In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, cases are repeatedly mentioned when Jesus Christ "cast out demons" or "unclean spirits." Such acts are distinguished from the healing of sickness or injury, implying that Jesus' contemporaries believed in Satan and his ability to instill demons in a person, regardless of disease.
The concept of "expulsion of evil spirits" - "exorcism" goes back to the Greek word exousia, which means to take an oath and take it under the leadership, calling on a higher power to consolidate consent. “Cast out unclean spirits” means, thus, “conjure” (from the Latin word adjuro) the spirits to leave in the name of God. Jesus was not an exorcist - a demon-charmer in the name of God - because He did not need any higher powers except Himself.
The first case of the casting out of demons occurred shortly after He received the baptism from John the Baptist. After baptism, Jesus immediately went into the wilderness, where he spent 40 days and where he was tempted by Satan. Upon his return, Jesus began to seek disciples for himself and came to Capernaum and taught. Both Mark (1:23 - 27) and Luke (4:33 - 36) tell the following story:
“In their synagogue there was a man possessed by an unclean spirit, and he cried out: Leave, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? You have come to destroy us! I know you who you are, the Holy One of God. But Jesus forbade him, saying: shut up and get out of him. Then the unclean spirit, shaking him and crying out with a loud voice, went out of him. And everyone was horrified, so they asked each other: what is it? What is this new teaching that He commands the unclean spirits with authority, and they obey Him? (Mark 1: 23-27).
And the obsession of a person with an unclean demonic spirit, and the expulsion of that correspond to the traditional model.
First, the unclean spirit knows Christ. Secondly, the release of this spirit causes severe suffering to the possessed and is accompanied by voices and cries. Third, the unclean is obliged to yield in the end to the higher authority and power of Jesus. Jesus' simple way of dealing with demons is significantly different from the practice of the rest of the righteous of his day.
To drive out spirits, most spellcasters of that time used ritual, conspiracies, signs and magical images. Professor Merrill F. Unger of Dallas Theological Seminary wrote in Biblical Demonology that the method of Jesus Christ differs from all other approaches in that it “has no magic, no ritual gibberish, nothing but His own a living word, filled with unlimited power and strength. He speaks, and demons obey him as the Lord of the other world”.
Mark and Luke describe how, shortly after the incident at Capernaum, Jesus healed those suffering from various diseases and cast out many demons (Mark 1:32-34; Luke 4: 38-41).
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And the obsession of a person with an unclean demonic spirit, and the expulsion of that correspond to the traditional model. First, the unclean spirit knows Christ. Secondly, the release of this spirit causes severe suffering to the possessed and is accompanied by voices and cries. Third, the unclean is obliged to yield in the end to the higher authority and power of Jesus. Jesus' simple way of dealing with demons is significantly different from the practice of the rest of the righteous of his day. To drive out spirits, most spellcasters of that time used ritual, conspiracies, signs and magical images. Professor Merrill F. Unger of Dallas Theological Seminary wrote in Biblical Demonology that the method of Jesus Christ differs from all other approaches in that it “has no magic, no ritual gibberish, nothing but His own living word,filled with unlimited power and strength. He speaks, and demons obey him as the Lord of the other world”.
Mark and Luke describe how, shortly after the incident at Capernaum, Jesus healed those suffering from various diseases and cast out many demons (Mark 1:32 - 34; Luke 4: 38-41); the evangelists accompany this extremely important explanation that Jesus strictly forbade demons to say that they knew Him.
After he had finally named all his twelve disciples - whom He had given the power to cast out demons - Jesus returned home, greeted by huge crowds of believers and curious. Some of His neighbors believed that sometimes He was not himself, some of the Jewish scribes believed that He had in Himself the devil Beelzebub (Beelzebul), or Beelzebub. Matthew (12:24 - 29), Mark (3:22 - 27) and Luke (11:14 - 22) narrate this case:
“And the scribes who came from Jerusalem said that He has Beelzebub in Him and that He drives out demons by the power of a demonic prince. And calling them, he spoke to them in parables: How can Satan cast out Satan? If the kingdom is divided within itself, that kingdom cannot stand; and if a house is divided within itself, that house cannot stand; and if Satan rose up against himself and was divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. No one, having entered the house of a strong man, can plunder his things, unless he first binds the strong one, and then he will plunder his house”(Mark 3:22 - 27).
