The Devil (dia¿boloß) in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew

• Devotion Below• C.S.Lewis’ Screwtape Letters Plot Summary:

The Screwtape Letters comprises thirty-one letters written by a senior demon named Screwtape to his nephew, Wormwood (named after a star in Revelation), a younger and less experienced demon, who is charged with guiding a man toward "Our Father Below" (Devil / Satan) and away from "the Enemy" (God).

After the second letter, the Patient converts to Christianity, and Wormwood is chastised for allowing this to happen. Screwtape notes however, that they have the advantage of distraction, which could potentially dull his new faith. A striking contrast is formed between Wormwood and Screwtape during the rest of the book. Wormwood is depicted through Screwtape's letters as much closer to what conventional wisdom has said about demons, i.e., wanting to tempt his patient into extravagantly wicked and deplorable sins and constantly writing about the war that is going on for the latter half of the book. Screwtape, on the other hand, is not interested in getting the patient to commit anything spectacularly evil.

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In Letter VIII, Screwtape explains to his protégé the different agendas that God and the devils have for the human race: "We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons." With this end in mind, Screwtape urges Wormwood in Letter VI to promote passivity and irresponsibility in the Patient: "(God) wants men to be concerned with what they do; our business is to keep them thinking about what will happen to them."

In Letter XXII, after several weeks of attempts to find a licentious woman for the Patient, and when Screwtape receives a painful punishment for a secret he divulges to Wormwood about God's genuine love for humanity, the irate Screwtape notes that the Patient has fallen in love with a Christian girl, and he is enraged. Toward the end of this letter, Screwtape becomes so incensed that he turns into a large centipede, mimicking a similar transformation that John Milton included in Book X of Paradise Lost, where the demons found that they had been turned into snakes.

In the last letter, it emerges that the Patient has been killed during an air raid (World War II having broken out between the fourth and fifth letters), and has gone to Heaven. Wormwood is to be punished for letting a soul 'slip through his fingers' by the consumption of his spiritual essence by the other demons. Screwtape responds to his nephew's desperate final letter by tauntingly assuring him that he may expect just as much assistance from his "increasingly and ravenously affectionate" uncle as Screwtape would expect from Wormwood were their situations reversed, paralleling the situation where Wormwood himself turned his uncle over to Satan for making a religiously positive remark that would offend him(from Wikipedia).

Quotes from C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters:• “Gratitude looks to the Past and love to the Present; fear, avarice, lust, and ambition

look ahead.” • “The Future is, of all things, the thing least like eternity. It is the most temporal part of

time-- for the Past is frozen and no longer flows, and the Present is all lit up with eternal rays.”

• “Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks around upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, andd asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.”

• “A moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at all - and more amusing.” • “Our Master's (the Devil's) greatest triumph was in convincing humanity that he

doesn't exist.”

• Let us pray…

Some notes on the development of the New Testament, a brief overview...• The tradition of the apostles writing the Gospels, The Secret Gospel of James, mid to late

second century: “The twelve disciples were all sitting together at one time and remembering what the savior said to each one of them, whether secretly or openly, and putting it into books.”

• Jesus’ original language was Aramaic, the Gospels are written in Greek. It is likely that there were numerous collections of Jesus’ sayings that circulated in the 1st century. Food for thought, If each of the gospel writers had individually translated

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Jesus’ sayings, we would expect to see some variation in the way each presented his words. But gospels as diverse as Matthew and Luke, as well as the Gospel of Thomas, all quote sayings of Jesus in identical translation. So, this suggests that they relied on a common source, which scholars call Q (for Quelle, the German word for “source”). To this source we owe many familiar sayings, including the Beatitudes and what we know from Matthew’s gospel as the sermon on the mount.

• Here is a fragment from an Egyptian piece of papyrus not attached to anything else, “I am the light which is above them al. It is I whom an the all. From me did all come forth and to me the all extends. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up a stone, and you will find me there.”

• A sample from the Gospel of Philip: “Become not a Christian, but a Christ” is the main theme.

• A sample from the Gospel of Thomas: “Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourself, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living Father.”

• That is, you, the reader, are the twin brother of Christ when you recognize the divine within you. You are Jesus are identical twins.

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The Gospel of Mark• Jesus is baptized, driven into the wilderness, and tempted by Satan - Mark 1:9-13

• First public act of ministry in Mark?• Mark 1:21-28 - “man with an unclean spirit”• “At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of

Galilee.” • What “fame” is Mark referring to in the verse quoted above? What were

people saying about Jesus? • What is Jesus known for in Mark? • Satan - 5 verses, Demon - 3, Demons - 10, Unclean Spirit - 7, evil -5

• What does the temptation in the wilderness represent? • Genesis 3:24, “He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he

placed the cherubim… etc….”• Mark 1:12, “And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness…

• (ekba¿llei) means to “Cast out”• “Out of Eden” is ruled by who?

