The healing of those possessed with a devil or an unclean spirit represents one of the outstanding problems of the N.T. and of the gospels especially.
The following notes summarize much of what has been written on this difficult matter. There is is little in them that is original, but since the problem is one of recurring interest and concern, they may not be altogether without value for some readers.
- Evil Spirits do not exist. It is upon this foundation that any satisfactory understanding of this problem must be reared. Belief in the existence of unclean spirits must stand or fall with belief in a personal Devilin-Chief, which is itself an utterly illogical and hopelessly un-Biblical conception. “We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one” I Cor. 8:4. There is special force in these words, inasmuch as Paul was writing to Greeks who normally used the word daemon (demon, spirit) with reference to the gods worshipped by the Greeks.
- There is no reference whatever in the O.T. to evil spirits. The argument from silence is usually a precarious one, but in this particular instance it happens to be of remarkable force. Strange, surely, that in the enormous volume of the Law and the Prophets there should be no single instance of demon possession. Then, one turn of the page, and the gospels teem with references to them. Was it only with the advent of Jesus that these evil spirits really began to make their malign influence known?
- And why is it that clear-cut, fully authenticated instances of demon possession are not as a commonplace today ? Have these evil spirits abdicated their full powers?
- Again, is it just coincidence that it was only after the Jews had been under the domination and authority of Persia, the very home of dualism, that there appeared amongst them signs of belief in evil spirits ? And is it just coincidence that almost every reference in the gospels to evil spirits belongs to Galilee of the Gentiles where inevitably a good many pagan ideas were to be found?
- Only recently it came as a surprise to the present writer to discover that almost every specific instance of demon possession mentioned in the gospels is identified by the evangelist as some well-known affliction or disability.
(a) Matt 9:32, “A dumb man possessed with a devil.”
(b) Matt 12:22, “One possessed with a devil, blind and dumb.”
(c) Mark 3:22, “He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils.”
This accusation of the scribes was the most incisive of all the Pharisaic attempts to degenerate the power and authority of Jesus: “Of course, he works miracles! No one would wish to dispute that. But there’s an obvious explanation: He casts out devils because he himself is in league with the Chief Devil of all !” Sad to relate, this horrible calumny (the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit) originated all unwittingly with Jesus’ own family ! The previous verse reads : “His friends went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself.” So here being possessed with a devil is regarded as equivalent to mental derangement.
(d) Mark 5:15. After being healed the Gadarene demoniac is spoken of as being “in his right mind.” In other words, before his encounter with Jesus he was a violent lunatic. The details of the story, especially 3-5, shout confirmation of this conclusion.
(e) Mark 9:17-26. The demoniac boy healed when Jesus came down from the Mount of Transfiguration is described as “dumb”; and by Matthew (17:15 RV) as “epileptic.” Even if this detail were not supplied, no other diagnosis would be possible in the light of the description given by Mark.
(f) Luke 6:17,18, “A great multitude . . . came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases ; and they that were vexed with unclean spirits ; and they were healed.” Observe that the final word “healed” must cover both categories mentioned : diseases and evil spirits. Clearly, the one possessed with an evil spirit requires to be This word indicates spirit possession to be in the same category as the diagnoses already cited and not to be controlled by some super-human power; for such the word “healed” would be quite inappropriate.
(g) Luke 13:-1, “A woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years.” The medical authorities mostly equate this with “nervous prostration.”
(h) John 7:20, “The people answered and said, Thou hast a devil : who goeth about to kill thee ?” Paraphrased in modern speech : “Nobody’s plotting to kill you. You must be suffering from delusions, to think of such a thing.” (And similarly in John 8:48 and 10 :20) .
- Rather different in character from the fore-going but especially impressive, is the following: “When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick : that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the Prophet, saying : Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.
The force of the parallelism here is easily overlooked :
A. He cast out spirits.
B. And healed all that were sick.
A. “Himself took our infirmities.
B. And bare our sicknesses.”
The equation of A—A becomes specially powerful in the light of Par. 5 (c). It is, of course, readily agreed that the passage cited from Isaiah 53 has also a more profound and far-reaching significance than that with which it is used here.
It would seem clear from this and the preceding catalogue in Par. 5 (a) by no means inconsiderable proportion of the examples available) that the writers themselves understood demon possession as meaning some serious physical or mental affliction.
- Yet in some passages a distinction seems to be drawn between demon possession and other diseases and afflictions, e.g, Matthew 10:1. “He gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease.” The same distinction seems to be required in such passages as Luke 13:32 and Acts 5:16.
Can it be that it had become customary to think of demon possession particularly in the case of the more mysterious afflictions which seemed quite inexplicable in the light of the very limited medical knowledge of the time ?
- On the basis of the foregoing investigation it seems most likely, if not certain, that Jesus and his apostles were adopting the current phraseology of the time and country, without necessarily agreeing f u 11 y with the mistaken ideas which the terms employed might be thought to imply. A strange comparison—and yet not inappropriate—might be the way in which many atheists decorate their speech with copious allusions to God and hell and the devil without believing in the existence of any of these. Today no one misunderstands the objurgation :”Go to the devil !,”or intends or believes it to be taken literally.
- Three passages afford interesting confirmatory evidence of the conclusion advanced in Par
(a)”This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils, sneered the Pharisees”. To which came the caustic reply: “If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out ?” However, this rejoinder be understood, one thing is clear —Jesus is taking the Pharisees’ declaration at its face value ; no one would suggest that HE firmly believed in the actual existence of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron (2 Kings 1:6).
(b) In I Cor. 10:20, 21 Paul writes as though these have a personal existence: “But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God : and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils : ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.” Yet in I Cor. 8:4, he has already delivered himself of an explicit assertion that “an idol is nothing in the world” (Par. 1).
(c) “And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying.” The margin reads, more exactly, “A spirit of Python.” The reference is to Pythias Apollo associated with the oracle at Delphi. Yet would anyone maintain that this babbling half-wit of a girl was actually animated by the Spirit of a Greek god ? Further, is there anyone disposed to contend that Paul or Luke believed in the existence of this Greek deity ? Nevertheless, taken at its face value, the narrative reads as though such were the case. In like manner also (one is persuaded) do the gospels allude to demon possession.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One