Appendix A: Demons and Exorcism in Antiquity 769
Appendix A Demons and Exorcism in Antiquity O ne category of healing story that I have largely excluded from the main body of the book is exorcism, since it involves a distinct set of problems for modern interpreters. Nevertheless, exorcism narratives in the Gospels fit the form of other miracle narratives.1 This appendix summarizes ancient demonology and exorcisms, minus the early Christian sources, many of which I have treated at relevant points in my commentaries on Matthew and Acts. It is intended mostly as a concise prolegomenon to the following appendix, which introduces modern anthropological literature for a point of comparison.
Ancient Views of Demons The Greek term δαιμόνιον had a wide range of meaning, but the negative aspects of that range made it one of the most suitable terms for hostile spirits in early Judaism. A wide range of opinions about demons existed in early Judaism, a repertoire that expanded as centuries passed. Demonology became increasingly prominent in late antiquity.
1. Guillemette, "Forme" (persuasively, pace Bultmann). One cannot distinguish between historical information and legend based on form (see Rüsch, "Dämonenaus-Treibung"). Mark is the dominant extant source for our knowledge of Jesus's exorcisms, with Matthew and Luke usually following Mark (Robinson,
"Challenge," 326; Best, "Exorcism," 2; cf. Finger and Swartley, "Bondage," 18–20). Nevertheless, a summary of Jesus's exorcism ministry also appears in Q , indicating that Jesus was known for casting out demons, obviously on multiple occasions (Matt 12:27–28//Luke 11:19–20).
Appendix A
Demons' most direct attack on an individual was through possession.2 Various prophylactic methods were meant to ward off demonic attacks of diverse kinds, but in the case of possession a cure took the form of exorcism. Although those practicing exorcism sometimes employed commands, as Jesus did, even their commands usually belonged to a larger context of incantations and often accompanied various rituals (such as fumigation).
Daimones Greeks could picture gods3 or other spirits4 entering a person. The Greek term translated "demon" is not in itself necessarily negative,5 and the meaning of the term evolved over time.6 It could refer to the spirits of the deceased,7 including prominent heroes of the past;8 it could involve good or ill fortune;9 it could denote a particular
2. Our English terminology of "possession" is potentially misleading, because of the term's semantic range (Johnson and Keller, "Possession"), because it fails to allow degrees of effects, and because it subsumes so many diverse human actions or experiences. I employ the term "possession" because of its common usage, but its nuances are very imprecise (cf. Theron, "Beste"; Carter, "Demon Possession"; idem, "Possession";
Gildea, "Possession"); it assumes "ownership," hence implies no variation among degrees and types of control, in contrast to the more general Greek term δαιμονίζομαι in the nt. Arguing for degrees of demonization, see, e.g., Warner, "Position," 84–86; Davies, "Exorcism," 25–28.
3. Homer Il. 17.210–11.
4. Epictetus Diatr. 1.14.14.
5. For a survey of Greek views on demonology and daimones, see especially Ferguson, Demonology,
33–67 (beginning on 33–35 with the three views in Plutarch Obsol. 10–15, Mor. 415A–418D); BarrettLennard, Healing, 337–44; cf. more briefly Ferguson, Backgrounds, 184–86; Alexander, Possession, 259–
65; Finger and Swartley, "Bondage," 10; for the ancient Near East, see, e.g., sources cited in Carpenter,
"Deuteronomy," 518, 542. On the Greek term, see further Sánchez, "Daimones"; Burkert, Religion, 179–81;
Liddell and Scott, Lexicon, 365.
6. See Rives, Religion, 18 (citing Apuleius De deo Socr. 13–16). In Heraclitus, the daimon shapes the person's character (Darcus, "Daimon") or generates one's ordered speech (Darcus, "Logos"); for Empedocles, the divine mind parallels the human daimon (Darcus, "Phren"). Following Plato more closely than Neoplatonists did, Plutarch viewed daimon as a higher component of the soul (Brenk, "Doctrine");
Von Franz, "Daimons," shows how Stoic and Middle Platonic views of spirits developed and how spirits related to "self." For a collection of relevant texts, see Cotter, Miracles, 75–105.
7. E.g., Dio Chrysostom Or. 3.54; Maximus of Tyre 9.6; Menander Rhetor 2.9, 414.25–27 (when consoling the bereaved); PGM 4.1965–69; Philostratus Vit. Apoll. 3.38; perhaps Dio Chrysostom Or. 25
(but this appears more novel and may be a rhetorical exercise); see further discussion in Bolt, "Daimons,"
76–96. Even many intellectuals believed stories of ghosts (Pliny Ep. 7.27.1–14), though others lampooned them (Lucian Lover of Lies 29–32). Lucian doubts spirit stories generally (Lover of Lies 16–20, 29–31), including those explicitly involving daimones (Lover of Lies 13, 16, 29). Although the Furies often appear
(e.g., Ovid Tristia 4.4.70), Cicero attributes them to one's feelings of guilt (Cicero Pis. 20.46–47) or employs them figuratively (Att. 10.18).
8. Pythagoras was thus a daimon (Philostratus Ep. Apoll. 50), as were Achilles (Maximus of Tyre 9.7) and Protesilaos (Philostratus Hrk. 43.3). The deceased golden race had become benevolent daimones
(Hesiod Op. 121–23).
9. Dio Chrysostom Or. 23.6; Chariton Chaer. 6.2.9; Philostratus Hrk. 12.1 (cf. Burkert, Religion,
180). The application to ill fortune (e.g., Menander Rhetor 2.11; 419.18, 32) lent itself to the increasingly pejorative sense of the term (Ferguson, Backgrounds, 134).
Demons and Exorcism in Antiquity
deity,10 or even deity more generally.11 One could even pun on multiple senses of the term.12 On a popular level, Greeks close to the early Christian period applied the term increasingly often to the many forces intermediate in character between deities and nature.13 These spirits were thus highly useful for magic,14 and even some Jewish texts mention protagonists exploiting the usefulness of "demons."15
Greeks often applied the term to deities like the Olympians,16 but more commonly to lower, superhuman spirits and demigods or deified mortals.17 Sometimes they even used it as the equivalent of the Roman genius.18 Not everyone concurred with the appropriateness of this intermediary category between deities and mortals, but it was widely held.19 Probably reflecting Diaspora Judaism's common adap10. E.g., I. Eph. 1255 (ἀγαθοῦ δαίμονος , the "good daimon," linked here with Artemis); Menander
Rhetor 1.1.342.6–9 (personified jealousy).
11. E.g., Dio Chrysostom Or. 76.5; Epictetus Diatr. 3.22.53; for "supernatural," see, e.g., Philostratus Hrk.
25.4; 48.19; 55.4. Socrates was accused of having introduced new "divinities" to Athens (e.g., Philostratus
Vit. Apoll. 7.11, δαιμόνια καινα; see comment on Acts 17:18 in my commentary on Acts); his own spiritguide is also called a daimon (Plutarch Alc. 17.4; Sign Soc. 10, Mor. 580C; Socrates Ep. 1; for modern views on this, see, e.g., Kleve, "Daimon"; cf. Brickhouse and Smith, "Sign"), which was a deity (Xenophon Mem.
1.1.2; 1.4.2, 10, 13; 4.8.1, 5–6).
12. Lucian Lover of Lies, 32 (meaning "supernatural," but in the context of a ghost story).
13. See Nilsson, Piety, 170–72; Sánchez, "Daimones."
14. E.g., PGM 4.1965–69; Ps.-Callisth. Alex. 1.5; Aune, Prophecy, 45; Nilsson, Piety, 171; Smith,
Magician, 97–99; Yamauchi, "Magic," 140–41; perhaps Philostratus Hrk. 25.13. From a (hostile) Jewish perspective, see 1 En. 9:6–7; L.A.B. 34:2–3; T. Jud. 23:1; b. Sanh. 67b; cf. Gaster, Scriptures, 85 (on CD
XII, 2–3, if we take the Hebrew term as "ghost"; cf. Jastrow, Dictionary, 21). Those who used demons magically sometimes had trouble getting rid of them afterward (Klauck, Context, 229).
15. See Solomon in T. Sol. 22; b. Git. 68ab; Eccl. Rab. 2:8, §1. It was said that a demon helped God's people (b. Meil. 17b, if, as is very likely, this is a demon; Gen. Rab. 63:8) and that one spirit sought local people's help driving away an evil spirit (Lev. Rab. 24:3); later rabbis sometimes learned from and cited demons (e.g., b. Pes. 110a), and some considered particular categories of spirits, whether in the house or field, to be benevolent (Gen. Rab. 24:6). Cf. the Watchers coming, like the Greek Prometheus (cf. Achilles
Tatius 3.8), to teach (Jub. 4:15). Jewish magical texts (or syncretistic texts employing Jewish motifs?) appealed to angels and deities (Goodenough, Symbols, 2:153–295).
16. E.g., Homer Il. 1.561 (Hera); Orph. H. 17.8 (Poseidon); 50.2 (Dionysus); 73.1–2 (Zeus). Nilsson,
Piety, 172, notes that the definition shifted between Homer and Plato.
