The Supernatural in the New Testament, Possible, Credible, and Historical / Or, An Examination of the Validity of Some Recent Objections Against Christianity as a Divine Revelation

by C. A. Row

It is desirable that the difficulty should be put in the strongest light. I will therefore state it in the words of the author of “Supernatural Religion.” “It would be an insult to the understanding of those who are considering this question, to pause here to prove that the historical books of the New Testament, speak in the clearest and most unmistakable terms of actual demoniacal possession.” Now what has become of this theory of disease? The Archbishop of Dublin is probably [pg 240] the only one who asserts the reality of demoniacal possession formerly, and in the present day; and in this way we must say that he is consistent. Dean Milman, on the other hand, who spoke with the enlightenment of the 19th century, “has no scruple in averring his opinion on the subject of demoniacal possession to be that of Joseph Mede, Lardner, Dr. Mead, Paley, and all the learned modern writers. It was a kind of insanity, and nothing is more probable than that lunacy would take the turn, and speak the language of the prevailing superstition of the times.” The Dean, as well as “all the learned modern writers” to whom he refers, felt the difficulty, but in seeking to evade it, they sacrifice the Gospels. They overlook the fact, that the writers of these narratives, not only themselves adopt “the prevailing superstition of the times,” but represent Jesus as doing so with equal completeness. There is no possibility, for instance, of evading such statements as those in the miracle of the country of the Gadarenes, where the objectivity of the demons is so fully recognised, that on being cast out of the man, they are represented as requesting to be allowed to go into the herd of swine, and being permitted by Jesus to do so, the entry of the demons into the swine is at once signalised by the herd running violently down the cliff into the lake and being drowned. (p. 131.) The author might have strengthened his case, as far as modern authorities are concerned, by drawing attention to the fact, that even Dr. Farrar, who seems to maintain the objective reality of demoniacal possessions in his recently published “Life of Christ,” admits that in the statement that the demons locally passed from the man into the swine, some inaccuracy has crept into the narrative of the Evangelists.

It will be at once seen that the all-important point [pg 241] in this objection is the apparent acceptance by our Lord of demoniacal possession, as being a correct account of an objective fact. I fully agree with this writer, that those who affirm that it was madness and nothing else are bound, when they propose this solution of the difficulty, to point out distinctly how it affects the question of our Lord's veracity, and the historical character of the Gospels.

In approaching this question, let me at once observe that while I entertain a definite opinion as to the nature of the inspiration of the New Testament derived not from à priori assumptions, but from a careful study of its facts and phenomena, yet the question at issue is not what is the nature or the extent of the inspiration, but the reality of the supernatural events recorded in the Gospels. This issue is one which is purely historical, and therefore I have simply to examine it on historical grounds, and not to defend any particular theory of inspiration. Our business is first to ascertain what are the facts of the New Testament which are supported by historical evidence; when we have ascertained these, we shall be in a position to propound a theory of inspiration in accordance with the facts and assertions; still, however, it will be necessary to find out how a certain state of the facts will affect the character which the Gospels attribute to our Lord.

The following facts are plain on the surface of the Gospels. First, that the followers of our Lord believed that the demoniacal possessions there recorded were objective facts, and not mere forms of disease.

Secondly, that our Lord himself, if the words attributed to Him are correctly reported, used language which seems to imply that He shared in this belief.

Thirdly, that in a particular instance, not only do [pg 242] the Evangelists affirm that our Lord addressed a demoniac, but also the demons who possessed him, and that He permitted their departure into a herd of swine, thereby apparently confirming the objective reality of the possession.

The question is a far more serious one, as it affects our Lord, than those on whose reports the statements of the Gospels are founded. He is represented as being a divine person, and as possessed in His human nature, not of infinite but of superhuman knowledge. His apparent sanction of an erroneous view is therefore a very different thing from the apparent sanction of it by an author of a Gospel, or from the mistaken views which his followers might have entertained as to the causes of a bodily disease.

I should find no difficulty in adopting the theory of the eminent writers above named, that the demoniacal possessions mentioned in the New Testament, were nothing but forms of insanity, if it were not that our Lord has apparently recognised their reality. It has been urged that if possession was nothing but insanity, there is an end of the miracle. But this is not the case, for the cure of a madman is quite as much a supernatural act as the expulsion of a demon.

Let me now assume for argument's sake, that possession was simple madness. How does such a supposition affect the veracity of the authors of the Gospels, and their judgment as credible historians of the events of our Lord's life?

If we assume that possession was madness, it is evident from the language which the Evangelists have employed that they must have shared in the ignorance of the times in which they lived as to the true causes of the complaint. When however we speak of the ignorance of any particular period, it should be observed [pg 243] that the expression is an indefinite one. We have no right to impute to any body of authors opinions on particular subjects of which their writings contain no traces. It has been affirmed, as we have seen, that the Jews of the apostolic age held a number of opinions on the subject of possession of the most grotesque and monstrous description. I have already shown that to impute these opinions to them, when no trace of them can be found in their writings is a most unfair mode of reasoning.