WHEN Philip Pullman wrote the fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials, he imagined every human being as having a “daemon”, a spirit-self. In doing so, he provided one way of looking at “demons” (the spelling varies, but the same word is meant) which is variable but usually positive.
In the New Testament, and in early Christianity, demons are real supernatural beings whose exact nature is unclear, but definitely bad and dangerous. Early Christian monotheism had room for such supernatural beings. Later generations of the faithful kept the angels, but sidelined the demons.
The history of the Greek word (daimon or daimonion) reveals that this Christian sense of an evil supernatural being is not the norm. From early times, daimon could refer to a divine being, such as a god or goddess, or something that is less of a person and more or a force or quality, such as “divine power”, or even “fortune”, “chance”, or “fate”.
Centuries before Christ, Plato and Socrates imagined the daimon as a personal spirit accompanying each human being, rather like Pullman’s “daemons”. A couple of centuries later, the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible used the word daimon to translate several different Hebrew words. Still, it was never used to translate the word that we know as “angel”, used for those good supernatural beings who are intermediaries between God and humankind. The idea of “demons” being evil or “fallen” angels came later.
By the time of the New Testament, Christians had come to see daimones as supernatural spirits associated with individuals, but only negatively. This Gospel tells of a man who “had demons”. Luke’s telling of the story suggests that this is a bad thing. Jesus confirms the fact by performing an exorcism (a technical term for expelling evil spirits from a person or place).
How did daimones, those protecting spirits, become “demons”? It was in part a process of rethinking the idea of “God” and “divinity”, which was fundamental to the gospel. The divinity of Jesus was an acknowledged fact; for, from the beginning, Christians worshipped Jesus as “Christ”, “Son”, “Lord”, and “Word”. Any supernatural being which was “not-Jesus” must be inferior, evil.
In the time of Socrates and Plato, literature was exploring the nature of the divine, testing whether gods had individual existences, or were symbols for human emotion or characteristics, such as love or violence. In the world before modern science, daimones gave substance to people’s lived experience of forces outside human control or understanding. Daimones were capricious because the world was capricious. They demanded to be acknowledged and appeased.
In Luke, having demons is wholly a bad thing; for they alienate their victim from society. They humiliate him (he is naked). They suppress his true identity, speaking for him as if they owned his body, as if his own voice had no power to assert itself, or even to be heard. They are afraid of Jesus, and experience his presence as a torment rather than the blessing that Christians know it to be. That is powerful confirmation of their evil nature.
Scientifically educated modern readers may see this passage very differently from the way in which Luke apparently understands it. In the man’s limited control over his physical self, his transgressive utterances, his inability to conform, and his speaking with multiple voices, they may think first of mental disturbance, mental illness, psychosis, schizophrenia, and other (to the lay person) quasi-magical words expressive of divergence.
The successful outcome of the exorcism is simply described: the man emerges clothed, and in his right mind. But Luke, being Luke, decides to show us the impact of the change on those who observe it. And that is not relief, or rejoicing, but fear: “They were afraid.” Revealing his power over evil forces has made Jesus not attractive, or impressive, but frightening. People want him to go away.
Only the Synoptic Gospels describe Jesus as performing exorcisms: John has nothing to say about them. Perhaps he did not know about that element in Jesus’s ministry. Perhaps he knew, but decided not to include it. Without the many Synoptic exorcisms, then, we would not know Jesus as the one who confronts evil and restores mental equilibrium on the most humble level of human existence and need. John’s Gospel brings unique blessings. But Matthew, Mark, and — here — Luke also bestow blessings on us that are uniquely theirs.