17. E.g., Ps.-Plato Epin. 984DE; Isaeus Menec. 47; Dionysius of Halicarnassus Ant. rom. 1.31.1; Plutarch
Isis 26, Mor. 361A; Obsol. 10–22, Mor. 415B–422C (e.g., 13, Mor. 416E); Sign Soc. 24, Mor. 593D; Arius
Didymus 2.7.11s, pp. 98–99.18–19; Artemidorus Onir. 2.40; Pausanias 9.22.7; Maximus of Tyre 8.6;
9.2; Menander Rhetor 1.1.333.21–24; 1.1.341.1–4; Achilles Tatius 3.10.1; Diogenes Laertius 8.1.32;
Philostratus Hrk. 48.15; Iamblichus Myst. 1.5, 20; Libanius Narration 7.1 (sea deities). Sometimes one could translate the term in more than one manner, e.g., in Chariton Chaer. 3.1.4; 6.2.9; cf. Circe in Philostratus Hrk. 25.13; a sea daimon who loved a mortal in Hrk. 45.2 (on uses in Philostratus, see
Puiggali, "Démonologie").
18. Epictetus Diatr. 1.14.12, 14; Plut Mor. 564F (in Betz, Dirkse, and Smith, "Numinis," 225); the LCL translation of Diogenes Laertius 8.1.32; cf. the popular view of everyone having either a good or a bad daimon (Dio Chrysostom Or. 23.6; in 23.9, he notes that this is not his own view; cf. again Or.
4.79–80, 83). A daimon could be a beneficial guardian spirit (as in Iamblichus V.P. 2.10). On the genius
(often as an individual's tutelary deity), see Maharam, "Genius"; the view was widespread (as noted in Seneca Ep. Lucil. 110.1).
19. Dionysius of Halicarnassus Ant. rom. 1.77.3. Such intermediate powers contributed to the "demonizing of religion" (Ferguson, Backgrounds, 134).
Appendix A
tation of broader religious vocabulary, Josephus freely employs this Hellenistic language for the divine.20
In Middle Platonism, humans could become heroes, daimones, and finally divine; or the daimones could also regress back into mortal bodies and eventually face death.21 They were intermediaries connecting and communicating between the divine and human realms.22 As in other sources, daimones were associated with oracles, filling, for example, the Delphic priestess before she would speak.23
Because these intermediary spirits could be either good or bad, however, the semantic range includes a negative usage. Thus at times,24 and increasingly in a later period,25 the term could refer to an evil spirit.26
In the early empire, such views seem to have flourished already around Palestine and among Arabs.27 These views may well have come from farther east. Persian demonology, involving massive numbers of evil demons, bears some resemblance to the common Jewish and Christian perspective,28 though none of the relevant extant sources come from the Parthian period (250 b.c.e.–250 c.e.).29 Many Jewish people believed that the gods of the pagans were demons in any case;30 some
Middle Eastern religions demonized the deities of those they supplanted.31 Such demons could prove hostile to mortals.32
20. Isaacs, Spirit, 33–34 (though noting that he also applies it to demons more strictly in War 7.185).
21. Klauck, Context, 424; see categories of daimones in Dillon, Middle Platonists, 317–19. Some Stoics also allowed that the soul rose to the heavens (Seneca Dial. 11.9.3) before its ultimate resolution back into the primeval fire (Marcus Aurelius 4.21).
22. Maximus of Tyre 8.8; 9.2 (see further Trapp, Maximus, 67, on 9.1–7); Aelius Aristides Def. Or.
424, §144D (citing Plato). Maximus believed there were many of them (8.8, citing Hesiod W.D. 252–53 for thirty thousand). Iamblichus believed that all apparitions were daimones (Myst. 2.10).
23. Maximus of Tyre 8.1 (Trapp, Maximus, 69n1, cites also Plato Symp. 202e; Apuleius De Deo Socr.
6.133; Plutarch Face 944cd and esp. Obsol. 415a ff.).
24. E.g., Valerius Maximus 1.7.7 (switching here from Latin to the Greek "κακὸν δαίμονα"; it tormented one at night as a portent of impending death).
25. E.g., P. Grenf. 2.76.3–4 (from 305–6 c.e.); Philostratus Vit. Apoll. 3.38; 4.20; Porphyry Marc.
11.201–2; 19.322; 21.331–33, 336–39; Xenophon Eph. 1.5.
26. Much later, Iamblichus Myst. 2.3, classifies angels as benevolent, demons as unpleasant, and heroes as kinder than demons.
27. Lucian Lover of Lies 16–17 (not using the term but depicting possession and exorcism); for Egypt and exorcism, 31 (cf. 33).
28. Olmstead, Persian Empire, 18, 96, 195, 232. Many have assumed that Judaism simply adopted the Persian perspective (e.g., Foakes Jackson and Lake, "Teaching," 287); as I note here and in appendix B, however, the experiences are fairly transcultural.
29. Yamauchi, "Magic," 118. Among the Persians, a "demon" could involve one touched by madness
(cf. Olmstead, Persian Empire, 53). Our demonstrably datable, extant Jewish sources appear earlier, but we cannot be sure whether or not this is simply because more Jewish sources from the period survive.
30. Ps 106:37 (esp. lxx); Bar 4:7; 1 En. 19:1; Jub. 1:11; 22:17; 4Q243–245, line 18; Sib. Or. 8.43–47;
T. Job 3:3; T. Sol. 5:5; 6:4; Sipre Deut. 318.2.1–2; cf. perhaps 4Q560 1 I, 5; 4Q491 A, 15 8–10; 2 Bar.
10:8. In the early Christian movement, e.g., 1 Cor 10:20 (cf. Deut 32:17); 2 Pet 2:4 (if it associates fallen angels with Titans); Rev 9:20; Justin 1 Apol. 5; Athenagoras 26; Tertullian Apol. 23.5–6. The attribution of the pagan to the demonic also served a useful social demarcation to maintain the small Christian sect's boundaries against paganism (Leeper, "Exorcism," 59–60).
31. Gordon, Civilizations, 246–47; Alexander, Possession, 19; for fallen angels, cf. the fallen gods of Enuma
Elish, the Greek Titanomachy (see, e.g., West, "Introduction," 27), and the Hittite account in Gurney, Aspects, 15.
32. Cf. Chariton Chaer. 3.1.4; 6.2.9, though these may be divine.
Demons and Exorcism in Antiquity
Jewish Demonology33 Demonology is rare in the ot,34 and a renewed focus on demons, which appeared in surrounding cultures, may have been occasioned by the experience of the exile.35 A variety of Jewish conceptions of demonology developed, probably most of them overlapping at the level of popular religion, although it is difficult to know at what period various strands originated. In Josephus, some deadly demons are spirits of wicked persons that enter and kill the living.36 In 1 Enoch, many evil spirits are spirits of the deceased giants;37 later rabbis thought that such spirits became more powerful after the flood generation.38 For some later rabbis, demons impassioned by Adam and Eve used them to reproduce more demons.39
Some Jewish traditions may have adapted Greek concepts, such as reference to avenging spirits resembling the Greek Furies (Sir 39:28);40 in some other early texts, however, angels of destruction appear to be spirits serving the evil prince
33. For a fuller survey of early Jewish demonology, see Ferguson, Demonology, 69–104, who treats especially intertestamental texts on 74–81; Philo and Josephus (who employ the full range of the Greek daimon) on 81–86; and rabbinic sources on 86–93; also Barrett-Lennard, Healing, 331–36. Briefly, e.g.,
Ford, "Response"; Finger and Swartley, "Bondage," 10–12; Kotansky, "Demonology," 270–71. Naturally the conceptions are more diverse than this summary allows me to detail; even the Qumran scrolls and Jubilees, which reflect a similar worldview, may have some differences (Noack, "Qumran and Jubilees,"
200; for similarities, see Fröhlich, "Invoke"; Ibba, "Spirits"), though Jubilees was probably authoritative at Qumran (see Hopkins, "Status"). Given the summary nature of this appendix, I have not distinguished the different periods involved, but those familiar with the sources will recognize the sources in the endnotes and the respective periods to which they belong.
34. Akkadian and Arabic cognates do confirm the lxx interpretation of Lev 17:7 (cf. Deut 32:17;
Ps 106:37) as referring to demons (as my colleague Emmanuel Itapson persuaded me, in addition to his
Nigerian perspective on the evidence). Possession by a hostile spirit may appear in 1 Sam 16:14 (e.g.,
Oesterreich, Possession, 168–69; the meaning is debated—see, e.g., discussion in Ma, "Presence," 21–22;
Arnold, Samuel, 239–42). But such references are rare. Note the survey of themes in Finger and Swartley,
"Bondage," 12–17.
35. Cf. Propp, "Demons" (attributing it to disillusionment with the covenant's control over ill fortune; it could also be attributed, however, to a wider acquaintance with alternative paradigms). Hittites and other peoples employed some purity rituals resembling ancient Israel's, applying them prophylactically against demons.
36. Josephus War 7.185. In Josephus they are usually souls of the dead (Ferguson, Demonology,
85). Traditional paganism expected netherworld spirits to plague or possess tomb robbers (Trombley,
"Paganism," 204). For associations of tombs with spirits, see PGM 101.1–3; Nineham, Mark, 153; Alexander,
Possession, 29; cf. Jub. 22:17; 'Ab. R. Nat. 3A; T. Sol. 8:9; Lewis, Life, 96; for use of corpses in witchcraft, e.g., Apuleius Metam. 2.20.
37. 1 En. 15:9; 16:1; cf. the spirits that impregnated their mothers in Philo Giants 6, 16; the Greek
Titanomachy (e.g., Hesiod Theog. 717–19; Menander Rhetor 2.17, 438.31–32), of which various Jewish sources show awareness (e.g., Sib. Or. 3.121, 155; cf. Jdt 16:7). For demons in Jewish apocalyptic sources, see the collection of material in Cotter, Miracles, 106–19 (also noting the absence of exorcisms in these texts, probably due to their genre, 119).
