In this book, Luca Marulli offers a detailed study of Mark 5:1-20 as well as the Gospel of Mark as a whole. He deals with the issues of impurity, demonology, magical practices and the socio-political dimension of the story. In addition, he brings in a thorough reflection on the existential significance of the text.
The Markan version of the encounter between Jesus and the Gerasene Demoniac (Mk 5.1-20) is the most elaborate exorcism account in the New Testament. The combination of a narrative-critical approach with a multidisciplinary analysis of the historical, social, and religious dimensions underlying the text highlights the reconfiguring power of the narrative. The narrative of the exorcism of the Gerasene Demoniac participates in the larger project implemented by the implicit author on the scale of the entire Gospel of Mark. Luca Marulli shows how Mk 5.1-20 relates to the narrative world of Mark's Gospel, especially with regards to the young man who runs away naked when Jesus is arrested (14.51-52) and the young man at the tomb (16.1-8). Reading Mk 5.1-20 with and after 14.51-52 and 16.1-8 leads to the reader's epistemic reconfiguration on central Markan themes, such as Jesus' identity, the nature of discipleship and the envisioned relationship between the disciple and his absent Master.
Luca Marulli
Né en 1976; 2020 docteur de l'université de Strasbourg; actuellement professeur de Nouveau Testament à la Faculté adventiste de Théologie, Collonges-sous-Salève, France; chercheur associé au Groupe de recherches intertestamentaires de la Faculté de théologie protestante de l'Université de Strasbourg.
Exorcism Purity Impurity Narrative Criticism Socio-Political Reading Gospel of Mark