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Authorized to cast out demons: A phenomenological and ethical investigation of demon possession and exorcism
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Authorized to cast out demons: A phenomenological and ethical investigation of demon possession and exorcism

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Content "AUTHORIZED TO CAST OUT DEMONS": A PHENOMENONOLOGICAL
AND ETHICAL INVESTIGATION OF DEMON
POSSESSION AND EXORCISM
by
Gregory Alexander Scharf
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(Religion--Social Ethics)
May 1984
UMI Number: EP65329
All rights reserved
INFORMATION TO ALL USERS
The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted.
in the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript
and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed,
a note will indicate the deletion.
Pissartation Pubii&h nq
UMI EP65329
Published by ProQuest LLC (2014). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author.
Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC.
All rights reserved. This work is protected against
unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code
ProQuest LLC.
789 East Eisenhower Parkway
P.O. Box 1346
Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
TH E G R AD UA TE SC HO O L
U N IV E R S IT Y PARK
LOS A N G E LE S. C A L IF O R N IA 9 0 0 0 7
This thesis, w ritten by
GREGORY ALEXANDER SCHARF
under the direction of h.}:?....Thesis Com m ittee,
and approved by a ll its members, has been p re­
sented to and accepted by the D ean of T he
G raduate School, in p a rtia l fu lfillm e n t of the
requirements fo r the degree of
RELIGION - SOCIAL ETHICS
'Î4
JûOl/. //
Dean
D a te...
THESIS COMMITTEE
Chairman
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I. INTRODUCTION . . . .    I
A. My Personal Journey.................  . I
B. Purpose of This Work................ 11
II. UNDERSTANDING DEMON POSSESSION IN ANTIQUITY. 16
A. Demon Possession in Antiquity— the
Principal Data...................... 16
B. Analyzing Demon Possession as Illness . 27
C. Analyzing the Cure of Demon Possession 35
III. THE EXORCIST AS BENEFACTOR................. 40
A. Banker's General Approach ............. 41
B. Profile of a Benefactor........... 44
C. Jesus*Exorcisms as Benefactions .... 54
IV. THE POSSIBILITY OF EXORCISM T O D A Y .......... 67
A. The Theoretical Perspective ........... 67
B. The Phenomenonological Perspective . . 73
V. CONCLUSION
A. Summary............................ 8 6
B. Implications...................... 87
N O T E S ....................................... 94
BIBLIOGRAPHY.........................  104
11
I. INTRODUCTION
A. My Personal Intellectual Journey
It is with a great deal of self-consciousness that
I begin this work.
A thesis with subject matter dealing with such
subjects as demons, exorcists, Satan, and possession
seems hardly suitable anywhere except at some out-of-the-
way Bible College; certainly not at a secular urban
university like the University of Southern California.
It seems all the more inappropriate because this
author believes demons exist. Ironically, this conclusion
was not one that I wanted to arrive at. I really did
not believe in such things when I came to this institu­
tion, nor did I want to; I was part of a religious group
that regarded such things as vestiges of an uneniightehed
bygone era. To say the least, even when doubts began to
surface against my rationalistic world-view my intellect
came quickly to the rescue. But then again, reality does
not depend on my believing it or accepting it as credible;
whether or not I believe in Great White Sharks is
irrelevant--if we cross paths, the experience is rather
unpleasant no matter how I interpret that experience.
Knowledge of shark behavior can save untold grief.
despite the fact that shark attacks are very rare and
very few people ever actually see them.
Likewise, while most deny anything but the
perceptible no one will deny the fact that evil exists
and that its effects are all too obvious. All through
the course of human history there are the Dachaus the
My Lais, the Manson Families, and the Kevin Coopers.
Most would explain this as individual and/or collective
psychiatric maladjustment, but the question must be
asked, "Is that all it is?"
It is my opinion that in a great many cases
involving human evil, mental illness is a proper
evaluation, but somehow in this epoch the psychiatrist
has become the high priest and thus an important
perspective has been lost. There some sort of a
reality beyond the empirical, as experiments in ESP,
telekinesis, psi phenomena and mental telepathy tell us;
what 1 would like to advocate is a second look at the
description of the dark side of this reality as described
in the New Testament.
It is true that even in religious circles, demons
I are not popular things to believe in. 1 think this is
due to overkill in the course of history. According to
Theodore Plantinga, John Calvin was hesitant to recognize
demonic influence when other more explicable phenomena
could be accounted for.^
I am not advocating a return to Salem nor to the
auto de fe; 1 am, however, intending to demonstrate that
dealing with "principalities and powers" was an integral
part of the ministry of Jesus, and for that reason should
be seriously considered by those who claim to follow Him,
As 1 said, when 1 came to this university my
world-view did not allow for such things as this topic.
1 was in training for the ministry in one of the several
church groups that describe themselves as "New Thought,"
By this title, one can probably surmise that they would
claim to have a much more enlightened approach to things
religious, a "scientific" approach, if you will.
The services of this church are attractive--positive
and happy— and they claim to go to great lengths to find
scientific validation for what they believe. Their
Hegelian system dismisses such notions as demons as
archaic, suitable only for those who do not know
any better,
One of the claims of this church is that its
teachings are founded "on the teachings of Jesus"; as 1
did not feel the seminary was as academically sound as
it should be, 1 felt 1 should pursue graduate study in
Religion at USC, 1 chose a secular school and not a
seminary because 1 wanted a strictly scholarly approach
to the sitz im leben of Jesus. 1 wanted to be able to
icome to my own conclusions, and before 1 go any further I
: must state that at no time during my course of study was
I
: a belief in Satan advocated.
!
I As a representative of the Church of Religious Science
: 1 had the opportunity to lecture around the Southern
I California area. 1 was very surprised at how popular it
; made me as a representative of a church to deny belief in
t
I a devil of any sort. Evil was simply a lack of good; sin
I
jonly a mistake; people really liked to hear this sort of
thing.
Unfortunately, in the back of my mind it bothered me
that these nice-sounding platitudes ignored the existence
of will. I would seriously challenge the fact that
Heinrich Himmler would admit to a mistake; he was fully
aware of what he was doing and its consequences. The
logical implication seemed obvious that the numinous had
no effect on the human will.
In a very good work dealing with how we are to live
with evil, Plantinga^ points out that in earlier, more
rationalistic times it was rather popular, especially in
intellectual circles, to ridicule the devil and things
demonic. He claims that two World Wars and other horrors
have forced us to alter our way of perceiving things and
take them much more seriously. 1 would like to agree with
him, but from what I observe in the media it is not the
case. I do, however, agree with him on his claim that
"we need a doctrine of angels and demons to remind our­
selves and others that things are not quite so simple as
certain rationalists would have us believe.
It is my belief that even the majority of Christians
see exorcism only as primitive psychiatry and not a moral
commandment/obligation given to the Church by Christ.
Among Christian theologians, nineteenth century
liberals (and their descendants) rejected in toto the
notion of demon possession despite such documented
accounts such as that at Loudon.^ Modern social
scientists such as Hollenbach^ will generously admit that
such things do occur but are caused by psycho/sociological
i
I factors; certainly not by anything numinous. This tacitly
I and condescendingly, in my opinion, rejects the world-
j view of Jesus as inadequate and pre-scientific. (A friend
j suggested 1 be careful about this, for it apparently
I
' might be proven that Jesus conceived of the world as flat;
I
j while this may or may not be true, the fact is that the
flatness of the world had nothing whatsoever to do with
the mission of Jesus— it will be proven the converse is
true in regards to demons.)
Even Paul Tillich, while recognizing "the demonic"
and utilizing the term in his Systematic Theology,^ sees
it as an aspect or power in the structure of existence.
certainly not spirits in the way Jesus or Paul saw them,
but simply forces that pulled toward the pole of
disintegration.
It is rather uncomfortable to maintain belief in
such entities when everybody to the left of fundamentalist
in Christendom does not. And the fundamentalist beats
the term to death, dismissing all other possible inter­
pretations, ignoring what Jung called the "ShadowU" Even
in the evangelical church that 1 now attend eyebrows
raise when it becomes known that 1 intend to devote effort
to such a subject.
^ It seems much more in theological vogue to deal with
such fads as liberation and feminist theologies than to
take into serious consideration something regarded with
the utmost importance by the One upon whose Gospel they
base their idéologies.
1 have to admit that my first interest was in
healing, for the healing miracles take up one-fifth of
the Gospels. 1 soon found that there was a plethora of
excellent literature on the subject, and 1 did not think
that 1 could come up with anything significant and
original on the subject. 1 did find that about half of
these healings involved exorcisms, and it is my^ opinion
that this leads to some important implications for how
we perceive consciousness.
In an extremely iconoclastic book by Morton Smith,7
1 the point is made by even such an ascerbic skeptic that
i
I it was as an exorcist and healer that Jesus attracted
I
I attention. This is recognized not only by Jesus'
I
I followers in the New Testament, but by those described
i
as his enemies. His success was recognized even in an
extra-Biblical account such as those in Josephus and the
rabbinic writings.
1 briefly touched on Jesus commanding exorcism as a
moral obligation. 1 will deal with this later in Chapter
11, "The Exorcist as Benefactor." In Luke 9:1 it states,
"And He called the twelve together, and gave them power
and authority over all the demons, and to heal diseases,"
Somehow, this charge has been largely ignored, explained
to the point of meaninglessness, or rejected.
1 intend to propose a new psychiatric perspective.
As a science psychiatry is in its self-centered ado­
lescence; what 1 want to do is to re-introduce a valid
perspective of looking at human subjectivity and behavior.
Long ago, Jung accused psychology of being a "psychology
without a psyche"^ and it is my wish to follow up on
this to demonstrate that any mode of perceiving the psyche
which rejects the numinous is incomplete and so inadequate:
I have been constantly reminded that as a scholar, j
one is obligated to regard the Bible as a book and not
The Book. It will soon be obvious that my own leanings
are to the former, yet to say The Book (or an issue
therein) is true because it says it is is much like the
monkey people of Rudyard Kiplings Mowgli Stories who
would regularly convene and screech, "We all say it's so
so it must be so!" To describe and defend exorcism on
strictly Biblical accounts would not be scholarship: what
1 will attempt to do is to demonstrate the validity of
the topic utilizing a psychiatric and an historical
approach. 1 believe that this will show how important
these issues were in antiquity and how relevant, although
controversial and problematic, they are today.
1 am very grateful for the arrival of People of
the Lie by psychiatrist M. Scott Peck, 1 now know of at
least one therapist who would not immediately prescribe
large doses of Ritalin when 1 claim to have felt the
presence of demons. Dr, Peck is a clinician of integrity;
he by no means dismisses the diagnostic classifications
of mental illness, but he makes the case for evil as a
new category of such. Evil is something to take seriously,
He defines evil (in people) as "the use of power to
destroy the spiritual growth of others for the purpose of
defending and preserving the integrity of our own sick
selves.
According to Peck, evil's principal components are
narcissism and (emotional) laziness. In addition to the
abrogation of responsibility that characterizes all
personality disorders, evil would be distinguished by:
1. consistent destructive, scapegoating behavior,
which may often be quite subtle.
I 2. excessive, albeit usually covert, intolerance to
! criticism and other forms of narcissistic injury.
i
I 3. pronounced concern with a public image and a
I self-image of respectability, contributing to a
stability of lifestyle but also to pretentious­
ness and denial of hateful feelings and
vengeful motives.
4. intellectual deviousness, with an increased
likelihood of a mild schizophrenic-like
disturbance at times of stress.
Like me. Peck arrived at his belief in demons against
his intellectual will. Fifteen years of practice went
by before he experienced a legitimate case of possession.
He admits that legitimate possession is extremely rare
in its classical form, but the fact that it occurs at all
leads to some important issues, including those of an
ethical nature.
Peck feels that the relationship between human evil
and Satanic evil is not clear, but needs further exami­
nation. "1 believe that the phenomena of possession and
exorcism need to be studied scientifically. It is more
than a matter of idle scientific curiosity. While genuine
9
possession may be a rare phenomenon, the subject
represents a veritable gold mine for scientific unearthing.
Hemophilia is a rare disease, but its study did much to
illumine the whole physiology of blood-clotting. In the
same way, the study of possession and exorcism will
further illumine not only the physiology of evil but our
very understanding of human meaning.
As a physician he sees possession as different from
what we consider mental illness, yet very much tangled
up in it. The cases he witnessed had classical symptoms
I of mental illness. Emotional problems have to exist
!
I before the onset of possession. For that reason one
I
! cannot make the differentiation of whether one is mentally
! ill or possessed. A consequence of this is that one can­
not regard exorcism as primitive psychiatry, for the
techniques are radically different, yet they can
complement each other.
Dr. Peck also observes that whether they know it or
not, those in the helping professions (psychiatry, clergy,
social work, etc.) encounter various forms of possession, |
I
and for that reason interest in this topic is well founded j
Do 1 think that this work will lead the reader to a
belief in Satan? 1 really doubt it. Like conversion,
encounter with demons is something to be experienced. I
do not even hope to come up with an adequate description
10
of what Satan is or paint a picture of a demon. What I
do intend to do is demonstrate what an integral part of
the scheme of things they were in New Testament theology
and ethics.
1 also intend to prove that there was something
behind the descriptions of Satan, demons, and possessions
Something ugly, something cruel, something destructive.
And whatever we call this something, we clearly have to
deal with it.
B. Purpose of This Work
While there is a relative paucity of scholarly
material pertaining to demon possession and exorcism,
there is no such shortage in material of a more sen­
sational nature. 1 can remember when The Exorcist was
first released as a film people waited over four hours
in the rain to see it. A sequel followed as well as a
similar film The Omen, which also played to sold-out
theaters and had two sequels. But simply because some­
thing is sensationalized to the point of ridiculousness
does not mean it is irrelevant or of no value to
scholastic examination. Far from it.
What 1 intend to demonstrate is that not only was
exorcism a fact of life in the Graeco-Roman world, it
was an obligation at least for Christians. This has some
11
rather interesting ramifications for the Christian
community today. From this perspective, then, we see
that there is a moral question as well as an historical
question involved with this study. We will examine the
ancient notions of benefactor to support this theory.
