EXORCISM: TACKLING THE DEVIL BY WORD OF MOUTH

A.A.R. Bastiaensen

Exorcism in

The provides copious information on the experi- ences of the developing Christian community. At first, Peter is the central figure, but before long it is the newcomer Paul who captures our attention by his persisting efforts to make the person and doc- trine of known beyond the borders of their land of origin. As follower and messenger of Jesus Christ he was endowed, as Peter was, with special powers, particularly the power to expel and his devils. During his two-year stay in Ephesus, ‘God worked more than the usual miracles by the hand of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons were carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out. But certain of the itinerant Jews, exorcists, also tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits in them, saying: “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches”. And a certain Sceva, a Jewish high-priest, had seven sons who were doing this. But the evil spirit answered and said to them‚ “Jesus I acknowledge, and Paul I know, but who are you?” And the man in whom the evil spirit was sprang at them, mastered them all and so overpowered them that they fled out of the house battered and bruised.’1 This remarkable tableau is instructive. We learn that Paul himself was an exorcist, expelling demons by profession. He practised his activities of spiritual healing at the command of Jesus Christ and fol- lowed in the tracks of Him who liberated people from the rule of the Evil One and his assistants, the demons.2 He also sent forth his disci- ples and followers with the order of carrying out the same task.3 As we read in Acts, the apostles performed many signs and wonders, healing

1 :11–16. 2 See for instance Matt. 4:23–24, Mark 1:32–34; Luke 7:21; 8:2. 3 Luke 10:17; Mark 16:17. 130 a.a.r. bastiaensen the sick and the victims of unclean spirits.4 Paul, also an apostle, did the same in Ephesus. He was an exorcist, because he was a follower and of Jesus Christ. But it appears that there were other exorcists in town, itinerant Jew- ish exorcists, using the formula ‘I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches’; they wanted to imitate that master exorcist. But, because their activity was only imitation, mimicry, their efforts met with no success at all. It is remarkable nonetheless to find that they were a kind of semi-professionals, wandering about with exorcism as their commodity.

Innumerous Exorcists

The Ephesian exorcists were Jews. Jewish exorcism is also mentioned by Irenaeus at the end of the second century CE: ‘All things are sub- ject to the Name of Our Lord; . . . that’s why the Jews up to the present day expel the demons by holding out to them with that Name.’5 The second century apologist Justin Martyr refers to the practices of pagan exorcists and challenges them by mentioning the successful Christian practice.6 In Contra Celsum Origen too presupposes the existence of pagan exorcism.7 But both Justin and Origen put pagan and Chris- tian practice in opposition—it appears that this approach was not at all unusual in Christian circles. Tertullian mentions Christians, who, standing in a pagan court, tell evil spirits to leave their victims.8 In De idololatria a Christian incense-seller is said to liberate his personnel (alumni) from demons: the term is exorcizare.9 A few decades later Novatian blames Christian exorcists for attending pagan spectacles.10 In heretical and schismatic circles exorcism was no less popular. In De praescriptione haereticorum Tertullian expresses his distaste for heretical women-exorcists, who perhaps did not shrink from baptis-

4 :12–16. 5 Irenaeus, Adversus haereses II 6.2: Domini nostri nomini subiecta sunt omnia; . . . et propter hoc Iudaei usque nunc hac ipsa adfatione daemonas effugant. Cf. Labahn and Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte, eds., A Kind of Magic: Understanding Magic in the and its Religious Environment (London: T & T Clark, 2007). 6 Justinus Martyr, Apologia secunda 6.6. 7 Origenes, Contra Celsum VII 4. 8 Tertullianus, Apologeticum 23.4. 9 Tertullianus, De idolatria 11.7. 10 Novatianus, De spectaculis 4.3.