Overlaps between Secret Mark, the Raising of Lazarus in John, and the Gerasene Swine episode in Mark

29 september, 2011 den 21:01 (David Blocker, ENGLISH POSTS, evangelieskildringar, Gästinlägg/Guest Posts, Hemliga Markusevangeliet/ Secret Gospel of Mark)

This post is both in English and Swedish
Detta inlägg är på både engelska och svenska

IN ENGLISH

David Blocker just wrote to me and said that he had seen my most recent post about Oxyrhynchus 5072 (Ett nytt evangelium påträffat?), and reminded me of a table he had sent me last month demonstrating similarities between the Secret Mark fragment quoted by Clement, the Raising of Lazarus episode in the Gospel of John, and the episode of the Gerasene Swine in the canonical Gospel of Mark.

I must consider this a preliminary presentation of findings, since David was working with translations and not the original Greek texts. Still I think this is interesting finding which deserves more study to evaluate its significance.

What is of particular interest is that Tony Burke had posted on his web site that the Fragment of the New Unknown Gospel from Oxyrhynchus unlike the canonical gospels, did not mention a legion of swine being used as a receptacle for the discarded demons.

I have been kind of busy lately (renovating the house), so I might as well publish David Blocker’s table. It shows that the section in Mark where Jesus drove the demons into the herd of swine does not (unlike the rest of the story) have any significant language or subject parallels in either the Secret Mark fragment or the episode of the Raising of Lazarus.

Does this confirm that the pigs are a later addition to the story, added after an original pigless story had been used as a model for other texts?  Was the story of the swine inserted into a preexistent Markan healing story that was somehow already related to the “raising Lazarus from the dead”-story in John and Secret Mark?

Since the Swine do not actually appear to have any overlap with the adjacent story of the possessed man, the story of the Swine appears to be another intercalation or at least addition. It seems like “Mark” had a collection of unconnected stories that he pasted together to create a single narrative. His literary techniques with intercalations and framing stories (i.e. putting some of his stores inside other stories instead of pasting them one after another) give us an idea of how freely he worked with his material.

David Blocker’s Table is presented beneath, but for a better view with all the parallels highlighted in different colours, I recommend the pdf-file at SM_JnLazarus_MkSwine

PÅ SVENSKA

David Blocker skrev alldeles nyss till mig och sa att han hade sett mitt senaste inlägg om Oxyrhynchus 5072 (Ett nytt evangelium påträffat?), och påminde mig om en tabell som han skickade mig förra månaden och som pekar på vissa likheter mellan passagen ur Hemliga Markusevangeliet som Klemens citerar, episoden om uppväckandet av Lasaros i Johannesevangeliet, och berättelsen om grisarna i Gerasa i det kanoniska Markusevangeliet.

Jag betraktar detta som en preliminär presentation av materialet eftersom David Blocker har arbetat med översättningar och inte med den grekiska originaltexten. Jag anser trots detta att det är ett intressant fynd som förtjänar att studeras grundligare.

Det som är särskilt intressant är att Tony Burke på sin hemsida har skrivit att det nyidentifierade fragmentet från Oxyrhynchus av ett hittills okänt evangelium, till skillnad från de kanoniska evangelierna, inte nämner att en hjord av grisar används till att förvara en legion av fördrivna demoner.

Jag har varit rätt upptagen på sistone (med att renovera huset), så jag kan lika gärna publicera Davids Blockers tabell som den är. Den visar att det avsnitt i Markusevangeliet där Jesus fördriver demonerna in i grisarna (till skillnad från resten av berättelsen) inte har någon betydande vare sig språklig eller tematisk parallell till Hemliga Markusevangeliet eller Lazarosberättelsen i Johannesevangeliet.

Styrker detta att berättelsen om grisarna är ett senare tillägg till historien, tillagt efter att en ursprunglig berättelse utan grisar hade använts som modell för andra texter? Infogades historien om grisarna i en sedan tidigare existerande markinsk helandeberättelse som på något sätt redan stod i relation till berättelsen om uppväckandet av Lasaros i Johannesevangeliet och Hemliga Markusevangeliet?

Eftersom berättelsen om grisarna inte verkar gripa in den intilliggande berättelsen om den besatte mannen, förefaller berättelsen om grisarna vara ytterligare en interkalation eller åtminstone ett tillägg. Det verkar som om ”Markus” hade en samling osammanhängande berättelser som han fogade samman till en enda berättelse. Hans litterära tekniker med interkalationer och inramningsberättelser (det vill säga att infoga några av berättelserna i andra berättelser i stället för att foga dem efter varandra) ger oss en uppfattning om hur fritt han arbetat med sitt material.

Inunder återges David Blockers tabell, men för en tydligare återgivning med alla de relevanta parallellerna markerade i olika färger, rekommenderar jag pdf-filen på SM_JnLazarus_MkSwine

Secret Mark: from a Letter Attributed to Clement of Alexandria.  Morton Smith, Clement of Alexandria and a Secret Gospel of Mark (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973).	Raising of Lazarus: John 11:1-46, 12:1New International Version (NIV)	Gerasene Swine: Mark 5:1-20 New International Version (NIV)
To you, therefore, I shall not hesitate to answer the questions you have asked, refuting the falsifications by the very words of the Gospel. For example, after ”And they were in the road going up to Jerusalem” and what follows, until ”After three days he shall arise”, the secret Gospel brings the following material word for word:
”And they come into Bethany. And a certain woman whose brother had died was there.	1 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.	5:1 They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes 2 When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit
	2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” 4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, 7 and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” 8 “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. 10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.” 11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” 12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. 14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” 17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles[b] from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. 21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” 28 After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
And, coming, she prostrated herself before Jesus and says to him, ”son of David, have mercy on me”. But the disciples rebuked her.	32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
And Jesus, being angered,	33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.
	34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. 35 Jesus wept. 36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
went off with her into the garden where the tomb was,	38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb.	came from the tombs to meet him. 3 This man lived in the tombs,
	( … came to the tomb.)  It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.39 “Take away the stone,” he said.   “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”	(5 Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.)
	40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”	(7 … , “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!”)
	43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice,	(7 He shouted at the top of his voice, … )
	“Lazarus, come out!”	(8 For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”)
and straightway, going in where the youth was, he stretched forth his hand and raised him, seizing his hand.	44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.	and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. 4 For he had often beenchained hand and foot,.
	Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”	but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him.
		5 Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. 6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. 7 He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!” 8 For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”9 Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”  “My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” 10 And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area. 11 A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. 12 The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” 13 He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. 14 Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. 15 When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 16 Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. 17 Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.
But the youth, looking upon him, loved him and began to beseech him that he might be with him.		18 As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him.”
And going out of the tomb they came into the house of the youth, for he was rich. And after six days Jesus told him what to do and in the evening the youth comes to him, wearing a linen cloth over his naked body.	(John 12:1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.)	(15 When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid.)
And he remained with him that night, for Jesus taught him the mystery of the Kingdom of God.		19 Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.
And thence, arising, he returned to the other side of the Jordan.”	(46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.)	20 So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him.
	45 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.	And all the people were amazed. (16 Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well.)
And these words follow the text, ”And James and John come to him” and all that section. But ”naked man with naked man” and the other things about which you wrote, are not found. And after the words,”And he comes into Jericho,” the secret Gospel adds only, ”And the sister of the youth whom Jesus loved and his mother and Salome were there, and Jesus did not receive them.” But many other things about which you wrote both seem to be and are falsifications. Now the true explanation and that which accords with the true philosophy.	John 12:1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him.	(17 Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.)
DBlocker 8/2011