Throughout the following pages, I intend to
demonstrate that demon possession and exorcism were an
undeniable and important aspect of the historical ministry
of Jesus and the gospel tradition, but also a significant
part of the Graeco-Roman experience. As such an integral
part of the ancient experience this subject is to be
taken seriously and not simply be rejected because it is
ancient. In The Healing Hand^^ Dr. Guido Majno, Chairman
of the Department of Pathology at the University of
Massachusetts, masterfully demonstrates that many aspects
of ancient medicine were not necessarily primitive nor
unsuccessful. Bettman^^ points out that the pharmacopeia
of Dioscorides, a surgeon with Nero's army, contained
100 medicinal herbs and plants that are still in use
j today— such as opium which was first catalogued for
j Dioscorides, at least in the Western World.
I
I
1 also wish to show that there something behind
the ancient fear of demons and possession; not only because
it can be shown to be an important part of their
12
experience, but through a Jungian perspective it can
possibly be shown to be part of ours as well.
1 will also attempt to demonstrate that there is a
possible application of demon possession and exorcism as
a moral obligation to a skeptical modern world, whose
We11anschauung leaves no room for the imperceptible.
This work is divided into five principal parts.
Following this Introduction (Chapter 1), is Chapter II,
"Understanding Demon Possession in Antiquity." This is
a phenomenological approach to understanding what was
actually believed about demonic attacks and/or possession
and exorcism by examining some actual accounts both in
the New Testament and other sources. Possession will be
analyzed by looking at the illness itself as well as its
cure, namely exorcism.
In Chapter 111, "The Exorcist as Benefactor," we will
look at the moral notion of benefactor as it was con­
sidered in antiquity and how it pertains to exorcism. 1
will be using the technique of semantic field analysis
as developed by Frederick Danker in his work : Benef actor
Epigraphic Study of a Graeco Roman and New Testament
Semantic Field. Again, 1 will attempt to show that the
figure of exorcist is not simply relevant to a history
of religion approach, but also to ethics, in that the New
Testament describes exorcism as a moral obligation, as we
see in Luke 9:1.
13
After that, I will attempt in Chapter IV, "The
Possibility of Exorcism Today" to bring this into a modern
perspective by describing the activity of at least one
reputable psychotherapist who sees exorcism as a moral
obligation for Christians even today. This chapter will
not necessarily prove the existence of demons, but it
j will raise the question of exorcism as a moral obligation
and at least suggest the possibility of the necessity for
further study in this area.
In the concluding Chapter V, 1 will attempt to bring
the historical and ethical material together. If anything
is achieved, 1 hope it will be that described in a review
of Smith's Jesus the Magician;^^ "... it should be
said at the outset that the work does challenge 'insiders'
to look much more closely at the elements of popular
religiosity in the Gospels and even in the career of
Jesus. These should not be excluded from any account of
his life or early Christian history either for dogmatic
and apologetic reasons or in the name of enlightened
liberalism."14
I 1 can foresee two problem areas. The first is
! obvious; to modern thought the notion of demons is archaic
I and irrelevant except as a pre-scientific explanation of
I
j albeit serious psychological maladjustment. 1 will
I attempt to deal with this problem by proposing a per­
spective of looking at demons through an acceptable
 ^ 14
concept today— the Jungian notion of collective uncon­
scious through which an entity of some sort may "break in"
and cause radically evil problems, not simply maladjust­
ment. Ultimately, however, I admit that I am forced to
fall back on personal accounts of those who believe in
I
j demons, devils, Satan, etc., which will be as close as 1
will be able to come to proving their existence. It
will be noted, however, that these experiences come from
the most reliable of sources including Dr, Jung.
The second problem is that in today's modern world
the term benefactor does not really have the meaning or
importance that it did in antiquity. To deal with this
problem 1 will rely primarily on the work of Danker; 1
feel it fairly safe to say that once his thesis is grasped
it is fairly easy to see the application of the benefactor
motif even today.
15
il. UNDERSTANDING DEMON POSSESSION IN ANTIQUITY
A. Demon Possession In Antiquity--The Principal Data
"It has been taught: Abba Benjamin says. If the eye
had the power to see them, no creature could endure the
demons. Abaye says: they are more numerous than we are,
and they surround us like a ridge around a field. R. Huna
says. Every one among us has ten thousand on his left hand
and ten thousand on his right hand."^
To say the least, this was a very frightening
proposition; the role of the demons in antiquity. They
brought on all manner of evil; they were believed to
I
jhave been responsible for many illnesses; they also
[attacked the unwary who were so foolish as to venture out
I
at night. While demons were considered to have a fairly
free domain, lonely, eerie, and filthy places were
especially infested; tombs and privies typified their
^domicile. ^
!
j Many measures were prescribed in antiquity to protect
one from such attacks. The most insidious attack, however
was from within. Demons were considered to "break into"
the body of an individual, somehow displacing the psyche,
and driving the victim to various forms of self-destruction
. 1 . 6 .
I It has been a standard practice among liberal scholars
I
I to reduce such accounts to various forms of mental disorder
jthat we know today. Granted there seem to be many
[Similarities, but for now let us suspend judgment and
1
jtake a look at several explicit accounts that have come
I
[from our own times.
i Oesterrich^ presents many accounts through the ages
I
Iwith many from surprisingly recent times. M. Scott Peck^
1
'claims to have witnessed several during the current decade,
jnot in the hinterlands where no psychiatry has ever
Ireached, but in this country and in a fairly urban setting.
}The symptoms are surprisingly consistent.
i
j With regard to antiquity, the bulk of what we know
;Comes from Christian literature, especially the New
1
Testament and Patristic writings. We have two excellent
accounts from non-Christian sources, specifically
Philostratus and Lucian. We have another from the
apocryphal book of Tobit, several brief accounts in the
Talmud, at least two from the Qumran discoveries, and one
from Josephus.
It can be taken for granted that at the time of Christ
the belief in demon possession was widespread, and we have
no reason to believe that that belief was confined to the
i
I
Mediterranean area, nor to the Christian world. As
Oesterrich points out^ the reason for the disparity was
17
not that belief in possession was a particularly Christian
phenomenon, but that the bulk of literature that has
survived at all has been Christian.
Unfortunately, the case history is a relatively modern
phenomenon, and many of the dynamics of demon possession
must be inferred or corroborated by modern accounts.
Nevertheless, several of the existing accounts are quite
explicit regarding observable behavior.
The three best are from Lucian's Lover of Lies,
Philostratus' biography of Apollonius of Tyana, and the
New Testament account of the Gerasene or Gadarene demoniac.
We also have a less-explicit account from the book of
Tobit. We can also gain much insight by taking a look at
the process of exorcism, which we will do later on.
The first case of possession we will look at comes
from Lucian's Lover of Lies. While this piece is one of
satire and not history, it can still be claimed that the
account of possession is valid according to the belief
of that period:
"You act ridiculously," said Ion, "to doubt everything.
For my part, 1 should like to ask you what you say to i
those who free possessed men ( ^tous daimonontas^ from j
their terrors by exorcising the spirits so manifestly. ,
1 need not discuss this: everyone knows about the 1
Syrian from Palestine, the adept in it, how many he
takes in hand who fall down in the light of the moon
and roll their eyes and fill their mouths with foam:
nevertheless, he restores them to health and sends
them away normal in mind, delivering them from their j
straits for a large fee. When he stands beside them as
1 8
they lie there and asks; 'Whence came you into his
body?' the patient himself is silent, but the spirit
fdaimon'^ answers in Greek or the language of whatever
foreign country he comes from, telling how and whence
he entered the man; whereupon, by adjuring the spirit
(^daimon^ and if he does not obey, threatening him, he
drives him out. Indeed, 1 actually saw one coming
out, black and smoky in color.
Another, much more descriptive account of possession
comes from Philostratus' Life of Apollonius of Tyana:
This discussion was interrupted by the appearance
among the sages, of the messenger bringing in certain
Indians who were in want of succour. And he brought
forward a poor woman who interceded in behalf of her
child, who was, she said, a boy of sixteen years of
age, but had been for two years possessed by a devil
fdaimonan^ . Now the character of the devil fdaimon^
was that of a mocker and a liar. Here one of the
sages asked, why she said this, and she replied:
"This child of mine is extremely good-looking, and
therefore, the devil ^daimor^ is amorous of him and
will not allow him to retain his reason, nor will he
permit him to go to school or to learn archery, nor
even remain at home, but drives him out into desert
places. And the boy does not even retain his own
voice, but speaks in a deep hollow tone, as men do:
and he looks at you with other eyes rather than his
own. As for myself 1 weep over all this, and 1 tear
my cheeks, and I rebuke my son so far as 1 well may;
but he does not know me. And 1 made up my mind to
repair hither, indeed 1 planned to do so a year ago;
only the demon f^daimon^ discovered himself, using my
child as a mask, and wnat he told me was this, that
he was the ghost of a man, who fell long ago in bat­
tle, but that at death he was passionately devoted to
his wife. Now he had been dead for only three days
when his wife insulted their union by marrying another
man, and the consequence was that he had come to de­
test the love of women, and had transferred himself
wholly into this boy. But he promised, if 1 would
only not denounce him to yourselves, to endow this
child with many noble blessings.
As for myself, 1 was influenced by these promises ;
but he has put me off and off for such a long time
now, that he has got sole control of my household, yet
has no honest or true intentions." Here the sage asked
19
afresh, if the boy was at hand; and she said not, for
although she had done all she could to get him to
come with her, the demon had threatened her with steep
places and precipices and declared that he would kill
her son, "in case" she added, "I haled him here for
trial." "Take courage," said the sage, "for he will
not slay him when he has read this." And so saying
he drew a letter out of his bosom and gave it to the
woman; and the letter, it appears, was addressed to
the ghost and contained threats of an alarming kind.
From the fifth chapter of Mark we have the following
account :
So they came to the other side of the lake, into the
country of the Garasenes. As he stepped ashore"", a
man possessed by an unclean spirit (en pneumati
akatharto^ came up to him from among the tombs where
he had his dwelling. He could no longer by controlled;
even chains were useless; he had often been fettered
and chained up, but he had snapped the chains and
broken the fetters. No one was strong enough to
master him. And so, unceasingly, night and day, he
would cry aloud among the tombs and on the hill-sides
and cut himsg^f with stones. When he saw Jesus in
the distance, he ran and flung himself down before
him, shouting loudly, "What do you want with me, Jesus,
son of the Most High God? In God's name don't torment
me." (For Jesus was already saying to him, "Out
unclean spirit, come out of this man!") Jesus asked
him, "What is your name?" "My name is Legion," he
said, "there are so many of us." And he begged hard
that Jesus would not send them out of the country.°
We are familiar with the end of the story. Jesus
casts the demons out and allows them to possess the bodies
of a herd of swine which consequently commit suicide. Of
greater interest is the reaction of those who knew the
afflicted man.
"They came to Jesus and saw the madman who had been
I possessed by demons (ton daimonizomeho^ , sitting clothed
: and in his right mind; and they were afraid."^ This was a
.20.
very logical reaction. In exorcism the dynamics were that
a lesser power was beaten out by a greater one, and when
the Gerasenes could not control the demoniac, they cer­
tainly could not expect to control him who exerted such
power. They had not witnessed the exorcism process, nor
did they witness the suicide of the swine; simply seeing
the victim "clothed and in his right mind" scared the
villagers to the point of asking Jesus to leave the
vicinity. 1 think we can infer by this as well, that the
demoniac's behavior was bizarre beyond the description
in the Gospels.
This brings back the question of the possession/
mental illness argument. Today, those whom society deems
as mad are very quickly put away in hospitals; medications
such as Thorazine attenuate the behavior or acting out
of even the most disturbed. We very seldom see anyone in
such a state, so when that event occurs it tends to shock
!us to the core. In a recent television drama the point
was well made that even the gentlest of slightly retarded
people are avoided, shunned, and regarded with suspicion
and, to some degree, terror.
Ancient society had no such insulation. Asylums as
such did not exist, nor did any psychoactive medications.
Morton Smith points out, "Such cures made Jesus famous. To
understand their importance we must reinember that ancient
21
[Palestine had no hospitals or insane asylums. The sick
land insane had to be cared for by their families, in their
homes. The burden of caring for them was often severe and
sometimes— especially in the cases of violent insanity,
more than a family could bear— the afflicted were turned
out of doors and left to wander like animals. This prac­
tice continued to the present century."10 Smith continues
by describing his encounter with a madman in the streets
of Jerusalem. While Smith found it somewhat terrifying,
the locals considered the madman simply to be a nuisance.
By such reasoning, the harmlessly mad were not so terri­
fying in the ancient world. The existence of the term
lunatic indicates that all cases of madness or simple-
mindedness were not considered to be demonic possession.
The Bible does make a differentiation, as does other,
extra-Biblical literature.H
The preceding were accounts that graphically depicted
possession. They were chosen because being from the time
of Jesus they are the most descriptive of the actual
symptoms of possession. Many other even more descriptive
accounts exist, but they are from later centuries; one is
'amazed at the similarity of symptoms right up to the
present time. In a moment, we will isolate such symptoms
for a graphic description.
I Before we do, however, it must be noted that we can
'learn much about an affliction by its cure. We have
22
several accounts from antiquity which put more effort in
describing the exorcism than the account of possession.
I They seem to take for granted that the term demoniac was
!well understood.
]
j From the apocryphal book of Tobit, we have the
! following situation :
On that same day it happened that Sarah, the dau­
ghter of Raguel who lived at Ecbatana in Media, also
had to listen to reproaches from one of her -father's
maidservants, because she had been given in marriage
to seven husbands, and before the marriage could be
consummated, they had all been killed by the wicked
demon ydaimonior^ Asmodaeus. The maidservant said to
her; "It is you who kill your husbands I You have
already been given in marriage to seven, and you have
not borne the name of any one of them. Why punish
us because they are dead? Go join your husbands! I
hope we never see a son or daughter of yours."
She was sad that day, and went in tears up to
the attic to hang herself.1^
But Sarah did not hang herself, for it would have
brought dishonor to her father. Fortunately for her, young
Tobias had been befriended by the angel Raphael who advised
him on how to perform the exorcism. Earlier on, Tobias
had been bitten on the toe by a fish. Raphael had j
instructed the young man to keep the liver and heart of the |
I
fish. On his wedding night, before attempting to consummate
the marriage, he burned the entrails on smoking incense. i
"The smell from the fish held the demon off, and he took
flight into Upper Egypt; and Raphael instantly followed him
1 3
there and bound him hand and foot."
