DEMON POSSESSION #5
MoonStruck; Possession or Epilepsy?
Our challenge: Do seizures indicate possession? What does “moonstruck” in the Bible mean? Is it an identification for “demon possession”? What should our attitude towards epilepsy be?
Can you imagine this? “In 2015, 1.2% of the US population had active epilepsy ... 3 million adults and 470,000 children” i in the United States. You may know someone that has epilepsy. What is your understanding towards it? A common misconception of “unclean spirit possession” is that if they are real today then the victims will always have violent seizures. Or, more commonly, and sadly, it may be the other way around; i.e., if one has seizures he/she must have a demon.
DEFINITION OF MOONSTRUCK. First of all, this word refers to a sickness (Matthew 4:24). There are only two passages in the NT that has the word “moonstruck”ii in the original language. Both are in the apostle's account of the public ministry of Jesus (Matthew 4:24; 17:15). There is an agreement that the word as coined was referring to a belief of an affect of the moon. What was that sickness?
AN INSTANCE OF MOONSTRUCK. A boy is at the base of Mt. Hermon (Matthew 17:14-18; Mark 9:14-29; Luke 9:38-42). A desperate father begs Jesus to deliver his tormented son from a cruel and vicious demon who would cause him to fall into fire and water, cast him to the ground, throw him into convulsions, and was slowly killing him. Jesus' disciples could not cure [therapy] him. Note the ensuing conversation: The father: “Have mercy on my son; for he is lunaticiii [“moonstruck”]; and sore vexed (“pained”). If you can do anything, please do it.” Think about a man asking the Son of God “IF” He can do something! The Savior says. “If you believe, I can do all things.” The father: “Lord, I believe—help thou my unbelief.” Jesus cured him.
FIRST CENTURY VERNACULAR. The Biblical word describing the child is “moonstruck.” It is translated by the KJV translators, not as “moonstruck”, but by its Anglicized Latin form “lunatick” (lunaticus; lunar = “moon”). But in English such a word suggests an unbalanced mental idea and therefore Strong's Concordance says it means “crazy.” A couple of so called “free translations” have “freely” interpreted the Bible word bolstered by Strong's, no doubt, as “were off their heads" (BBE) and "thought to be crazy" (CEV). Studies do indicate that ancient philosophers such as Aristotle and Pliny the Elder believed that the full moon did induce insanity in persons with bipolar disorder. iv But the word “moonstruck” is not referring to an insane boy in Matthew 17.
TRANSLATIONS DIFFER FROM THE KJV's "LUNATICK". The word in the original Greek simply means "moonstruck." But what did "moonstruck" mean? Translators take liberty with their interpretation. In Matthew (in the ESV and NKJV) the word epileptic is used to describe the boy in Matthew 17. Also in American English "lunatic" is being legally "outlawed." President Obama signed into a law that removed the last vestige of the word from legal documents!v Meanwhile, the NIV says, “He has seizures.” This is a better translation in my opinion. Why? In Mark and Luke, the father of the boy states that “a spirit seizes him.” Comparing the three accounts in the Gospels, the boy’s symptoms included sudden screaming, foaming at the mouth, lack of speech, falling, rigidity, and self-harm.vi If so, then the father's using "moonstruck" was his way of describing "seizures" to Jesus.
TRANSLATED WORD/S : versionsvii
EPILEPTIC:
.........................
ASV, ESV, GNB, ISV, RV, TS2009, WEB,
WEBA, WEYMOUTH,
WILLIAMS, WNT, CEV
SUFFERED
FROM
SEIZURES: .......................
ERV, GW, TLV
OFF
THEIR HEADS:
............ BBE
LUNATIC(KE)S
:
.................
