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

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 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 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 (or via: amazon.co.uk) 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 (or via: amazon.co.uk) 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

dog-on

Catholic Encyclopedia

Amaleq13

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

John Kesler

"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

Ben C Smith

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

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.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/...98273/exorcism

GakuseiDon

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