Note on this edition: this is an electronic version of the 1999 book ...

The Ancestry of the Demonic 43Christ exorcising a demon (from a thirteenth-century Armenian gospel;Russell 1988/1993, 34).tuagint) to denote foreign gods or spirits with a negative connotation. Accordingto Frieden, the gospels modify and alter the existing meanings by“employing the words daimones and pneumata to denote independent evilspirits, rather than false gods worshipped by idolaters” – not to mention theambivalent divinities of archaic Greek culture. 74 The New Testament text isboth using old words to convey its message, and modifying their meaning,or fighting against the old significancies, at the same time.How does this relate to the subject matter of the quoted scene? Jesus’activity in this fragment is fundamentally shamanistic: he performs a cure byhis mastery of spirits. Shamanism, consultation of spirits, and similar techniqueswere part of folk religions and were popular among the Pagans; there74Frieden 1990, 45.