1. Josephus Flavius, Jewish Antiquities, 8.46-8.49 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 8.46. 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: 8.47. He put a ring that had a root 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. 8.48. 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; 8.49. 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. |
|
2. New Testament, 1 Corinthians, 12.3, 12.9 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 12.3. Therefore Imake known to you that no man speaking by God's Spirit says, "Jesus isaccursed." No one can say, "Jesus is Lord," but by the Holy Spirit. 12.9. to another faith, by the sameSpirit; and to another gifts of healings, by the same Spirit; |
|
3. New Testament, Acts, 3.6-3.10, 5.12-5.16, 8.7, 9.32-9.35, 13.6, 13.14, 16.16-16.18, 19.14, 20.7-20.12 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 3.6. But Peter said, "Silver and gold have I none, but what I have, that I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise and walk! 3.7. He took him by the right hand, and raised him up. Immediately his feet and his ankle bones received strength. 3.8. Leaping up, he stood, and began to walk. He entered with them into the temple, walking, leaping, and praising God. 3.9. All the people saw him walking and praising God. 3.10. They recognized him, that it was he who sat begging for gifts for the needy at the Beautiful Gate of the temple. They were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened to him. 5.12. By the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. They were all with one accord in Solomon's porch. 5.13. None of the rest dared to join them, however the people honored them. 5.14. More believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women. 5.15. They even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on cots and mattresses, so that as Peter came by, at the least his shadow might overshadow some of them. 5.16. Multitudes also came together from the cities around Jerusalem, bringing sick people, and those who were tormented by unclean spirits: and they were all healed. 8.7. For unclean spirits came out of many of those who had them. They came out, crying with a loud voice. Many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed. 9.32. It happened, as Peter went throughout all those parts, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda. 9.33. There he found a certain man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden for eight years, because he was paralyzed. 9.34. Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and make your bed!" Immediately he arose. 9.35. All who lived at Lydda and in Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord. 13.6. When they had gone through the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar Jesus 13.14. But they, passing through from Perga, came to Antioch of Pisidia. They went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and sat down. 16.16. It happened, as we were going to prayer, that a certain girl having a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much gain by fortune telling. 16.17. The same, following after Paul and us, cried out, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation! 16.18. This she did for many days. But Paul, becoming greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I charge you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!" It came out that very hour. 19.14. There were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did this. 20.7. On the first day of the week, when the disciples were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and continued his speech until midnight. 20.8. There were many lights in the upper chamber where we were gathered together. 20.9. A certain young man named Eutychus sat in the window, weighed down with deep sleep. As Paul spoke still longer, being weighed down by his sleep, he fell down from the third story, and was taken up dead. 20.10. Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, "Don't be troubled, for his life is in him. 20.11. When he had gone up, and had broken bread, and eaten, and had talked with them a long while, even until break of day, he departed. 20.12. They brought the boy alive, and were not a little comforted. |
|
4. New Testament, Titus, 2.3 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 2.3. and that older women likewise be reverent in behavior, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good; |
|
5. New Testament, John, 11, 21, 7, 9-10 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
|
6. Anon., The Acts of John, 101-102, 109, 19-29, 31, 33-54, 60-61, 63-100 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
