The Origin of Satan by Elaine Pagels Read Free Book Online Page A

alone:

    And he called the people to him again, and said to them, “Hear
    me, all of you, and understand; there is nothing outside a man
    which by going into him can defile him; but the things which
    come out of a man are what defile him.” And when he had
    entered the house, and left the people, his disciples asked him
    about the parable. And he said to them, “Are you, too, without
    understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a man
    from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but
    his stomach, and so passes out of him? What comes out of a
    man is what defiles him; for from within, from the human
    heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, . .
    . envy, pride, foolishness. . . . All these evils come from
    within” (7:14-23).

    Here Mark wants to show that although Jesus discards
    traditional kosher (“purity”) laws, he advocates instead purging
    the “heart”—that is, impulses, desires, and imagination.
    Now that Jesus has alienated not only the scribes, Pharisees,
    and Herodians, but also his relatives and many of his own
    townspeople, he travels with his small band of disciples,
    preaching to the crowds. Anticipating what lies ahead of him in
    Jerusalem, where he will challenge the priestly party on its own
    ground, Jesus nevertheless resolutely leads his followers there,
    walking ahead of them, while “they were astonished, and those
    who followed were terrified” (10:32). On the way he tells the
    twelve exactly whom they are to blame for his impending death:

    “The chief priests and scribes . . . will condemn [the Son of
    man] to death, and hand him over to the nations, and they
    THE GOSPEL OF MARK AND THE JEWISH WAR / 23

    will mock him and spit upon him, and scourge him and kill
    him” (10:33).

    Opposition to Jesus intensifies after he enters Jerusalem.
    Having prepared a formal procession to go into the city, Jesus is
    openly acclaimed, in defiance of the Romans, as the man who
    comes to restore Israel’s ancient empire: “Blessed is the kingdom
    of our father David that is coming!” Then, with his followers, he
    enters the great Temple and makes a shocking public
    demonstration there:

    He entered the Temple, and began to drive out those who sold
    and those who bought in the Temple, and he overturned the
    tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold
    pigeons; and he would not allow anyone to carry anything
    through the Temple (11:15-16).

    Now Jesus invokes the words of the prophets Isaiah and
    Jeremiah, as if to speak for the Lord himself against those who
    permit financial transactions in the Temple courtyard:

    And he taught, and said to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house
    shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you
    have made it a den of robbers.” But the chief priests and the
    scribes heard it, and sought a way to destroy him, for they were
    afraid of him, because the whole crowd was astonished at his
    teaching (11:17-18).

    When the chief priests and scribes, joined by members of the
    Jewish council, demand to know by what authority he acts, Jesus
    refuses to answer. Instead he retells Isaiah’s parable of God’s
    wrath against Israel (12:1-12) in a way so transparent that even
    the chief priests, scribes, and elders recognize that he is telling it
    “against them” (12:12). The following scenes show Jesus
    contending first against the Pharisees and Herodians, who fail to
    trick him into making anti-Roman statements (12:13-15), and
    then against the scribes (12:35). Finally he warns a great crowd:
    24 / THE ORIGIN OF SATAN

    Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes, and
    to have salutations in the marketplaces, and the best seats in
    the synagogues, and the places of honor at feasts, who devour
    widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They
    will receive the greater condemnation (12:38-40).

    Then, as Jesus comes out of the Temple, Mark says, he
    responds to his