38. Lev. Rab. 5:1; their idolatry rendered them susceptible to demons (Gen. Rab. 23:6).
39. So Pesiq. Rab Kah. 5:3; b. Erub. 18b; Gen. Rab. 24:6.
40. God also sends demons as agents of destruction in later texts, e.g., Tg. Onq. to Deut 32:24; Tg.
Ps.-Jon. to Deut 28:24.
Appendix A
of darkness.41 A few texts may also reflect the later Platonic notion42 of demons as disembodied souls.43 Magical texts reflecting some folk religion specify among other types of demons groups such as "liliths."44 Some texts also call demons
"unclean spirits."45
People associated demons with various afflictions, from which deliverance could be sought.46 People also occasionally associated them with particular or specialized sins,47 like demons of deceit associated with witchcraft and divination,48 jealousy,49 promiscuity,50 arrogance,51 lying,52 and anger.53 "The spirit of error" seems a more pervasive title, found in Qumran dualism and elsewhere in early Judaism.54 Named demons
41. 1QM XIII, 11–12; perhaps p. Shebu. 6:6, §3. On the angelology of 1QM, see Yadin, Scroll of War,
229–42.
42. Cf. Dillon, Middle Platonists, 317–19.
43. Philo Giants 6, 16; Gen. Rab. 7:5 (in this case, nonembodied, because the Sabbath prevented God from completing creation). But angels, too, could be viewed as bodiless (T. Ab. 3:6; 4:9; 9:2; 15:4, 6; 16:2 A).
44. E.g., 4Q510 1 5 (singular, but listing various kinds of demons); Aramaic incantation texts 1.6,
8; 3.14; 6.11; 10.2; 11.1–3, 9; 12.2, 8; cf. Isa 34:14; 2 Bar. 10:8 (among the desert spirits); a modern
Yemenite amulet in Hes, "Role," 376; in older Canaanite religion, see Kaiser, "Pantheon," 131. For headless demons, cf., e.g., PGM 2.11; 5.98, 125, 145–46; 7.233, 243, 442; 8.91; 102.5; T. Sol. 9:1; Dickie, "Headless
Demons." For satyrs (cf. Lev 17:7; 2 Chr 11:15), see Sipra A.M. pq. 9.188.3.6 (demythologized). Modern cults also sometimes delineate types of spirits, e.g., in Umbanda (Pressel, "Possession," 335) or others
(Colson, "Possession," 70–72).
45. T. Sol. 3:7 (later); cf. Jub. 10:1 ("polluted demons"); 4Q230 1 1 (but this is reconstructed); and, differently, "unclean spirit" in 1QS IV, 22 (vs. the "spirit of truth in IV, 21); 4Q444 1 4i + 5.8 (possibly the human spirit); clearly 11Q5 XIX, 15 (and the reconstructed text in 11Q6 4 V, 16; here an unclean spirit acts like Satan); Mark 1:23; Luke 8:29; cf. Klutz, Exorcism Stories, 134–38 (citing esp. Pesiq. Rab
Kah. 4:7). "Unclean" could sometimes represent "sinful" (1QpHab VIII, 13); Klawans ("Impurity"; idem, "Idolatry") emphasizes the links between sin and impurity in the Scrolls; Himmelfarb, "Impurity and Sin," warns against overgeneralizing this link (while conceding that 1QS and 4Q512 exceed ot perspectives). Those dominated by Belial's spirits also are more apt to defile the temple (CD XII, 1–2;
4Q271 5 I, 17–18).
46. See Eve, Miracles, 174–216. In other cultures, see discussion below.
47. Most prominently in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, e.g., T. Reu. 2:1–2; 3:3ff.; T. Jud.
16:1–4; earlier, in the Qumran scrolls, see Tigchelaar, "Names of Spirits." Cf. specializing spirits in the Middle Platonic tradition in Maximus of Tyre 8.8; 9.7; πνεῦμα can, however, include psychological dispositions (Chevallier, Souffle, 39). Angels, too, could specialize (e.g., the angel over repentance in 1 En.
40:9). In one modern discussion, see Instone-Brewer, "Psychiatrists," 142. They appear in the Zoroastrian
Denkard (Yamauchi, Persia, 439–40), but this was probably not compiled before the ninth century c.e.
(ibid., 410). The association appears in both Hinduism and contemporary Indian charismatic Christianity
(Bergunder, "Miracle Healing," 290). This is probably not the point of 1 Cor 2:12; 2 Tim 1:7.
48. T. Jud. 23:1. The association of demons with witchcraft might stand behind accusations against Jesus (see Keener, Spirit, 104; idem, Matthew, 361–62; idem, John, 714–15, and many sources cited there); for "possession" in deviance labeling there, see the discussion in Guijarro, "Politics," 118, 122–23.
49. T. Sim. 2:7; T. Dan 1:6.
50. T. Dan 5:6.
51. T. Dan 5:6.
52. T. Dan 2:1; 5:5.
53. T. Dan 2:1; cf. Pesiq. Rab Kah. 5:3. Cf. also destroying demons against Israel, "Wrath," "Anger," etc. (Tg. Ps.-Jon. on Deut 9:19).
54. 1QS III, 18–19; IV, 21–23 (see Charlesworth, "Comparison," 418; Keener, John, 970); T. Jud. 14:8;
20:1 (cf. T. Sim. 3:1; contrast the seven spirits of deception in T. Reu. 2:1; cf. T. Iss. 4:4; T. Sol. 8:3, 9).
Demons and Exorcism in Antiquity
appear early;55 one persistent name in Jewish texts is Lilith.56 Demons also could cause physical afflictions, as at times in the Gospels,57 or even kill people.58 Demons could specialize in oil, in causing headaches, or in imbibing excessive alcohol.59 Some sources suggest a special unleashing of demons in the eschatological time before the end.60
One kind of evil spirit dwelled in reed stalks,61 and others might be found in palm and other trees;62 various trees and bushes harbored various sorts of demons,63 as did most vegetables.64 Demons might be found in ruins,65 in bathhouses,66 in graveyards,67 and elsewhere. Apparently they could not attack anyone in the holy city of Jerusalem, however.68 Rabbis reportedly learned some of these traditions from reports offered by demons themselves,69 a source, one might think, of dubitable veracity, however firsthand its information.70
55. 4Q560 1 I, 4; Penney and Wise, "Beelzebub"; Penney, "Devils," 41–51; cf. Mark 5:9. See the possible incantation against Resheph (pestilence?) in 11Q11 V, 5, but the Hebrew may read "heavens." On the origin of many demon names, see, e.g., Barton, "Origin" (though he omits Mastema). Other traditional religions also may have named demons, spirits, or malevolent forces (e.g., Umeh, Dibia, 197–200; in bori, see Echard, "Possession Cult," 71–80), though in some cultures most are not known by name (Shorter,
"Spirit Possession," 117).
56. See 4Q510 1 5, and some identify with her the evil figure in 4Q184 (Baumgarten, "Seductress";
White Crawford, "Folly"). In late talmudic and especially medieval texts, "Lilith" becomes a frequently mentioned demon, eventually queen of the female demons (see Morel-Vergniol, "Ève et Lilith"; Gaines,
"Lilith"; lilin were night spirits). Cf. the demoness Agrath in b. Pes. 112b (Eve, Miracles, 290–91).
57. T. Sol. 1:1–4; 18; Midr. Ps 17:8; Luke 13:11; Kotansky, "Demonology," 271–72. Schwab, "Psychoso matic medicine," suggests that the demonological explanation for sickness in medieval times reduced psychosomatic treatments; still, one would expect exorcism, at least, to have worked in many of these cases. Curses invite sicknesses in various societies, later cured by exorcism (see MacNutt, Power, 74–75, in this case a Christian exorcism in Colombia). Many traditional South American societies affirm possession illness (without possession trance), which is thought to be cured only by exorcism (Bourguignon, "Spirit
Possession Belief," 20–21); see also discussion at Acts 10:38 in my Acts commentary.
58. Tob 3:8 (Sara's first seven husbands); Josephus War 7.185; Num. Rab. 12:3; for regular demonic attacks against humans, not necessarily lethal, see 1 En. 69:12; cf. Tr. Shem 2:9. Satan is an "angel of destruction" in p. Shebuot 6:6, §3.
59. Alexander, Possession, 32.
60. 2 Bar. 27:9; perhaps relevant to their prevalence in the Gospels as the kingdom is at hand (cf.
Alexander, Possession, 249; Hultgren, "Stories," 133). For the possible linking of exorcism with eschatology, cf. perhaps T. Sim. 6:6; with the kingdom, 4Q510 1 4 (Vermes, Religion, 130).
61. Gen. Rab. 56:6.
62. B. Pes. 111a, bar.; 111ab.
63. B. Pes. 111b.
64. B. Sanh. 101a, bar.
65. B. Ber. 3ab. For views concerning spirits haunting abandoned places, cf. also Lewis, "Possession," 191.
66. Tos. Ber. 6:25 (by implication); b. Ber. 62a; Kid. 39b–40a; Shab. 67a; Eccl. Rab. 2:8, §1 (Solomon heating his baths with demons); Song Rab. 3:7, §5.