| 100. Now the multitude of one aspect (al. of one aspect) that is about the cross is the lower nature: and they whom thou seest in the cross, if they have not one form, it is because not yet hath every member of him that came down been comprehended. But when the human nature (or the upper nature) is taken up, and the race which draweth near unto me and obeyeth my voice, he that now heareth me shall be united therewith, and shall no more be that which now he is, but above them, as I also now am. For so long as thou callest not thyself mine, I am not that which I am (or was): but if thou hear me, thou, hearing, shalt be as I am, and I shall be that which I was, when I thee as I am with myself. For from me thou art that (which I am). Care not therefore for the many, and them that are outside the mystery despise; for know thou that I am wholly with the Father, and the Father with me. |
|
7. Anon., Acts of John, 101-102, 109, 19-29, 31, 34-54, 60-61, 63-100 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
| 100. Now the multitude of one aspect (al. of one aspect) that is about the cross is the lower nature: and they whom thou seest in the cross, if they have not one form, it is because not yet hath every member of him that came down been comprehended. But when the human nature (or the upper nature) is taken up, and the race which draweth near unto me and obeyeth my voice, he that now heareth me shall be united therewith, and shall no more be that which now he is, but above them, as I also now am. For so long as thou callest not thyself mine, I am not that which I am (or was): but if thou hear me, thou, hearing, shalt be as I am, and I shall be that which I was, when I thee as I am with myself. For from me thou art that (which I am). Care not therefore for the many, and them that are outside the mystery despise; for know thou that I am wholly with the Father, and the Father with me. |
|
8. Anon., Acts of Peter, 28-29, 8, 21 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
|
9. Lucian, The Lover of Lies, 16 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
|
10. Philostratus The Athenian, Life of Apollonius, 3.38, 4.20, 4.44 (2nd cent. CE
| 3.38. THIS discussion was interrupted by the appearance among the sages of the messenger bringing in certain Indians who were in want of succor. And he brought forward a poor woman who interceded in behalf of her child, who was, she said, a boy of sixteen years of age, but had been for two years possessed by a devil. Now the character of the devil was that of a mocker and a liar. Here one of the sages asked, why she said this, and she replied: This child of mine is extremely good-looking, and therefore the devil is amorous of him and will not allow him to retain his reason, nor will he permit him to go to school, or to learn archery, nor even to remain at home, but drives him out into desert places. And the boy does not even retain his own voice, but speaks in a deep hollow tone, as men do; and he looks at you with other eyes rather than with his own. As for myself I weep over all this and I tear my cheeks, and I rebuke my son so far as I well may; but he does not know me. And I made my mind to repair hither, indeed I planned to do so a year ago; only the demon discovered himself using my child as a mask, and what he told me was this, that he was the ghost of man, who fell long ago in battle, but that at death he was passionately attached to his wife. Now he had been dead for only three days when his wife insulted their union by marrying another man, and the consequence was that he had come to detest the love of women, and had transferred himself wholly into this boy. But he promised, if I would only not denounce him to yourselves, to endow the child with many noble blessings. As for myself, I was influenced by these promises; but he has put me off and off for such a long time now, that he has got sole control of my household, yet has no honest or true intentions. Here the sage asked afresh, if the boy was at hand; and she said not, for, although she had done all she could to get him to come with her, the demon had threatened her with steep places and precipices and declared that he would kill her son, in case, she added, I haled him hither for trial. Take courage, said the sage, for he will not slay him when he has read this. And so saying he drew a letter out of his bosom and gave it to the woman; and the letter, it appears, was addressed to the ghost and contained threats of an alarming kind. 4.20. Now while he was discussing the question of libations, there chanced to be present in his audience a young dandy who bore so evil a reputation for licentiousness that his conduct had long been the subject of coarse street-corner songs. His home was Corcyra, and he traced his pedigree to Alcinous the Phaeacian who entertained Odysseus. Apollonius then was talking about libations, and was urging them not to drink out of a particular cup, but to reserve it for the gods, without ever touching it or drinking out of it. But when he also urged them to have handles on the cup, and to pour the libation over the handle, because that is the part at which men are least likely to drink, the youth burst out into loud and coarse laughter, and quite drowned his voice. Then Apollonius looked up and said: It is not yourself that perpetrates this insult, but the demon, who drives you without your knowing it. And in fact the youth was, without knowing it, possessed by a devil; for he would laugh at things that no one else