3rd Missionary Trip - Lorin

is not the language that authentic Christians speak inside the New Testament. Luke goes to great pains to make
this distinction clear in his depiction of the activity of the τινες καὶ τῶν περιερχομένων Ἰουδαίων ἐξορκιστῶν, also
some of the wandering 62 Jewish exorcists. By the way Luke refers to these individuals one recognizes he sees them
very negatively. 63 This stands in contrast to some of the Jewish depictions of such magicians of that day. For
example, see Tobit 8:1-3 64 and Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, viii.2.5. The Jewish historian Josephus reflects
a common first century belief that king Solomon had powers of exorcism and that he passed these on to individuals
even into the first century world as is reflected in this passage. 65 But the rituals and the procedures for doing
exorcisms in these depictions hardly differ at all from the pagan magical source books preserved over time into
our day from that first century world. In comparison to the exorcisms found inside the New Testament by Jesus,
Peter and Paul, these ancient Jewish and pagan descriptions are dramatically different and sensational in nature
in contrast to the biblical depictions. 66 These texts serve to illustrate that ancient Judaism in some of its forms had
been lured into the raw paganism of the ancient world.
The sons of Sceva, vv. 14-16. The specific example of this Jewish perversion is identified specially at
this point. These individuals stand in the same pattern of Elymas / Bar-Jesus at Salamis on Cyprus, who was
described by Luke as a τινὰ μάγον ψευδοπροφήτην Ἰουδαῖον, a certain magican false prophet Jew in Acts 13:6.
Also Simon Magnus at Samaria in Acts 8:14-24 stands in this same negative tradition. Jesus implies this kind
6:40.” [C. K. Barrett, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, International Critical Commentary (Edinburgh:
T&T Clark, 2004), 908.]
62 “ἐπιχειρεῖν is used by Luke only in the NT (Lk. 1:1; Acts 9:29; 19:13). περιέρχεσθαι (cf. 28:13, si v. l.; Heb. 11:37) means to
go around, but, as 1 Tim. 5:13 may confirm, could (but does not necessarily) suggest the migration of wandering charlatans. Xenophon,
Cyropaedia 8:2:16 suggests the behaviour of a wandering beggar; Luke, who had no high opinion of wandering magicians, no doubt
thought of itinerant exorcists in this, or a less favourable way. See also Betz (142), ‘die wandernden Bettelpriester der Syrischen Göttin’.
Cf. Lucian, Asinus 37, τὴν χώραν περιῄειμεν.” [C. K. Barrett, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles,
International Critical Commentary (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2004), 907-08.]
63 “These exorcists travelled around (περι [peri]) from place to place like modern Gypsy fortune-tellers. The Jews were especially
addicted to such practices with spells of sorcery connected with the name of Solomon (Josephus, Ant. VIII. 2.5). See also Tobit
8:1–3. Jesus alludes to those in Palestine (Matt. 12:27=Luke 11:19). The exorcists were originally those who administered an oath (from
ἐξορκιζω [exorkizō], to exact an oath), then to use an oath as a spell or charm. Only instance here in the N.T.” [A.T. Robertson, Word
Pictures in the New Testament (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1933), Ac 19:13.]
64Tobit 8:1-3. 8 When they had finished the meal, and it was time to go to bed, Sarah’s parents led young Tobias to the bedroom.
2 He remembered Raphael’s instructions, so he took the fish’s liver and heart out of the bag where he had been keeping them. Then he
placed them on the burning incense. 3 The smell drove the demon away from them, and he fled to Egypt. Raphael chased after him and
caught him there. At once he bound him hand and foot.
65Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 8.2.5. 5. Now the sagacity and wisdom which God had bestowed on Solomon was so great,
that he exceeded the ancients; insomuch that he was no way inferior to the Egyptians, who are said to have been beyond all men in understanding;
nay, indeed, it is evident that their sagacity was very much inferior to that of the king’s. He also excelled and distinguished
himself in wisdom above those who were most eminent among the Hebrews at that time for shrewdness; those I mean were Ethan, and
Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. He also composed books of odes and songs a thousand and five, of parables and
similitudes three thousand; for he spake a parable upon every sort of tree, from the hyssop to the cedar; and in like manner also about
beasts, about all sorts of living creatures, whether upon the earth, or in the seas, or in the air; for he was not unacquainted with any of
their natures, nor omitted inquiries about them, but described them all like a philosopher, and demonstrated his exquisite knowledge of
their several properties. God also enabled him to learn that skill which expels demons,
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4 which is a science useful and sanative to men.
He composed such incantations also by which distempers are alleviated. And he left behind him the manner of using exorcisms, by
which they drive away demons, so that they never return; and this method of cure is of great force unto this day; for I have seen a
certain man of my own country, whose name was Eleazar, releasing people that were demoniacal in the presence of Vespasian, and
his sons, and his captains, and the whole multitude of his soldiers. The manner of the cure was this: He put a ring that had a Foot
of one of those sorts mentioned by Solomon to the nostrils of the demoniac, after which he drew out the demon through his nostrils;
and when the man fell down immediately, he abjured him to return into him no more, making still mention of Solomon, and reciting
the incantations which he composed. And when Eleazar would persuade and demonstrate to the spectators that he had such a power,
he set a little way off a cup or basin full of water, and commanded the demon, as he went out of the man, to overturn it, and thereby
to let the spectators know that he had left the man; and when this was done, the skill and wisdom of Solomon was shown very manifestly:
for which reason it is, that all men may know the vastness of Solomon’s abilities, and how he was beloved of God, and that the
extraordinary virtues of every kind with which this king was endowed may not be unknown to any people under the sun for this reason,
I say, it is that we have proceeded to speak so largely of these matters.
66 “There are in fact a variety of regular features in ancient magic: (1) complicated rituals, (2) magic spells and recipes, (3) the
reciting of various names for various gods or even nonsense syllables in hopes of landing on a combination of sounds or names that will
force a god to do one’s bidding, (4) the reliance on a professional technician who demands payment and relies on secrecy, (5) syncretism,
(6) coercion and manipulation as opposed to personal relating and supplication.” [Ben Witherington, III, The Acts of the Apostles: A
Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998), 578.]