!____
23
! Angelic influence in exorcism grew widely after the
Iinter-testamenta1 period. Says Vermes, "From then on the
concept established itself in inter-testamental Judaism
I that the proper use of the science of angels was the most
jefficacious method of achieving mastery over demons. This
I
was an art reserved to initiates because since time
I immemorial the arcane formulae on which it was based were
! concealed in esoterical books available and intelligible
I
[Only to the chosen few. Noah and Solomon were said to be
the principal repositories of these secrets.
This can be substantiated by the book of Jubilees'
jaccount of the healing knowledge given to Noah^S and also
jby the following account of exorcism given by Josephus.
i
' In describing the various attributes of Solomon,
Josephus writes:
I
I God also enabled him to learn that skill which expels
demons which is a science useful and sanative to men.
j He composed such incantations also by which distempers
I are alleviated. And he left behind him the manner of
I using exorcisms by which they drive away demons, so
i that they never return, and this method of cure is of
I great force to this day? for I have seen a certain
j man of my own country whose name was Eleazar,
releasing people that were demoniacal in the presence
of Vespasian, and his sons, and his captains, and the
whole multitude of his soldiers. The manner of the
cure was this :— -He put a ring that had a root of one
of those sorts mentioned by Solomon to the nostrils
of the demoniac, after which he drew out the demon
through his nostrils; and when the man fell down
immediately, he abjured him to return into him no more,
making still mention of Solomon, and reciting the
incantations which he composed. And when Eleazar would,
persuade and demonstrate to the spectators that he had
such a power, he set a little way off a cup or basin
full of water, and commanded the demon, as he went out
___________________ _24
of the man, to overturn it, and thereby to let the
spectators know that he had left the man; when this
was done the skill and wisdom of Solomon was shown
very manifestly; for which reason it is, that all men
may know the vastness of Solomon's abilities and how
he was beloved by God, and that the extraordinary
virtues of every kind with which this king was endowed
may not be unknown to any people under the sun; for
this reason, I say, it is that we have proceeded to
speak so largely of these matters.
We are fortunate to have a sample of an incantation
such as that referred to by Josephus. This "recipe" cdirids
from the Great Magical Papyrus, written in Egypt circa
300 A.D. It is rather lengthy, but the length indicates
the complicated ritual involved with exorcism:
For those possessed by daemons, an approved charm by
Pibechis.
Take oil made from unripe olives, together with the
plant mastigia and lotus pith, and boil it with mar­
joram (very colourless), saying :"Joel, Ossarthiomi,
Emori, Theochipsoith, Sithemeoch,_S5the,
Jôë, Mimipsôthiôôph, Phersôthi AEEIOYO
Jôë, Eôchariphtha : come out of such an one (and the
other usual formulae)."
But write this phylactery upon a little sheet of
tin : "Jaëô, Abraôthiôch, Phtha, Mesen-
psiniao, Pheoch, Jaëô, Charsôc," and hang it
round the sufferer : it is of every daemon a thing to
be trembled at, which
he fears. Standing opposite, adjure him. The adjura­
tion is
this : "I adjure thee_by the God of the Hebrews
Jësu, Jaba, Jaë, Abraoth, Aia, Thoth, Ele,
Elo, Aëô, Eu, Jiibaech, Abarmas, Jaba-
rau, Abelbel, Lona, Abra, Maroia, Braeion,
thou that appearest in fire, thou that art in the
midst of earth and snow
and vapour, Tannëtis : let thy angel descend,
the implacable one, and let him draw into captivity
the daemon as he flieth around this creature
which God formed in his holy paradise.
For I pray to the holy god, through the might of
Ammonipsentancho." Sentence. "I adjure thee with
bold, rash words: Jacuth,
Ablanathanalba, Acramm." Sentence. "Aoth, Jatha-
25
bathra, Chachthabratha, Chamynchel, Abro-
5th. Thou art AbrasilOth, AllSlu, JelOsai,
JaSl : I adjure thee by him who appeared unto
Osrael in the pillar of light and in the cloud by
day, and who delivered his word from the taskwork
of Pharaoh and brought upon Pharaoh the
ten plagues because he heard not. I adjure
thee, every daemonic spirit, say whatsoever
.thou art. . For I adjure thee by. the seal
which Solomon laid upon the tongue
of Jeremiah and he spake. And say thou
whatsoever thou art, in heaven, or of the air,
or on earth, or under the earth or below the ground,
or an Ebusaean, or a Chersaean, or a Pharisee. Say
whatsoever thou art, for I adjure thee by God the ligh-
bringer, invincible, who knoweth what is in the heart
of all life, who of the dust hath formed the race
of men, who hath brought out of uncertain ("places)
and maketh thick the clouds and causeth it to rain
upon the earth
and blesseth the fruits thereof; who is
blessed by every power in heaven of angels,
of archangels. I adjure thee by the great God Sabaoth,
through whom the river Jordan returned
backward,— the Red Sea also,
which Israel journeyed over and it stood impassable.
For I adjure thee by him that revealed the hundred
and forty tongues and divided them
by his command. I adjure thee by him who
with his lightnings the (race?) of stiff-necked giants
consumed, to whom the heaven of heavens sings praises,
to whom Chérubin his wings sing praises.
I adjure thee by him who hath set mountains about the
sea,
a wall of sand, and hath charged it not to pass
over, and the deep hearkened. And do thou
hearken, every daemonic spirit, for I adjure thee
by him that moveth the four winds since
the holy aeons, him the heaven-like, sea­
like, cloud-like, the light-bringer, invincible.
I adjure thee by him that is in Jerosolymum the pure,
to whom the
unquenchable fire through every aeon is
offered, through his holy name Jaeo-
baphrenemun (Sentence), before whom trembleth the
Genna of fire
and flames flame round about and iron
bursteth and every mountain feareth from its founda­
tions .
26
J adjure thee, every daemonic spirit, by him that
looketh down on earth and maketh tremble the
foundations thereof and hath made all things
out of things which are not into being. But I adjure
thee,
thou that takest unto thee this adjuration : the flesh
of swine eat not, and there shall be subject unto thee
every spirit and daemon, whatsoever he be. But when
thou adjureSt, blow, sending the breath from above (to
the feet) and from the feet to the face, and he (the
daemon) will be drawn into captivity. Be pure and
keep it. For the
sentence
is Hebrew and kept by men
that are pure.
B. Analyzing Demon Possession as Illness
We will now collate the data from the three descrip-
jtions of the demon possession, and focus on the illness
from the perspective of the cure. It must be said once
again that these descriptions are corroborated through the
'following centuries up to the present; it must be said that
i
jwhat we are discussing is not only what demon possession
meant in ancient society, but basically what it means now
I
as well.
!
I I found it very surprising that the narratives that I
!found were of an entirely realistic and objective character,
(vith the exception of the story of the herd of swine.
While the occurrence of possession is a phenomenon
which finds countless references in the history of religion,
'in-depth descriptions are hardly proportionate to the
number of occurrences.
Students of the opposite pole of this continuum do not
share this paucity; while study of possession may have its
27
Underhill in Oesterrich, we have no Dark Night of the Soul,
no Sermons such as those of Eckhart, no Interior Cas tie s
or Pensées.
Traugott Oesterrich^^ points out that the reason that
we have no autodescriptive accounts, is due to the nature
of possession. The psychological dynamics of possession
he says, involve a--
more or less complete amnesia, so that the majority
of the victims of possession are not in a condition
to describe it. It is therefore necessary a priori
to avoid confining ourselves to autodescriptive
sources, and to regard this matter as one in which
concessions must be made. Not only material coming
from observers who have seen in possession purely and
simply a morbid psychic state will be regarded as
admissible; the most interesting and detailed accounts
come precisely from authors who believed in the re­
ality of possession; and when they combine exact
observation with good description may very well be
used in spite of the writers' outlook.
The description of possession revolves around two
things ; (1) external signs, and (2) the subjective state
of the possessed. We shall begin with the external signs,
as they were probably first manifested to the family and
around the victim, and certainly the most evident to
strangers, even to scoffers like Lucian.
1. External Features
One of the first signs is the radical change in
appearance. Apparently the victims take on the appearance
of their unwelcome guest in facial expression. For
Philostratus, the victim's mother claimed that he looked at
28
her with "other eyes rather than his own." Change of
appearance can be inferred from the Gerasene demoniac, for
when the villagers saw him in a calm state, which even
madmen experience, there was something about him that had
changed so radically it scared them.
Another external change that we see is a drastic
change in the voice. The victim encountered by Apollonius
was described as a boy who had probably not yet reached
puberty and still spoke with a boy's voice under normal
conditions. Yet his own mother described how he "does not
even retain his own voice, but speaks in a deep hollow
tone, as men do." Other accounts also describe the victim
as making other human sounds such as lowing or hissing
like a snake.
In all three accounts, we find descriptions of the
victims as experiencing violent seizures; in Lucian and
Mark this is very distinct; in Philostratus we see the
I
I victim being driven out into desert places, and the mother
; is threatened with the boy going along steep precipices.
I
lit must be noted that in most cases the victims' fits
I
jresemble those of epilepsy (in addition, foaming at the
mouth, as we saw in Lover of Lies, is a very common occur­
rence) yet the New Testament does indeed make a differen­
tiation between demon-possession and epilepsy.For
more examples of this occurrence, see Mark 9:18, and
Luke 9:39,42.
.29
I it must be stressed that the affective state of. the
I
ivictim is converted into movement, "It must, however, be
j
,added that these movements cannot be entirely resolved
! into expressions of emotion and their der ived mani-
I
j
jfestations, a great number appear to come from an auto-
^nomous excitement of the motor symptoms. For the movements
i
{are partially deprived of sense; they consist in a dis-
I
I ordered agitation of the limbs, with contortions and
dislocations in the most impossible directions— the body
is bent backward like a bow, etc. The proof that they
are not due to simulation or voluntary action is that such
contortions cannot, as a rule, be executed voluntarily."23
These movements are extremely violent and last much
longer than an epileptic seizure, as we shall discuss when
I
I we approach exorcism proper. The failure of the chains
I
! and fetters to hold the demoniac in Mark's story is
I
I probably quite accurate. During the attack the victim
j seems to lose or submerge all vestiges of his original
[personality. This utter change in personality is different
I from equally rare cases of multiple personality in that
j the "new" personality is diabolically evil, destructive
'both to the body and to those around it. We see this in
iSarah's bent for murdering those she loved, as well as in
I the self-destruction of the Gerasene tearing at himself
I
I with sharp objects.
I
I
I
! 30
Malachi M a r t i n 2 4 speaks of intermittencies where the
host personality re-surfaces for brief periods, but never
does the original psyche share the characteristics of the
invader. According to Merrill U n g e r , ^5 the "new person­
ality presents traits Of character utterly foreign to
those characteristic of the demonized in his normal
condition, and this change of character is practically
always in the direction of moral impurity." Those who
saw The Exorcist were shocked by the course, filthy
language of the little girl; her blasphemous- ravings,
cursings, and sexual attitudes could in no way come from
even her shadow.
While The Exorcist is obviously a fictionalized
account, the symptoms are typical perversions of the
9 7
personality where even those in a religious calling
make erotic, revolting statements about God. In later
possession accounts the figure of Jesus or Mary is often
the target of the demon's fantasies. While this is not
observed in our accounts, there are many references in
antiquity.By no means is the outward change in
personality subtle : simply observing the Gerasene demoniac
in his normal (original) mental state was enough to send
the villagers into a panic. We see massive changes in
Sarah who becomes a homicidal maniac; Philostratus'
victim took on the characteristics of a "mocker and a
liar." One final symptom found in Lucian is the common
31
symptom of being able to converse fluently in previously
unknown languages.
As we now have discussed to some degree the external
signs of this change in personality we come to our next
discussion, that being the subjective features.
2. Subjective Features
There are actually two forms of demon possession.
Cassian writes (circa 350-435 a.d.): "What you say happens
to the possessed when they are in the grip of the unclean
spirit, namely saying or doing what they would not or
being constrained to do such things as they know not, is
not contrary to our aforementioned teaching. For it is
very sure that they do not all bear this invasion by
spirits in the same way. Some are so excited that they
take no account of what they do or say; but others know
it and remember it afterwards."
The first form, which Oesterrich calls "somnam­
bulistic possession" seems to be somewhat more common than
the second, "lucid" possession.
a. Somnambulistic possession. This form is obviously
the most difficult in determining what the victim is
feeling during the attack, for during the attack the
person's ego seems not to be in the body, but the new
personality which speaks of itself in the first person
and the victim in the third. The demon, as we see in the
stories of the Gerasene demoniac, the boy cured by
________________________________________ 32,
Apollonius, and Sarah has its own personality, and often,
as we see in Philostratus, its own life-story.
The Gerasene demoniac presents an interesting and
fairly common occurrence : several invaders in the body
of the individual at one time.
Sarah's story also presents the classic case of
somnambulistic possession; we can infer from her con­
versation with the maidservant that she had no idea that
it was her physical body which was murdering her husbands.
Loss of consciousness is thought by many to be a
I
jkey factor in possession. However, this is different
1 from ordinary somnambulism in that the level of motor
i
activity and emotional excitement far surpasses- anything
manifested by the former.
Once again, what we are talking about is a total
3 0
I replacement of the ego of the victim. Jesus warned of
j certain danger upon the return to normalcy; if certain
things were not done, the infestation would be worse and
the invading demon would go and get seven of his friends.
The entrance and exit of the demon are marked by
a state of unconsciousness. In Luke 9:26 the victim
was described upon a successful exorcism in this manner,
"And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came
out, and the boy was like a corpse; so that most of them
said, "He is dead."
33
But what happens when the victim does not go into
unconsciousness? This brings us to the second form of
possession.
b. Luc id forms of possession. Unfortunately, we do not
have any accounts here that may be described as lucid
j possession. Possibly, the Gospel account of the epileptic
; boy (see above) could be seen in this light; while
!
Matthew describes him as së1eniaksetai, "moon-struck" or
epileptic. Nonetheless, it is seen as the result of
demonic activity^ for the cure is effected by an exorcism,
j i.e., rebuking the demon.
I More interesting is Mark's account where the boy is
I described as having a pneuma alalon or dumb spirit, which
i seizes him and throws him down. He adds that it throws
!
j him into the fire and sometimes water. The dumb spirit
I was seen as a possession in which the victim's ability
I to speak was impeded; apparently the demon did not speak.
Luke, however, sees it clearly as a possession, "the
demon tore and convulsed him," and Jesus "rebuked the
unclean spirit."
