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My Name Is Legion…
In my reading of the Gospel of Mark, I recently came across this story which has a rather famous and ominous line in it. It occurs in the fifth chapter of this book, where Jesus and his crew come to a town where a demon-possessed man lives among the tombs, terrorizing the local populace. When the man sees Jesus, the entities tormenting him cause him to throw himself on the ground in fear. And Jesus says:
8 For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.
9 And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.
10 And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.
11 Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding.
12 And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.
13 And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea.
That line, “My name is Legion: for we are many,” happens to be rather famous. You may have heard it before. Alan Moore does a pretty cool play on it in his occult-themed Promethea comic books, where a great multitude of demons take over the mayor of a city in a wonderful scene of reverse-vomiting.
Something about this story has been itching at me and I can’t figure out what it is. It seems like a large portion of the Gospel of Mark has to do with Jesus casting out demons. It seems to happen close to at least once a chapter so far (just read chapter 9). And some of them are easier than others. I read on some mainstream Christian site somewhere a rather boring psychological interpretation of this story which I found to be rather unsatisfying: they were saying that this story symbolized that we often have a whole host of problems in our lives, and not just one that is tormenting us. While that may be true, something tells me that this is not what this story is about.
People with a heavy occult-esoteric background, I am hoping you might be able to shed some insight onto this story for me, or at least point me in a better direction than that interpretation.
The other thing that confuses me about this story: the demons ask that they not be “sent away out of this country” and Jesus complies. First of all, why would Jesus show kindness to demons? What’s that about? Second, right after that, he sends the demons into the nearby herd of swine - which then immediately stampede into the ocean and drown themselves. Surely Jesus knew this was going to happen. And surely the demons did as well. What then is the difference between being “sent away out of this country” and being sent into a bunch of pigs to die? There is something in this story that just doesn’t add up as far as rational-linear story-telling, which leads me to believe that there is some other hidden esoteric point contained herein.
Plus, I have read some regular Christians pointing out that a Roman legion (at the time) typically consisted of 6,000 soldiers - as opposed to the 2,000 swine which fled into the ocean. So that either means that Jesus didn’t remove all of the demons, or that the demons tripled up in the swine - neither of which makes good sense just from a simple story-telling perspective. Which again leads me to believe that there is something I am missing which is contained in this story…
November 14th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
Also, why did the demons actually ask to be sent into the swine?
November 14th, 2006 at 1:29 pm
a bible teacher from high school once explained a theory about this passage to me. i think the gadarenes, the “legion” of demons, and the pigs were all political symbols of some sort. the “country” they refer to could just mean the man they inhabited. also, there’s the fact that jesus probably would have considered the pigs to be unclean animals.
question: why are you reading the king james? there are a host of problems with that translation, as i understand it.
November 14th, 2006 at 3:30 pm
Because the King James is cool - especially when you read it out loud. Plus, it happens to be the Bible I have.
I read something similar and am willing to accept that as part of its meaning. However, when I examine that answer, it doesn’t ring completely “true” intuitively for me. Something very important is missing
November 14th, 2006 at 3:39 pm
Those psychological and historical interpretations are boring.
I’ve often wondered about this one, too. I have read it as the demons concluding that life in a herd of swine was a better life than in the pit of hell. I’m not sure why I have always read it like that. Probably sunday school.
I’m guessing that after the pigs drowned, the demons were still in this world, floating around, waiting for their next host. And not in hell.
As far as Jesus showing kindness to demons, I don’t know. Some think that a thing can’t affect you unless you already have that tendency within. So, unless you already have whatever demon attracting tendencies, a person has nothing to worry about. Of course that isn’t a satisfactory answer.
November 14th, 2006 at 4:00 pm
It’s been a while since I’ve read the bible, but does Jesus ever turn anyone(s) down when they ask? If so (aah! premature conjecture), is that some kind of statement about power - neutralizing the advantage of power by being dedicated to the service of every one else… by being submissive… even unto the prayers of demons. Yea, verily even so.
But then again there was the whole temple rampage thing… I wonder if anyone asked him to stop. Or, maybe they were asking for it to begin with…
Tangential. Back on track: maybe the demons at least wanted to literally “run their course” by driving some living thing to destruction?
November 14th, 2006 at 4:28 pm
Wow! I’ve never thought of that whole thing about Jesus not turning anyone down. You might be right! I am going to look for negative examples if I can find any!
November 14th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
A similar story from Egyptian mythology.
November 14th, 2006 at 4:55 pm
Crossan makes a good case that “Gadara,” “Gerasa” and “Gergesa” were all disguised names for Caesarea, the main Roman station. Pigs are actually excellent swimmers, so the drowning story doesn’t sit well … unless you’re Jewish, and pigs are your numero uno stand-in symbol for Gentiles everywhere. “Do not send us out of this country”–out of Judea. He sends them into a herd of pigs and sends them across the water (to Italy), but they drown and die.
It’s a pretty obvious call to insurrection against the Romans when you put it in context, but then, Jesus was an incredibly radical anarchist across the board.