Beelzebub, also known as Baal-zebub, literally means "lord of the flies." This name is a distorted form from Baal-zebul, that is, the ruler of the Canaanite (Canaanite) or the Phoenician deity (Phoenician) and means "lord of the divine dwelling" or "lord of heaven." At the time of the prophet Elijah, the god Baal (Baal) was the main rival of the Israelite god Yahweh (Jehovah) (Yahweh / Jehovah /), and his name began to denote an evil spirit for the Jews (1 Kings 18; 2 Kings 13). This episode also reveals the idea of Satan's connection with the will of God even before he could be expelled from the "house", or from the body, of the victim possessed by him.
The episode that is most often mentioned is the healing by Jesus of the demoniac in Geraz (or Gerges), or Gadar, according to the testimony of Mark (5: 1 - 13) and Luke (8:26 - 33), and two demoniacs, according to the Gospel from Matthew (8:28 - 32). Despite some discrepancies, they are one and the same plot. After delivering the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus and His disciples went by boat to the country of Gergisin, or Gadarene. Then they met a man possessed by an unclean spirit. This is how Mark relates it:
“And they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of Gadarene. And when He got out of the boat, immediately a man who had come out of the tombs, possessed by an unclean spirit, met Him; he had a dwelling in coffins, and no one could tie him even with chains; because many times he was bound by fetters and chains, but he broke the chains and broke the chains, and no one was able to tame him; always, night and day, in the mountains and coffins, he shouted and beat against the stones.
Seeing Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him; and, crying out in a loud voice, he said: what is with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I conjure you by God, do not torment me! For Jesus said to him: Get out, you unclean spirit, out of this man. And he asked him: what is your name? And he answered and said, My name is legion, for we are many. And they asked Him much that He would not send them out of that country.
And there was a large herd of pigs grazing there by the mountain. And all the demons asked Him, saying, Send us into the pigs, that we may enter into them. Jesus immediately allowed them. And the unclean spirits went out and entered the pigs; and the herd rushed from the steepness into the sea, and there were about two thousand of them; and drowned in the sea.
Like other possessed souls, the Gadarin demoniac experiences intense physical suffering and spiritual torment. He ran to Jesus for help, but the unclean who possessed him rejects the authority of Jesus and conjures not to expel him. Another important aspect of this plot is the name of the demon, an extremely important moment in the ritual of casting out demons. The Legion is a large organizational unit in the army of Ancient Rome (which also implies many demons), consisting of four to six (and up to seven) thousand people. So the estimate of two thousand can be considered an underestimate. Finally, since the demons could no longer resist Jesus, they asked to enter the herd of pigs. The pig, however, was considered an unclean animal according to Jewish law, so the pigs were chosen correctly. At the time of Jesus, people thought that unclean spirits couldn't stand water, so if the pigs drowned,then the demons were destroyed.
Jesus continued to cast out demons throughout His ministry, delivering even the daughter of a pagan woman from an unclean spirit, who recognized Him as a savior (Mk. 7:25 - 30; Matt. 15:21 - 28). Such acts, quite obviously, aroused the interest of the audience, and the disciples tell Jesus about a man who casts out demons in His name (Mark 9:38 - 41; Luke 9:49 - 50). Jesus reassures them that no one who has performed a miracle in His name can soon revile Him. And then seventy other followers, sent as disciples, and given no special authority to cast out demons, found that demons obey them. However, Jesus reminds us that the joy is not that the spirits obey them, but that their names are written in heaven (Luke 10: 17-20).
After the death of Jesus, the power of His name increased so much that even "some of the wandering Jewish spellcasters" (Acts 19:13 - 16) began to call on the name of Jesus Christ in their rituals when casting out evil spirits, saying: "We conjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches." … But the evil spirit did not allow himself to be fooled and said to them in response: "I know Jesus, and I know Paul, but who are you?" And at that very moment a man, in whom there was an evil spirit, rushed at them, and, overpowering them, took such force over them that they ran out of this man's house "naked and beaten" - this is one of the most ancient examples of the danger of expelling demons for the caster himself.
These gospel stories gave medieval sages every reason to recognize as valid not only the existence of Satan, but also that he can take possession of innocent souls at his discretion. And if not only Jesus Christ, but also His disciples - even those of them who did not belong to the especially elect, but only sincerely believed - were able to cast out demons, then Christian saints everywhere have the same power to cast out unclean spirits in the name of the Lord. Was Jesus really driving out unclean spirits, or did He simply preach to people in the language that was closer and more understandable to them - this is the problem of unrelenting discussions in clerical circles to this day.
Accepted abbreviations of the titles of the books of the Old and New Testaments:
1 Sam. - First Book of Kings;
2 Kings - The second book of Kings; Mt. - the Gospel of Matthew; Mk. - the Gospel of Mark; Luke. - the Gospel of Luke; Acts - Acts of the Holy Apostles.