The possibility of this being a lucid possession is
that apparently the demon does not speak as a character­
istic, but instead tries to destroy the boy by trying to
burn or drown him. (It must be admitted that this case
looks most like something that would fit into modern
pathologic categories.)
34
In later accounts the difference is primarily that
the victim has the ability to observe what the invading
personality says and does. It seems to begin with
obsessive thoughts, then obsessive actions that are very
I much contrary to the host personality. We would find a
i
: similarity to the "Son of Sam” murderer who felt that he
I was controlled by another personality and performed his
nefarious will.
We have a very clear description of this phenomenon
in the account of the possession at Loudon cited earlier,
where for twenty years the exorcist. Father Surin, had
horrible, anti-Christian thoughts, and a great depression
which emaciated him.
Apparently, this second form is a milder form of the
first where greater resistance is encountered by the host
as in the case of Surin. The difference between the
compulsive/obsessive thoughts that are concomitant with
this type of possession (or should we say this degree of
I
I possession) and those of a modern diagnosis of obsessive/
I
I compulsive neurosis is that the victim feels that these
are coming from an outside influence, not from his own
psyche.
C. Analyzing the Cure of Demon Possession
The performance of exorcism was considered to be
quite a task in antiquity. The exorcist risked contagion;
the process could take a great deal of time and effort.
35
and as we see in the New Testament accounts, physical
O 1
attacks of great severity could occur.
It is with little wonder that we note in Lucian that
an exorcist could command exorbitant fees for his services.
Smith^^ makes the point that one of the possible reasons
for Jesus' popularity could have been the fact that he
performed such a vital, specialized service without
charge. (The same, it should be added, can be said of
Apollonius of Tyana.)
From Josephus' account, as well as that of
Philostratus, it can be seen that exorcism was recognized
as valid -^ other parts of the Roman Empire than the areas
such as Palestine which were seen as more superstitious
and less civilized and urbane. To Josephus, exorcism was
a "science, useful and sanatative to men.
What can we gather from the accounts of the preceding
pages? How did the cure relate to the malady? What was
believed about the process?
First, we can see that it was quite necessary to
know precisely who the invader was. Apparently, knowing
its name gave power to be wielded against the demon.
Second, adjuring was the next phase of the process,
and the demon was ordered out. Usually, the name of God
was invoked, as we saw in the Great Magical Papyrus;
descriptions of the power of God were used to intimidate
the unwelcome guest. Also in the Great Magical Papyrus !
 36
as well as in Tobit we see the belief that the assistance
of angels was available in healing the possessed. Jesus
used the phrase, "finger of God" as the instrument
through which his exorcisms were effective.
The use of threats was also quite common. It would
be interesting to find out exactly what was so terrible
and repugnant to a demon that it would leave its victim;
one wonders what was inscribed on the paper given by
Apollonius, delivered by proxy as it were.
Props were used ; Josephus tells of Solomon's ring,
the Great Magical Papyrus refers to the use of a
phylactery. The Tobit account mentions the use of smoke
from burning fish entrails. Apparently the odor was so
bad that it drove off the demon. Unfortunately, the
approach of creating an artifically hostile environment
to drive off demons and evil spirits was continued until
relatively modern times, often causing serious injury to
patients who were simply mentally ill.
Also employed were elaborate rituals and incantations
such as those in the Great Magical Papyrus, Tobit, and
Josephus. These were believed to be revealed and then
handed over to saints in distant c e n t u r i e s . ^4 vermes
points out that Jesus was accused of driving out demons by
a Satanic power because he neglected ritual, incantations,
or any other human source of power. For the Pharisees
who made the charge, an exorcist's success depended upon
. 3 . 7 J
following the accepted procedure to the letter. (It
must be noted, by inference, that they did enjoy some
success, or Jesus would not have asked by whose power
their exorcists performed the task.)
Demons, as mentioned in the Talmud, were considered
I invisible. To consider an exorcism successful, some
sort of tangible evidence had to be seen to demonstrate
that the demon was driven off rather than simply lying
low. The Gerasene demoniac story has the suicidal pigs;
Josephus' rabbi Eleazar has a basin of water overturned.
According to Joshua Trachtenberg,^^ "The technique of
exorcism among Jews and Gentiles shows a close relation­
ship , even to such fine points as the requirement that
the spirit make its exit through a specified spot on
the body..., and leave a sign of its departure either
on the body, or as here, in a tiny hole which it was to
bore in the window pane to permit egress." In both
Josephus and the Great Magical Papyrus we see the demon
. seen as exiting through the nose.
I Exorcised demons were banished to uninhabited
i places. "That the proper habitat of demons is the
I
, desert and the mountain is an ancient and widely held
belief, (cf. Matthew 12:43) The banning of demons into
these places occurs often in Babylonian-Assyrian,
' Hellenistic, and post-Talmudic incantations and
38
exorcismsWe see this explicitly in.Tobit where
the demon is seized by Raphael and taken to the desert.
39J
III. THE EXORCIST AS BENEFACTOR
Usually, when discussing exorcists, scholars have
confined their discussion to looking at exorcists
as strictly miracle workers, utilizing a religion-
sgeschichtlich approach. Germane to our study is the
social perspective; specifically, looking at exorcists
as benefactors, hence as moral agents.
I will be utilizing the technique of semantic field
I analysis as developed by Frederick Danker in his work:
I
! Benef actor : Epigraphic Study of a Graeco-Roman and
I New Testament Semantic Field. I am very grateful to
i Danker for the development of the benefactor motif, but
1
I even he seems to relegate exorcisms to teratalogies
! which are for the most part excluded from his study,
despite the fact Jesus and the writers of the gospels
regarded exorcism as a moral obligation. Danker does
include the category of healing ; he does not deal with
the fact that to the ancient mind being healed of demonic
possession was every bit as important as being healed of
maladies which required the use of surgery and/or
medicines.
Nonetheless what he has done is very valuable to our
study; we will be adding to his analysis by expanding his
40
healing category, specifically looking at Jesus as
! Exorcist to show that he can indeed be seen as a Bene-
!
I factor. Consequently we can also show that his command
I to cast out demons as we see in Luke 9:1 can be discussed
I in terms of ethics.
Our discussion will be in three parts; (A) Banker's
general approach; (B) Profile of a Benefactor which will
include 1) original material from which we can identify,
2) the major characteristics, and 3) some related
themes about the benefactor; and finally (C) Jesus'
exorcisms as benefactions. When we conclude this section
we will include a brief discussion of the moral meaning
of exorcism.
At this time it is necessary to provide a summary
of Banker's work.
A. Danker's General Approach
Danker makes the case that "A dominant feature of
Graeco-Roman culture in its various phases is the
association of unusual merit as manifested by members
of narrower or broader community, with the response
made by the beneficiaries of such merit.
Utilizing what he describes as semantic field
analysis, he examines fifty three (out of thousands, he
claims) inscriptions to establish some common factors
which would determine just who would be considered to be an
individual of aretë, or exceptional merit, that is^ a
benefactor.
The inscriptions gathered in his study include
Honorific Decrees, Honors to members of associations,
Honored deities or Heads of State, both in biographical
and non-biographical forms, and finally, legal actions.
After isolating various factors from the examples.
Danker picks up and discusses the benefactor motif in
great detail. I will deal with this in the next section
Profile ^which will involve terminology relating to
personal characteristics of benefactors. Also, he
discusses at length the various types of benefits
conferred by benefactors. He also deals with how being
a benefactor involved danger quite often, and the
responses made by the recipients.
Danker points out that some sort of system of
' reciprocity exists in nearly every culture, and this can
I
j be seen by the generation of many documentary forms,
j This system is based on ( 1 ) benefaction and ( 2 ) its
j response in terms of gratitude.^
I This system of reciprocity has its own vocabulary,
I
! which permits us to see the various qualities, activities,
I
j and attitudes considered as those pertaining to a
I benefactor. In this "vocabulary," there are numerous
I terms and formulations that are used to describe
I
I benefactors ancl benefactions; in the Graeco-Roman world,
the key word is arete^which indicates excellence of the
highest order. "Without specific qualification, aretë
4 2
expresses potential for, or exhibition of, the exceptional
characteristics or performance denoted by other terms in
the semantic field." Danker refers to the recitation
of the various attributes or actions of a human being
or a deity as an aretology. He uses it in a generic
sense and differentiates it from the recitation of
miracles which he calls a teratalogy. As stated before,
I would like to bring certain aspects of teratalogies
j into focus for our discussion.
I In form, aretalogies can be either biographical or
j
I auto-biographical. In the Graeco-Roman world, the most
t
I common form of recognition is the honorary decree.
t
I Usually such a decree has two parts: the first being
I a preamble which is primarily aretalogical, and its
resolution which pertains to the beneficiaries of the
honorand's particular benefactions. It is not hard to
see that such aretalogies were familiar to all levels
of society; while peasants may not have been able to
read Epictetus or Plato, they were certainly familiar
with decrees refering to changes in taxation or laws
which affected their lives.
In such decrees, a variety of motifs emerge
relating to benefactors and benefactions. The performance
record and attributes of benefactors as well as motifs
associated with them and their grateful recipients
constitute our semantic field.
43
No other document exerted a more general influence
than the civic decree. Consequently, despite a variety
of written documents, none was emulated more than the
decree when poets, orators, epitaphists, historians,
biographers, or private associations such as guilds
chose to honor someone. The motifs, diction, and
syntactical structure were used as rhetorical devices.
The specific points at which they have done so is
relatively easy to see, given the relative density of
j material drawn from the basic cultural experience and
I semantic field of the honored benefactor. We can use
! almost any Graeco-Roman document to support this; Danker
I also uses the New Testament extensively "precisely
■ because of its transcultural impact on the Mediterranean
I world."3 The New Testament, he feels, "serves as an
j ideal instrument for demonstrating use of such semantic
I
field diagnosis in developing awareness of socio-cultural
nuances in texts, and especially such as bear no formal
relationship as literary totalities to specifically
honorific texts."4
j For Danker, the remembered benefactor dominates
Graeco-Roman literary and non-literary texts more than
any other subject.
B. Profile of a Benefactor
1. Two Texts Describing a Benefactor
I have selected two of the fifty-three inscriptions
44
collected by Danker to examine who would be considered
a benefactor and why he would be selected. Danker's
collection spans over six centuries and includes an
award to Harry S. Truman by the people of Greece that
remarkably follows in both structure and content
aretalogies of two millenia past. banker's collection
includes material from and about the Caesars, the Rosetta
Stone, as well as inscriptions from Jewish sources that we
have, such as one honoring Simon, son of Mattathias.
Once again, there are none lauding exorcists, not because
they were not honored, but because Danker did not include
any passages which would be construed as a miracle story.
I have selected the two following passages for their
content which is typical of the others and their length.
a. Honorary Decree by the people of Aigelia for the
Physician Anaxippos. The date is about 200 B.C.E.:
In the time of Eutychides, on 1 Alseios. Decree
of the People of Aigelia: WHEREAS Anaxippos, the
son of Alexander and physician appointed by the
Assembly,/has conducted himself in praiseworthy
fashion for many years both in his profession and
in his life and spared no effort as he brought
numerous citizens safely through serious diseases,
including (apparently) terminal cases ;/therefore,
in order that the People might continue to be
known for expressing appropriate appreciation to
those who choose to be their benefactors, and in
order that physicians to come might show themselves
all the more zealous/in meeting the needs of the
People, be it RESOLVED by the People of Aigelia,
to commend Anaxippos for the warm concern he shows
(in all the assistance he continually renders - - -
45
As we see, healing was worthy of accolade and
recognition. As we have mentioned, exorcism was also
regarded as an important form of healingf as we saw in
the previously cited passage from Josephus (Antig. 8.2)
it was a science, "useful and sanatative to men."
b. The Decree by the people of Dionysopolis. This
passage, much longer than the first, has been selected
because of the variety of services rendered by this
benefactor and the many Hellenistic stock phrases used.
The subject of the decree is one Akornion, a priest
and Envoy. It is dated about 48 B.C.E.:
- - - When (Akornion) became priest of the Great
God ,/he administered the processions and the
sacrifices in splendid fashion and shared the meat
with the citizens. Similarly, when he attained
the office of priest in the service of Sarapis, he
conducted himself admirably and generously in
connection with his expenditures. And when Dionysos,
after whom the city was named, had gone without a
priest for many years,/they offered him the
assignment, and he expressed his willingness to
serve and took up the crown of office in service
to the deity during Gaius Antonius' winter
encampment and administered the processions and
sacrifices in beautiful and magnificent fashion,
ahd shared the meat ungrudgingly with the
citizens./And after having put on the crown of
office for life-time service to the Gods in
Samothrake, he now administrates the processions
and the sacrifices in behalf of the initiates
and the city. And recently - after King Byrebistes,
the first and greatest of the Thracian Kings,had
gained control of all the territory beyond the
(Ister) River/and adjoining area - in the very
presence of this ruler of the Magnificent Kingdom,
(Akornion) achieves the very best for his home
city through his powerful words and counsel and
urges the King to show his goodwill by offering
protection to our city, and in all other matters/
he gives himself unsparingly in his repeated role
46
as envoy for our city, and shrinks from no danger
in his determination to accomplish whatever might
be advantageous to the city. And when King Byrebistes
sent him as envoy to Cn. Pompey, son of Cn. and
Roman imperator, he encountered him at Macedonia/
near Heraklea, in the district ot Lynkos, and
succeeded not only in communicating his king's
business as he channeled the goodwill of the Romans
toward the king, but also carried out some excellent
negotiations in behalf of his home city; and in
general, by risking body and soul in every perilous
circumstance, and by defraying expenses (for public
service)/out of his own estate and even contributing
money to help the city meet its financial obligations,
he continues to demonstrate exceptional zeal for
the welfare of his home city. Therefore, in order
that all might know that the People (of Dionysopolis)
honor such wonderful human beings who prove to be
their benefactors, be it resolved by the Council
and the Assembly, that Akornion,/son of Dionysios,
by commended for all these things (here enumerated)
and that he be awarded a golden crown and a bronze
likeness at the Dionysia, and that he be crowned
annually at the Dionysia with a golden crown, and
that the most advantageous place in the agora be
allotted him for the erection of his statue.&
As we shall see, Akornion was seen as a benefactor
on many grounds, with which we shall now deal.
2. Major Characteristics of Benefactors
To describe the profile of a benefactor. Danker
indicates seven major characteristics which are applicable.