67. See, e.g., sources in Alexander, Possession, 29; cf. Mark 5:2–3; this may refer merely to madness in b. Hag. 3b. One could hear spirits of the dead talking there at night (b. Ber. 18b). Because of their association with the dead, spirits remain associated with burial grounds even in some cultures today
(Schmidt, "Psychiatry," 147; Edwards, "Possession," 211).
68. Ab. R. Nat. 35 A, if the translator has correctly construed the original. The tradition probably idealizes Jerusalem after its destruction.
69. B. Pes. 110ab.
70. Perhaps obtained by interrogation, as in some modern examples; cf. Fuchs, "Techniques," 135–36.
Appendix A
Later rabbis thought that some kinds of demons could look like people.71 Some opined that demons could see people but not the reverse, and angels could see demons but not the reverse.72 Some felt that particular demons might prove helpful.73
But of course such spirits were subject to and recognized God's sovereignty; God was sovereign over all spirits in the vast majority of early Jewish literary sources.74
Demons could also be arranged in ranks or legions.75 (I am leaving aside here Jewish teaching about angels of nations.76)
Possession Greeks and Romans believed that mantic ecstasy often involved possession by a deity.77 The presence of the numinous could generate dread and trembling.78 Such madness might be sent by a deity and result in killing of loved ones;79 after a bout of madness, one might have no recollection of the mad behavior.80 Madness was
71. B. Git. 66a; Satan in T. Job 23:2. Others resembled Greeks' monsters (e.g., the late Apoc. Zeph.
4:2–4; for pagan monsters, see, e.g., one of the Furies in Statius Theb. 1.103–9).
72. Pesiq. Rab. 6:5; cf. Ab. R. Nat. 40A.
73. B. Meil. 17b; Gen. Rab. 24:6; 63:8.
74. Jub. 49:2; CD VIII, 2–3; 1Qap Genar XX, 16–17; 1QM XIV, 9–10; T. Adam 1:1; Num. Rab. 14:3; cf. VanderKam, "Traditions," 245; Pr. Jos. 7. Cf. Islamic Somali tradition in Lewis, "Possession," 192.
75. T. Sol. 11:3 (if not modeled after Mark 5:9 or Eph 6:12, this may be modeled after angelic ranks;
1 En. 69:3; 75:1; 2 En. 21:1; 22:2, 6, J; 33:10; 3 En. 5:2; 3 Bar. 11:4, 6, 8; Gr. Apoc. Ezra 1:4, 7; perhaps
2 Kgs 6:15; 4Q529 II–III). One could host multiple spirits (Mark 5:9; Luke 8:2; four in Lewis, "Possession,"
212; seventeen in Abdalla, "Friend," 38; multiple spirits in Rahim, "Zar," 144; Last, "Bori," 51; a medium could host multiple spirits in succession in Firth, Ritual, 306). For hierarchies of spirits in some Islamic cults, see Abdalla, "Friend," 41–42.
76. Briefly, cf. Deut 32:8 lxx; Dan 10:13–12:1; Jub. 15:30–32; 1 En. 89:59–90:19; later 1 En. 40:9
(Knibb; contrast Isaacs); 61:10; 2 En. 20:1 (longer version); T. Levi 3:8; T. Job 49:2; 3 Bar. 12:3; Ascen.
Isa. 1:3; 2:2 (but probably Christian material; cf. 1:4); Tg. Ps.-Jon. on Gen 11:8; in early gnostic texts, e.g., Apoc. Adam 1:4; Hyp. Arch. The Daniel and early Enoch material shows that the language precedes
Christianity (Stuckenbruck, "Angels of Nations"; cf. Caragounis, Mysterion, 157–61; Cullmann, State,
68; pace the concerns of Carr, Angels, 40); Paul's source may be apocalyptic tradition (Lee, "Powers"; cf.
Benoit, "Angelology"). For the lxx of Deuteronomy, see Russell, Apocalyptic, 244–49; Peake, "Colossians,"
479; Dodd, Bible and Greeks, 18–19. Jewish sources usually treat them as angelic authorities appointed by God (Jub. 15:31–32; 35:17; Mek. Shir. 2:112ff.; b. Ber. 16b–17a; Yoma 77a; Exod. Rab. 32:3; Pesiq.
Rab. 17:4; 3 En. 29:1; 30:1–2), but in some sources, God appointed them to lead the nations astray ( Jub.
15:31), or they had become malevolent powers and would be judged at the end of the age (e.g., 1QM
XIV, 15–16; XV, 13–14; XVII, 5–8; Kobelski, "Melchizedek," 123; cf. 3 En. 26:12; Sipre Deut. 315.2.1;
Gen. Rab. 77:3; 78:3).
77. Graf, "Ecstasy," 800 (citing, e.g., Virgil Aen. 6.77–80); Dionysius of Halicarnassus Ant. rom. 1.31.1; the state is negative but probably faked, in Menander Theophoroumene (cf. discussion in 20–25). Thus one might think Dio mad, but he warns that it may be (prophetically) inspired by a daimon (Dio Chrysostom
Or. 34.4).
78. Suetonius Aug. 6.
79. Strelan, Strange Acts, 103, citing Diodorus Siculus 4.11.1; see Euripides Herc. Fur. passim.
80. Achilles Tatius 4.17.4; but contrast Dan 4:36. Lack of recollection also characterizes many of those described as "possessed" today (e.g., Gelfand, Religion, 166, 169; Field, "Possession," 3, 6).
Demons and Exorcism in Antiquity
routinely associated with daimones.81 A ghost might be thought to impart epilepsy, which was often viewed as a form of divine possession.82
Possession trance often appeared to outsiders as madness when witnessed outside the cultic context.83 A cultic context, however, could make such possession appear more positive. Plato envisioned four kinds of ecstasy, one of the most important being prophetic, associated with Apollo;84 although also linked with the unattached Sibyl and Bacis, prophetic ecstasy was primarily linked to oracle locations, especially Delphi, Didyma, and Claros.85 Virgil associates this prophetic ecstasy with divine possession.86
Some thinkers claimed that the sort of "madness" that came from the gods was superior to sanity.87 Being prophetically seized by the divine was periodic rather than continuous.88 The δαίμονες spoke "through human bodies, just as the pipe player Ismenias used his skill to produce notes from his pipe."89 (Some Christian writers argued that Christian prophecy, unlike "possession," was controllable.90)
Josephus might presuppose the idea of such δαίμονες possessing persons with fury or passionate zeal.91
One may compare, for example, ancient accounts of the Pythia's possession.92 In most sources, the Pythian priestess would prophesy from a tripod seat.93 Plutarch claims that she went into mad ecstasy but returned to calm sobriety after leaving "her tripod and its exhalations."94 Plutarch described the Pythian spirits by a term that came to mean "ventriloquist," making one's voice seem to come from elsewhere, but probably
81. Nilsson, Piety, 172. Chrysostom Hom. Acts 17, also cited similarities between the possessed and the intoxicated (referring to their eyes, but perhaps also alluding to a lack of personal motor control).
82. Xenophon Eph. 5.7. Many ancients believed that epilepsy involved (divine) possession (though
Hippocratics ascribed it to physical causes; see Capps, Village Psychiatrist, 92). Epilepsy is now understood to be neurologically based (and distinguished from demonization in Matt 4:24); for one African query about the relation between the two, cf. Ikeobi, "Healing," 67–70.
83. E.g., Alexander, Possession, 98–99 (citing Euripides Bacch. 241; Plato Phaedr. 47), 115 (specifically on the Pythia); cf. Mbiti, Religions, 227. A few people opined that deities were not localized in their temples and thus need not be approached there (Lucian Dem. 27).
84. Plato Phaedr. 265B.
85. Graf, "Ecstasy," 800. Alexander the false prophet seems to imply that his own prophecies are more accurate than these more famous cult centers (Lucian Alex. 43); Lucian himself, our main source for this figure, was unimpressed with any of them (Dial. G. 244 [18/16, Hera and Leto 1]).
86. Virgil Aen. 6.77–80. Graf, "Ecstasy," 800.
87. Aelius Aristides Def. Or. 53, §17D, perhaps employing the rhetorical technique of shocking speech.
88. E.g., Arrian Alex. 4.13.5–6.
89. Maximus of Tyre 9.1 (trans. Trapp, 77).
90. 1 Cor 14:32; Chrysostom Hom. Cor. 29.2 (ACCS-Cor, 118); Severian of Gabala Pauline Commentary from the Greek Church (NTA 15:262; ACCS-Cor, 118; again, NTA 15:270; ACCS-Cor, 144).
91. Twelftree, Triumphant, 34, cites Josephus War 3.485; 7.389.
92. See also Keener, "Possession," 233–35.
93. E.g., Callimachus Hymn 4 (to Delos), 89–90; Lucian Z. Rants 30 (jesting that Apollo cannot prophesy without his tripod); some people in Iamblichus Myst. 3.11 (others claimed a four-footed stool); for a figurative allusion, Lucian Critic 10. Aune, Prophecy, 28, thinks that the tripod probably represented
Apollo's throne.
