Non-Christian exorcism around Paul's time?

[GakuseiDon]

While Jesus is portrayed as an exorcist in the Gospels, I haven't found anything in pagan literature about exorcism. I know that pagans regarded daemons as good creatures generally (intermediaries for the True Gods), but some were certainly regarded as bad.

Does anyone know of any references to exorcism in the first few centuries, outside of the NT?

[Ben C Smith]

While Jesus is portrayed as an exorcist in the Gospels, I haven't found anything in pagan literature about exorcism. I know that pagans regarded daemons as good creatures generally (intermediaries for the True Gods), but some were certainly regarded as bad.

Does anyone know of any references to exorcism in the first few centuries, outside of the NT?

I know this is Jewish exorcism, not pagan, but just to make sure you have it in your files, here is a bit from Antiquities 8.2.5 (http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/ant-8.htm) by Josephus:

God also enabled him to learn that skill which expels demons, which is a science useful and sanative to men. He composed such incantations also by which distempers are alleviated. And he left behind him the manner of using exorcisms, by which they drive away demons, so that they never return; and this method of cure is of great force unto this day; for I have seen a certain 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 Foot 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 of the man, to overturn it, and thereby to let the spectators know that he had left the man; and 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 of 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.

There is a reference to Jesus (http://www.hypotyposeis.org/weblog/2006/10/christianity-in-magical-papyri.html) in the context of an exorcism in one of the Paris papyri.

At the moment, however, I am drawing a blank on purely pagan exorcisms.

Ben.

[DCHindley]

You could try Jesus the Magician by Morton Smith (Harper & Row: 1978), as this book includes a section on Pagan understandings of magic and magicians.

For actual spells curent in the 2nd century CE try The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation: Including the Demotic Spells edited by Hans Dieter Betz (Volume One: Texts, U of Chicago Press, 1986). However, I didn't see any that resembled the "exorcisms" of the NT. In antiquity, illness and disease were thought to be caused by daimones. Any spell to prevent or cure an ailment is actually a magical instruction to a daimon or daimones to STOP doing their job. That has a similiarity to the idea of driving out a daimon, but this might be a cultual distinction. The magical papyri are Greek and Egyptian, and daimon possession seems to be more of a Jewish cultural concept.

DCH

While Jesus is portrayed as an exorcist in the Gospels, I haven't found anything in pagan literature about exorcism. I know that pagans regarded daemons as good creatures generally (intermediaries for the True Gods), but some were certainly regarded as bad.

Does anyone know of any references to exorcism in the first few centuries, outside of the NT?

[dog-on]

Among the ancient pagan nations diabolical possession was frequent (Maspero, "Hist. anc. des peuples de l'Orient", 41; Lenormant, "La magie chez les Chaldéens"), as it is still among their successors (Ward, "History of the Hindoos", v., I, 2; Roberts, "Oriental Illustrations of the Scriptures"; Doolittle, "Social Life of the Chinese").

Catholic Encyclopedia (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12315a.htm)

[Amaleq13]

I know this is Jewish exorcism, not pagan, but just to make sure you have it in your files, here is a bit from Antiquities 8.2.5 (http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/ant-8.htm) by Josephus:

[INDENT]He put a ring that had a Foot of one of those sorts mentioned by Solomon...

What "sorts mentioned by Solomon" is he talking about here?

[John Kesler]

Does anyone know of any references to exorcism in the first few centuries, outside of the NT?

"There are also examples of exorcisms from non-Jewish sources (see Lucian of Samosata, Philopseudes, 16; Philostratus, The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, 3.38; 4.20). (See M. Dibelius, The Formation of the Gospel Tradition, 88-89.) See also Plutarch, Quest. Conv. VII, 5, 4 (II, 760 d-e)." SOURCE (http://www.abu.nb.ca/Courses/NTIntro/LifeJ/ExorcismJesus.htm#E411)

[Ben C Smith]

I know this is Jewish exorcism, not pagan, but just to make sure you have it in your files, here is a bit from Antiquities 8.2.5 (http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/ant-8.htm) by Josephus:

[INDENT]He put a ring that had a Foot of one of those sorts mentioned by Solomon...

