4th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (B)

He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him. 

Mk 1: 21-28

v. 21. Then they came to Capernaum, and on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught.

If we say that the synagogue corresponded roughly to the English parish church, we shall not give a wholly wrong impression. At any rate every town or village of any size possessed at least one synagogue in which services were held on all sabbaths and also on certain weekdays. 

All sacrificial rites were reserved to the temple in Jerusalem, so the synagogue services were not wholly unlike Anglican Morning and Evening Prayer. They consisted of various praises, blessings, and other prayers, together with readings from the Old Testament which were subsequently expounded by a preacher. This is the ‘teaching’ referred to here. 

In one important respect, however, the parallel with the modern Church breaks down. There was no ordained ministry in our sense of the term connected with the synagogue. There were elders responsible for the administration of the synagogue and its discipline. Among them were one or more 'rulers of the synagogues’ who arranged for the services and might lead the worship, and a paid official who was a sort of cross between a sacristan and a village schoolmaster who might fulfill a number of other duties as well.

But it was perfectly competent for any male Israelite who was qualified to do so to deliver the 'sermon', and it would appear that Jesus was often invited by synagogue rulers to do this. Indeed for him - as later for his disciples (Acts 13:15ff and 9:20) - such invitations afforded one of the chief opportunities for spreading the gospel.

v. 22. The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.

Authority: 

The question is raised whether Jesus was trained and formally “ordained” as a rabbi. We do not know exactly what becoming a rabbi entailed at this period, and in any case the evidence about Jesus is not sufficient to enable us to answer the question with certainty. But the case for thinking he was an official rabbi is stronger than is often supposed. For example see Mark 9:5, 10:51, 11:21, and 14:45.

The scribes: 

In the time of Jesus these were men devoted to the study of the Law and to drawing out its implications in terms of the detail of daily life. Their accumulated teaching is known as 'the tradition'.  

If not of independent means, they had to ply a trade as well as performing their scribal duties. Though they were laymen they were highly esteemed in the community (being called 'Doctors of the Law' and addressed as 'Rabbi') and were well represented in the Sanhedrin. 

Most of them belonged to the party of the Pharisees, though some may have been Sadducees (see 12:18). They mostly worked in Jerusalem, gathering round them circles of disciples, to whom they imparted the Law and the tradition by a method of education which was almost entirely oral and involved the learning by heart, and exact repetition, of innumerable maxims and memorable sayings (see 7:1-23). It will be obvious how exactly, in certain respects, Jesus' ministry fitted into the pattern of scribal activity. A comparison between him and the scribes, such as is here described, would have been very natural.

v. 23. In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit.

An unclean spirit: 

I.e. possession by the spirit made the man unclean, either in the sense of ceremonially impure, or in the more general sense of being unfit for worship and fellowship with God. However, the word translated unclean (acathartos) sometimes meant little more than 'vicious', and the phrase may be used by Mark to mean simply 'an evil spirit'.

v. 24. He cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”

Cried out: 

In the Greek a strong word indicating deep emotion. 

What have you to do with us?: In classical Greek this would mean 'What have we in common?' Here, under the influence of Hebrew usage, it probably means 'Why are you interfering with us?' See 1 Kgs 17:18.

Of Nazareth: 

In Greek a single word (Nazarene) the meaning of which is very uncertain. On balance the R.S.V. translation is probably the right one, though among other possibilities are that it is connected with the Hebrew word for 'shoot' or 'branch', or that it means "consecrated", 'holy', in which case it is picked up by Holy One of God at the end of the verse. The question is of course linked with that of the locality of Nazareth, the existence of which is not attested outside the New Testament.

Have you come to destroy us?: 

Perhaps better translated as an assertion. The spirits, with their supernatural insight, could not fail to recognize that the hour of their destruction had arrived. For the expectation of the destruction of evil powers in the messianic age, see Lk 10:18 and Rv. 20:10.

The Holy One of God: 

Presumably used in a messianic sense, though there is no evidence that the term was so used by the Jews. Possibly a later Christian term (based on the association of Ps 16:10 with the resurrection - see Acts 2:27) is here attributed to the demon.

v. 27. All were amazed and asked one another, “What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.”

A typical conclusion to a healing pericope, emphasizing the reality and remarkable character of what had been done by describing the stupefying effect it had on the bystanders.

Amazed:

Like the different Greek word used in v. 22 (astonished) this implies profound astonishment. Since the Jews were not unfamiliar with exorcisms, such a reaction may seem strange, but St. Mark’s point is that Jesus’ exorcisms were not like any other.