They are as follows: (a) Aretë, (b) Enthusiasm,
(c) Generosity, (d) Public Outreach, (e) Word-Deed,
(f) Piety and Righteousness, and (g) Endurance and
Fortitude.
a. Arete. This category refers to exceptional
persons, and is often linguistically tied to doxa
(reputation). Both of our examples reflect this
47
consideration. Both were persons of outstanding .
reputation. Anaxippos is held as an example for other
physicians to emulate; Akornion is seen as a person of
excellence not only in his professional conduct, but
also in his personal conduct. Persons exhibiting such
a quality are frequently described as anër agathos
(good man) and we can see that this applies to both of
our subjects; Akornion being described as a wonderful
human being.
b. Enthusiasm. Danker points out that although a
variety of expressions show appreciation for the attitude
I with which benefactors approached their tasks, the most
important was spoudg or zeal, which can be seen in both
of our accounts at hand,
j Another important term that we see in the first
I
j account is ektenes, which is used with spoudë to indicate
j strong attentive empathy. Anaxippos and Akornion both
I showed an exceptional zeal for their altruistic activities,
j Danker selects another synonym for spoude from a decree
j honoring another physician who enthusiastically treated
1
j each patient; the term was prothymia.
I As we shall see in just a moment, Akornion's
I enthusiasm was such that he risked both body and soul to
j accomplish his task. Anaxippos was cited because he
I "spared no effort" in his activities. Akornion
I
j demonstrated exceptional zeal for the welfare of his home
I    48
c. Generosity. There are several word families
that refer to generosity. While it is probably quite
safe to assume that Anaxippos exhibited generosity, it
is explicit in the case of Akornion: He shared the
sacrificial meat with the citizens and paid expenses for
public service out of his own pocket and contributed
money to help the city meet its financial obligations.
Danker also cites _ Opramoas of Rhodiapolis in great
detail, his greatest attribute being his willingness to
share material wealth. Danker points out that a major
theme in this category is the phrase "at no cost to
others" which we see very much in the Akornion inscription.
d. Public outreach. Service beyond a circle of
insiders was a common benefactor motif; we see this in
Anaxippos in that the "People of Aigelia" wish to commend
him, not simply a group of friends or those who could
provide him with wealth or political support. The
"numerous citizens" to whom he provided medical service
included those terminally ill and could obviously provide
him no reward, and possibly, affect his career negatively
if their demise was seen as the result of poor care.
Akornion went to great lengths to provide his city with
protection by negotiating with Pompey. He also took up
the task of priest apparently to fill the unfulfilled
1
I need, not for his personal ambition.
49
ë . Word-deed. Both of our subjects are lauded for
activity, and at least in the case of Akornion, noble
oratory. This combination was highly prized: Danker
points out that this was a common theme which can be
traced back through Homer, Phoenix expects that
Achilles will "be an orator and a man of action."
(Iliad 9.443) Although not explicitly described as an
orator, Akornion must have possessed that ability because
he "succeeded not only in communicating his king's
business" "...and he channeled the goodwill of the Romans
toward the king..." He also translated his speaking
ability into action.
f. Piety and righteousness. According to Danker,
j among the words used to describe benefactors, eusebia
j (piety) and dikaiosyne (righteousness) were the most
j common. Piety was used generally in terms of "vertical"
j relationships— attitudes or actions to gods, heads of
I state, or others in authority. Righteousness is used
to describe more "horizontal" relationships— attitudes
or actions toward others.
In terms of the vertical relationships, Akornion is
said to have conducted his office as priest of the Great
God in a magnificent fashion. We have no specific
references to his piety, but by his excellent service as
a priest it can be inferred.
50
Righteousness as far as treatment of those around
them are strong factors— their service to others is
the primary reason for their inscriptions.
There is a final category which we will discuss:
g. Endurance and fortitude. For both of our
subjects personal risk was a factor. The physician
exposed himself to the possibility of contagion,
particularly in dealing with terminal patients, although
no specific reference is made to the nature of their
illness. As I mentioned previously, Akornion was lauded
for not shrinking from any danger "in his determination
to accomplish whatever might be advantageous to the city."
Î Additional traits exhibited by benefactors include
j humility, modesty, and fairness. I believe that these
I have been overlapped by other categories , and need no
j f urther discus s ion here.
; 3 . Related Themes Describing the Benef actor.
; a. Benefits conferred by Benefactors. There are
j six types of benefits described by Danker as commonly
I recognized as those of a benefactor . They are : (1) relief
from oppression and guilt; (2) contribution to social
stability and the common welfare; (3) healing (which I
believe should include exorcism); (4) familial relations ;
(5) monetary donations ; and (6) suffering (in the line
of performing a benefaction or taking the place of
someone else.
51
I Frankly, these categories are fairly self-explanatory.
I The relief from oppression can include the relief from
I taxation or cancellation of debts. To the Hellenistic
!
j mind, liberation and stability were common themes which
basically meant a sort of salvation to the Roman citizen.
As we can see, our two subjects can be seen to have per­
formed several of the above benefits. Germane to our
exorcist study categories one and three particularly apply.
b. Endangered Benefactor. As we briefly alluded
to in the Endurance category, one common characteristic
for the Graeco-Roman category of Benefactor was that
the benefactor consistently placed the well-being of
I others beyond his own safety, often to the ultimate
« I sacrifice of his life. We can see this in modern times :
I in our Armed Forces, there is no higher honor than the
j Congressional Medal of Honor--awarded only to those who
j
I place the welfare and safety of others above their own.
I c. Responses made to Benefactors. In Danker's
I thought, another way of determining whether or not
I someone was considered or portrayed as a benefactor is
to examine how those around him responded to his bene-
t
j factions. ^ A cardinal rule in antiquity was that
1
1 recipients of benefactions were morally bound to make
I
I an appropriate gesture of gratitude. We see this in
I
I both our examples. In the Anaxippos inscription, the
I people of Aigelia wanted to be "known for expressing
52
appropriate appreciation to those who choose to be their
benefactors." We also see a great deal of appreciation
to Akornion.
In thousands of inscriptions, there are several
themes or categories expressing gratitude. They include : :
(1) motivation; (2) attestation; (3) admiration and
wonder ; (4) obligated beneficiary; and finally, (5) awards.
(1) Motivation--this was intended either to motivate
the benefactor to further acts of generosity, or as
we see, in the case of the physician, to motivate others
to emulate such acts.
(2) Attestâtion--while not as explicit as other
selections, our two examples show the desire of the
citizenry to attest to the great works of their selected
benefactors.
(3) Admiration and wonder--again, our examples show
a great admiration for both the personal and professional
conduct of their benefactor. We do not have explicit
references to the expression of wonder; however, I
think there might be a subtle undertone.
(4) In our two examples we see that the people felt
obligated to express appropriate gratitude; however, in
other examples the recipient often expresses a desire to
become a follower of his beneficiary.
(5) Awards--we see this most explicitly in the
response to the benefactions of the priest. He receives
53
"a golden crown and a bronze likeness at the Dionysia"
and a statue is erected of him at the agora, and the
"most advantageous" position is reserved for it.
Now that we have a basic concept of what a benefactor
is, we can begin discussion of how exorcism and the
' ministry of Jesus as an Exorcist relate to the Benefactor
model. Danker has already gone to great lengths to
show that Jesus* ministry does indeed fit into this
matrix; too many of the same stock phrases, syntax, etc.,
are shown^particularly in Luke, Acts, and the Pauline
letters^to arrive at any other conclusion. To repeat
what Danker has done in terms of Jesus * entire ministry
as one of benefaction, would be redundant and contribute
nothing. What I feel I can contribute is to deal with
the subject at hand, exorcism, which Danker basically
avoided.
C. Jesus* Exorcisms as Benefactions
Before we begin this section, it is necessary to
state that as Michael Grant and Morton Smith have
i pointed out, Jesus attracted attention to himself as a
healer/exorcist. All three synoptics portray Jesus as
a benefactor^not only as God's emissary in bringing
the Gospel, but for healing and performing exorcisms.
I shall now go back over the applicable categories
to show how Jesus the Exorcist can be seen as a healer.
54
1. From Category 2--Major Characteristics of a Benefactor.
a. Arete. As said before, this referred to persons
of unusual excellence. Jesus achieved fame as an exorcist
and teacher— similar to the common reference of anër
agathos is a reference to him in Luke 18:18 as a didaskele
agathe. As we have seen, aretë was often linguistically
tied to doxa (glory or reputation). II Peter 1:3 shows
how God is considered to be the Great Benefactor; as
his emissary in binding the hands of Satan, Jesus is
deserving of the same.
b. Enthusiasm. The enthusiasm with which Jesus
; approached his exorcism ministry was best described by
I Morton Kelsey. "Jesus underlying attitude was that the
I
jdemon-possessed and the physically ill were under the
influence or control of an evil power. Some evil source—
demons, Satan, something destructive and uncreative, the
very opposite of the Spirit of God or the Holy Spirit--
seemed to have control or at least a partial influence
over the sick person. Since Jesus by his very nature was
opposed to this power and hostile to it, he wanted to
bring it into subjection and in that way to free men."^
We have previously mentioned how Anaxippos was praised
for his ektenes: in his exorcisms we also see the
strong attentive empathy signified by this term. As
we saw in the Akornion inscription, selflessness in
55
terms of zeal was also a theme. We will develop this
more fully in discussing the "Endangered Benefactor"
but suffice it for now to say that Jesus subjected
i himself to considerable danger at each encounter with
I
' the demonic.
j c. Generosity. That Jesus was seen as a benefactor
i
i in performing his exorcisms (at least by his followers
I
j is seen in Acts 10:38). Peter recites with unmistakeble
I
j Hellenistic diction how "Jesus of Nazareth went about
as benefactor and healer of all who were oppressed by
the Diabolos" (euergeton kai iomehos.) Danker points
out that "formulations of the euerg-type refer in
general to generosity and the conferment of benefits.
Also used in terms of generosity is soter (savior) which
in the New Testament was reserved for Jesus only. Jesus*
role in terms of his exorcisms is as a deliverer, and not
simply in metaphysical terms.
We also see his generosity in the fact that he
charged no fee for his services. We saw in Chapter Two
(in Lucian's passage) that he could have charged a
rather high fee; we see this accentuated in the story
of the woman who had exhausted all her economic resources
on physicians who did not change her condition, yet the
healer who was successful charged her nothing.
d. Public outreach. Mark 1:39 describes Jesus*
practice of casting out demons as done throughout
56
[ "all Galilee." In Mark 1:32-34 an undefined number of
I
I people were bringing all the sick and possessed to
Jesus, and the conclusion of the scene indicated that
he healed many. As Danker points out : "Luke rephrases
and says that 'all who had sick people among them *
(hapantes hosoi eichon a sthehounta s) , in Luke 4:40,
brought these patients to Jesus. This editorial
alteration suggests that Luke’s desire to emphasize the
large number of invalids and at the same time to imply
that no one was considered inelgible to bring a sick
person to Jesus.Relative to his outreach beyond an
in-group is fairness; instances such as the Centurion's
servant and the Syro-Phoenician woman's daughter indicate
that Jesus exorcised even those toward whom he might have
had ethnic prejudices. As could possibly be surmised
in his exorcism of the woman with seven devils (Mary
Magdalene?) the exorcism ministry's outreach included
moral outsiders as well,
j e. Word-deed. That Jesus was seen as a benefactor,
I particularly in relation to his activity as an exorcist
can find no clearer description than Acts 10:38, "He
went about doing good (or as a benefactor) and healing
all who were oppressed by the devil." (hos diilthen
euergeton kai iomenos pantas tous katdunas teumenous
upo tou diabolou.) He combined his preaching of the
Kingdom of God with such action.
-5-7i
i This combination of noble oratory and action was
I highly prized in the Graeco-Roman world. This is seen
in Jesus' exorcism/healing ministry in Matthew 4:23
where Jesus is not only delivering the Gospel, but
I
I healing all diseases and illnesses as well. Luke makes
■ the most of this theme. Moses, Jesus, and the disciples
I are seen as doing such. In Luke 6:6 we see a healing
i
accompanied by a lesson. In 11:4 the disciples of John
the Baptist are told to take back to their teacher not
only what they have heard, but what they have seen as well.
f. Piety and righteousness. It seems almost trite
i
I to discuss Jesus' piety. For exorcism in general, in
! existing literature as well in the New Testament, piety
I is a necessary requisite. Jesus talked about exorcising
by using the "finger of God," but the Pharisees' exorcist
would not think of performing an exorcism without the
proper supplications, rituals, and phylacteries, to
"ground" themselves to God as it were. In terms of
12
righteousness, Michael Grant makes a serious error
when he makes the claim that the purpose of the healing/
exorcisms was to attract attention to his mission—
righteousness toward one's fellow human being was an
integral part of his mission, not an add on^ c .ompassion
toward those suffering under the grip of Satan.
g. Endurahce and fortitude. As Smith has pointed
out, the exorcism process could be long, arduous, and
58
r i s k y . Danker sees personal risk and willingness to
suffer as part of the benefactor package. He also mentions
how the noun agon (struggle) is used with the word for
crisis in developing benefactor themes to "describe
heroic measures by those who endure challenges or hard-
i
I ships in behalf of others.The peristasis for Jesus
1 ' '
I was the war with the forces of Satan. Each exorcism
could be seen in terms of the agon motif as another
encounter in the apocalyptic battle with the demons and
their anti-holy leader.
We will discuss this more fully in the "Endangered
Benefactor" section.
2. From Category 3--Related Themes Describing the
I Benef actor.
; a. Benefits conferred by Benefactors. For our
! study, the benefits conferred by Exorcists as Benefactors
j have two categories applicable : (1) relief from oppression
I
I and guilt; and (2) healing.
I (1) Relief from oppression and guilt— as stated
; earlier, to those in the Roman Empire, liberation and
i
I stability meant salvation. The New Testament reflects
,this tone in Luke 4:18; "The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, for he has anointed me to announce the good news to
the poor; he has dispatched me to proclaim liberty to
I the captives and restoration of sight to the blind.
59!
to set free the oppressed/ to proclaim the Lord's year
of liberation."
Isis or liberation dominates; Luke defines it as
forgiveness of sins through executive pardon and liberation
from physical jeopardy--including that inflicted by
unseen demonic forces. One can see that the amnesty
given by Jesus frees one not only from the destructiveness
of disease, but from the source of all evil, Satan himself.