What "sorts mentioned by Solomon" is he talking about here?

Ah, good catch. I think that is a typo in the online versions. The Greek is ριζα, or root. As for the source of this mystical knowledge of exorcistic roots, I really have no idea. Perhaps some apocryphal text attributed to Solomon; there seem to have been dozens of them.

Ben.

[Clivedurdle]

This is extremely messy ground! PG Maxwell-Stuart Witchcraft a History comments

The situation was summed up by the fifteenth century theologian Pedro Ciruelo:

"Anyone who maintains a pact or treaty or friendship with the Devil commits a very grave sin because he is breaking the first commandment and is sinning against God, committing the crime of treason or lese majeste. His action is also contrary to the religious vow he made when he was baptiized. He becomes an apostate from Christ and an idolater who renders service to the enemy of God, the devil."

reprobacion de las superstiones...


It should not come as a surprise then to find that one of the most common reactions to someone's possession by an evil spirit was to have the demon "exorcised", a word based on the Greek "to set free from an oath." In the pagan Graeco-Roman world this process was offiicially regarded with grave suspicion. The jurist Ulpian for example refused to take exorcists seriously.

"Someone will perhaps acknowledge as doctors those who promise a cure for some part of the body or for a particular physical pain - an ear specialist, let us say, or a specialist in fistulas or the teeth. But one must not aknowledge such a person as a doctor if he has used incantations, if he has uttered [magical] curses, or if (and here I use the common expression employed by charlatans) he has exorcised his patient.

The second century AD litterateur Lucian was even more scathing.

"The exorcist with his halitosis cast out many a daimon when he spoke, not because he bound them with an oath, but by the power of his dung-like breath."


...


Exorcisms quickly established themselves as battle grounds for magicians and Christian priests to demonstrate their superior command over non human entities - the hagiographies of early Christian saints are full of these and similar stories - and indeed so useful was the rite as an exhibition of power that it continued well past the Reformation as Catholics and Protestants sought to prove the authenticity of their respective claims to religious rectitude...





So yes, exorcism is pre xian, but it became rapidly a defining feature of xianity.

If there is any evidence for a real Jesus I would look here, as a charlatan - Jesi Halitosi!

And in fact xianity is actually a superstitious ragbag that learned how to gain power. Lucian was directly very rude about this oriental cult and their battles with other magicians.

[Clivedurdle]

I did not realise an exorcism is carried out at every catholic baptism.



Ritual exorcism, Sri Lanka[Credits : Tom McHugh/Photo Researchers]http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/94/73994-003.gif (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic-art/198273/68107/Ritual-exorcism-Sri-Lanka)

Exorcism

an adjuration addressed to evil spirits to force them to abandon an object, place, or person; technically, a ceremony used in both Jewish and Christian traditions to expel demons (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/157383/demon) from persons who have come under their power. The rites and practices of preliterate people to ward off or to expel evil spirits are also a form of exorcism, though they are sometimes considered witchcraft.

In the Christian tradition, Jesus (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/303091/Jesus-Christ) expelled demons by a word and stated that this act was a sign of the coming of God’s Kingdom. His followers, and others as well, drove out demons “in his name.” In the first two centuries of the Christian era, the power of exorcism was considered a special gift that might be bestowed on anyone, lay or cleric. About ad 250, however, there appeared a special class of the lower clergy, called exorcists (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/198282/exorcist), to whom was entrusted this special function. About the same time, exorcism became one of the ceremonies preparatory to baptism (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/52311/Baptism), and it has remained a part of the Roman Catholic (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/507284/Roman-Catholicism) baptismal service.
The exorcism of persons possessed by demons is carefully regulated by canon law in the Roman Catholic church, and the elaborate rite is contained in the Roman ritual.


http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/198273/exorcism

[GakuseiDon]

Thanks for the replies, everyone! That helps me alot.

