The Gospel of Mark’s possessed man discovered!
An archeological discovery of a big donor in Mark 1:21-28
The name of Mark’s possessed man discovered!: An archeological discovery of a big donor in Mark 1:21-28
Who was the man possessed by a demon in Mark ‘s gospel? Scholars have been baffled by this question for thousands of years. The main reason for the perplexity has to do with the fact that the demon possessed man was inside a synagogue. While demon possession was common in ancient times, it was believed that to be unlikely the Jews would have let him in the synagogue, that is until now!
Let us read the passage:
Jesus Drives Out an Impure Spirit
21They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, 24“What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
25“Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” 26The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. 27The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” 28News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee. (NIV translation.)
The passage above raises a lot of questions among which is; How did a demon possessed man get into the synagogue? There is no way, the assumption goes, that the Jews would have let him in to a place of worship. We all know the behavior of a demon possessed person by exorcist movies and so forth. So what gives?
Traditionally scholars have answered this question by alleging that the demon possessed man did not always display his possession. In other words, the symptoms of demon control were intermittent such as that suffered by other trauma victims or seizures. The traditional answer is a good guess but is not one based in scripture. Not all scholars are satisfied with that answer.
Recently an archeologic discovery was made in the modern day region of Capernaum Israel. An old synagogue was discovered from thousands of years ago. The structure discovered included remnants of wall which scholars identify as a list of donors. ( see above picture.) There is also a number of donations listed by each person. Interesting enough, one of the biggest donors was a man listed as מְטוּרָף סולומון, the name which is transliterate as Shlomo Meshuganah or Crazy Solomon.
What does this discovery mean? Dr. Chaim Bagelstein of Israel University said this is the biggest discovery in the world and “we are now convinced that Shlomo Meshugunah is the demon possessed man in Mark’s gospel.” Dr. Bagelstein comments that the synagogue leadership let Mr. Meshuganah into their place of worship because he was a big donor. “They were able to overlook his disturbing behavior because he paid for gefilte fish and a cleaning service on Shabbas.” Dr. Bagelstein “now the mystery has been solved and past scholarship on Mark has been overturned.” An anonymous Christian pastor comments “praise the Lord, the New Testament has been testified too.” Christian pastors will now arrange a trip to the archerolgic site to build a shrine to Mr. Meshuganah.