According to Danker, "... it is apparent how broadly Luke
understands the liberation pronounced in 4:18. Of
special interest to us is his description of a woman who
had been a cripple for eighteen years and then was
released from the bondage in which Satan held her.
(2) Healing--Danker's work has four inscriptions
honoring physicians, as well as some honoring Isis and
Asclepius for healings. It is my belief that had Danker
included teratalogies, it would be very easy to see that
the dichotomy between healing through religious and
medical means is not so cut and dried as one would suppose.
While the upper classes of society may have
j occasionally ascribed to the more rationalistic schools
of medicine in the Hippocratic/Asclepios tradition, the
belief in disease being caused by demons (as well as
possession itself) was widespread in the Graeco-Roman
world.
60
The New Testament shows healings which include both
modes of treatment, but ultimately, illness is pushed
to an eschatological level where it is necessary for the
rule of Satan to give way to God's integration and
wholeness. Luke is well known for his interest in
healing--his particular interest and more precise
terminology, such as hydropikoslead many to beleive
that he was a physician. If this is indeed so, then our
i belief is supported that the Hellenistic world regarded
i
exorcism as a legitimate form of healing.
b. Endangered Benefactor. The Gospels orchestrate
the risk to Jesus involved in incurring the enmity of
Satan beginning with the desert temptations (where
Satan encouraged Jesus to leap off the roof of the Temple),
It then proceeds to the more mundane risks such as
contagion in dealing with the possessed, or with being
physically attacked, such as we see in the Gerasene
demoniac, (and for example--Acts 19:15-17).
Also, because he did not utilize any ritual, he
risked enmity of the Pharisees in performing his exorcisms,
as well as by healing on the Sabbath (John 9).
According to the Talmud, one did not venture out
alone at night for fear of demonic attack. How many
; times compounded was the risk incurred in deliberately
I interfering in the enmity toward humans expressed in
I demonic attacks.
i
I 61
James Kailas^^ suggests a better translation of the
term peirazo used in describing the temptations in the
desert. Rather than an inner drive to evil, he suggests
that it be seen in the larger sense of attack, which he
feels can be easily translated this way. We concur that
attack makes sense, especially when after Jesus success­
fully fends the devil off, he leaves him for a season.
18
Traughott Oesterrich cites the Dialogues of Gregory
the Great, other patristic literature, and of course
the account at Loudon to show that perhaps most exorcists
subsequently became victims of possession. He also
states that in antiquity, simply seeing a victim of
possession risked possession, let alone trying to heal
him.
Whether or not one believes in the existence of
demons, we think it impossible not to see that the
eschatological battle described earlier was at the heart
of Jesus' ministry. Consequently, in his career as an
exorcist, the danger motif is something he and those
around him felt applicable.
c. Responses to Benefactors.
(1) Motivation--we can see this in the Gospel of
Mark; the desire of the writer to stimulate others. In
9:1-13 we see the transfiguration in this light. Jesus
has already given the disciples the power to exorcise.
The recognition comes from God as a blanket recognition
62
j of Jesus as his emissary; "This is my beloved son, hear
(him."
1
j (2) Appropriateness of gratitude— this is used in
: a reverse fashion in the New Testament. Instead of a
iplace in the agora, the prominent place Jesus gets is
I Golgotha and a borrowed tomb; instead of a golden crown
I
jhe gets one of thorns. As we said, not recognizing
benefits was a cardinal faux pas, for that reason we
think that what we described was an indictment of those
who were all too eager to receive healings, but
ultimately rejected Jesus* mission.
(3) Attestation— in a mirror image, even demons
attest to Jesus' ability as an exorcist: "What have I
to do with you Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore
you by God, do not torment me I" Mark 5:7.
(4) Admiration, wonder— consistently following the
exorcism stories are expressions of wonder, that he had
power over unclean spirits. His fame was such that he
was constantly delayed by persons seeking exorcisms or
healings.
(5) Obligated beneficiary— we see this theme in the
Gerasene demoniac story where the victim wanted to join
Jesus' entourage after his healing, and also exemplified
by followers such as Mary Magdalene and the wife of Chuza.
(6) Awards— this final category has been somewhat
covered by "Appropriateness of gratitude." It should
63
'~be mentioned that we have really lost touch with the
horror of crucifixion and its shameful connotation, so
that it would not be commonly held as a symbol of pride,
but of irony and sacrifice. The cross, I believe was not
an icon until after the fourth century— long after the
"sting" had worn off. Something so abhorrent awarded to
a benefactor was unthinkable unless used as a condemnation
to those who had received his services and rejected his
Messiahship.
d. The moral meahing of Exorcism. Danker analyzes
a principal moral category of the New Testament period,
I namely the benefactor, the one who does good things. In
I the benefactor category we see social ethics in an
ancient setting; unlike others who were concerned only
I for their own morality, benefactors were moral in a
social sense. Thus the exorcist, because he fits into
the benefactor paradigm, is also seen as a socially
responsible person, similar to our present day benefactor
i Martin Luther King. While King sought to free people
I
j from the oppression of racism, a Jesus or Apollonius
I sought to free people from demonic oppression.
' I think it can be clearly seen that Jesus was
i
; considered by the Gospel writers to have been a Benefactor
i
for his activity as an exorcist. He perceived his mission
as "binding the 'strong man'" (Satan) as we see in
64
Mark 7:27. The end of the rule of Satan was the goal
of his eschatological ministry.
Of exorcists, Jesus is the best known, yet by no
means the only one. Thus, I think it safe to say that
anyone who approximates his activity can be deemed
worthy of being considered a benefactor. This is evident
in the passage where the disciples were complaining
about an exorcist who was casting out demons in the
name of Jesus, yet was not one of the disciples. Jesus
did not share their ill will; he responded, saying,
"He who is not against you is for you," (Luke 9:50),
implying that anyone fighting Satan's oppression was an
ally, and thus, a benefactor as well. To the ancient
mind demon possession was a horrible thing to happen to
someone; to try to intervene despite the inherent risk
involved was to act as a moral agent in its most altruistic
sense. Even those who regard exorcism as simply primitive
psychiatry will regard someone who attempts to help a
troubled or deranged individual as a benefactor, par­
ticularly if he does so with no thought of personal gain.
For Christians at least, I think it can be seen
that exorcism is a moral obligation. Luke 9:1 and
similar passages indicate that Jesus gave his followers
the power to perform exorcisms: he told the followers
of John the Baptist that the casting out of demons was
65
I a sign of his Messianic Identity (Luke 7 : 21) ; clearly
I fighting the destructive activity was something that
I people ought to do.
; We see exorcism in the ecclesiastical milieu not
i
ionly in Acts, the Patristic writings, and accounts
! throughout the two millenia since Easter; we can safely
I
i say that from the existence of a section on how to
I
I perform exorcism in the present-day Roman Ritual that
at least Catholics see a possible moral obligation to
exorcise.
Using Jesus as an example, we have seen that the
exorcist is not merely a religious figure but a moral
one as well.
In the following chapter we shall turn to the
possible moral implications of exorcism today.
66
IV. THE POSSIBILITY OF EXORCISM TODAY
Thus far we have seen how demon possession and
exorcism were regarded in antiquity. I have shown some
,of the dynamics as were believed to be involved with
I
j affliction, as well as a description of its cure. In
I the previous chapter, I pointed out how the exorcist
can be seen as a moral figure as well as a religious
one; the result of that discussion is that we can now
see exorcism as a moral obligation, at least in antiquity
The purpose of this chapter is to make sense of
I the Gospel authorization to cast out demons in modern
I times. I think it necessary to explain at this time
I why thus far 1 have not provided a detailed portrait
j of what exactly a demon is. I have a very good reason :
I I do not really know what a demon is, at least in a
j precise sense. In looking up the word daimonion in
I the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament^ I
j found a variety of opinions throughout ancient history,
[while they all differed to varying degrees, there are
common features which I feel endure today: a spiritual
entity of some kind, malicious in nature, without a
physical body. These entities bear particular malice
67
toward humans and occasionally take possession of the
body of a victim, somehow displacing the psyche of
the host.
For relief from this condition an exorcism may be
required. This is just as valid today as it was two
millenia ago, and this situation can be demonstrated
through two perspectives: the theoretical and the
phenomenological. Please bear in mind difficulties
in an academic study of this problem. Possession, like
forms of mental illness, affects the psyche. However,
it is quite rare, and even when it occurs, it really
is not amenable to the available tools of psychological
investigation : the placebo, control groups, double
blind experiments, etc.
We can hear from those who have witnessed the problem,
as well as from those who have explored the theoretical
dimensions of the self.
A. The Theoretical Perspective
1. Jung and the Collective Unconscious.
It was my original intent to follow the first
' three sections of this work with a section which would
place them into a modern theoretical perspective utilizing
the insights of the famous Swiss psychiatrist, Carl G.
Jung.
It soon became obvious that something of this nature
would be far beyond the scope of this work? Jung's
68
writings fill twenty volumes. The volume and complexity
of Jung's thought put any extended treatment of the
perspective beyond the scope of this work. Consequently,
after a brief treatment of Jung I will utilize the
phenomenological approach of M. Scott Peck.
Jung practices a "non-experimental empiricism" or
clinical approach. While he did not conduct formal
experiments, he drew his conclusions from the experience
of counseling hundreds of patients over the course of
fifty years. It is particularly relevant that the
Weltanschauung of Jung closely resembles in some respects
that of Jesus and the writers of the New Testament, and
that this world-view did not result from a pre-conceived
I religiosity, but from his medical practice.
I
Whether or not we agree, it cannot be denied that
Jesus experienced reality in two dimensions? physical
and spiritual. Obviously for him the spiritual was
2
real. Morton Kelsey, makes the case that it is not
Jesus' world-view which is lacking, but that of present
day existentialist theologians who base theirs on Barth,
Bultmann, Bonhoeffer, and J.A.T. Robinson— to say nothing
of secular scientists who base theirs on a Newtonian,
mechanistic model, outmoded by quantum physics and
parapsychological investigations. The world-view of
these theologians is derived to a significant degree
69
from philosophers like Heidegger and Husserl, who ignored
the existence of the unconscious.
Freud, although he believed in an unconscious
dimension of a person's experience, ignored the collective
aspects which were not closed off to the rest of humanity.
The problem with de-mythologization that we see in
the work of Bultmann is that it claims no room in human
existence for any transpersonal or unconscious realm
such as that posited' from clinical experiences of Jung.
3
Almost half of the New Testament is concerned with
healing and the spiritual, and to reject it leaves quite
4
a gap in the Christian experience. The existentialists
promoted tailoring the New Testament to the modern
world-view; Jung advocates the opposite.
Jung saw the unconscious as a conduit to the
numinous aspects of reality. For him, the collective
unconscious was totally congruent with the spiritual
realms described in the New Testament.
For him, Christianity was the way to wholeness; he
is well known for his opinion that the basic psychological
problem for those over thirty years of age is the
failure to integrate the numinous aspects of their
psyche with the empirical. Thus their problem was of a
religious nature, not a psychological one.
In interpreting Jung, Kelsey states, "The task of
theology is not so much to interpret Christianity in
70
terms consonant to the latest world view, but rather
to find and formulate a workable world view which will
again bring into the picture the reality of Christian
5
experience."
The "collective unconscious" is the key to under
standing Jung. British psychiatrist R.D. Laing writes
in an article entitle(g^, "Transcendental Experience in
Relation to Religion and Psychosis": "What both Freud
and Jung called 'the unconscious' is simply what we,
in our historically conditioned estrangement are
unconscious of. It is not necessarily or essentially
i 6
I unconscious." The relevance for Laing is that depth
I psychologists like Jung recognize that each person's
I
' experience, particularly that called "unconscious,"
I is extremely relevant to outward behavior and self-
i
understanding.
Jung wrote Kelsey a letter which described his
theoretical framework of reality : "The real nature of
the objects of human experience is still shrouded in
darkness. The scientist cannot concede a higher
intelligence to theology than to any other branch of
human cognition. We know as little of a supreme being
as matter. The world beyond is a reality, an experiential
fact. We only don't understand it," Once again. Homo
sapiens is "amphibious"; he lives in two different
71
worlds, one perceptible through the senses, the other
through the psyche itself.
The concept of collective unconscious was first
I confirmed to Jung by a conversation with a schizophrenic
1 patient. The patient asked him to place his hand a
j certain way and then look at the sun, moving his hands
back and forth. "Thus you see the sun with a phallus
hanging from it," said the patient. "This is the source
of the wind," he concluded in an awed voice. The patient
did not know that the Greek, Hebrew and Latin words for
wind and spirit were the same. Nor did he know that his
method for finding where the spirit came from was
explicitly delineated in some ancient Mithraic papyri.
This convinced him that there was a psychic reality
with which the patient was in touch. Jung believed
that this is what broke him out of his materialistic
8
bias.
For Jung, man's psyche is in a central position
subsceptible through the unconscious to the benign
influence of God from "above" and to the malignant
influence from the Evil One "below."
I find it important to stress that Jung was converted
from a materialistic point of view by his experience
with his patients. Although he was the son of a
Protestant minister, he rejected Christianity as hollow
until after his career as a psychiatrist was well under
L :_______________: ______________________________________________ 72
way. His interest in Christianity was born of necessity;
when his patients were suffering on a deep, spiritual
level, he could find no competent clergy to refer them to.
2. The Problem of Mind.
Several years ago, during an Introduction to
Psychology course, part of the curriculum was a televised
interview with the Head of Neurology at a top-ranked
I
I medical school. He said something shocking ! The term
I "mind" that we use so glibly is a hypothetical construct.
I The brain is an organ like the heart or liver, and we
know a great deal about their functions, but "mind" is
: something more nebulous. The brain, like other organs,
j can be injured or not function properly. Mental dis­
functions, rather brain disfunctions, such as aphasia,
are amenable to objective analysis and, in some cases,
treatment. Mental illness however, often lies in the
eyes of the beholder. Certain behaviors, such as
seeing visions and hearing voices, might be considered
schizophrenia by some, yet in other cultures or by
other observers it might be considered that the "victim"
has simply been blessed by contact with the numinous.
