Apologies for the delay since my last post, but I have unable to sit and
write for a number of reasons.
First, I have not been feeling particularly well again and I have
been experiencing excruciating pains in the pit of my stomach that confine me
to bed for hours on end. My body has been rejecting everything that I consume,
I’m punch-drunk dizzy and the twitching in my limbs is making it impossible to
sleep. When I spoke to Luke at Elmfield House this afternoon he apologised for
not visiting the house for a while and he spoke as though he was directly to
blame for my poor health. And when he explained the likely cause of my illness and
the controlling mechanisms that will keep these pains at bay I understood why
he felt so responsible. He apologised for not being entirely honest with me about
our dependence on each other and it was terribly upsetting to hear the truth
from him, although not entirely unexpected. Now I understand why I experience
such overwhelming aggression towards Luke during our encounters; my body is
seeking to medicate itself by quenching the fires and soothing the pains. And so
it seems that my valiant pledge to resist addiction may be hopeless because it
is not the act itself that I will become addicted to, but the relief that it
brings and the freedom to live a pain-free life.
Second, Alex has been proving extremely difficult to live with. We
haven’t spoken much and he has been sleeping on the sofa bed in the spare room.
He insists that he is merely allowing space for me to make a full recovery from
my illness, but I know that he is struggling to cope with my work commitments at
Elmfield House. I cannot deny that I have been spending a substantial amount of
time with Leonard and so I accept the blame willingly. But Luke is partly to
blame too. I find myself drifting into thoughts of Luke throughout the day and
the intoxicating nature of our relationship haunts me at night. I lie awake for
hours dwelling on every touch and every word that has passed between us and I
find it impossible to fall asleep. Alex has busied himself with his work and we
have avoided addressing our problems to date, but he must notice that I am
distancing myself emotionally from him in addition to withdrawing from physical
contact with him. I suspect that things will come to a head soon.
Third and finally, Leonard made some shocking revelations at our last
meeting and I have been spending every hour of good health in the university
library eagerly researching everything that he has taught me so far. I am thankful
that I do not have a strong religious faith because it would surely have been tested
to breaking point by now. I am finding it difficult to process all the information
that I am being presented with and form my own opinions at the moment, so for
now I will simply record our conversations as they take place and conduct
further research, both academic and personal. Leonard is assisting with the
former while Luke is proving valuable for the latter. I have discovered that Luke
is extremely competent when it comes to applying Leonard’s knowledge to my everyday
life and he has a great deal to teach me in this respect.
So these are the reasons for your neglect, dear reader, and I promise to
be more attentive to you in future. But now, before the memory fades
completely, I must finish my report on the conversation that took place two
weeks ago between Leonard and I concerning the Beelzebul controversy and the
magical binding of demons…
Reflecting on the events of
that day, if Leonard had deliberately engineered the creepiest scenario for our
discussion then he could not have possibly done a better job. Against a
backdrop of oppressive darkness and the occasional rumble of thunder, the
entire afternoon was reminiscent of a dark and wintry evening spent exchanging
ghost stories around an open fire or a brooding scene from a Gothic novel
written by a morose and tortured soul. All that was needed was a gentle
rapping, rapping at the workroom door and the scenario would be complete.
Following on from his brief lesson
on the subject of magical binding, Leonard drew my attention to Jesus’ response
to the accusation that he is using Beelzebul, namely his statement in Mark 3:27
that the strong man has been bound and as a consequence he cannot prevent Jesus
from plundering his house for his goods. Leonard explained that if the ‘strong
man’ is to be understood as Beelzebul and the ‘house’ is the kingdom that
belongs to Beelzebul – a theory that is supported by the fact that Jesus draws a
strong correlation between ‘house’ and ‘kingdom’ and the name Beelzebul is used
(Ba'al Zebul, often translated
as ‘lord of the house’) - then the
goods of the house must be the residents of the kingdom, i.e. the demons that
are under Beelzebul’s command. Jesus is therefore boasting that he can ‘bind’ Beelzebul
and then enter into Beelzebul’s kingdom and ‘divide his house’ - i.e. steal his
demons – now that the bound Beelzebul is unable to prevent them from being
stolen.
I asked why Jesus would wish
to steal demons from Beelzebul and Leonard reminded me that many magicians in
the ancient world were eager to ensnare demons to work under their command and these
demons were put to work in a number of magical operations, including performing
exorcisms. He said that a bound demon was considered to be at the absolute mercy
of a magician and it could be compelled to carry out his every wish, even performing
exorcisms and driving out demons from the possessed on the magician’s behalf. Some
magicians even sought to gain control over the superior demonic figures, such
as Satan himself, in order to demand that they expel their demons from the
possessed or to insist that they command their lesser demons to assist the
magician with his incantations and magical rituals.
