The demons didn't know the identity of Jesus in Mark

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Giuseppe
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The demons didn't know the identity of Jesus in Mark

Post by Giuseppe »


What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.

(Mark 1:24)

Note that the Marcion's Christ is not a Destroyer.

Tertullian is very much explicit about the Marcion's interpretation of the passage:

Nor did he say, What have You to do with us? But, What have we to do with You? as if deploring himself, and deprecating his own calamity; at the prospect of which he adds: Have You come to destroy us? So completely did he acknowledge in Jesus the Son of that God who was judicial and avenging, and (so to speak) severe, and not of him who was simply good, and knew not how to destroy or how to punish!

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/03124.htm

That Jesus is not a destroyer of demons is also seen in Mark 5:6-13 according to the Marcion's interpretation:


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.

The Judaizer interpolated the story of the death en masse of the demons to make Jesus also a destroyer of demons, against Marcion.

Note also why the author founded apt the connection demons/pigs:

And the pig, because it has a cloven hoof that is completely split, but will not regurgitate its cud; it is unclean for you. You shall not eat of their flesh, and you shall not touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you.

Leviticus 11:7–8

If the pigs continued to live in the original story, the implication is not only the gooddess of Jesus towars the demons, but also the possibility for the men to eat the flesh of pork (against the demiurge). Without more risk of contamination.
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
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