94. Dial. L. 16, Mor. 759B (LCL 9:367).
Appendix A
it originally meant "pregnant" with the deity, perhaps at least implying speech with a strange voice.95 Plutarch, however, elsewhere reports the view that the inspiration came only to her mind, so that the voice and all physical features stemmed from the woman.96 Valerius Maximus claims that Appius forced the Pythia to descend to the innermost part of the sacred cave, from which, while definite answers are sought for those who consult, the breath of the divine spirit is deadly to those who give the replies. So, driven by the impulse of the power she had seized, the girl prophesied the fate of Appius in a terrifying sounding voice and obscure riddles.97
Others also described this inspiration. Apollo's power "impregnated" and then inspired the Pythia.98 The priestess would prophesy when ἐκστῶσιν, "ecstatic," and afterward remembered nothing.99 Seated on the tripod, she was filled with the divine breath.100 She was possessed by a divine spirit and the divine fire from the cavern.101 Some claimed that there were different kinds of prophetic inspiration, with the Pythian priestess at Delphi being inspired (incitabat) by the power of the earth as the Sibyl was by nature's power.102 A δαίμων filled her before she prophesied; these spirits were associated with other important oracles, including Dodona,
Ammon, and Claros as well.103 A Jewish source also speaks of the Pythia's frenzy.104
Lucan paints this frenzy most graphically, although he certainly exaggerates;105 he depicts full possession, controlling the virgin priestess's soul and lips.106 Without signs
95. De defect. Orac. 9, Mor. 414E. Lake and Cadbury, Commentary, 192; Aune, Prophecy, 40–41; cf.
Conzelmann, Acts, 131; Fitzmyer, Acts, 586; Witherington, Acts, 494. Apollo's voice comes from the cavern in Valerius Maximus 7.1.2. For strange voices in possession accounts today, see appendix B; for a spirit speaking from the belly, see, e.g., Ising, Blumhardt, 104.
96. Plutarch Or. Delphi 7, Mor. 397C; for Apollo using the priestess's body to reveal his thoughts, see
Or. Delphi 21, Mor. 404E. Plutarch has some specialized knowledge of Delphi because of his priesthood there (see Jaillard, "Plutarque et divination," esp. on Mor. 438AB).
97. Valerius Maximus 1.8.10 (trans. Wardle, 60). Other sites also provided subterranean encounters with a daimonion (e.g., Maximus of Tyre 8.2); cf. the oracular chasm for Orpheus in Philostratus Hrk. 28.9.
98. Longinus Subl. 13.2.
99. Aelius Aristides Def. Or. 34–35, §11D.
100. Dio Chrysostom Or. 79.12 (LCL 5:187).
101. Iamblichus Myst. 3.11.
102. Cicero Div. 1.36.79 (cf. Iamblichus Myst. 3.11: at Colophon, the prophetess drinks water from a sacred fountain). Some believed that the subterranean exhalations that once inspired the Pythia no longer worked (Cicero Div. 2.57.117), though in the first century c.e. Pliny the Elder compares them with other unusual vapors supposed to arise from the earth (Pliny Nat. 2.95.207–8). Most today doubt the claims of "mephitic vapours" (Cary and Haarhoff, Life, 317); cf. Pytho's association with the "earth"
(Menander Rhetor 2.17, 441.16–17).
103. Maximus of Tyre 8.1. For δαιμονες and other oracles, see, e.g., Plato Symp. 202E; Apuleius De deo Socr. 6.133 (Trapp, Maximus, 69n1). On Claros, see Robert, Claros; Potter, "Claros"; Klauck, Context,
193; archaeological reports summarized in Mitchell, "Archaeology," 148–49; note also the Apollo oracle at Korope in Thessaly (Klauck, Context, 193–95).
104. Sib. Or. 11.315, 318.
105. This is Lucan's dramatization, and Lucan himself claims that this was an unusual event (Bell. civ.
5.166–67; see Klauck, Context, 187–88).
106. Lucan Bell. civ. 5.97–101.
Demons and Exorcism in Antiquity
of stirring and divine frenzy, she could be faking her inspiration; when genuinely possessed, however, her voice would fill the whole cavern; her hair would bristle, and the wreath would rise from her head.107 Apollo "forced his way into her body," banishing her thoughts as he seizes possession of her; her head tosses, her hair bristles, things are overturned, and the fire of Apollo's wrath burns inside her. This possession tortures her from within, yielding frenzy and foaming lips, inarticulate panting and groans, wailing, and finally articulate speech.108
We should not read too much into Lucan's epic poetry. Archaeology shows that despite literary references, no "mephitic vapors" beneath the Delphic tripod inspired the Pythian priestess.109 Nevertheless, neither should we attribute the depiction of her possession behavior altogether to Lucan.110 Although lacking
Lucan's elaborate description, both earlier and later sources indicate that she was possessed by a spirit111 and went into mad ecstasy.112 Jewish people believed that demons would enter people, forcing them to do what the demons desired.113
Nevertheless, against the assumptions of some scholars, the speech of Apollo's priestess at Delphi was intelligible, not gibberish.114 That her utterances were obscure allowed for professional interpretation. This practice was useful for the temple's cultic staff, who could benefit from the fee involved.115 Interpreters have long compared such ancient depictions of possession with those in more recent eyewitness sources.116
Prophylaxis against Demons In popular culture, people sought various means of protection from hostile spirits; though much of our documentation comes from one or more centuries after the first century (the heyday of emphasis on demonology is the third century and later), enough evidence attests that demons were a matter of practical concern to popular folk religion already by the first century. A foul-smelling fish product
107. Lucan Bell. civ. 5.148–57. Firth, "Foreword," xii, notes cases of faked trances but that genuine trances (those that the "possessed" person genuinely believes) are common (cf. also Verger, "Trance,"
64–65; Beattie, "Mediumship," 166–67).
108. Lucan Bell. civ. 5.165–93.
109. Cary and Haarhoff, Life, 317; Klauck, Context, 187.
110. As some appear to do: Klauck, Context, 187–88, noting that it depends solely on Lucan Bell. civ.
5.116–20, 161–74, 190–97, and that Lucan himself claims that this possession was more powerful than ever before (Bell. civ. 5.166–67). Also others (e.g., Witherington, Corinthians, 278–79).
111. Valerius Maximus 1.8.10; Maximus of Tyre 8.1.
112. Plutarch Dial. L. 16, Mor. 759B (regaining tranquility afterward); Aelius Aristides Def. Or. 34–35,
§11D.
113. Sipre Deut. 318.2.1–2.
114. See Aune, "Magic," 1551; Witherington, Corinthians, 54–55 (following Fontenrose, Oracle); cf.
Maurizio, "Pythia's role."
115. Klauck, Context, 189–90.
116. E.g., Oesterreich, Possession, 153–60, 383–89 (allowing some genuine parapsychic abilities for the Pythoness).
Appendix A
could drive off a demon in Tobit (6:17; 8:3);117 in Josephus, a particular root was useful for driving off deadly demons from an afflicted person.118
Amulets were widespread.119 Common enough in the republic,120 they became even more widespread under the empire.121 Magical practices designed to protect against the influence of demons in Sassanian Babylonia (third to seventh centuries c.e.) crossed religious boundaries, as popular syncretism naturally does.122 Superstition readily crossed folk boundaries and from there would eventually permeate more sophisticated systems as well; for example, Mesopotamian rabbis' fears about even numbers rendering one susceptible to demons123 reflect a broader ancient superstition.124
A Jewish charm might mention hostile demons from which a person needed exorcism.125 Later magical amulets in Israel126 and incantation texts guaranteeing protection from specific demons127 indicate how widespread such views became: beginning no later than the third century, many rabbis thought that the very air around them was crowded with demons,128 a view more widely shared in the culture.129 Demons were thought to attack people,130 but later rabbis often viewed them as mortal.131 Before the first century, some Jews believed that particular medicines could protect people from evil spirits,132 and later rabbis used various folk remedies to ward off such spirits;133 some might even hope that warriors could protect them.134
117. For Tobit, see the discussion in Eve, Miracles, 218–32; Twelftree, Triumphant, 28–30. Foul odors against demons (Tob 6:17; 8:3) also appear in some traditional cures of more recent times (e.g., Mbiti,
Religions, 196, though this is not exorcism). Cf. also fumigation in Ferdinando, "Demonology," 118; Colson,
"Possession," 71; Lewis, "Possession," 199; striking the possessed in an old Russian Jewish account in Oesterreich, Possession, 209.
118. Josephus War 7.180, 185. For medicines to protect against demons, see also Jub. 10:1–14.
119. MacMullen, Enemies, 103–4; in pre-Hellenistic Egypt, Frankfurter, Religion in Egypt, 275; for numerous examples of Jewish spiritual prophylaxis, see, e.g., Alexander, Possession, 34.
120. Varro Lat. Lang. 7.6.107.
121. Nilsson, Piety, 167; cf. Greek magic against demons in Betz, "Fragments."
122. Gordon, "Incantations," 231.
123. B. B.M. 86a; Kid. 29b; Pes. 110a, bar.
124. Virgil Ecl. 8.75; Plutarch R.Q. 102, Mor. 288D.
125. PGM 4.3007–86 (e.g., 4.3039–40).
126. E.g., Rahmani, "Amulet."
127. Incant. Texts 17.1–2; 19.2; 34.1, 6; 47.1; earlier, see 4Q510 1 4–7; 11Q11.
128. B. Ber. 6a; Num. Rab. 11:5; 12:3; Deut. Rab. 4:4; Pesiq. Rab. 5:10; Midr. Ps 17:8. Demons could sometimes fly (b. Git. 68b; Num. Rab. 12:3; Deut. Rab. 6:6).
