Possessed with Devils, the usual rendering in the A. V.

of the Greek δαιμονιζόμενοι (but also

δαιμονισθέντες, Mark 5:18; comp. δαιμόνια ἔχειν, Luke 8:27; πνεῦμα δαιμονίου ἀκαθάρτου ἔχειν,
4:33), Matt. 4:24; 8:16; 15:22; Acts 8:7; Luke 8:2. These were persons afflicted with disease, as
epilepsy (Matt. 17:15; Luke 9:39), paralysis (Luke 13:11, 16), dumbness (Matt. 9:32; 12:22), and
especially with melancholy and insanity (Matt. 8:28; Mark 5:2 sq.; Luke 8:27 sq.); whence the healed
are said to be of sound mind (σωφρονοῦντες, Mark 5:15; Luke 8:35). It is not necessary to suppose that
the epilepsy or the dumbness, when this was the main feature of the case, was complicated with
peculiar physical disorders, although epilepsy is very commonly connected with something of the kind
(see Farmer, Vers. p. 89; Hippocrat. Virg. Morb. c. i; Esquirol, Path. u. Therap. d. Seelenstörungen
[Leips. 1827], p. 73; comp. p. 503). Indeed, while these special disabilities of men in other respects in
sound and vigorous health were naturally referred to a supernatural cause, this would be especially the
case with the sudden attacks of epilepsy, falling at irregular intervals and without premonition.
Everything of this kind the Jews, like the Greeks and Romans, referred to evil spirits taking possession
of men (see Acts 10:38; Luke 13:16; comp. Josephus, Ant. vi, 8, 2, on 1 Sam. 16:14, 23; see also
Lightfoot, p. 388; Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenth. ii, 454; Maimonides, Schab. ii, 5; Erub. iii, 4;
Creuzer, Symbolik, iii, 4 sq.). The case was the same among the ancients with those extraordinary
events and achievements, accomplished by men, which seemed too great to proceed from the natural
human powers—they were referred to the operation of a divinity. Not only hallucinations, melancholy,
and epilepsy (called by Herodotus the sacred disease, iii, 33), but also the ravings of Bacchantes and
Corybantes were viewed as proceeding from superhuman inspiration (Herod. iv, 79; Eurip. Bacch. 298
sq.; Dion. Hal. De Demosthen. c. xxii; see also Herod. iii, 33; Heliod. Æth. iv, 10; Bos, Exercit. Phil. p.
62 sq.). Hence to dæmonize (δαιμονᾶν) is the common Greek expression meaning to be insane (Æsch.
Chæph. 564; Sept. c. Theb. 1003: Eurip. Phæn. 899; Aristoph. Thesmoph. 1060; Plutarch, Marsell. 20;
Lucian, Philopseud. c. xvi; and Wetst. i, 282; esp. Aretæi Caussa Morb. diut. i, 4). But these dæmons
were generally viewed as the spirits of the deceased (Philostr. Apoll. iii, 38; Horace, Epod. v, 91; comp.
Josephus, War, vii, 6, 3; and on exorcising them, see Plutarch, Sympos. vii, 5; Lucian, Philopseud. c.
xvi; on the Syriac and Arabic usage of speech, see Jahn, Nachträge, p. 173 sq.). The practice of
exorcism upon such men, for the purpose of driving out the dæmons, was very common (comp. Lucian,
Philopseud. c. xvi; and see Matt. 12:37; Luke 9:49; Acts 19:13 sq.; comp. Justin Mart. Apol. ii, 7). The
exorcists made use of magical formulæ, said to have descended from Solomon (Josephus, Ant. viii. 2,
5), in connection with certain roots, stones, etc. (id. War, vii, 6, 3; Mishna, Gittin, lxvii, 2; Plutarch, De
Fluv. xvi, 2). Afterwards these men were found also in other countries (Lucian, Philopseud. c. xvi).
Many suppose that Jesus simply adopted the popular mode of speech in his age in speaking of dæmonic
possession, and healed the unfortunate sufferers without sharing in the view commonly taken of their
disease (P. von Hemert, Accommodat. in N. T. p. 51 sq.; Hase, Leben Jesu, p. 71 sq.), just as the
physicians in the time of Origen, who did not at all believe in real possession by devils (comp. the
principles of Maimonides; Jahn, Nachträge, p. 185). On his method of healing, comp. Paulus, i, 423; ii,
621; and on Mark 9:29, against the view of Paulus, Fritzsche on Matt. 17:21. Where prayer and fasting
are recommended to the apostles as means of exorcism, Porphyry (Abstinen. ii, 204, 417 sq.) may be
compared. It was very natural that the sufferers, when healed, wished to remain in the vicinity of the
Great Physician (Luke 8:38; comp. 8:2); for there they considered themselves most safe against the
return of the dæmons.
The symptoms recorded of individual dæmoniacs agree with those which are noticed in diseases of the
kinds mentioned above. (a.) On Matt. 17:15, comp. Paul. Ægin. iii, 13, where he speaks of a morbus
comitialis, in which the whole body is convulsed; which affects chiefly boys, sometimes young men;
and in which the convulsion is accompanied with a sudden inarticulate cry. The chief distinguishing
mark, however, is a foaming at the mouth (comp. Luke 9:39; Lucian, Philopseud. c. 16). Cœl. Aurelian
(Morb. Chron. i, 4) speaks of a class of diseased persons, epileptics, who fell in public places (from
which the disease is still sometimes called falling-sickness, and in German Fallsucht; comp. Rabb. ‫נוֹפֵל‬
or ‫פֶה‬ֶ ְ ‫נַכ‬, an epileptic), or even into rivers or the sea. Aretæus (De Morbo Epil. 5) speaks of some who
fell in weakness into the river. It was early observed that this affliction seemed to have some
connection with the changes of the moon (Dougtæi Analect. ii, 5; Bartholin, Morb. Bibl. c. xviii; comp.
