luca

I have been reading this forum a lot but this is my first post here.

Reading Mark, Jesus appears primarily as an exorcist. He spends almost all his time in chasing demons. In general, the New Testament is full of demons (I counted roughly 200 occurrences of "Satan" "devil" "demon", "evil spirit", in the NT versus a dozen or so in all of the OT). If I am not wrong, there is practically no exorcism taking place in the OT. Also in Flavius one finds some exorcists living during Jesus times.
My question is this: why "suddenly" Palestine inhabitants become so obsessed with demons? Is this common throughout the hellenistic world or unique of Palestine? Why Jesus seems to think that his main mission is to chase demons? It seems to me (but I have very little information on this) very little of exorcism ritual is left in the Jewish world, while exorcism is an important part (or maybe it was until a few decades ago) in the christian ritual. Does it mean that exorcism was not a traditional Jewish issue?

I would be happy if some of the experts of this forum could help me understanding the role of exorcism in Jesus' life and times.

Toto

There is a book by Graham H. Twelftree on this subject: In the Name of Jesus: Exorcism among Early Christians (or via: amazon.co.uk)

There are course notes here on the topic of Jesus the exorcist, with a wealth of notes, from Professor Barry Smith of Crandall University in Canada. There was quite a bit of interest in exorcism in contemporary Judaism - it was a demon haunted world, after all.

sotto voce

Like this one?

Toto

Carl Sagan optimistically thought that all intelligent folks in the modern world could realize that science provides an adequate explanation of the world.

There are no monsters hiding under your bed. There are no witches who put spells on you. Satan does not have control. The Exorcist was just a horror movie for entertainment purposes only.

sotto voce

Did he? Or did he just say that?

Toto

He might have been high, who knows. But it was a common sentiment at the time.

Get back to the subject.

Anyone who really believes in demons or exorcism today, including the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, is justifiably subject to ridicule. But it was a common thing in the first century.

sotto voce

Why is it justifiable? Ridicule of belief in demons or exorcism, that is, not ridicule of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.

luca

Thanks very much. I'll have a look at the notes and then perhaps come here again to ask more questions.

Anyway, you seem to confirm that it was a new concern in Judaism. I wonder why apparently Judaism was not interested in this aspect of ritual before hellenistic times and did not continue to be much interested afterwards, contrary to Christianity. But first I'll study the references you suggested.

andrewcriddle

Medieval and post-Medieval Judaism has a significant concern with exorcism see Dibbuk

Andrew Criddle

luca

Thanks for the link. In the text it says
"Stories about dibbukim are common in the time of the Second Temple and the talmudic periods, particularly in the Gospels; they are not as prominent in medieval literature."
For instance, recently "a rare – and possibly unique - text describing a Jewish exorcism has been discovered by a scholar of medieval Jewish studies." (quoting from a press release at the University of Manchester: I cannot post the link because I have less than five posts and URL are disallowed), meaning that we have very few written direct account of exorcism ritual in Judaism. The recorded exorcisms in Judaism appear very few and mostly connected with "sinful souls" rather than demons. In Christianity instead exorcism is still practiced today, was extremly important in the past, there are specialised priests in charge of the ritual, and the goal is always to chase out demons, just like Jesus did.

So all in all it seems to me Christianity is much more "obsessed" with demons than Judaism, and I wonder whether Jesus was just a follower of then-current Jewish practice or an innovator on this.