Jesus vs Seth-Typhon: An Audience-Critical Approach to Mark 4:35–5:20

Abstract

Abstract Scholars have approached the Gerasene Demoniac pericope (Mark 5:1–20; = GDP) in light of various traditions, such as the Homeric parallels, the Watcher (i.e. Enochic) story, the scapegoat motif, and imperial-critical and gendered perspectives. Without denying the validity of these attempts, I suggest that there is still an important—but largely ignored—set of traditions that deserves our attention: the Seth-Typhon traditions. Based on an audience-critical perspective, this article suggests that several elements in GDP could allude to the Seth-Typhon traditions in the minds of the Greco-Roman audience of Mark. The strength of this method is twofold. First, it accounts for the close relationship between GDP and its preceding pericope (i.e. the Storm-Stilling pericope; Mark 4:35–41). Second, it coherently explains multiple critical motifs—the crossing of the sea, the sleeping Jesus, the attempt to drown Jesus, the sea-storm, the foreign area, the legion of demons, and the death of the pigs—featured in Mark 4:35–5:20. According to this approach, Jesus in Mark 4:35–5:20 can be read as a divine warrior who outshines his pagan counterparts (i.e. Zeus and Osiris) as he battles against the cosmic forces of evil and eventually conquers them.