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The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas
The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.
Unclean spirits and exorcists
Spirits that defiled and harmed people. Exorcists of the day used names, oaths, spells and foul smells to drive them out. Jesus gave an order.
The con man thought knowing your name gave him a hold over you. People in Jesus' world believed evil spirits could take hold of a person. Exorcists tried to drive them out with spells, secret names and tricks, and the spirits were thought to try the same tricks back. Mark and Matthew call these spirits unclean.
A few early Jewish sources linked evil spirits with impurity, and people linked spirits with tombs. People tried to expel demons with incantations or strong odors. Jewish exorcists sometimes used magic tied to Solomon or smelly roots. Gentile exorcists called on a higher spirit to drive out a lower one (Keener on Matthew 8:16). In magical texts, those trying to control a spirit announced its name and tried to bind it into service. The oath language of 5:7 appears in magical exorcisms. In Tobit the smoke of a fish's heart and liver drives off Asmodeus. The third-century Testament of Solomon gives Solomon a ring to control demons. The Old Testament prescribes no incantations or amulets against spirits. Exorcism by incantation is ancient. The physician of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon (681 to 669 BC) recited incantations against demons that might be causing an illness (Podany). Expelling a demon simply by command was extraordinary and drew amazement. Beelzebul is probably a corruption of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron in 2 Kings 1. Wright's glossary renders it lord of the flies, a name for the satan. Wright describes unclean spirits as non-physical powers that defile the person they inhabit. They make that person act against their calling as a human being. Some in antiquity linked madness with demons. Afflictions could happen without spirits, though spirits could also cause them. In ancient stories demons bargained for easy terms when forced out, and in Jewish tradition could die or be bound. Keener reads the seared consciences of 1 Timothy 4:2 against the branding iron used on livestock. On that reading the false teachers are marked as owned by evil spirits. His notes allow that it may mean a conscience that no longer works.
An analogy: a hostage standoff where negotiators try every trick, names, bargains, threats. Then someone walks in whose plain order ends it, and everyone in the room wants to know who he is.
Driving out a spirit by plain command, where others used spells, names and roots, marked an exorcist as extraordinary, as in Mark 1:27. The charge that such power came from Beelzebul, as in Matthew 12:24, turned the question to whose side he was on. In Acts 19:13 Jewish exorcists try to use Jesus' name as a spell.
Not a human standoff with a hostage taker. Here the captor was a spirit, thought to defile the very person it lived in and linked with tombs and impurity. Exorcists used names, oaths and smells to bind it. Nor do the sources reduce these spirits to mental illness or treat every sickness as a spirit.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-8-1-17\/","n":"Matthew 8:1-17, A leper, a centurion and a mother-in-law","s":"Coming down the mountain, Jesus touches and heals a leper, heals a centurion's servant from a distance, and heals Peter's mother-in-law and many others.","r":"Matthew 8:1-17"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-8-18-34\/","n":"Matthew 8:18-34, Let the dead bury their dead, the storm and Gadara","s":"Jesus answers two would-be followers, calms a storm on the lake, and frees two men possessed by demons in the region of the Gadarenes.","r":"Matthew 8:18-34"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-12-22-50\/","n":"Matthew 12:22-50, Beelzebul, the strong man, Jonah and his true family","s":"When Jesus heals a blind and mute man, the crowds wonder if he is the Son of David and the Pharisees say he works by Beelzebul. Jesus answers with the strong man, refuses a sign except Jonah's, and names his true family.","r":"Matthew 12:22-50"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-15-21-28\/","n":"Matthew 15:21-28, A Canaanite mother and the dogs","s":"In the region of Tyre and Sidon a Canaanite woman begs the Son of David to free her daughter. Jesus is silent, then speaks of bread and dogs, and her answer wins him over.","r":"Matthew 15:21-28"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/mark-1-21-45\/","n":"Mark 1:21-45, A Sabbath in Capernaum and a leper","s":"Jesus teaches in the synagogue, drives out a spirit, heals Simon's mother-in-law and, after sunset, the whole town. Then he touches and cleanses a leper.","r":"Mark 1:21-45"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/mark-3-13-35\/","n":"Mark 3:13-35, The Twelve, his family and Beelzebul","s":"Jesus appoints twelve. His family thinks he is out of his mind, and teachers from Jerusalem say he drives out demons by Beelzebul.","r":"Mark 3:13-35"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/mark-5-1-20\/","n":"Mark 