The move from the medical model is seen in the recent
elimination of the word "neurosis" as a disease category
in the classification of mental illness by the American
Psychiatric Association.^
73
A short essay by Julius Masserman, M.D., former
Secretary of the American Psychiatric Association, begins
with the following : "In an exchange of letters with
Freud, Albert Einstein once questioned whether a putative
death instinct really doomed man to self-destruction,
and inquired whether psychoanalysis was not, after all,
a compendium of myths. Replied Freud, in effect: True,
but are not all sciences? Freud thus joined Empedocles,
Berkeley, Kant, Hegel, Susan Langer, and other philosophers
in contending that we live not in an essentially knowable
I reality, but in a matrix of individually convenient
I imageryMasserman then points out that mythological
I thought plays an important part not only in psychoanalysis,
! but also in the fact that "we have incontrovertible data
I that such beliefs have ever greatly influenced human
j behavior." Humans interpret reality in terms of mythology
j as well as from the more positivistic side. As with
I
Bultmann it is a way of explaining experience. p^ow
people conceive of Satan, i.e. horns, tail^etc as
well as ancient sculptures such as those that will be
seen in Hans Dieter Betz's forth coming work^^ is
obviously fiction, but the experience of Satan and/or
demons is real. There is something there.
B. The Phenomenological.Perspective
I will shortly describe the findings of a reputable
psychiatrist who not only believes in demon possession
74
but has participated in at least two exorcisms. Before
I do, however, I must deal with an issue that he brings
out in his People of the Lie.
1. Possession or Psychopathology?
Many modern clinicians in the mental health field
will readily admit that something that is referred to
as "demon possession" does indeed exist. They relegate
such a condition to simply a bizarre form of psychosis,
without admitting that it goes far beyond the boundaries
of our present categories of psychopathology. Such
I
I is the case in an investigation by Ward and Beaubrun
! (1980) as described in the "The Psychodynamics of Demon
i nn
I Possession."
They admit that ”... instances of demon possession
are still apparent in both primitive and advanced
twentieth century societies. They go on to describe
several occurrences that they witnessed in their in­
vestigation which parallel the cases we examined in
Chapter II from two thousand years ago. After detailed
discussion of the several case histories, the authors
did not seem to admit that perhaps the cases of demon
possession were real cases of demon possession, but
nowhere did they fit in standard categories of psycho-
I
I pathology; "Although possessed individuals exhibited
I
I hysterical features, a single psychiatric diagnosis was
not readily apparent
75
In dealing with the present question, M. Scott Peck
believes we are asking the wrong questions. Instead of
asking "is it possession or mental illness?" clinicians
should be asking, "is it just mental illness or mental
illness and possession?" In the cases with which he has
come in contact, the victims showed standard symptoms
of psycho-pathology as well as symptoms similar to those
of possession, as outlined in Chapter II. But then again,
so do those who have positive religious experiences,
according to Beit-Hallahmi and Argyle in the International
Journal of Social Psychiatry:
Historical evidence suggests that mystics and
religious leaders who had intense religious
experiences in the past often had familiar symptoms
of mental disorder, and would be regarded as
mentally disturbed by contemporary standards
(James 1902; Underhill 1911; Thurston 1951). It
seems very likely that psychopathology may play
a part in the individual dynamics of those having
such individual religious experiences. On the
other hand, they were clearly unlike mental
patients in other respects. They were more in
touch with other people, indeed accepted as
leaders; in addition, any new ideas which they
developed had an appeal to large numbers of other
people, not just to themselves..."^^
Our victims of possession, likewise, are "clearly
unlike other mental patients" as well, as we shall
I see later,
1
I 2. Psychotherapy or Exorcism?
I think this is a valid question. As I mentioned
earlier, many regard exorcism as primitive psychiatry.
I must add that the advent of modern psychiatric
76
treatment was a most needed thing. As recently as two
centuries ago, those suffering from standard psychiatric
disorders were considered as possessed by demons, and
the treatment was often cruel, such as placing the
victim's head in an oven to drive off the demons. Under­
standing, compassion, and the scientific method have
contributed much in dealing with the mentally ill. How­
ever, I am saying that modern psychiatry is incomplete
until it makes room for the numinous, especially regarding
the possibility of psychopathology through demonic
influence or at least exacerbated by it.
One person who has recognized the incompleteness of
modern psychiatry is Dr. Peck. He has outstanding
credentials as a psychiatrist. He currently is a
psychiatrist in private practice in Connecticut; in
197 2 he served as Assistant Chief of Psychiatry and as
I Neurology Consultant to the Surgeon General of the Army.
He was chosen to head a committee of three psychiatrists
to investigate the My Lai Massacre. His two books.
The Road Less Traveled and People of the Lie, are
currently on the Now York Times' best seller-list, thus
reflecting his clinical recognition. His books are
neither self-help nor academic, yet they show a tremendous
knowledge of psychiatry and Christianity. (He does
write from a Christian viewpoint.) The reason that I
bring this up is to show that Peck is primarily a
 _ ................................77l
psychiatrist; he uses conventional psychiatric tools
in his treatment of patients, Rogerian-type counseling,
psycho-active drugs, etc. He is familiar with psycho­
therapy; when he says that exorcism is different from
psychotherapy, he knows the difference and does not
eschew conventional intervention methods for conventional
problems.
' While good psychotherapy is similar to exorcism in
that it straightens out half-truths and lies, the
differences fall into two different categories ; (a) frames
of reference, and (b) use of power. Before we discuss
them, it is necessary to state that he cautions that the
I exorcism process is "high voltageand should only
I be used in cases of such severity that standard mental
■ health interventions are doomed to failure. He likens
i
exorcism to radical surgery; its relationship to standard
therapy is similar to that of brain surgery to a
tonsillectomy.
a. Frames of reference. While he does not
explicitly describe the exorcism process, he is very
candid about being a Christian writer. His frames of
reference are in accordance with the Weltanschauung of
the New Testament in terms of God^ Satan, and Christ.
b. Use of power. One of the great taboos in the
standard therapy that he uses with his non-possessed
patients is the use of power. In standard Rogerian
78
therapy the patient can quit at any time, and his answers
are basically elicited by the therapist. Even something
as mild as advice is generally not used. The therapist
has nothing in his arsenal but insights, training, and
caring.
The exorcist, in contrast, heals by using every
' power available to fight the patient's sickness. The
only requirement is that it be done in a spirit of love.
Similar to the often destructive "game" used by Synanon
in treatment of addicts, treatment is not one on one;
the patient is ganged up on by two or more persons.
Also, in standard therapy, there is usually a pre­
set time limit of about an hour, a period during which
a patient can easily avoid uncomfortable areas. No
; such luck in exorcism: the possessed person is not
free to leave even if physical restraint is necessary.
Peck's cases were long; the first took a team of seven
highly trained professionals four twelve to sixteen
bour days ; the second required a similar team of nine
professionals twelve to twenty hours for three days.
(This may be extreme, for these were cases dealing
with Satanic possession, not that of minor demons.)
Of paramount importance for exorcism is that the
team, through prayer and ritual, invokes the power of
God, the source of healing.
79
Again, Peck is not explicit in describing the
procedure itself, but by the timbre of his writing it
seems safe to say that he is well acquainted with New
Testament approaches to exorcism. Then again, the
New Testament is not all that explicit as to procedure,
either. Why Jesus was able to do it alone, and why he
j
I apparently had no failures is a theological question,
not really appropriate for our discussion.
The use of power involved in exorcism required
safeguards, such as using only skilled, caring individuals.
j Skills necessary include "analytic detachment, com-
i
: passionate involvement, intellectual formulation,
j intuitive insight, spiritual discernment, deep under-
' standing of theology, thorough knowledge of psychiatry,
' 17
'great experience with prayer, and others." He
suggests that in less difficult exorcisms, the team may
only be necessary for restraint.
He also brings up the fact that the patient is to
! endure a form of "brainwashing" similar to that used by
I de-programmers. The patient will feel violated. If
■possible, the procedure should only be done with informed
i consent. "The patient should be aware of what will
I
! transpire and all inherent risks; the patient will be
; relinquishing personal freedom, as well as risking the
I possibility of being worse off than before, or even
I death.
I
■ 80
The key factor for Peck is love. The infamous
Zimbardo Experiment^ shows that when people have
absolute power over others, it is easy to abuse that
power.
3. Peck’s Two Cases.
At this time we take a phenomenological look at
two cases described by Dr. Peck. He did not go into as
great detail as I would have liked; he intentionally did
not develop the case histories fully because he felt
that Malachi Martin had done an excellent job in Hostage
20
to the Devil. There were five cases described in
Martin's book; unfortunately it is out of print, and
21
I was unable to secure a copy.
Before we explore the two cases, I feel it necessary
to say that Peck felt that there is a radical difference
between human evil, which is caused by emotional self-
centeredness as well as emotional laziness, and that evil
which has demonic origins. The two may overlap, but
in demonic evil the destructive tendencies toward self
and others are similar to those outlined in Chapter II.
Human evil fits into the categories described in our
22
Chapter I,
It must be noted that some people might see Peck's
exorcisms as simply anti-Rogerian techniques with
religious trappings. I can only say that Peck is not
81
anti-Rogerian, and while his techniques overlap those
of ancient exorcists described in Chapter II, the same
anti-Rogerian criticism may be said about them.
After fifteen years of clinical practice. Peck
put out word that he would like to witness an exorcism.
I He was brought in on a case that he considered the
I "real thing." Soon after, he came to believe that he
I may have seen several cases over the years but had not
I
I realized it.
I
a. Common characteristics. The two cases cited
by Peck are similar, despite the differences in the
23
individuals. The first was hypomanie and intermittently
psychotic; the second neurotically depressed yet sane.
One was of average intelligence, the other was very
bright. One was a good parent, the other very abusive.
The apparently more sick individual was healed more
easily; the relatively normal one was very difficult.
Peck also believes that possession was not an
; accident. Both victims had been involved with the
j occult at an early age and had "sold out" to the
Jdemonic due to terrible loneliness. Both had been
i hurt by human evil as well as demonic evil, and had been
hurt deeply by individuals purportedly representing
the Church.
The possession was a gradual process, with the
patients being fixated at the age of onset. Once
82
possession began, the patients recognized something
j destructive and fought with it, which Peck referred to
j as "partial possession." Both had been in therapy for
I some time, though only one of the therapists suspected
the possibility of possession.
Diagnosis was difficult, but multiple personality
was ruled out, because the victims were aware that the
self "-destructive part of them had a distinct and alien
personality. This "other" personality was observed to
be blatantly evil and intended to confuse the victim
! into believing that it was only a dimension of his
I normal self. Neither of the patients was perceived
I
I as evil; both in Peck's opinion had a potential for
saintliness.
The cases corresponded with Malachi Martin's
three stages of exorcism, (1) Pretense, (2) Presence,
(3) Expulsion.
(1) Pretense--this is where the demon hid behind
the host personality. This was only brought out by
prayer and ritual and discerning between the two person­
alities. The demons then heated up and brought about
; the next phase. Peck refers to himself as a "hardheaded
! scientist," and states that at this point ninety-five
I
I percent of what went on could be described in traditional
I psychodynamics.
83
(2) Presence— the demon comes out now, exhibits
ghostly, hostile, affective states, and attacks or
vilifies the exorcist.
(3) Expulsion— this is not to be rushed into; it
came as the Presence is overwhelmed. In Peck's perspective
this is when the patient cast her lot with God, in effect
exorcising herself by tapping in to the power of God.
As a follow up, many hours of psychotherapy were
necessary as "Satan does not easily let go." The demon
will attempt to convince the victim that the exorcism
failed, and that he is still in control. For some time
after, the victims heard voices, but the voices were no
longer in control. Dr. Peck noted that recovery was
not gradual, but exceeded anything that would have
been anticipated by standard therapy.
Peck advances the necessity for a research center
to develop standards for diagnosis and treatment to
offset shoddy practices. A most important statement is:
"While possession is rare, we do know that there are
more cases than can be treated by currently available
24
competent exorcists."
The cases affected him so radically that he states :
25
"I know now that Satan is real. I have met it."
C. Ethical Ramifications
In this chapter we have seen phenomena from both a
theoretical and phenomenological perspective that are
84
virtually no different from those in ancient times.
We have heard from theoreticians, who basically against
their own desires say that something classified as
demon possession exists. They proposed no better
I category than demons. We have seen that a psychiatrist
I
I who employs the standard psychiatric methodologies,
I
I yet has a Christian world view makes room for demons.
I think that now we can advocate with Dr. Peck further
research on the subject, as well as to say that there
is as much of a moral basis for exorcism today as
there was in the Graeco-Roman world, a point I develop
in the concluding chapter.
85
I V. CONCLUSION
! A. Summary
I I began this study by making the case that there
I is something to the stories of demon possession, a
numinous, evil reality that causes humans much grief
and has done so since time immemorial. I described
in the Introduction how against my own rational will
I I came to believe in a Satan of some sort. And because
I
I this Satan exists, it can inflict itself on people
I through forms of possession.
I In the second chapter I described what was believed
I in antiquity about demons, possession, and exorcism.
I The stories bore a common resemblance to each other
i
both within and without the New Testament.
In the third chapter, using the work of Frederick
Danker, I was able to build on chapter II and show that
not only did the exorcist have a religious role in
ancient society, but an ethical one as well. Accordingly,
Jesus can be compared not only to other exorcists in
the Graeco-Roman world but also to the figure of
benefactor. I then emphasized that this religious/moral
role was not limited to Jesus but was delegated to his
disciples. They, and, by extension, we are obligated
86
to carry on the duty of exorcism.
In chapter IV, I moved to the present century and
made the case again for exorcism as a moral obligation.
I utilized the work of Carl Jung to show how possession
could be theoretically possible; I then moved to M. Scott
Peck to show how a conscientious mental health professional
dealt with such an ancient problem in a modern age.
B. implications
1. Ethical Implications.
One of the ramifications that has occurred to me
as a result of this study is the moral imperative that
seems to be ignored by even ministers. In this country,
untold millions are spent on health care both by
individuals and by the government. We are known for
exporting medical supplies to underdeveloped nations;
we have programs, such as Medicare, to ensure that even
the indigent receive adequate health care.
Clearly, we feel that delivery of health care
services is a national moral obligation. It goes without
saying that a standard perquisite in any major corporation
is health insurance. We also have Telethons, the Cancer
Society, fund raisers for victims of Multiple Sclerosis,
to name only a few of the occasions for appealing to
our moral obligation to help.
If my argument for possession is correct, that
obligation extends to exorcisms. Even if possession
87
is rare, v;e are no less obligated to provide funds for
research and care. Victims might well regard us as
benefactors for taking this Christian obligation ser-
1
lously.
One initial step in meeting this obligation is
that suggested by Arnaldo Apolito in an article in the
2
American Journal of Psychoahalysis. He makes the
point that in psychoanalytic curricula, psychology of
religion is not included and that it should be.
