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DID THE JEWS
HAVE POWER TO CAST OUT DEVILS BEFORE CHRIST CAME? QUESTION: Did the Jews, their children, priests, or prophets have power to cast out devils before Christ came on the scene? I refer to Matthew 12:26 and Acts 19:13-20. ANSWER: I am a little reluctant to enter into a discussion on this question because I like to have a solid scriptural foundation for everything I put out for the public to read and I find that to be somewhat lacking in regard to this question. I have searched but have found very little if any direct scriptural references on this subject. I find this reference in the writings of Josephus who is accredited with being one of the most renowned of Jewish historians. In book 8, chapter 2, paragraph 5, pages 240-241 of "Antiquities of the Jews" he says in discussing the superlative wisdom which God gave unto Solomon, "God also enabled him to learn that skill which expels demons which is a science useful and sanative (curative; restorative). He composed such incantations also by which distempers are alleviated. And he left behind him the manner of using exorcism, by which they drive away demons, so that they never return; and this method of cure is of great force unto this day;..." Josephus in the same paragraph states that he had seen a man named Eleazar driving out evil spirits from people and still making mention of Solomon and reciting the incantations which he had composed. Now Josephus lived shortly after Christ’s time and he declares that these things were going on then and that those who did this were still using the name of Solomon and reciting the incantations which he composed. It would then probably be safe to conclude that this practice had been going on all down through the annals of Jewish history from the time of Solomon and that his name was being used in connection with it all along. However, to be fair to everybody, I will also insert a footnote from these same pages (240-241). I do not know who wrote the footnotes throughout this volume but suppose it to be the translator of the volume, William Whitson, a Cambridge University professor of mathematics. He says, "I entirely differ with Josephus in this his supposal, that such books and arts of Solomon were parts of that wisdom which was imparted to him by God in his younger days; they must rather have belonged to such profane and curious arts as we find mentioned in Acts 19:13-20, and have been derived from the idolatry and superstitions of the heathen wives and concubines in his old age, when he had forsaken God, and God had forsaken him, and given him up to demonical delusions." He concludes this footnote with this, "As for the following history, it confirms what Christ says in Matthew 12:27, If I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out?’"No matter which opinion we choose to adopt, it seems certain that all through Jewish history from Solomon on, there were men among the Jews engaged in casting out demons or evil spirits. And it is certain, and we do find solid scriptural foundation in Matthew 12:27 that there were such people in the time of Jesus. In the case in Acts 19:13-20, the seven sons of one Sceva, a priest, must have been familiar with the practice of calling someone’s name (perhaps Solomon’s) in expelling demons, only in this case they repeated the name of Jesus whom Paul preached. At any rate it never worked. They were practicing a curious art, and God never gave His support to it. It would appear that all that kind of work that went on in Jewish history was spurious also.
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