5:1-20, Legion among the tombs","s":"Across the lake, in Gentile country, Jesus frees a man possessed by many spirits. They enter a herd of pigs that rushes into the sea.","r":"Mark 5:1-20"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-10-1-24\/","n":"Luke 10:1-24, Seventy sent out, and Satan falling","s":"Jesus sends seventy others, or seventy-two, ahead of him in pairs, with no purse, bag or sandals, to towns that will welcome or refuse them. They come back rejoicing that even the demons obey, and Jesus says he saw Satan fall like lightning.","r":"Luke 10:1-24"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-11-14-26\/","n":"Luke 11:14-26, By Beelzebul, or by the finger of God?","s":"When Jesus drives out a demon that kept a man from speaking, some say he does it by Beelzebul, the ruler of demons. He answers that a divided kingdom falls, and that if he drives out demons by the finger of God, God's kingdom has come.","r":"Luke 11:14-26"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/acts-16-16-24\/","n":"Acts 16:16-24, The slave girl with a Python spirit","s":"A slave girl who earns her owners money by fortune-telling follows Paul, crying out about the Most High God. Paul drives the spirit out, and her owners drag him and Silas before the magistrates, who have them beaten and jailed.","r":"Acts 16:16-24"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/acts-19-8-20\/","n":"Acts 19:8-20, The lecture hall and the burned books","s":"In Ephesus Paul teaches daily in the hall of Tyrannus for two years, and even cloths that touched him bring healing. When the sons of Sceva try to use Jesus' name as a spell, the spirit overpowers them, and believers burn their magic books in public.","r":"Acts 19:8-20"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/ephesians-6-10-17\/","n":"Ephesians 6:10-17, The armor of God","s":"Paul calls the believers to stand firm in God's armor, because their struggle is not against flesh and blood but against rulers, authorities and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.","r":"Ephesians 6:10-17"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/1timothy-4-1-5\/","n":"1 Timothy 4:1-5, Deceiving spirits, no marriage, no foods","s":"The Spirit warns that later on some will desert the faith for deceiving spirits and demonic teaching, banning marriage and certain foods, though God made food to be eaten with thanks.","r":"1 Timothy 4:1-5"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/james-2-14-26\/","n":"James 2:14-26, Faith that shudders, Abraham and Rahab","s":"Faith without deeds is dead, James argues. Wishing a hungry brother well helps no one, the demons believe that God is one and shudder, and Abraham and Rahab were counted righteous by what they did.","r":"James 2:14-26"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/revelation-16-12-21\/","n":"Revelation 16:12-21, the Euphrates dried and Armageddon","s":"The sixth bowl dries up the Euphrates to make way for the kings from the east, and three frog-like spirits from the dragon, the beast and the false prophet gather the kings of the world to battle at the place called Armageddon. The seventh bowl brings a voice saying it is done, the greatest earthquake ever, the splitting of the great city and hundred-pound hailstones.","r":"Revelation 16:12-21"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/daimonion\/","n":"Daimonion","s":"The New Testament word for demon, borrowed from a Greek word that was morally neutral.","r":"Mark 1:34"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/beelzebul\/","n":"Beelzebul","s":"The name Jesus's opponents used for the ruler of demons when they accused him.","r":"Matthew 10:25"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/baal-zebub-beelzebul\/","n":"Baal-zebub \/ Beelzebul","s":"A Philistine god whose name Israel deliberately misspelled into lord of the flies.","r":"2 Kings 1:2"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/satan-ho-satanas\/","n":"Satan (ho satanas)","s":"The name the New Testament gives the chief adversary, a role that had become a name.","r":"Matthew 4:10"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/legion\/","n":"Legion","s":"The demon who gives his name as a number, in the story that ends with the pigs.","r":"Mark 5:1-20"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/mark-5-1-20\/","n":"Mark 5:1-20","s":"Legion, in Gentile territory east of the lake, begging not to be sent to the abyss.","r":"Mark 5:1-20"}
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Mark 1:23, 1:24, 1:26, 3:22, 3:27, 5:3, 5:7, 5:9 and 9:25, and note on Matthew 8:16
- N. T. Wright, Mark for Everyone, comment on Mark 3:7-19, and Glossary, entry the satan
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Mark 5:9
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 8:31 and 8:32
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 1 Timothy 4:2
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on 1 Timothy 4:2
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, article Demons and the Bible
- Amanda H. Podany, Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East, ch. 18, Adad-shumu-usur: A Physician Dealing with Royal Illness and Substitute Kings