While I admit that Peck's two cases do not good
science make, they parallel many other cases, and as
we saw in chapter IV social scientists and psychiatrists
do admit that the problem occurs. I mentioned that
demon possession does not lend itself readily to standard
psychological research. Yet it is possible to investigate
it, but I was surprised at how poor most of the available
literature was.
I have been amazed at the reaction of people when
they inquired as to the nature of my thesis; this is a
very unpopular topic ! Recently, I had the pleasure of
talking to an elderly lady who had served for some sixty
years as a missionary doctor in Arabia. I had the
impression that she had seen some possession activity,
but she said, "They told me in missionary training,
'Demons can't hurt ya unless ya believe in 'em.'" I
do not agree.
2. World-view Implications.
Thé very heart of my study is to advance the
thesis that whatever Satan is or whatever demons are,
I believe that they are just as active today as they
were in antiquity, although their influence may be
more subtle today. It does seem necessary at this
time to state that I do not wish to be associated with
the "Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth" school of
theology.
It is my wish to be much more cautious in my
approach. I agree with Fr. Morton Kelsey: "There are
some people in the church who find evil lurking behind
every bush and every bed. They seem to forget that the
victory has been won. They view other people who do not
behave just as they think they should as possessed of
evil or the Evil One. They make it their self-appointed
task to deliver people from that bondage through exorcism
or a deliverance ministry. This can be very dangerous,
particularly for weaker people who come under their
3
domination."
But behind this overkill there is something out
there that requires analysis. Once again even I agree
with the premise that demon possession in its classical
form is rare. But I re-iterate what was borrowed from
M. Scott Peck in the preface of this work; and that is
the analogy that hemophilia is extremely rare also.
_89_
yet its study brought about many new revelations about
the nature of blood clotting.
But if I am dealing with something rare, what new
revelations can we expect? Like the above analogy we
will find something that affects us all. To begin
this discussion let me quote from an excellent account
of literature, what I am talking about.
In Steinbeck's Travel With Charley, he describes
his discomfort at an eerie loneliness and floating
fear/anxiety, he writes:
Oh, we can populate the dark with horrors, even
we who think ourselves informed and sure, believing
nothing we cannot measure or weigh. I knew
beyond a doubt that the dark thing crowding in me
either did not exist or was not dangerous to me,
and still I was afraid. I thought how terrible
the nights must have been in a time when men
knew the things were there and were deadly. But
no, that's wrong. If I knew they were there I
would have weapons against them, charms, prayers,
some kind of alliance with forces equally strong
but on my side. Knowing they were not there made
me defenseless against them and perhaps more afraid.
He goes on to describe a conversation in reference
to a similarly eerie place.
If there is such a thing as a haunted place that
one was haunted, made so by dim light, strained
through the leaves and various tricks of perspective
I had working for me a Philipino man, short and
dark and silent of the Maori people perhaps. Once,
thinking he must have come from a tribal system
which recognizes the unseen as part of reality,
I asked this man if he was not afraid of the
haunted place, particularly at night. He said
he was not afraid because years before a witch
doctor gave him a charm against evil spirits.
"Let me see that charm," I asked. "It's words,"
he said, "It's a word charm." "Can you say them
to me?" "Sure," he said and he droned, "In nomine
90
Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti." "What does
it mean?" I asked. He raised his shoulder. "I
don't know," he said. "It's a charm against evil
spirits so I am not afraid of them." "I've
dredged this conversation out of a strange-sounding
Spanish but there is no doubt of his charm, and
it worked for him." says Steinbeck.^
The Philipino's "word charm" I admit can be seen
as a placebo, but then again it has been a part of
exorcism ritual since the advent of the Church. The
key in this passage is his Weltanschauung which "recognizes
the unseen as part of reality." Modern research conducted
in 20th century America with its propensity for "weighing
and measuring" things indicates that there is some sub­
stance to the reality of things unseen. Such things as
Kirlian photography, psycho-kinesis, documented psychics'
utilized in finding criminals, such as the Boston
Strangler, all indicate that there indeed is something
"out there." Most germane to our topic is the widely
accepted notion of the collective unconscious^, and the
account of a psychiatrist like M. Scott Peck.
At this point we ask, what is it that drives the
borderline suicide over the edge? What is it that
pushes the recovered alcoholic back into his addiction?
What pushes an otherwise faithful spouse into an
adulterous relationship? From where do the voices heard
by the schizophrenic come from, which in their extreme
form make a mass murderer out of a heretofore harmless
person? Trite questions? Maybe...but we would
91
like to pose another perspective.
Has not everyone sensed the fear that Steinbeck
experienced? Has not most everyone done something or
at least contemplated doing something self-destructive?
Has not most everyone hurt a loved one by saying something
that really was not true? Has not most everyone thought
something so horrid that to admit that he thought it
would be impossible? Likely as not the answer is yes.
There are many possible reasons for such behavior.
SeIf-destructive behaviors come from the self, do they
not? Perhaps so, but then again, perhaps not. In The
Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis,^ a demon makes the
case that it is far better for him if people do not
believe in them. He makes the case for invasion of the
psyche, un-noticed and influencing an individual in
atavistic ways. This is the model I am espousing as a
possibility. Something evil infiltrates one's mind
and at the very least makes the individual "own" the
feeling that seems to come from his own mind, which if
nothing else, damages his self-esteem.
3. Theological Implications.
One final implication of this study is theological.
The existence of demons and perhaps Satan raises
questions about the central Christian doctrine of one
God. For demons and Satan perhaps require us to think
92
less in terms of monotheism than in terms of henotheism
or even a form of Zoroastrian dualism. At least, this
study has moved me to reconsider my doctrine of God.
The New Testament witness is not as monotheistic as
our later Christian creeds. Although the New Testament
is frequently and explicitly monotheistic as, for example,
the "no God but one" of I Cor. '8:4, it nevertheless has
not completely rejected belief in many other divine beings,
again as in the "many gods and many lords" of I Cor. 8:5.
93
NOTES— CHAPTER I
^ Theodore Plantinga, Learning To Live With Evil,
(Grand Rapids; Eerdman's, 1982), p. 32.
^ Ibid., p. 32.
^ Ibid., p. 33.
^ Traugott Oesterrich, Possession (1921; rpt.
Seacus: Univ. Books, 1966), p. 50.
^ Paul Hollenbeck, "Jesus, Demoniacs and Public
Authorities: A Socio-Historical Study," Jour. of the
American Acad. of Religion, 49, No.4 (1981), 567-88.
^ Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology (Chicago:
Univ. of Chicago Press, 1957), 1, 2, 3.
^ Morton Smith, Jesus the Magician (San Francisco
Harper and Row, 1978), p. 10.
^ Carl Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul (New
York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1933), p. 205.
94
9
M. Scott Peck, M.D., People of the Lie (New York
Simon and Schuster, 1983), p. 119.
Ibid., p. 200.
Guido Majno, The Healing Hand (Cambridge:
Harvard Univ. Press, 1975) .
12
Otto Bettman, A Pictorial History of Medicine
(Springfield: Charles C. Thomas, 1979), p. 37.
13
Smith, see above,
14
"Review of ’Jesus the Magician,'" Catholic
Biblical Quarterly, 41 (1979), pp. 258-60.
NOTES— CHAPTER II
^ b. Berakoth 23f.
2
b. Berakoth 61a.
3
Traugott Oesterrich, Possession (1921; rpt.
Seacaucus: Univ. Books, 1966), p. 92.
^ M. Scott Peck, M.D., People of the Lie (New York:
Simon and Schuster, 1983).
5
Oesterrich, p. 159.
. . ? _ 5 j
^ Lucian, "The Lover of Lies," Lucian, trans.
A.M. Harmon, 3rd ed., Loeb Classical Library, Vol. 3,
7 vols. (London, 1979).
^ Philostratus, The Life of Apollonius of Tyana,
trans. F.C. Conybeare, M.A., 4th ed., Loeb Classical
Library, Vol. 2, 2 vols. (London, 1969).
p
Mark 5:1-20, New American Standard Bible Trans.
Hereafter all Biblical passages are cited from the NAS
unless otherwise specified.
^ Mark 5:15.
Smith, p. 9.
Ludwig Edelstein, Ancient Medicine (Baltimore:
John Hopkins Press, 1967), p. 378.
12
Tobit 3:10, New English Bible Translation. Here­
after cited as NEBT.
Tobit 8:4, NEBT.
1 4
Jubilees 10:10-14, NEBT.
15
Geza Vermes, Jesus the Jew (London: William
Collins Sons, 1973), p. 62.
96
Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews,
trans. William Whiston, A.M., 7th ed., The Works of
Flavius Josephus, Vol. 2, 4 vols. (Grand Rapids: Baker
Book House, rep. 1980).
17
trans. Adolf Deissman, Light from the Ancient
East (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, rep. 1978),
pp. 259-63.
18
Once again, this passage is tremendously long,
but it provides a remarkable contrast to the tense
exorcisms of Jesus.
19
Mark 5:20. Joachim Jeremias suggests that this
is a gloss in New Testament Theology (New York: Scribner's
Sons, 1971), p. 57. I suggest that in comparison with
other accounts such as in Josephus', it is seen as an
original component of the story.
20
The host personality is replaced temporarily
and knows there is an invasion, but is not entirely
conscious of what is going on.
Ibid., p. 13.
22
Admittedly, the only N.T. case is related to an
"epileptic" demon, but etymological analysis of
seleniaksetai means "moon-struck" and indicates the moon.
97
(a common belief) not a demon, which was at least partially
responsible for the boy's condition. The implication
is that this epileptic (Mark 9:2) was possessed, but
not all. See 11 above.
23
Oesterrich, p. 23.
Marichi Martin, Hostage to the Devil (New York:
Bantam Books, 1977), as cited in Peck; see no. 4 above.
25
Merrill Unger, Biblical Demonology (Wheaton:
Scripture Press, 1952), p. 87.
For Jung, the shadow is a negative but integral
part of the self. It is selfish and coarse but not
essentially evil.
27
Oesterrich, p. 50.
Ibid.
9 Q
Ibid., p. 40.
^^ Matthew 12:43-5.
Acts 19:13-16.
Ibid., p. 9.
33
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 8, 46-48.
Vermes, p. 62.
98
35
Joshua Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition
(New York; Atheneum, 1979), p. 282.
36
Oesterrich, p. 148.
NOTES— CHAPTER III
Frederick Danker, Benefactor : Epigraphic Study
of a Graeco-Roman and New Testament Semantic Field
(St. Louis: Clayton Publishing House, 1982), p. 26.
Ibid 487.
Ibid 488.
Ibid. 488.
Ibid., p. 59
Ibid 77.
As quoted in Danker, p. 33 9.
436. Ibid
Morton Kelsey, Healing and Christianity (New York:
Harper and Row, 1976), pp. 89-90.
Danker, p. 323.
11
Ibid pp. 337-8.
99
12
Michael Grant, Jesus, An Historian's Review of
the Gospels (New York: Scribner’s Sons, 1977), p. 30.
13
Morton Smith, Jesus the Magician (San Francisco:
Harper and Row, 1978), pp. 94-100.
Danker, p. 364.
Ibid., p. 398.
Luke 14:2.
17 James Kallas, The Real Satan (Minneapolis:
Augsburg, 1975), p. 74.
18
Traugott Oesterrich, Possession (1921 rep..,
Seacaucus: Univ. Books, 1966), p. 93.
NOTES— CHAPTER IV
^ eds. G. Kittel and G. Friedrich, Theological
Dictionary of the New Testament (1971) vol. 3.
2
Morton Kelsey, "Is the World-View of Jesus
Outmoded?" Christian Century (Jan. 22, 1969), pp. 112-117.
^ 3,874 verses out of 7,957.
^ It must be mentioned that of all the accounts of
healings, exorcism gets the most attention with five
separate, detailed descriptions.
______________________________________________________    lOOj
^ Ibid., p. 11.
^ eds. Fadiman and Kewman, Exploring Madness
(Monterey; Wadsworth Publishing, 1973), p. 101.
7
Morton Kelsey, Christo-Psychology (New York;
Crossroad, 1982), p. 6.
^ Ibid., p. 11.
^ Ibid., p. 28.
Julius Masserman, M.D., "Myth, Mystique, and
Metapsychiatry," PsychiatrytMysticism, ed. Stanley R. Dean
(Chicago: 1979), p. 29.
I look forward to the forthcoming publication of
H.D. Betz (ed.), The Magical Papyrii in English (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press., 19B4. ) This material may
well advance the scientific study of possession.
12
Colleen Ward and Michael Beauburn, "The Psycho­
dynamics of Demon Possession," Journal for the Scientific
Study of Religion, 19, No.2 (1980), 201-207.
Ibid., p. 201.
Ibid., p. 207.
Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi and Michael Argyle, Inter-
national Journal of Social Psychiatry (1976) vol. 23-1.
  . 101
M. Scott Peck, People of the Lie (New York :
Simon and Schuster, 1983), p. 185.
Ibid., p. 199.
Ibid., p. 189.
In the late sixties, in a study at Stanford Univ.,
noted research psychologist Paul Zimbardo conducted an
experiment to examine police brutality. He divided a
homogenous group of college students into two groups,
"prisoners" and "guards." He then constructed a mock jail
in the basement of the psychology building. Without ex­
planation, dehumanization and brutality of the guards
was such that the experiment went out of control, such
that it had to be aborted.
Ibid., p. 183.
21
Malachi Martin, Hostage to the Devil (New York:
Bantam Books, 1977).
22 p. 9
2^ Ibid., p. 192.
2'^ Ibid., p. 202.
2 5
Ibid., p. 183
102
NOTES— CHAPTER V
While we do see that there is an inherent moral
obligation to exorcise in the Christian tradition, it
must be noted that it is not necessarily confined to
that milieu.
Arnaldo Apblito,"Psychoanalysis and Religion
American Journal of Psychoanalysis, (1970), Vol. 30.
Morton Kelsey, Christo-Ps (New York:
Crossroads, 1982) 55.
John Steinbeck, Travels With.Charley (New York:
Penguin Books, 1962), pp. 59-61.
Ibid 61.
C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (New York :
Macmillan, 1943) p. 60.
103
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107j 
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Creator Scharf, Gregory Alexander (author) 
Core Title Authorized to cast out demons: A phenomenological and ethical investigation of demon possession and exorcism 
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