5498. SEVEN BOOKS OF GOLD

SEVEN BOOKS OF GOLD

The maimed man, the broken one, the lame

man, the twisted one. He came by me today

to talk. He reached out his hand, for something,

for anything, that I ignored. I'm a bastard like that

sometimes. I look like shit and I feel like wurst.

-

I was reading Mark on the train. Mark 8 or 13, or

something. It's just the most direct gospel, but it's

so fucked up and difficult to read : there's this one

part, all jammed together, three or four stories

crossing into one another : a madman on an island,

'the Geresene Demoniac' across the water. The cure

of this man is as follows : Jesus goes to the other side

of the lake, alone; none can follow him, to the

-

Gentile side, where the pigs are kept. The demoniac,

presumably Gentile, is possessed by an unclean Spirit,

named Legion who, as is the custom of demons in

Mark, immediately recognizes Jesus as the son of God.

Mark emphasises the enormous strength of this madman;

he haunts tombs, no chains can be found to hold him.

Day and night among the tombs and on the mountains

he was always crying out and bruising himself with

stones. When Legion is expelled by Jesus (even the

single word 'Legion' , which the devils possessing the

demon gave as their name, is singular but collective

here - 'My name is Legion, for we are many') and

entered into the herd of swine, which herd promptly,

en masse, destroys itself. The cure prompts terror

among the other Gerasenes on that side of the lake,

who implore Jesus to go away. He does so, leaving the

madman cured and docile, clothed and in his right mind.

He tells the man to remain there, and proclaim his cure.
-
Then there this woman who's been bleeding for twelve 
years, seeking a cure in the crowd around Jesus back on 
the land. She secretly touches his garment, Jesus exclaims
'who touched my garment!' and the power goes out of him
him. She is cured. Unlike to the madman, 
He tells her to be quiet and tell no one.
-
Then the important Jew comes forth and tell Jesus his
daughter is dead ('the daughter of Jairus is dead'). He 
pushes through the crowd, leaving it, and takes the 
parents with Him to the dead girl's side, saying 'she is
not dead; she is merely sleeping.' They laugh at him, with 
disdain. Nonetheless she arises, and all are amazed, after
He's taken her hand and said an Aramaic incantation 
over her. He tells her to rise, and she does. He commands
the parents to silence and tells them to get her something
to eat, 'she is hungry'. Jairus was a ruler of the synagogue.
The name Jairus means 'the awakener'.
-
Weirdly, none of this is anything new; forerunners of these 
people, and foreshadows and echoes of these and other 
tales can all be found in the Old Testament. Jairus is
mentioned in Esther. It's all very dark and mysterious.
I read on, and reel. It's all so deep as to hurt.
Why am I back in this world?