Exorcism

Late Antiquity was a demon haunted world and its texts are full of supernatural horror. As Gabriele Boccaccini noted, this came from the Achaemenid Iraq into the greater Semitic Near East; in Judaism, by way of the Enoch tradition. The Dead Sea Scrolls were Enochian, and demon haunted. Christianity is generally considered Enochian, at least by contrast with her sibling Judaism in the mainstream rabbinate.

Jonathan Burke proposes that the Apostolic Christianity of the two early pseudoClements and the Didache was NOT so haunted. Burke notes the "Shepherd" by Hermas as speaking of demons like a psychiatrist would speak of a mentally-ill man's Issues.

Burke raises an exception in Barnabas, which didn't edit the Two Ways dualism in the way the Didache did. He notes Ignatius as believing in the Satan, but not so much in his diabolical gund. I think Burke'd count Justin as leader in the postApostolic Patristics: this one believed that demons might inhabit pagan idols, against 2 Clement. I expect Justin got that from the Gospel of Mark, full of exorcisms, speaking for the community 'roundabout apostle Peter.

First off, these saints knew antichrists enow among men. Only when times were better would the temptation of those times be a problem for the pious, more than the problem of being cat food in the arena. Hierarchy Of Needs, dear fellow.

Also the Patrists, if that's a word, were hooked into urban literacy (like protoIslam later). Apologists like Quadratus - I would include, Aristides and pseudoJustin - made appeal to Greek rationalism; which (by then) granted little space for daimones.

Generally, Christianity inherited Enochian daemonlogy and, of those Christians, most didn't want it. Only when demon-riddled Gospels entered the mainstream, did Christians start to (re)accept it, particularly among the Greeks.

This has implications for the Markan / Petrine sect. Maybe it really was a Galilean village movement. I wonder if the Syriac Gospel which Ignatius quoted had a supernatural element as well.

BACKDATE 4/30