November 14th, 2006 at 4:59 pm
I thought that was the main point of Jesus’ teaching–to serve others, thereby extinguishing our controlling nature. Of course by giving others what they ask for, we in another way become their master, a fount of blessing and a source for future happiness.
I was an evangelical for years and I can attest to this phenomenon. It’s a different way of looking at power.
As for Legion, I think the question of the relationship between ‘Christ’ and ‘the demons’ is very important. If you step out of the generally accepted view of that relationship the Western Christian tradition has set up, more possibilities of interpretation open. Word choice of “kindness” rather than “compliance” makes a big difference as well. “Kindness” connotes an actual relational (as in familial) quality.
And is compliance really submission if YOU know that the others’ request will in the end do more harm than good?
November 14th, 2006 at 9:12 pm
My question is why pigs to begin with? That must mean something. And if it is just an allegory with a political parable, that just doesn’t sit right with me either.
Pigs are notorious mushroom finders, I seem to recall a scientific paper that talks about truffles give off a scent that is exactly like a hormone produced when pigs are in heat. And mushrooms and magic?
The Irish half penny coin has a harp on one side and a pig on the other.
Pigs in religion
In ancient Greece, a sow was an appropriate sacrifice to Demeter and had been her favorite animal since she had been the Great Goddess of archaic times. Initiates at the Eleusinian Mysteries began by sacrificing a pig.
The pig is one of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. Believers in Chinese astrology associate each animal with certain personality traits. See: Pig (Zodiac).
The dietary laws of Judaism (Kashrut, adj. Kosher) and Islam (Halal) forbid the eating of flesh of swine or pork in any form, considering the pig to be an unclean animal (see taboo food and drink).
(so my question why pigs?)
http://legion.virginia.edu/overview.html
Legion – a worldwide virtual computer system
(this is creepy)
And I have discovered doing my own little studies that just when you think you have it figured out, a whole other layer appears.
Like with the Rose Line being symbolic of Mary Magdalene. Rose symbols everywhere. Now I discover that Rose is an anagram of Eros, the God of Love. And is that the final layer or does that just lead to another layer.
Love your blog, you sure do make me think, always find interesting stuff to read here.
November 14th, 2006 at 10:52 pm
“sent out of the country” made me think of Walter Wink’s reexamination of the concept of angels/demons who are lords over specific nations. Wink takes the notion quite seriously.
November 15th, 2006 at 2:35 am
My impression of this account has always been simple: The demons (former angels, so they knew JC even before he became JC) were comfortable in the man’s body aka the country. JC was kicking them out, and they were like, “Well, can’t we at least possess the pigs?” which were lowly creatures in Jewish custom. JC was like, “Go for it, guys…” and when they enter the swine, even the lowliest creatures in Judaism find death preferable to possession, and commit suicide.
The demons didn’t die, they just got kicked out of two homes in one sitting.
What does that say about the possessed man, that he had a legion of demons inside of him and didn’t have enough sense to just off himself like the pigs did?
November 15th, 2006 at 8:26 am
I read once that the Medieval way was to approach a tale like this was from no less than four different angles:
Literal (what it says)
Metaphorical (what it could be saying)
Moral (what does it tell us about how we should behave?)
Anagogical (what does it tell us about the Kingdom to come?)
November 15th, 2006 at 8:29 am
… part of the point being that maintaining all these points of view simultaneously is good exercize for the mind. We easily get stuck in one point of view.
Yes, the KJV is well cool.
And James, I like your final paragraph…
November 15th, 2006 at 12:57 pm
Yeah that Medieval multi-pronged approach has really interested me. Also like what you’re saying James, and I think the two fit together well: that the “point” of any of these stories is almost that you can and should come up with as many possible explanations as make sense to you and hold them in mind all at the same time!
November 16th, 2006 at 4:25 am
And if you can manage to hold two (or more) /contradictory/ interpretations in your mind at the same time, then you might just see something REALLY interesting in the space inbetween them…
Thanx for the posts, dude. Highlight of my morning…
November 16th, 2006 at 5:44 am
Yes! And as I said here: it is a mystery novel - a murder mystery novel.
http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2006/11/11/talitha-cumi/
You have to look for the clues that they leave in there to help you figure the story out. Only they aren’t the obvious clues. Those were left in there to throw you off the case of the real crime and criminals
November 16th, 2006 at 4:55 pm
if you know another language, and then you watch a movie in that language, but with english subtitles. you will find yourself frequently going, “hmmm that isn’t quite the translation i would’ve given, doesn’t quite capture the meaning etc. etc.” that’s the problem i always have with any translation, wondering if they literally lost something there. so for instance the word “country” may have originally meant something entirely different than what we think of today. (just as an example)but the one thing that i keep coming back to again and again is the imagery of the demonic pigs going into the water. in my work with dreams etc. the sea can be interpreted as a symbol of either the unconscious or the collective unconscious and jesus is removing the demonic (or shadow) personality aspects and putting them back into the collective unconscious where they normally “live”. nasty little buggers, tend to run amok a bit when they get out. archetypes of the collective and all that, what what?