, together with one or two developments indicated by Jesus. Such a life would constitute a resistance to the empire. This life is referred to as the Kingdom (realm) of God.
Jewish hearers of this story will be able to decode it. This story, told and understood by the Jews with their history, becomes a cathartic story – a notable form of resistance. Mark gives the story an ending designed to put any Roman readers’ fears to rest: the former demoniac has his wish to become one of Jesus’ group, denied. Rather, he is encouraged to return to be with his own people – he “went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him” – a further form of resistance.
For the Romans, this is a story about a provincial healer who has no wish to gain followers, he is simply providing a generous service whenever and wherever he comes across a need – sustaining a local community – even if it is a community which was once its enemy. Romans, you can relax!
I hope readers will be encouraged to continue to read Mark, bearing in mind the dangerous time in which it was written, and look for the possible understandings which Jewish hearers ‘get’, but others will not.
For notes and commentary on this story see Joel Marcus Mark 1-8 , Yale University Press (2010) pp. 341-354