[Amaleq13]

What "sorts mentioned by Solomon" is he talking about here?

Ah, good catch. I think that is a typo in the online versions. The Greek is ριζα, or root. As for the source of this mystical knowledge of exorcistic roots, I really have no idea. Perhaps some apocryphal text attributed to Solomon; there seem to have been dozens of them.

Ben.

Crud, I was hoping for some sort of treatise on demons.

[DCHindley]

According to D. C. Duling, in the commentary to his translation of the Testament of Solomon (in volume one of The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha ed by James H. Charlesworth):

"In this passage [Ant 8.2.5], the allusions are clearly to 1 Kings 4:29-34 ... again. ... Solomon is thus said to have composed "incantations" ... and exorcistic formulas by which one can drive out the demons. In addition, the ring is introduced, though it is really the root under the seal of the ring by which Eleazar performs the exorcism. Finally, Solomon's wisdom and greatness are so acknowledged that speaking his name and reciting his incantations help bring about the exorcism. All of this is an "art" ([TECNH]) employed by the ancient physician or magician."

That passage in 1 Kings 4:29-34 goes as follows:

"29 And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and largeness of mind like the sand on the seashore, 30 so that Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt. 31 For he was wiser than all other men, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all the nations round about. 32 He also uttered three thousand proverbs; and his songs were a thousand and five. 33 He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall; he spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish. 34 And men came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.

FWIW, the Testament of Solomon is essentially a story about how Solomon, by means of a magical ring, got a number of powerful demons to reveal the commands by which they can be forced to do a man's bidding, and how he used this knowledge to force them to build his temple. Very interesting reading.

DCH



I know this is Jewish exorcism, not pagan, but just to make sure you have it in your files, here is a bit from Antiquities 8.2.5 (http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/ant-8.htm) by Josephus:

He put a ring that had a Foot (sic Root) of one of those sorts mentioned by Solomon...

What "sorts mentioned by Solomon" is he talking about here?

[Clivedurdle]

The idea of one god in Judaism and xianity seems to be directly related.

If your mind set is that there are loads of gods and demons, exorcism is only one of many magical tools to sort out issues.

Once you have developed a them and us mentality with a chief god, exorcism becomes a critical tool to divide the world between good and evil.


Thus exorcism is a defining feature of xianity, with its related tools of heresy and inquisition and not suffering witches to live.

Judaism does not seem to been ever that fussed about demons.

And seriously, if we want to find a historical Jesus, I would look here - this is a major change of thinking, from a ragbag of ideas to a clear good and evil. This is the sort of idea that is clearly the invention of one mind - it may track back to Jesus unless it can be seen elsewhere earlier.

Zarathustra?

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zh4o4LijeQkC&pg=PA41&lpg=PA41&dq=zarathustra+exorcism&source=web&ots=VB9Q_NNbfx&sig=we1RFftpKA0prEw_xt0wQ2U0xGs&hl=en

[Clivedurdle]

And baptism therefore also becomes a completely necessary and logical part of the structure.

Again, look here for evidence of Jesus - were these ideas introduced by one person?

[Clivedurdle]

Let's try putting the pieces of this jigsaw together differently.

Lucian calls this group an oriental cult.

Our earliest evidence has clear links to Jesus and fish, the vulva symbol is common, burials and buildings face East, its writings - extant by end of second century - possibly earlier talk of virgin births and resurrections.

It is an apocalyptic cult - Revelation.

Baptism is critical, with a fascinating twist - baptism in the holy spirit - again evidenced in a probably early work - Mark.

Exorcism is a critical theme in all the writings.