129. Earlier, Pythagoras (Diogenes Laertius 8.1.32) and Heraclitus (Diogenes Laertius 9.1.7) both reportedly believed that the air was filled with daimones and souls of the deceased (not necessarily hostile); so also Philo Giants 9; the powers in Conf. 174; angels in Wolfson, Philo, 1:366–85. In Middle Platonism generally, see Dillon, Middle Platonists, 288. Cf. spirits in the air in PGM 1.179–81; 4.3043–44; 12.67.
130. 1 En. 69:12; Tr. Shem 2:9.
131. Ab. R. Nat. 37A; b. Pes. 110a; 111b; Lev. Rab. 24:3; perhaps Jub. 10:5; cf. Alexander, Possession, 33.
Cf. the Titans in Sib. Or. 3.156–58, but here they were just humans anyway (cf. Sib. Or. 1.307–23; 2.231).
132. Jub. 10:10–13.
133. B. Ber. 6a.
134. Song Rab. 3:7, §5; Pesiq. Rab. 15:3.
Demons and Exorcism in Antiquity
Various sages came to urge proper precautions against demonic assaults. Drinking water at night rendered one susceptible to demons;135 going out on particular nights of the week was dangerous;136 different demons exercised their dangers during different times of the year.137
Rabbinic piety suggested that prayer could render many demons impotent or destroy them, though dealing with them was never pleasant.138 Other pious acts, like the erection of the tabernacle, could destroy demons;139 fear of God could protect one from them.140 As early as Qumran, Jewish people prayed for protection against demonic activity;141 in later sources, the protection sought in the Aaronic benediction included protection from demons.142 Paul's sample extant letters do not articulate a full demonology, but what they do include probably presupposes one, although the extent of its overlap with contemporary understandings is not specified (see, e.g., 1 Cor 10:20; Rom 8:38).143
Exorcism Although there are many significant exceptions,144 most texts about exorcism come from after the first, and often even after the second, century c.e. Although to some extent this reflects the proliferation of the demonic worldview in a later period,145 it also likely reflects the slowness of the elite (sources of most of our literature) to address phenomena that were already concerning the masses more widely.146
Examples in Tobit and 1QapGen XX, 16–17, 28–29 are clearly pre-Christian, and Josephus's example probably presupposes that these practices had been circulating
135. B. A.Z. 12b, bar. For special dangers at night, see, e.g., Lewis, "Possession," 191.
136. B. Pes. 112b, bar.; other peoples also recognized unlucky days, e.g., Aulus Gellius 5.17; Ovid
Fast. 1.8, 45–48; Plutarch Alc. 34.1; Cam. 19.1; Dionysius Epideictic 3.266–67; Iamblichus V.P. 28.152
(see further Keener, John, 496).
137. Num. Rab. 12:3.
138. B. Kid. 29b.
139. Num. Rab. 12:3; Pesiq. Rab. 5:10.
140. Gen. Rab. 36:1.
141. 11Q5 XIX, 13–16; cf. songs for warding off demons in 11Q11 II–V; cf. Jub. 19:28. God was protecting his people, who kept his covenant, against such demons (1QM XIV, 9–10).
142. E.g., Sipre Num. 40.1.5; Num. Rab. 11:5; Tg. Ps.-Jon. on Num 6:24. This is an intertextual reading employing Ps 91:11.
143. Cf. Eph 1:20–2:3; 6:12; Col 2:15; discussion in, e.g., Adeyemi, "Θέσεις"; Paige, "Demons," esp. 211.
144. See much earlier Egyptian models in Twelftree, Triumphant, 21–22 (who, however, notes on 22 that the temporal and geographic distance from Jesus's day is too great to assume dependence); Hull,
Magic, 63 (following Franz Cumont).
145. The majority of magical papyri do stem from the later period.
146. Cf., e.g., Klutz, Exorcism Stories, 6. Thus Abrahams, Studies 1, 110, doubts that possession and exorcism were common in first-century Palestine, based on Tannaitic literature, despite acknowledging the demonology of 1 Enoch (which is much earlier).
Appendix A
well before his own time.147 In addition to the importance of expelling demons from people, spirits also had to be removed from haunted houses, often by appeasing a ghost or burying its bones there.148
One of the earliest pagan reports of wonder workers casting out demons is placed in second-century Palestine. In this satirical account, the victims "fall down and roll their eyes and fill their mouths with foam," but then the wonder worker heals them and takes a good bit of their money.149 The exorcist asks the demon through which body part it entered, and it answers either in Greek or another language; he then adjures the spirit (cf. the Legion's attempt in Mark 5:7) and threatens it, thus compelling it to leave; the unreliable narrator claims to have seen one smokecolored daimon emerge.150 Origen's Celsus (in the late second century) attacks
Jesus as nothing more than a cheap magician of the Egyptian sort in the market, who for a few obols would drive away people's demons, cure diseases, and teach esoteric doctrines.151
Beyond this, few extant stories of pagan wonder workers offer much in the way of exorcisms apart from Philostratus's Life of Apollonius, which probably draws on Christian as well as other widespread miracle stories of the day.152 Apollonius confronts a youth scoffing at his teaching by identifying the demon in him and ordering it out.153 Quite different from the early Christian accounts, he identifies a blind beggar as a demon and orders it stoned, despite the beggar's pleas; but once it is dead, it turns into a giant dog.154 A homosexual demon, the ghost of a man betrayed by his wife, was pursuing and possessing an attractive boy, threatening to kill him if exorcism was attempted. Apollonius, however, sent a threatening letter, after which the demon desisted.155 (Other texts also speak of sexually interested
147. On 1QapGen, see, e.g., Twelftree, Triumphant, 32–33; he addresses Tobit on 29 (though allowing that this may not be a full-scale exorcism). On pre-Christian examples, see also Hull, Magic, 63–64.
148. E.g., Pliny Nat. 7.27.7–11; Lucian Lover of Lies 31; cf. a haunted schoolhouse in b. Kid. 29b. One
African scholar reports a (disembodied) spirit that attacked anyone who tried to live on the property a deceased man had left to his widow (Mbiti, Religions, 113). Cf. also the Chinese exorcism from a haunted house in Währisch-Oblau, "Healthy," 89–90; another Asian account in Yung, "Case Studies," 142; exorcising a curse from a house in India in Bergunder, "Miracle Healing," 293.
149. Lucian Lover of Lies 16 (LCL 3:345); cf. Mark 9:20 for foam.
150. Lucian Lover of Lies 16. Lucian knew of Christians, though what he knew of them was probably mixed with other sources (cf. Peregr. 11–13). Someone claims to see hundreds of spirits, and to see them all the time, by means of a ring secured from an Arab (Lucian Lover of Lies 17).
151. Origen Cels. 1.68 (noted in Eve, Miracles, 347).
152. Blackburn, "ΑΝΔΡΕΣ," 192. The commonalities are often observed (e.g., Klutz, Exorcism Stories,
121–25; Strelan, Strange Acts, 103, citing Philostratus Vit. Apoll. 2.14; 3.38; 4.10, 25, 40).
153. Philostratus Vit. Apoll. 4.20 (probably dependent on earlier models from the Gospels, despite differences).
154. Ibid., 4.10.
155. Ibid., 3.38. Cf. Asmodaeus, who killed Sara's first seven husbands, in Tob 3:8; 6:14; homosexually inclined spirits in PGM 2.55–56; PDM 14.68, 287 (cf. also PGM 1.86; 5.376–7.544). In traditional religions, the supposed correlation between possession and male homosexual behavior may appear but is not common (see Beattie and Middleton, "Introduction," xxv), sometimes appearing in societies that associate possession with women (e.g., Lee, "Possession," 143–44).
Demons and Exorcism in Antiquity
spirits.156) Another source claims that Porphyry cast a demon from a bath.157 But pagan exorcism is clearly earlier than these literary sources.158
Exorcism is attested more strongly and from an earlier period in Jewish sources,159 which came from the East.160 Exorcism, in contrast to the mention of demons, admittedly appears much less often in the early period than its emphasis in the Gospels could suggest.161 This may be simply a matter of what literature has survived, however;162 it already appears in Qumran and Josephus,163 and in our earliest traditions Jesus recognized the existence of other Jewish exorcists (Matt 12:27//
Luke 11:19).164 It might involve smoking out a demon with a special substance,165
156. Elsewhere Apollonius combats a phantom vampire, who had seduced a young philosopher so she could kill him (Philostratus Vit. Apoll. 4.25). On the sexual interests of spirits in early Judaism, cf., e.g.,
1 En. 6:2; 16:2; 69:5; 106:5–6, 13–14; Jub. 4:22; 5:1; 7:21; CD II, 16–18; 4Q180 1 7–9; 1Qap Genar II,
15–16; T. Reu. 5:6; 2 Bar. 56:12; T. Sol. 4; 5:3; 6:3; Apoc. Ab. 14:6; 2 En. 18:5; Gen. Rab. 24:6; Incant. Text
1.12–13; Wolfson, Philo, 1:384–85; Alexander, "Sons of God"; Delcor, "Mythe." Cf. also Greek deities raping or seducing mortals, e.g., in Sophocles Searchers 212–15; Euripides Antiope 69–71; Pirithous 22–24;
Alope frg. 107; Antiope frg. 223.72–77; Archelaus frg. 228a.15–16; Danae frg. 1132.26–34; Andromeda frg. 136 (Stobaeus Ecl. 4.20.42); Menander Heros frg. 2 (Stobaeus Ecl. 5.20a.21); Apollodorus Bib. 1.5.1;
1.7.8–9; 1.9.3; 3.1.1; 3.2.1; 3.4.3; 3.5.5; 3.7.6; 3.8.2; 3.10.1, 3; 3.12.2, 5–6; 3.15.2, 4; Epit. 1.9, 22; Thebaid frg. 11 (from scholiast D on Iliad, 23.346); Cypria frg. 10 (from Athenaeus Deipn. 8.334b); frg. 11 (from Philodemus Piety B 7369); Varro Lat. Lang. 5.5.31; Ovid Metam. 2.714–47; 3.1–2, 260–61; 4.234–44;
5.391–408; 14.765–71; Silius Italicus 13.615; Lucian Dial. G. 250 (23/19, Aphrodite and Eros 1); Pausanias
8.25.7–8; Parthenius L.R. 15.3; Achilles Tatius 1.5.5–7; Apuleius Metam. 6.22; Libanius Speech in Character
27.3; Narration 1; 4.1–2; 17; 31; 32; 39; 41. Cf. one type of medieval incubus, in Lugt, "Incubus," 177; for spirit spouses and intercourse today, cf. Mbiti, Religions, 111; Firth, Ritual, 319–21; Horton, "Possession,"
35, 38–40; Crapanzaro, "Mohammed," 162–64; Rosny, Healers, 185; spirits "riding" their "horses," their
"spouses," in Montilus, "Vodun," 3 (cf. spirits mounting persons as "horses" also in Michel, Bellegarde-Smith, and Racine-Toussaint, "Mouths," 82); or attractive spirits in Ritchie, Spirit, 25. Cf. also sexually excessive spirits in Stoller, "Change," 277–80 (which Stoller views as a protest against the republic's neoconservative
Islam); spirits that entice shamans sexually, sometimes even jealous of a wife (Sandner, "Psychology," 281).
