I remember a study some years ago in which a Greek instructor dissected Hebrew and Greek text to demonstrate an alternate reading of the encounter Jesus had with a demon-possessed man. He identified a rendering of the word for “demon” as “god” (small g) and showed through Septuagint usage (I think) how it was a valid translation to identify it with an idol. Then he translated the Greek text of the story as he read it, showing that Jesus took the idols from an idolater and threw them into a herd of pigs.
I’d be interested in knowing whether that interpretation has any validity at all. If the text can, indeed, be read that way, I can see the event having occurred in that way. I think it may answer more questions than it creates.
Is anyone in a position to respond to this?
Phil
What Hebrew text? The gospels weren’t written in Hebrew. Maybe he means a word from the LXX that also appears in the gospels? My Joel Marcus Anchor Bible commentary on the Markan version of this story doesn’t mention anything about idols, but it does say the ways in which this story is interpreted are “legion” (his pun, not mine). Speaking of Legion, I once heard that the whole story might be making fun of the Romans (Joel Marcus also mentions this theory). A legion was of course a Roman military unit. At full strength there would be 5,000 soldiers in a legion, but in peacetime there were only a couple thousand or so. The number of pigs that became possessed were two thousand and the head demon said their name was Legion….
I guess everybody has their wish list for things they’d like to do with a time machine. I like Prof Ehrman’s desire to go back six months before the crucifixion to six months after but one of my desires would be to sit down for an afternoon with the genius who wrote the book of Mark.
Where did you get your stories about Jesus?
Why did you decide to write them down?
Do you intend us to believe they actually happened?
on and on…
BDEhrman
FreedomBen
evgendob
Robert
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