DEMONIACS (SatiLomMuevoi.), demonized per sons in the N. T. are those who were supposed to have a demon or demons occupying them, suspend ing the faculties of their minds, and governing the members of their bodies, so that what was said and done by the demoniacs was ascribed to the in-dwel ling demon. Plato (aped Clem. Alex. Strom. i. 405, Oxon.) affirms that demoniacs do not use their own dialect or tongue, but that of the demons who have entered into them.' Lucian says, ' the patient is silent, the demon returns the answer to the question asked.' Apollonius thus addresses a youth supposed to he possessed :—` I am treated contumeliously by the demon, and not by thee' (comp. Matt. viii. 28 and 31 ; Mark v. 2 ; ix. 12 ; Luke viii. 27, 32).
The correctness of the opinion respecting those who are called SalaoviNacvot in the N. T., which prevailed among the Jews and other nations in the time of our Lord and his Apostles, has been called in question. On the one hand it is urged that the details of the evangelical history afford decisive evidence of the truth and reality of demoniacal possessions in the sense already explained, at least during the commencement of Christianity ; on the other hand, it is contended that the accounts in question may all be understood as the phenomena of certain diseases, particularly hypochondria, in sanity, and epilepsy ; that the sacred writers used the popular language in reference to the subject, but that they themselves understood no more than that the persons were the subjects of ordinary diseases. here issue is joined, and it is to the evidence in this cause that our attention will now be directed.
Those who contend that the demoniacs were really possessed by an evil spirit, urge the follow ing considerations : I. The demoniacs express themselves in a way unusual for hypochondriacal, insane, or epileptic persons (Matt. viii. 29 ; Mark i. 24) ; they pos sessed supernatural strength (Mark v. 4) ; they ad jure Jesus not to torment them ; they answer the questions proposed to them in a rational manner ; they are distinctly said to have `come out of men and to have `entered into swine,' and that conse quently the whole herd, amounting to about two thousand, ran violently down a precipice into the sea (Matt. viii. 32 ; Mark v. 13). The supposition
which has been maintained by Lardner, among others, that the swine were driven into the sea by the demoniac:, is irreconcilable with the language of the narrative, being also highly improbable in itself : madmen do not act in concert, and rarely pursue the same train of maniacal reasoning.
2. No mental diseases are predicated of the dumb (Matt. ix. 32), or of the blind and dumb (Matt. xii. 22). Do such diseases ever produce blindness ? 3. It is admitted that the symptoms of the youth described Matt. xvii. 15 ; Mark ix. 17 ; Luke ix. 39, coincide precisely with those of epilepsy, but they are attributed to the agency of the demon in that very account.
4. The damsel at Philippi is said to have been possessed with a spirit of divination, which was the means of obtaining much gain to her masters, and to have understood the divine commission of Paul and his companions (Acts xvi. 17). Is this to be ascribed merely to an aberration of mind ? 5. The demoniacs themselves confess that they were possessed with demons (Mark v. 9) ; the same is asserted of them by their relatives (Matt. xv. 22). The Apostles and Evangelists assert that persons possessed with demons were brought unto Jesus (Matt. iv. 24 ; Mark i. 32), or met him (Luke viii. 27). Jesus commands them not to make him known as the Messiah (Mark i. 34, margin) ; re buked them (Matt. xvii. i8). The Evangelists de clare that the demons departed from their victims at his command (Matt. xvii. IS ; Mark ix. 25, 26; Luke iv. 35 ; xi. 14) ; and Jesus himself asserts it (Luke xiii. 32).
6. The writers of the N. T. make distinctions between the diseased and the demoniacs (Mark i. 32 ; Luke vi. 17, 18) ; and Jesus himself does so (Matt. x. 8, etc.) 7. The demoniacs knew Jesus to be the Son of God (Matt. viii. 29 ; Mark i. 24; v. 7), and the Christ (Luke iv. 41).