157. Eunapius Lives 457; the event probably occurs in Syria. Like Philostratus, Eunapius (late fourth century) and Porphyry (234–ca. 305 c.e.) are both much later than the first century.
158. Ferguson, Backgrounds, 185, cites, e.g., Plutarch T.-T. 5, Mor. 706E; Lucian Lover of Lies 16. In subsequent rabbinic sources, see, e.g., Hruby, "Perspectives Rabbiniques," 82–83.
159. E.g., Josephus Ant. 8.46–48 (on Josephus, see further Eve, Miracles, 339–43); in Qumran sources, see, e.g., 4QNab (4Q242) I, 4; perhaps 4Q243–45; 4Q552–53; 4Q560 (see Wise, "Introduction" to 4Q242, p. 266); cf. Leicht, "Mashbia'"; on the limited Qumran evidence, cf. Kirchschläger, "Exorzismus";
Eve, Miracles, 343–45. Some apparently used "healing" as appropriate language for exorcism (11Q11 II,
7; 1Qap Genar XX, 21–29; cf. 4Q242 4 1; Josephus Ant. 8.45).
160. On the Middle Eastern origin of exorcism stories, see further Williams, Miracle Stories, 23–25 (noting on 24 that exorcism stories appear in Greco-Roman settings only later, for which he cites Plutarch T.-T.
7.5.4; Lucian Lover of Lies 16; Philostratus Vit. Apoll. 4.20).
161. Eve, Miracles, 244; idem, Healer, 26–27.
162. Eve argues (255–59) that early Judaism exhibited little interest in forming narratives about exorcists, but this verdict could also reflect the limitations of our evidence. See the broader early Jewish context of Gospel exorcisms in Eshel, "Exorcist."
163. 1Qap Genar XX, 21–29; Josephus Ant. 8.47. See further sources and discussion in Koskenniemi,
Miracle-Workers, 290 (who includes also 11Q11; L.A.B. 60:1–3; and what he views as related ideas in Jub.
11:15–22; Apoc. Ab. 13:4–14; Liv. Pr. 4:10).
164. On early Christian attestation of other exorcists, cf. also Grelot, "Démonologie," 63 (citing also
Acts 19:13–16); Dakin, "Belief," 38; Best, "Exorcism," 1; Rollins, "Miracles," 45 (adding Matt 7:22).
165. Tob 6:7–8, 16–17; 8:2–3; cf. T. Sol. 5:13; Parshall, Bridges, 85.
Appendix A
invoking other spirits to expel it,166 or even laying on one's hands in prayer.167 As in paganism,168 the visible proof of departure by some outward act often remained important.169 Solomon,170 and to a lesser extent David,171 was associated with exorcism or authority over demons in sources spanning a long range of time. A pre-Christian writer reports how Abraham cast out a demon that Pharaoh's magicians could not.172
Because exorcism in this period was more common in the East, the Greek milieu of most extant Gospels does not account for the Gospel narratives of exorcisms;173 moreover, redaction-critical analysis shows that neither Matthew nor Luke, writing in different parts of the empire, made major changes in their sources about exorcism.174 All of this suggests that the substance of the Gospels' exorcism portrayal remains authentic. Whereas many question Jesus walking on water, few doubt that he exorcised, even if they do not believe that actual spirits were involved.175
Most scholars believe that Jesus historically gained a reputation as an exorcist,176 although the Gospels omit most magical exorcism techniques dominant among 166. Incant. Text 3.8–9; 50.7–8; T. Sol. 2:4; 5:5; 8:5–11; 18. Eve, Miracles, 347, notes that the names used for invocation in Origen Cels. 1.24 are Persian or Egyptian (suggesting Gentile usage); but in Cels.
5.45, they submit to the name of God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (presumably a Jewish formula).
167. 1Qap Genar XX.
168. Later, Philostratus Vit. Apoll. 4.20. See more fully Theissen, Miracle Stories, 66–67 (who also cites Lucian Lover of Lies 16; still relevant but less so, Philostratus Vit. Apoll. 4.10). In traditional Navajo exorcism, the moth flying inside the mentally ill person may be expelled in part by vomiting (Kaplan and Johnson, "Navajo Psychopathology," 211).
169. Josephus Ant. 8.48; in modern times, Hes, "Role," 376; Bergunder, "Miracle Healing," 293 (Hindu and Christian exorcism in India); an old Russian Jewish account in Oesterreich, Possession, 209–10 (where the departing spirit knocked a small hole in the window).
170. 11Q11 II, 2–12; Josephus Ant. 8.45–49; CIJ 1:394, §534; 2:374, §1448; PGM 4.850–929, 3039–
41; T. Sol. Greek title; 2:1–7; 5:10; 6:11; Incant. Text 47.1–3; 48.4–5; Pesiq. Rab Kah. 5:3 (before he sinned); b. Git. 68ab; Eccl. Rab. 2:8, §1; Song Rab. 3:7, §5 (before his sin); Pesiq. Rab. 15:3 (before his sin); cf. p.
Ket. 12:3, §11; Betz, "Miracles in Josephus," 220–21; Mills, Agents, 49–61; Duling, "Introduction," 948; in Islamic tradition, Qur'an 27.17, 39–40; in some folk Islam, Butler, "Materialization," 267. That 2 Bar.
77:25 relates to this tradition is not impossible.
171. L.A.B. 60; cf. 1 Sam 16:23, the closest precedent for exorcism in the Hebrew Bible (cf. Kotansky,
"Demonology," 269–70, comparing a Greek conception).
172. 1Qap Genar XX, 19–29. As in analogous examples in ancient literature, the physicians' and magicians' failure highlights Abraham's superiority all the more (XX, 19–20).
173. McCasland, Finger, 65–82 (see esp. 76, 82); also, as noted above, Williams, Miracle Stories, 23–25.
174. McCasland, Finger, 51, 53. More generally on miracle stories in Luke-Acts, see Williams, Miracle
Stories.
175. Best, "Exorcism," 2. Hedrick, "Miracles," 312, allows that Jesus may have been a faith healer but denies real demons, hence real exorcism (cf. also Best, "Exorcism," 4–8).
176. Sanders, Figure, 149, 154; Meier, Marginal Jew, 2:646–77; Dunn, Jesus and Spirit, 44; Miller,
Seminar, 56–57 (though doubting individual accounts); Michaels, Servant, 174; Twelftree, "ΕΚΒΑΛΛΩ"; idem, Miracle Worker, 281–92 (esp. 282–83); Achtemeier, Miracle Tradition, 140; Sears, "View," 101–2.
One Christian writer suggests that possession phenomena peaked in Jesus's day as part of a demonic counterattack (Alexander, Possession, 249; further and less plausibly, Keyser, "Rationale," 362–63, compares their increase in activity through humans with Jesus's incarnation); we may note, however, that claims of spirit possession are widespread in numerous cultures (see discussion below).
