We cross Lake Kinneret and delve into the story of Jesus encountering a man possessed by demons. The conversation gets a little scary, political, and eventually, heartfelt. You'll find yourself entranced as we discuss the metaphoric representation of the man's possession and Jesus' role in calming the storm and freeing the man.

There's a neat example in Mark 5 of what I call an enacted parable. An interaction that Jesus is using to speak to something larger. However, part of the symbolism in this parable only becomes clear when looking several decades into the future. So we have two options: 1. Jesus is enacting the parable prophetically or 2. The writer is looking back creatively.

Right near the start of Mark there is a series of healing narratives. In one of them Jesus heals "the demonized." And, interestingly, this is the only story of the four where we actually see the specific term healed or therapeou appear. And therapeou is actually the least magical explanation for what happens in the story. therapeou is where we get the English word therapy from and that's because in Greek it referred not to the work of healers but to the work of doctors. Now, to use the word doctors in this context is, of course, an anachronism, but in the ancient world, therapeou was used to describe the application of a salve to heal a wound or a plaster cast to heal a broken bone. The primary sense was to care for or to wait upon someone. Medically. Theropuho is not a magical term, it's a therapeutic term. It implies a long, slow process of healing.

The gospels contain a few uncomfortable stories of demon possession. How do we read these stories as modern audiences? Should we accept them at a surface level? Do we chalk them up to ancient misunderstandings of mental health issues? Or can we explore to uncover the sophistication of ancient storytelling and look for the parables hidden in these texts?