Next question, what explanations are there for these particular facts? A founder figure, probably mad with bad breath, normal interactions and co-evolution of existing ideas, that as with the dinosaurs, evolves a monster, other explanations?

Look at the classic church structure - as at Piza, Florence etc - the baptistry, the body of the church, the campanile.

[Amaleq13]

FWIW, the Testament of Solomon is essentially a story about how Solomon, by means of a magical ring, got a number of powerful demons to reveal the commands by which they can be forced to do a man's bidding, and how he used this knowledge to force them to build his temple. Very interesting reading.

Thanks. A novel I read some time ago incorporated this legend but didn't indicate the source and I didn't think it was in the Bible.

Maybe I haven't entirely woken up yet but I don't understand why you put that phrase in bold. :confused:

[Solitary Man]

For Solomonic exorcism, you might want to check out Scott T. Carroll, "The "Apocalypse of Adam" and Pre-Christian Gnosticism," Vigiliae Christianae, Vol. 44, No. 3 (Sep., 1990), pp. 263-279.

[Clivedurdle]

Looking more closely at the relationship between exorcism and baptism might help make more sense of an incident on the River Jordan!

For example, isn't there some idea that evil spirits do not like getting wet, so baptism with the added ingredient of an invocation would not only wash your sins away but also your evil spirits.

We are looking at all the elements here - water, air, earth - the human - dust to dust - and fire - the holy spirit - burning bush tongues of fire. So Mark is describing a ritual at a holy place - Jordan, involving transformation and turning around of the elements - a universal alchemic experiment!

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07432a.htm

[DCHindley]

I guess that was the passage that got folk to think Solomon knew about such things as herbs and roots, which are very much a part of ancient magic.

DCH

Thanks. A novel I read some time ago incorporated this legend but didn't indicate the source and I didn't think it was in the Bible.

Maybe I haven't entirely woken up yet but I don't understand why you put that phrase in bold. :confused:

[Solo]

While Jesus is portrayed as an exorcist in the Gospels, I haven't found anything in pagan literature about exorcism. I know that pagans regarded daemons as good creatures generally (intermediaries for the True Gods), but some were certainly regarded as bad.

Does anyone know of any references to exorcism in the first few centuries, outside of the NT?

While there was practice of exorcism in the pagan world (and samples of it were cited here) it appears that the exorcist "power" of Jesus was of a different kind. Mark links the exorcist deeds to apocalyptic psychomachy, in which Jesus effects the works of God's Spirit over the demonic power of Satan. The demons "know" the name of God's power and are overpowered by it, in the coming of God's kingdom. This would be something quite apart from the professional approach of Apollonius or Josephus' Eleazar.

At any rate, for very useful reviews of the apocalyptic setting for Jesus' exorcisms, you might want to see James D.G. Dunn, Jesus and the Spirit and Stevan L. Davies, Jesus the Healer.

Jiri

[Clivedurdle]

You must use the formula in Matthew 28:19.
You must say to the candidate, “I baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”



http://www.kencollins.com/how-04.htm

You never know when it will come in useful!

The only difference between xianity and the previous "pagan" stuff is that it has more powerful invocations in the name of an all powerful god (s). It is identical in terms of magical thinking.

[Solo]

I had a nagging feeling that I had seen a type of exorcism in the Qumran texts. Found it.

It deals with a "faith cure" of the last Babylonian king Nabonidus by a Jewish exorcist "forgiving his sins".


The Prayer of Nabonidus (4QprNab)

The words of the prayer uttered by Nabunai king of Babylon, [the great] king, [when he was afflicted] with an evil ulcer in Teiman by decree of [the Most High God].
I was afflicted [with an evil ulcer] for seven years...and an exorcist pardoned my sins. He was a Jew from among the [children of the exile of Judah, and he said], 'Recount this in writing to [glorify and exalt] the name of the [Most High God. and I wrote this]:
'I was afflicted with an [evil] ulcer in Teiman [by decree of the Most High God]. For sevem years [I] prayed to the gods of silver and gold, [bronze and iron], wood and stone and clay, because [I believed] that they were gods...'