Demons and Exorcism in Antiquity
other reported exorcists, such as rings, roots, incantations, and so forth.177 Unlike other forms of healing at times in the Gospels, exorcism is not associated with the ailing person's faith.178 Exorcism is connected closely with the gospel of the kingdom, as a concrete manifestation of the deliverance it brings.179 Christian exorcism shares some other aspects in common with some Jewish exorcisms,180 but especially transformed them by using Jesus's name.181 Justin complains that Jewish exorcists, like Gentiles, depend on "fumigations and incantations," but Christians successfully employ the name of Jesus. No other name, he declared, could accomplish the same effects.182
Second-century patristic sources unabashedly report Christianity spreading especially through exorcisms, claiming Christians' success in exorcisms as a matter of common knowledge.183 Tertullian even challenges the authorities to bring in a demon-possessed person to court; any Christian will make short work of the demon, forcing it to confess its deceit.184 If the demons do not immediately confess their identity, he insists, then execute that impudent Christian immediately!185 Tertullian elsewhere reports a demon being exorcised from a Christian who had gone to the theater. The exorcist demanded how the demon dare enter a Christian; the spirit replied that he "found her on my own ground."186 By the time of Hippolytus
(ca. 215 c.e.), exorcism was often practiced in connection with baptism,187 and it
177. Kee, "Terminology," 239; Vermes, Jesus the Jew, 23, 65; Twelftree, "ΕΚΒΑΛΛΩ," 383–84;
Witherington, Christology, 159; Eve, Miracles, 349. A few later rabbis were also said to have exercised authority over demons with commands (b. Pes. 112b; Vermes, Jesus the Jew, 66; cf. Kee, "Terminology,"
246; but Eve, Miracles, 290–91, notes that Hanina ben Dosa confronts but does not exorcise a demon in b. Pes. 112b). The form of many exorcism accounts in the Synoptics resembles many miracle stories (cf.
Guillemette, "Forme"). Like many others, Grelot, "Démonologie," 71–72, suggests that Jesus employed the exorcistic language of his era to communicate; as we shall see in appendix B, however, such practice is by no means limited to antiquity.
178. Robinson, "Challenge," 326, noting that even in other cases Jesus required faith not because he depended on it but because he wanted at least some present who would understand his point.
179. Ladd, Kingdom, 47; see further Hiers, "Satan"; Kallas, View; Evans, "Kingdom"; idem, Fabricating
Jesus, 141.
180. E.g., Vermes, Jesus the Jew, 66; Sanders, Jesus and Judaism, 135; cf. perhaps Kee, "Terminology," 246.
181. Edwards, "Exorcisms," noting also that pagans usually viewed Christian exorcism as trickery.
182. Justin Dial. 85 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, 241); cf. Dial. 76. Eve, Miracles, 347, notes Justin's complaint but also presents Iren. Her. 2.6.2 (who mentions Jewish prayers before Christ's coming).
183. MacMullen, Christianizing, 27–28, 40–41, 60–61; Lampe, "Miracles," 215–17; Young, "Miracles in History," 107–8; cf. McCasland, Finger, 55; patristic sources in Martin, "Resisting," 49–50, 58–59; Sears,
"View," 103–4. Various sources (Ferguson, Backgrounds, 185; Talbert, Acts, 143; Haines in Marcus Aurelius
LCL, pp. 5–6n6) cite, e.g., Justin Dial. 30, 85; 2 Apol. 5–6; Acts Pet. 2; Tertullian Test. 3; Origen Cels. 1.46;
Best, "Exorcism," 3, cites Acts Pet. 4.11. Ferguson, Backgrounds, 185, also thinks that the condemnation of superstitious exorcists in Marcus Aurelius 1.5 refers to Christians. On ante-Nicene demonology, see further Frost, Healing, 141–61.
184. Tertullian Apol. 23.4–5; MacMullen, Christianizing, 27. Cf. similarly the power encounter in the 350s reported in Athanasius Vit. Ant. 80 (MacMullen, Christianizing, 112).
185. Tertullian Apol. 23.6.
186. Tertullian Spect. 26 (LCL p. 291).
187. See "Ceremony." This may reflect the perceived rise in demons in the wider culture.
Appendix A
continued to be common in the early church.188 Augustine reports cases of effective exorcisms, sometimes attested with affidavits.189
Those who worked with spirits questioned them and for some reason expected honest answers.190 Incantations were a common means for removing unwanted spirits,191 including in early Jewish circles.192 A potentially more problematic approach was appealing to higher spirits to manipulate lower ones.193 Sometimes demons express willingness to leave in return for a sacrifice.194 Josephus reports that he personally witnessed, in the presence of Vespasian and others, a Jewish exorcist drawing out a demon through a man's nose by the odor of a special root under his ring's seal, using Solomon's incantations.195 (Rings that control spirits appear in some Eastern sources, although not pervasively.196) In a Qumran text, Abraham is said to have just laid hands on Pharaoh and prayed, thereby curing him from his evil spirit.197 In some, often later, sources, Solomon198 or others199 command demons, perhaps sometimes
188. See, e.g., Hillgarth, Paganism, 11–12, 183; Daniélou and Marrou, Six Hundred Years, 313; Casiday,
"Sin," 503, 514; Frank, "Devotion," 539; Frankforter, History, 60; Spinks, "Growth," 603, 610; Brenk, "Art,"
706; MacMullen, Second Church, 4–5. Scholars (esp. here Talbert, Acts, 143) provide an extensive list of examples (including Lact. 2.16; 5.2; Apost. Const. 8.1; Eusebius H.E. 5.7.4; 6.43.11; 8.6.9; Cyril of Jerusalem
Catechesis 16.15–16; Athanasius Inc. 48; Vit. Ant. 63; Gregory of Nyssa Life of St. Gregory the Wonderworker
[PLG 46, col. 916A]; Jerome Vit. Hil. 22). Talbert, Acts, 143, also cites early Christian novels (Acts Pet.
11; Acts John 56; Acts Thom. 5; 7; 8; Acts Andrew [beginning of martyrdom]; Ps.-Clem. Rec. 4.7; 9.38).
For the office of exorcists, see also Ambrose 1.216 (in Greer, "Care," 573). From a different perspective, see the survey in Oesterreich, Possession, 161–68; in medieval sources, Oesterreich, Possession, 177–86.
189. City of God 22.8; Conf. 9.7.16; Herum, "Theology," 63–65.
190. E.g., PGM 4.3043–44. Acquiring accurate knowledge was necessary for manipulating spirits usefully
(Arnold, Power, 18).
191. E.g., in the haunted house in Lucian Lover of Lies 30–31 (claiming satirically that Egyptian curses are the best, 31).
192. E.g., 4Q560; cf. 4Q510 1 4–7.
193. E.g., PGM 101.38–39. The higher ones are angels in T. Sol. 2:4; 5:5, 9; 8:5–11; 11:5; incant. text
3:8–9; 50:7–8.
194. Theissen, Miracle Stories, 57; cf. the slaughter of a sheep in modern Yemenite exorcism in Israel
(Hes, "Role," 376).
195. Josephus Ant. 8.47; the exorcist also bound the demon by oath (ὤρκου); cf. Mark 5:7; PGM 1.80–82,
167; 36.307; 39.19–20; Aune, Prophecy, 273; T. Sol. 11:6; cf. also use of ἐξορκίζω (Kotansky, "Remnants").
On this Josephus passage, see, e.g., Twelftree, Triumphant, 34–36. Smoking the demon out also appears in Tob 6:17–18; 8:3; also an account attributed, probably fictitiously, to Johanan ben Zakkai, and noting the use of the roots, as in paganism and Josephus (Num. Rab. 19:8; Pesiq. Rab. 14:14); and apparently later in some Islamic folk practice (Parshall, Bridges, 85, following Jones and Jones, Women, 349–50, for a case of smoking the jinn out, then beating the boy unconscious, in this case with tragic consequences). Perhaps the roots idea was originally related to the prophylactic herbs of Jub. 10:12–13. Fumigation for exorcism appears in some traditional African societies (Ferdinando, "Demonology," 118; Colson, "Possession," 71;
Lewis, "Possession," 199; incense fumigation in Granjo, "Rituals," 282); in Somali tradition, fragrant incense can protect from or exorcise malevolent sprites (Lewis, "Possession," 192–93, 199).
196. E.g., Lucian Lover of Lies 17 (the source being an Arab); Josephus Ant. 8.47; b. Git. 68a.
197. 1Qap Genar XX, 21–29. Theissen, Miracle Stories, 62n18, thinks that this laying on of hands works for an illness caused by a demon but is not attested for possession; perhaps this is because the possessed would not allow it.
198. T. Sol. 3; 6:11. Some early Jewish sources also portray Solomon as a prophet (see Embry, "Solomon").
199. Cf. threats in Theissen, Miracle Stories, 63–64; exorcistic texts commanding "wandering wombs"
(Faraone, "New Light"), and behavior resembling that involved in exorcisms in Soranus Gynec. 3.4.29.
Demons and Exorcism in Antiquity
reminiscent of the Jesus tradition. In the later (probably third-century) Testament of Solomon, the demons bargain for reduced sentences.200 Particular angels could thwart particular demons and those under them, and demons might be compelled to name which angels thwarted them.201 Solomon even was said to keep Asmodeus's strength down by maintaining a fire beneath him.202
In appendix B, I turn to especially anthropological observations concerning beliefs and practices of spirit possession and exorcism today.
Barrett, Documents, 34, thinks (from an occurrence in PGM) that "come out" (cf. Luke 4:35) was probably a frequent command of exorcists; yet its occasional occurrence in the vast corpus of PGM (4.1243, 1245,
3013; 5.158) does not suggest its frequency (cf. Aune, "Magic," 1531), and its context there differs (with incantations; Yamauchi, "Magic," 133).
200. T. Sol. 2:6. A minority of scholars, however, attribute T. Sol. to a Christian author (Albrile, "Sigilla"); at the very least it contains Christian interpolations.
201. T. Sol. 2:4; 5:5, 9; 8:5–11; 11:5. Learning demons' names was also crucial, e.g., T. Sol. 5:2, 6–7.
202. T. Sol. 5:13. The name Asmodeus, who first appears in Tobit, probably originates with the Persian demon Aeshma daeva (Yamauchi, Persia, 460).