Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§15.7 Who Did They Think Jesus Was?
6. The actual exorcism, 'Come out of him' (1.25; 5.8), is used in other exorcism
formulae. 295 Similarly, in 9.25 the phrase 'I command you' is familiar
in magical incantations seeking to control demons and gods; 296 and the
phrase 'Never enter him again' (9.25) can be paralleled in the literature relating
to exorcisms. 297
When confronted with such parallels we can never escape this conundrum:
Do we have here stories which have been conformed to the standard pattern of
such stories, or should we rather see here the sort of episodes which gave rise to
the pattern? More tantalising still, if such were indeed characteristic features of
exorcism practice/stories: Would the degree of conditioning implied actually
shape the way the exorcist (and demoniac!) acted or the way the exorcism was
'seen' (and then narrated) by the onlookers? Either way, we have to assume that
such events were witnessed, put into oral form, and circulated among Jesus' followers
(and more widely); otherwise the strength and extent of Jesus' reputation
as an exorcist are hardly possible to explain. 298
e. Jesus the Healer
Mark again provides a good range of examples of the range of healings which
were credited to Jesus during his mission, no doubt in marketplace gossip as well
as disciple gatherings. To draw from them the conclusion that stories like these
must have circulated during his mission is to toy again with the idea that we
should try to uncover a historical Jesus who was similar to but somehow different
from the Jesus of the Synoptics. These were the stories which were being circulated
during his mission. Nor, once again, should we allow ourselves to slip into
the comfortable hypothesis that they were put into miracle-story form only at
295. Philostratus, Life 4.20; Lucian, Philops. 11,16; PGM 4.3013; see also D. E. Aune,
'Magic in Early Christianity', ANRW 2.23.2 (1980) 1507-57 (here 1531-32); Kollmann, Jesus
202-203.
296. E.g., PGM 1.253, 324; 2.43-55; 4.3080; 7.331; 12.171.
297. Josephus, Ant. 8.47; Philostratus, Life 4.20. See further Twelftree, Jesus the Exorcist
95-96.
298. Meier concludes that Mark 1.23-28 serves as 'a global representation of "the sort of
thing" Jesus did during his ministry in Capernaum', that 'an exorcism performed by Jesus near
Gerasa lies at the basis of the Gospel narrative in Mark 5.1-20' (similarly Ädna, 'Encounter'
298-99), and follows Pesch {Markusevangelium 2.95) in discerning 'some historical remembrance'
behind Mark 9.14-29 {Marginal Jew 2.650, 653, 656). The Jesus Seminar 'agreed that
Jesus healed people and drove away what were thought to be demons' (Funk, Acts of Jesus 60).
Lüdemann even concludes that 'the activity of Jesus in driving out demons is one of the most
certain historical facts about his life' {Jesus 13).
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