Possession & Exorcism in the New
Testament & Early Christianity

By Eric Sorensen
December 2002
Mohr Siebeck
ISBN: 3-16-147851-7
306 pages, 6 1/8 x 9 1/8"
$97.50 paper original

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The author studies the origins & early development of exorcism in Christianity as well as the importance of demonic & divine spiritual possession in early Christian self-definition.

Contents include: the ancient Near east-affliction & conjuration in ancient Mesopotamia, pollution & purification in Zoroastrianism. Ancient Israel & Early Judaism-possession & exorcism in the Hebrew Bible & Septuagint, Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls. Early Greece-the Gods, the Greek Daimon, avenging spirits, the Erinyes, possession & prophetic inspiration, illness, madness, binding the possessed, medicine & possession, cultic healing. The New Testament-Demons, the significance, terminology & authority of exorcism, Deity & divine possession. Early Christianity-transferal of cult, magic & exorcism, wisdom, visual rhetoric, possession & ethics, heresy, exorcism & initiation, charismatic exorcism. Bibliography. Reference index. Author Index. Subject Index.



Theology; Chistianity
WissUNT zum Neuen Testament. Vol 2. No. 157

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