Geza Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English, Penguin, 1987, p.274


Jiri

[Clivedurdle]

Programme I refer to about Library of Ninevah discusses Assyrian exorcism practice, 700's BCE and much earlier.


It was one of the tools they used, with classic invocations, to sort out problems with natural remedies, like poultices. It was unclear if these practices were actually carried out or just recorded - at least one Babylonian scribe was literally chained to his desk by the Assyrians!


The King told his priests I am seriously ill, they responded it is a cold, so seem a pragmatic lot!

Derren Brown, Tricks of the Mind, discusses hypnosis, this sort of mind game is something humans worked out how to do to each other millennia ago.

[Toto]

I just ran across this, but I'm not sure how it fits in. The events are supposed to have occurred in the last half of the second century.

Simeon ben Yohai (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=774&letter=S)As the last important event in Simeon's life it is recorded that, accompanied by Eleazar b. Jose, he was sent to Rome with a petition to the emperor for the abolition of the decree against the three main observances of the Jewish religion, and that his mission was successful (Me'i. 17b). The reason Simeon was chosen for this mission is stated (ib.) to have been that he was known as a man in whose favor miracles often were wrought. At Rome, too, Simeon's success was due to a miracle, for while on the way he was met by the demon Ben Temalion, who offered his assistance. According to agreement, the demon entered into the emperor's daughter, and Simeon exorcised it when he arrived at the Roman court. The emperor then took Simeon into his treasure-house, leaving him to choose his own reward. Simeon found there the vexatious decree, which he took away and tore into pieces (comp. "Tefillot R. Shim'on b. Yoḥai" in Jellinek, "B. H." iv. 117 et seq., where, instead of "Ben Temalion," "Asmodeus" occurs). This legend, the origin of which apparently is non-Jewish, has been the subject of discussion bymodern scholars. Israel Lévi (in "R. E. J." viii. 200 et seq.) thinks it is a variation of the legend, found in the "Acta Apostolorum Apocrypha" (ed. Tischendorf, pp. 246 et seq.), of the apostle Bartholomew exorcising a demon that had taken possession of the daughter of Polymnius, the King of India. Israel Lévi's opinion was approved by Joseph Halévy (in "R. E. J." x. 60 et seq.). Bacher (ib. xxxv. 285 et seq.) thinks there is another Christian legend which corresponds more closely to the Talmudic narrative, namely, that narrated by Simeon Metaphrastes in "Acta Sanctorum" (vol. ix., Oct. 22, 1896), according to which Abercius exorcised a demon from Lucilla, the daughter of Marcus Aurelius.

[Clivedurdle]

Problem - get the Emperor to rescind some laws.

Solution - do something to help Emperor who then says what would you like as a reward.

What? Friendly demon possesses daughter, who is then exorcised. Nice bit of collusion.


A pragmatic relationship with demons, you scratch my back, demons seen as natural part of the world, some friendly, some not.

Xianity in contrast constructs a binary on off yes no good evil black white relationship, where you can no longer do a bit of magick to sort stuff out.

It is a huge change.

It is now Christ's Wicca. The Incantations, instead of I beseech thee O Satan, start "In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost....

[badger3k]

I am not sure when it started, but I know that Japanese and Chinese civilizations also had exorcisms, and many of the animist beliefs had a similar ritual to drive off evil spirits (no references at the moment, just a lot of memories watching anthropology on TV). I suspect that when humans started seeing spirits in nature, and saw people who were sick or mentally disturbed, put two and two together and rituals developed. I think I saw something on a Mesoamerican (pre-Christian) ritual of exorcism (or maybe cleansing, which is close but not exactly the same as possession of a human). Might be an interesting search to see what comes up (looks at house he should be cleaning instead of being on computer and watching Ninja Warrior)....:D