The evidence from the first century about the spiritual world allows us
to have a more nuanced understanding of this challenging pericope in Mark.
The Qumran material discussed by Marcus suggests that the individual can
be seen as the locus of a cosmic struggle between good and evil, i.e., the
individual is inhabited by spirits; Levison has shown in first-century
thought that spirits can get inside of a human being and can cause their
person’s conscious mental faculties to be rendered inactive, so that the
spirit’s own words may be spoken; and the work of Davies suggests that the
possessed person would not be seen as culpable for his/her actions when
under the power of a spirit. Further, Mark presents to his audience a
worldview in which spiritual inhabitation is common. Jesus is inhabited by
the Holy Spirit. The preeminent disciple, Peter, correctly proclaims that
Jesus is “the Christ.” However, for Mark, Peter is, at least in part, able to
make this proclamation because he is inhabited by Satan. Peter
misunderstands the true nature of Jesus as messiah by denying his suffering
and death. In that denial, Jesus senses not only Peter, but also Satan, and in
some sense rebukes both of them.