II. In the Old and New Testaments. — The verb t^op' Ki^o) occurs once in the New Testament and once in the Sept. version of the Old Testament. In both cases it is used, not in the sense oi exorcise, l)ut as a synonym of the simple verb upKi'Coj, to charge with an oath, to ad- jure. Compare Gen. xxiv, 3 (^''^'J-'ri, A. V. " I will make thee swear") with 37, and Matt, xxvi, 63 with Mark v, 7 ; and see 1 Thess. v, 27 (iropfci'sw, Lachmann, Tischendorf ). The cognate noun, however, together with the simple verb, is found once (Acts xix, 13) with reference to the ejection of evil spirits from persons possessed by them (comp. i^opKwair, bpKow, Josephus, A7it. viii, 2, 5). The use of the term exorcists in that passage, as tlie designation of a well-known class of persons to which the individuals mentioned belonged, confirms what we know from other sources as to the common practice of exorcism amongst the Jews (seo the Talm. Babyl. Yoma, fol. Ivii, 1). Th.it some, at least, of them not only pretended to, but possessed the power of exorcising, appears bj' our Lord's admission when he asks the Pharisees, " If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do 3'our disciples (vloi) cast them out ?" (Matt, xii, 27). What means were employed by real exorcists we are not informed. David, by play- ing skilfullj' on a harp, procured the temporary de- parture of the evil spirit which troubled Saul (1 Sam. xvi, 23). The power of expelling dajnions Josephus places among the endowments of Solomon, and relates that he I ft behind htm th3 manner of using exorcisms b}' which they drive away dajmons (for the pretended fragments of these books, see Fabricius, Cod. Pseud. Vet. Test. p. 1054). He declares that he had seen a man, named Eleazar, releasing people that were daimoniac- al, in the presence of Vespasian, his sons, captains, and the whole multitude of his soldiers. He describes the manner of cure thus : " He put a ring that had a root of one of those sorts mentioned by Solomon to the nos-
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trils of the dnemoniac ; after which he drew out the 1 daemon through his nostrils, and -when the man fell , down he adjured him to return no more, making still mention of .Solomon and reciting the incantations he composed." lie further adds, that when Eleazar would persuade and demonstrate to the spectators that he had such a power, he set a cup or basin full of water a lit- tle way oft", and commanded the da3mon as he went out of the man to overturn it, and therebj^ to let the spectators know he had left the man (Ant. viii, 2, 5). He also describes the mode of obtaining the root baa- ras. which, he says, " if it be onlj' brought to sick per- sons, it quickh' drives away the da;mons," under cir- cumstances which, for their strangeness, may vie with anv prescription in the whole science of exorcism (War, vii, 6, 3). Among all the references to exor- cism, as practised by the Jews, in the New Testament (Matt, xii, 27 ; Mark ix, 88 ; Luke ix, 49, 50), we find onlv one instance which affords any clew to the means emjiloyed (Acts xix, 13) ; from which passage it ap- pears that certain professed exo/cists took upon them to call over a demoniac the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, " We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preach- eth." Their proceeding seems to have been in con- formity with the well-known opinions of the Jews in those days, that miracles might be wrought by invok- ing the names of the Deity, or angels, or patriarchs, etc., as we learn from Justin IMartyr, Irenaeus, Origen, etc., and Lucian (Frag. p. 141). The epithet applied in the above text to these exorcists (TTfpifpxo/iti'ot, Vulgate, circumeuntes Judwi) indicates that they were travelling mountebanks, who. besides skill in med- icine, pretended to the knowledge of magic. Justin Martyr has an interesting suggestion as to the pos- sibility of a Jew successfully exorcising a devil, by employing the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Dial, cum Ti-yph. c. 85, p. 311, C. See also Apol. II, c. 6, p, 45, B, where he claims for Christianity superior but not necessarily exclusive power in this respect. Compare the statements of Iren^us, adv. Hares, ii, 5, and the authorities quoted by Grotius on Matt, xii, 27). But Justin goes on to say that the Jew- ish exorcists, as a class, had sunk down to the super- stitious rites and usages of the heathen (comp. Pliny, XXX, 2). See D.emox.
The power of casting out devils was bestowed by Christ while on earth upon the apostles (Matt, x, 8), and the seventy disciples (Luke x, 17-19), and was, according to his promise (ilark xvi, 17), exercised by believers after his ascension (Acts xvi, 18) ; but to the Christian miracle, whether as performed by our Lord himself or by his followers, the N.-T. writers never applj- the temis "exorcise" or "exorcist." Nor is the office of the exorcist mentioned by Paul in his enu- meration of the miraculous gifts (1 Cor. xii, 9). ISIos- heim says that the particular order of exorcists did not exist till the close of the third century, and he ascribes its introduction to the prevalent fancies of the Gnos- tics (cent, iii, 11, c. 4). "We notice Jahn's remark upon the silence of John himself in his gospel on the sub- ject of possessions, although he introduces the Jetcs as speaking in the customary waj' respecting dajmons and cUcmoniacal possessions, and although he often speaks of the sick who were healed by the Saviour ; coupled with the fact that John wrote his gospel in Asia Minor, where medical science was verj^ flourish- ing, and where it was generally known that the dis- eases attributed to d:emons were merely natural dis- eases (Jahn, ArcJiaol. I, ii, 232, 477-480; see also Lo- meirus, l)e ]'e/. Gent. Luxtra. ; Bekker, Le Monde en- chante ; Van Dale, IJe divinat. iihl. c. vi, p. 519 sq. ; Amnell, Diss, ad loc. in Actis, Upsal. 1758). — Kitto, s. V. ; Smith, s. v.