• The Enlightenment, Rationalism, Material Reductionism, and the Supernatural• Do you believe in miracles? Demons? Evil? Healing? etc….• Why, or why not? • What has been missed in Jesus studies in the academy until about 40-50 years ago?

• What are the consequences of Material Reductionism? • Thoughts on this statement, “Many liberal-minded Christians have preferred to

ignore the presence of angels and demons in the gospels.” • According to Mark, Jesus has come to heal the world and reclaim it for God.

Reclaim it from who?

• Mark 3:1-6 Who is behind all of the evil in Mark’s Gospel?• Mark 3:13 “What two tasks are the disciples empowered to do?

• Mark 14:10-11 Judas• Compare with Luke 22:3 and John 13:2• Mark implies what Luke and John make explicit.• What is at stake here?

• Mark 14:61 - Here, for the first time in Mark’s gospel, Jesus publicly admits his divine identity to people other than his disciples, and goes on to warn his accusers that they will soon witness his vindication.

• Did the devil win when Jesus died in Mark’s gospel?

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Gospel of Matthew• 70 AD the temple falls, Matthew is written after the fall of the temple, approximately

80 AD.• When did the Spirit descend on Jesus in Mark? For Matthew, when does the spirit

descend on Jesus? • Matthew’s genealogy is attempts to situate Jesus in a direct line with both David and

Moses. So, like Moses, who, as a newborn, escaped the furious wrath of the Egyptian Pharaoh, who had ordered a mass slaughter of Hebrew male infants, so JEsus, Matthew says, escaped the wrath of King Herod’s slaughtering of the innocents.

• Matthew wants to show not only that Jesus was Israel’s legitimate king, rather than such unworthy usurpers as Herod, but also that he was God’s designated teacher of righteousness, destined to replace the Pharisees, who held that role in the eyes of many contemporaries.

• Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness in Matthew is DIFFERENT than Mark’s version. In Matthew, Satan is a caricature of a scribe (like the Pharisees!!!!), and Satan tests Jesus like other opponents in Matthew’s gospel will (like the Pharisees!!!!). Satan is skilled in verbal challenge and adept in quoting the scriptures for diabolic purposes, who repeatedly questions Jesus divine authority (all like the Pharisees!!!!!!!!).

• Let’s read it: Matthew 4:1-11• How does Jesus combat Satan?

• It is important to note, having twice failed to induce Jesus to perform a miracle to prove his divine power and authority, Satan finally offers him “all the kingdoms of this world and their glory,” which Satan claims as his own…..

• Thoughts? Is this world in Satan’s control?

• Contrast:Mark begins his gospel with descriptions of healing and exorcisms, but Matthew begins by showing Jesus proclaiming a new interpretation of divine law. Like Moses, who ascended Mount Sinai to receive and promulgate God’s law, Jesus goes up on a mountain, where he proclaims what we know as the Sermon on the Mount. Taking aim at the Pharisees and those impressed by their interpretation of Torah.

• The “Five divisions of Matthew” which correspond to the first five books of the Bible or the five books of Moses or the Torah or the Pentateuch:

• Advent of the Messiah: 1-4:11• The Public proclamation of the Messiah’s Kingdom: 4:12-16:12• The Distinct and Public Claim of Messiahship: 16:13-23:39• The Sacrifice of the Messiah Priest: 24:1-27:66• The Triumph of the Messiah Savior and King

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• Matthew diverges from Mark in making the Pharisees Jesus’ primary antagonists. For mark it was the Jerusalem scribes who were angered by Jesus’ powerful effect on the crowd and charged him with demon possession; but Matthew changes the story to say that Pharisees accused JEsus of “casting out demons by the prince of demons (12:24).”

• Matthew 12:30 - “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”

• Evil vs. Good…• Matthew 13:38 “sons of the kingdom” vs. “sons of the evil one.”

• While Mark says that the Pharisees and the Herodians first plotted to kill Jesus, Matthew says that only the Pharisees “went and took counsel, how to destroy him” (12:14)

• Matthew 13:38-39• Why do some people not hear God’s word? • Do you agree or disagree with Matthew?

• If you disagree with Matthew, what is your warrant or source of authority? That is, what sources of authority are you basing your disagreement on? Personal opinion? Other passages of scripture? Tradition? etc….

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