Aret. Morb. Chron. i, 4; Origen, in Matt. iii, p. 577; Lucian, Tox. c. xxiv; Isidor. Orig. iv, 7). Hence the
use of the word σεληνιάζεσθαι, Matt. 4:24; 17:15; comp. Suicer, Thesaur. ii, 946. In Latin, too,
epileptics were called lunatici, or moonstruck. Again, epilepsy, in connection with partial insanity, was
the disease of the man mentioned in Mark 1:23 sq.; Luke 4:33 sq.; comp. esp. Mark 1:26. (b.) On Matt.
8:28, comp. Wetstein, i, 354 sq. The proofs of vast strength, and of a violent rage against himself (Mark
5:4, 5; comp. Acts 19:16), leave no doubt that this man was a maniac. The fact that he avoided society,
and wished to dwell alone among tombs, point to the peculiar mania which Sauvages calls Mania
misanthropica, or that which Keil (Rhapsodie über die Anwend. d. psych. Kurmethode, etc. [Halle,
1803], p. 363) calls Mania errabunda. Yet his mania was but temporary, though the delusion which it
accompanied was permanent, showing itself in settled ideas (Mark 5:9; Luke 8:30). Thus, according to
the principles of Heinroth (Lehrbuch der Seelenstörungen, i, 360 sq.), the case is one of delusion joined
with melancholy, and sometimes heightened to mania. Mental as well as physical diseases are often
thus complicated with each other (Esquirol, p. 73); comp. further, Targum Jerus Terumoth, xl, 2, where
an insane man (‫ )שׁוֹטֶה‬is thus described: “He goes forth and spends the night among the tombs; and
tears his clothing, and destroys whatever is offered him.” The leaping down of the swine, perhaps a part
only of the herd, was produced, as some think, by the violent running towards them of the dæmoniacs,
under the fixed impression that the dæmons could not leave them save by finding another dwelling-
place in the unclean beasts (comp. Josephus, Ant. viii, 2, 5; see esp. Eichhorn, Bibl. vi, 835 sq.;
(Grimm, Exeget. Aufs. i, 123 sq.; Schmidt, Exeget. Beitr. ii, 85 sq.; Greiling, in Henke, Mus. i, 620 sq.;
Friedrich, Vers. einer Literaturgesch. d. Pathol. u. Therapie d. psych. Krankh. [Würzb. 1830], p. 7 sq.;
Schleiermacher, Predigten, 3, note 3, on Acts 16:16). The view of the earlier theologians and physicians
was that in the case of the dæmoniacs healed by Jesus there had been an actual bodily indwelling of
evil spirits. From this view (set forth by J. Marckius, Textual Exercit. p. 257 sq.; Deyling, Observat. ii,
371 sq.; Ernesti, Neue theol. Bibl. 3, 799 sq.; Zeibich, Verm. Betracht. iii, 306 sq.; Storr, Opusc. i, 53
sq.; Eschenbach, Scriptor. Med. Bibl. p. 41 sq.) many dissented long ago, following a hint of St.
Augustine, De Genesi ad lit. xii, 17 (see Hobbes, Leviathan, c. viii and xlv; Bekker, Byzant. Welt, bk.
iv, c. 7 sq.; Wetstein, i, 279 sq.; Bartholin, De Morb. Bibl. c. xix). It was formally combated by Mead,
Bibelkrankh. p. 63 sq. See Semler, Com. de Dæmoniacis quorum in N. T. fit mentio (Halle, 1760);
Umständliche Untersuchung der Dämon-Leute (ibid. 1762); Gruner, De Dæmoniacis a Chr. Percuratis
(Jena, 1775); Lindlinger, in his Schr. de Ebræor. vet. Arte Med. translated into German by Cölln, with
preface by Semler (Brem. 1776); his Briefe üb. die Dämonischen in d. Evang., with additions by
Semler (Halle, 1783); Zimmerman, Diatr. de Dæmonicis Evang. (Rinteln, 1786); Medicin.-hermen.
Untersuch. p. 15 sq. Comp. Carus, Psychol. d. Hebr. p. 393 sq.; Baur, Bibl. Theol. d. N. T. i, 213 sq.;
Jahn, Archäol. I, ii, 400 sq. (omitted in the 2d ed.; comp. Nachträge to Jahn’s Theol. Werke, p. 451 sq.).
Additional literature is cited by Volbeding, Index Programmatum, p. 41; Hase, Leben Jesu, p. 99;
Darling, Cyclop. col. 830, 923, 926, 1872, 1882; Danz, Bibl. Theologiæ, p. 125, 204. See also
Woodward, Dæmoniacal Possession (Lond. 1839, 1856); Meth. Quar. Rev. July, 1857; Free-will Bapt.
Quar. April, 1858; Presb. Rev. Oct. 1865. Comp. Dæmoniac.