An inquiry into the existence of a personal devil / [By John Epps.

Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry into the existence of a personal devil / [By John Epps. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    I seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth. Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.” This last statement astonished the Jews still more, and they exclaimed, 153 “ Now we know that thou hast a devil (a possession.) Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, if a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death.” The Saviour, on another occasion, had been describing himself as the good shepherd, as the door of the sheep, as having sheep of another fold, (this touched, it is likely, their Jewish pride,) as “laying down his life for the sheep,” and further, what, no doubt, startled them, that though he did lay down his life, it was of his own free will: and that, further, the laying it down was a matter quite within his own power. The effect was as might be expected, 154 “ There wras a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings. And many of them said, he hath a devil (a possession) and is mad: why hear ye him ? Others said, these are not the words of him that hath a devil (a possession). Can a devil (a possession) open the eyes of the blind?” It may be noticed here, that the term possession, and not even the word demon, occurs in all these passages, so that the Jews, so far as these passages are concerned, evidently had no belief in a devil. On another occasioii Jesus had astonished them by his knowledge, and yet they were unwilling to give credit to him, although they professed such a reverence for Moses, who spoke of him. He thus reproves them,155 “Did not Moses give you the law, and yet no one of you keepeth the law ? Why go ye about to kill me ? The people answered and said, thou hast a devil (a possession): who goeth about to kill thee ?” They inferred him insane, because they did not know what he knew, their intention not yet developed to kill him. Jesus was so much the subject of attention on account of the wonderful cures he performed, that numbers assembled about him; 156 “ and the mul- tidude cometh together again,” and that in such a constant succession, “ so that they could not so much as eat bread.” His kinsmen, for so the word is, wishing, it may be, to take advantage of Jesus5 popularity, and thereby to gain notice through him with the people, or it may be, influenced by a kindly motive of preventing their kinsman injuring himself, when they heard of the fact, “ went out to lay hold on him; for they said, He is beside himself,55 that is, this going without his meals, added to other manifesta- tions of a total absence of selfishness, making them believe that he was mad. Whenever one gives another a bad name there are plenty who will join in the cry : and the scribes, the divine code explainers of the day, who came down from Jerusalem, (the regularly authorized place for scribes to come from,) politely added, 15r “ He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils (possessions) casteth he out devils” (possessions.) 153 John viii. 52. 164 John x. 20. 155 John vii. 19, 20. 156 Mark iii. 20, 21. 157 Mark iii. 22. H 2