KJV, BISHOPS, ERRB,
FLS, FRENCH DB, JUB,
GENEVA, MKJV, MURDOCK, VULGATE,
YLT,
WEBSTER,
MOONSTRUCK
:
................... EMTV,
LITV
MOONSTRUCK AND SEIZURES. So some commentators deduce, and rightly so, that the word "moonstruck" more correctly refers in this passage to seizures, and not to mental capacity. This appears to be consistent with how the word moonstruck is described in Matthew 17's parallel accounts in Mark 9 and Luke 9. Mark's version in 9:18 indicates that the son was having convulsions with seizures: “And wheresoever he [the unclean spirit] taketh (seizes) him*, he teareth him (knocks him down): and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away.” Luke 9:39's version is "A demon often attacks him and makes him scream. It shakes him until he foams at the mouth, and it won't leave him until it has completely worn the boy out.” *Incidentally, the word "taketh" in Mark 9:18 translates the Anglicized Greek word catalepsy (i.e., seizes).viii The demon spirit seizes the son. The result obviously in this case is classic seizure. Its cause was the demon.
THE BIBLICAL VIEW. This is the only occasion Biblically where epilepsy is associated with demon possession. And it indicates that seizures are incidental and a byproductix of the one that is here possessed. This must be so because the unclean spirit according to Jesus was actually a "deaf and dumb spirit" (Mark 9:25) and not a spirit specifically for "seizures." The demon just adds insult to injury according to his wicked desire. On the other hand, the apostle Matthew makes a sweeping distinction between being naturally epileptic and being “demon possessed” earlier in chapter 4:24!
DID SEIZURES INDICATE UNNATURAL POSSESSION? No. Fifth Century B.C.: Greek physician and “Father of Medicine”, Hippocrates regarded seizures as a physical disorder due to natural causes. Second Century A.D., almost contemporary with Matthew: Greek physician and philosopher, Galen of Pergamon performed no autopsies but described “three types of fits [sic]”, and deduced that epilepsy was a brain disorder related to an accumulation of thick humours. But Galen did add that he thought the moon governed the periods of epileptic cases. Hence, in this sense then, Greeks and Romans regarded them as lunatics. x Note: Modern studies by British scientists actually suggest that a full moon may affect by actually decreasing seizure activity in epileptics rather than increase them.xi Nevertheless, we can appreciate the first century beliefs of the moon's affect upon diseases.
In spite of this, superstitious cultures have blamed the illness epilepsy on divine, demonic and supernatural powers. For example, contemporary to Hippocrates, the Babylonians referred to it as the “falling disease” and attributed it to ghosts and demons. “Throughout history, in almost every culture, epilepsy has been viewed as something to be feared, avoided and concealed.”xii
THE MODERN WORLD'S ATTITUDE. “Jinn” [Arabic's demon] possessionxiii is believed to be a cause of epilepsy in many cultures, such as in Saudi society. Saudi Arabia is a rapidly developing country whose nationals are solely Muslims.xiv In the 1980s a study of Nigeria found that witchcraft was the second most-often-mentioned cause of epilepsy. xv This is also true for Central Africa and Central and South America. However, patients are thought to get psychological benefit from superstitious remedies even if western-style treatment is also available.xvi Even in south Florida, USA, five cases of epileptic seizures were initially attributed to Voodoo spirit possession.xvii When witchcraft is combined with “Christian missionary teaching”, these beliefs cause it to be seen as a punishment or a result of possession by demons.xviii These misconceptions contribute to negative attitudes towards epilepsy, and might` be corrected by “education about epilepsy at all educational levels and … with faith healers.”xix
CONCLUSION. "Moonstruck" referred to seizures, epilepsy. While the demons that possessed people in the New Testament affected each person differently, epilepsy was associated with only the one child at Mountain Hermon. "Many of those possessed had symptoms altogether different."xx We know of only one instance that included seizures but not all. Indeed, Jesus healed an entire class of persons that specifically had seizures ("moonstruck") that definitely were not classed as possessed (Matthew 4:24). Seizures also were and are not caused by a goddess in the moon but like all diseases may be aggravated by the changing phases of the moon like the tides of the sea are affected.
GaylonWest
BibleStudyLessons.net