Given that the employment of
bound demons for magical and exorcistic purposes was a commonplace practice in
antiquity, Leonard said that Jesus’ question ‘how can Satan cast out Satan?’ is
not as absurd as it sounds since the idea that one demon could facilitate the
exorcism of another demon would be entirely plausible to a reader who was
familiar with these popular magical practices and the popularity of this exorcistic
method may therefore account for the assumption made by the scribes that Jesus
had possession of a demonic power and he was using this demonic power to
perform exorcisms. Furthermore, Jesus’ analogy of a ‘divided house’ fits
perfectly with the template of magical exorcism in which the possessing demon and
the exorcising demon - while both originating from the same source of evil -
are pitted against one another until the possessing demon is eventually defeated.
Although I found this subject immensely fascinating, I was struggling to
maintain concentration at this point as the storm was intensifying outside, the
rain was beating against the window and rather than focusing on our
conversation I was listening for the tortured crack of thunder that followed
each sharp flash of lightning. I had also become preoccupied with the front window
for some irrational reason; I think I caught the shadow of a bird or an insect
out of the corner of my eye, but I was so completely convinced that someone had
passed by the window that I was afraid to look directly at it for fear that I
would see a demonic figure looming up against the glass. The conversation was having
an adverse effect on my mental state!
“So are you suggesting that the
scribes were correct in their observation and Jesus employed the help of demons,
or even Satan himself, when performing his exorcisms?” I asked.
“Maybe so,” came Leonard's non-committal
answer, “but there is another revelation in Matthew and Luke’s versions of this
story that is an ever greater cause for concern...”
Leonard said that when faced
with allegations of magical spirit manipulation, the reader would naturally
expect Jesus to reject these accusations and thereby avoid a charge of magic. However
he does no such thing. Surprisingly, in Matthew’s version of the story Jesus denies
that his powers have a demonic source but he does not contest the presence of a
spiritual intermediary in his operations and instead he corrects the Pharisees’
mistaken identification of it.
Jesus points his accusers to the correct source of his exorcistic power - the ‘Spirit
of God’ – and he openly admits that the ‘Spirit of God’ is empowering him to
perform exorcisms. Consequently the author of Matthew places in Jesus’ own mouth
a candid confession that he is employing a spirit-authority to carry out his
exorcisms.
Leonard then turned his
attention to the Lukan version of the story and he said that the author of Luke
chooses to replace the Matthean ‘Spirit of God’ with ‘Finger of God’, perhaps
because he is uncomfortable with the Matthean implication that Jesus had control
over the Holy Spirit. Although this removes any connotations of spirit
manipulation, Leonard pointed out that the expression ‘Finger of God’ also carries
a strong magical subtext as the phrase appears in a number of ancient (particularly
Egyptian) magical manuscripts and it is generally believed to refer to the name
of a wand or staff…
“Maybe this is where the
early Christian artists who portrayed Jesus using a wand found their muse?” I proposed.
“Maybe so” Leonard replied,
with a smile.
“Thinking rationally about all
of this,” I said, “although it seems preposterous to believe that Jesus used a magic
wand, it is equally absurd to interpret this passage in terms of spirit
manipulation, isn’t it? I mean…who would seriously believe that a man could gain
control over the Holy Spirit and use it to perform miracles?”
“Ha! Now that’s a very 21st
century question!” came Leonard's amused reply, “You see, you consider this to
be an impossibility because you are only familiar with one ‘holy spirit’…”
Leonard explained that ‘divine’
or ‘holy’ spirits were commonplace in the ancient world and they were regularly
employed by magicians as supernatural assistants. He said that the Greek magical
papyri contain numerous examples of rituals that must be performed with the
assistance of a divine or holy spirit and, although many were considered to be
inferior and anonymous divine spirits, some were also believed to be the gods
themselves. Magicians would often use these divine spirits to overpower and
bind lesser spirits (such as demons) in order to compel these lesser spirits to
fulfil the wishes of the magician, therefore Leonard argued that a
first-century audience may have considered it to be entirely plausible that
Jesus could be using an anonymous holy spirit, or even the Holy Spirit of God, as
the means by which he gained the upper hand over demonic powers.
The idea that Jesus had possession of a spirit – of either
demonic or divine origin - was beginning to sound like a credible explanation for
his miracle-working powers but Leonard was quick to make one final point: regardless
of whether the spirit that was under Jesus’ command could be conclusively
identified as demonic or divine, the fact remains that serious implications of
magical activity are present in all three Synoptic versions of this story and
the charge of magical spirit manipulation that is made by the scribes appears
to have some evidential basis in Jesus’ own behaviour and words.
So
that concludes my report on our devilish conversation that afternoon. Please excuse
me if I do not spend time reflecting on my thoughts and I sign off abruptly
because I am still feeling unwell, the computer screen is giving me an awful headache
and my bed has the allure of one of Persephone’s sirens right now. Luke has succeeded
in taking the greater part of my pain away so hopefully my body will stabilise
overnight and I will feel better by the morning, but I hate to think that I am
locked into this cycle now and there will be many more teething troubles to
come. If Luke’s fantastical imagination is to be believed then the reality of
this condition isn’t at all what I had expected; it isn’t about strutting
around in sharp suits, wearing designer sunglasses and breaking into
bedchambers and seducing the opposite sex. It’s traumatic, restrictive,
undignified and most often than not, it involves incredible pain.