laughed at, and then would fall to weeping for no reason at all, and he would talk and sing to himself. Now most people thought that it was boisterous humor of youth which led him into excesses; but he was really the mouthpiece of a devil, though it only seemed a drunken frolic in which on that occasion he was indulging. Now, when Apollonius gazed on him, the ghost in him began to utter cries of fear and rage, such as one hears from people who are being branded or racked; and the ghost swore that he would leave the you man alone and never take possession of any man again. But Apollonius addressed him with anger, as a master might a shifty, rascally, and shameless slave and so on, and he ordered him to quit the young man and show by a visible sign that he had done so. I will throw down yonder statue, said the devil, and pointed to one of the images which were there in the Royal Stoa, for there it was that the scene took place. But when the statue began by moving gently, and then fell down, it would defy anyone to describe the hubbub which arose thereat and the way they clapped their hand with wonder. But the young man rubbed his eyes as if he had just woke up, and he looked towards the rays of the sun, and assumed a modest aspect, as all had their attention concentrated on him; for he no longer showed himself licentious, nor did he stare madly about, but he had returned to his own self, as thoroughly as if he had been treated with drugs; and he gave up his dainty dress and summery garments and the rest of his sybaritic way of life, and he fell in love with the austerity of philosophers, and donned their cloak, and stripping off his old self modeled his life and future upon that of Apollonius. 4.44. Just then a distemper broke out in Rome, called by the physicians influenza; and it was attended, it seems, by coughings, and the voice of speakers was affected by it. Now the temples were full of people supplicating the gods, because Nero had a swollen throat, and his voice was hoarse. But Apollonius vehemently denounced the folly of the crowd, though without rebuking anyone in particular; nay, he even restrained Menippus, who was irritated by such goings on, and persuaded him to moderate his indignation, urging him to pardon the gods if they did show pleasure in the mimes of buffoons. This utterance was reported to Tigellinus, who immediately sent police to take him to prison, and summoned him to defend himself from the charge of impiety against Nero. And an accuser was retained against him who had already undone a great many people, and won a number of such Olympic victories. This accuser too held in his hands a scroll of paper on which the charge was written out, and he brandished it like a sword against the sage, and declared that it was so sharp that it would slay and ruin him. But when Tigellinus unrolled the scroll, and did not find upon it the trace of a single word or letter, and his eyes fell on a perfectly blank book, he came to the conclusion that he had to do with a demon; and this is said also subsequently to have been the feeling which Domitian afterwards entertained towards Apollonius. Tigellinus then took his victim apart into a secret tribunal, in which this class of magistrate tries in private the most important charges; and having ordered all to leave the court he plied him with questions, asking who he was. Apollonius gave his father's name and that of his country, and explained his motive in practicing wisdom, declaring that the sole use he had made of it was to gain knowledge of the gods and an understanding of human affairs, for that the difficulty of knowing another man exceeded that of knowing oneself. And about the demons, said Tigellinus, and the apparitions of specters, how, O Apollonius, do you exorcise them? In the same way, he answered, as I should murderers and impious men. This was a sarcastic allusion to Tigellinus himself, for he taught and encouraged in Nero every excess of cruelty and wanton violence. And, said the other, could you prophesy, if I asked you to? How, said Apollonius, can I, being no prophet? And yet, replied the other, they say that it is you who predicted that some great event would come to pass and yet not come to pass. Quite true, said Apollonius, is what you heard; but you must not put this down to any prophetic gift, but rather to the wisdom which God reveals to wise men. And, said the other, why are you not afraid of Nero? Because, said Apollonius, the same God who allows him to seem formidable, has also granted to me to feel no fear. And what do you think, said the other, about Nero? And Apollonius answered: Much better than you do; for you think it dignified for him to sing, but I think it dignified for him to keep silent. Tigellinus was astonished and said: You may go, but you must give sureties for your person. And Apollonius answered: And who can go surety for a body that no one can bind? This answer struck Tigellinus as inspired and above the wit of man; and as he was careful not to fight with a god, he said: You may go wherever you choose, for you are too powerful to be controlled by me. |
|
