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In the Name of Jesus: Exorcism among Early Christians
To many in the church in the West, exorcism seems like the stuff of movies. It requires acceptance of the premise that evil spirits exist and can invade, control, and impair the health of an individual and that the individual can, in turn, be cured through someone forcing the evil spirits to leave. "For the vast majority of biblical scholars," asserts Graham H. Twelftree, "this is tantamount to believing in such entities as elves, dragons, or a flat earth." But for Christians throughout the world--especially the developing world--exorcism is an important part of the freedom that can be had through faith. In the Name of Jesus is the only book that explores this common part of ministry in the early church. This reliable and historical discussion provides church leaders, Bible students, pastors, and scholars with an intriguing and unique resource.
352 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2007
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About the author
Graham H. Twelftree
13 books6 followersGraham H. Twelftree (PhD, University of Nottingham) is the Charles L. Holman Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity and the director of the PhD program in the School of Divinity at Regent University, Virginia. In addition to many scholarly articles and reviews, he is the author of a number of books, including In the Name of Jesus: Exorcism among Early Christians and People of the Spirit: Exploring Luke's View of the Church.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 29, 2013
Graham Twelftree returns to the subject of exorcism in the New Testament in his book In the Name of Jesus, having previously written monographs on Jesus as a miracle worker and exorcist. In this latest work, he expands and updates his contributions by studying the place of exorcism in the life of Jesus as well as the early church. Twelftree illustrates the place and practice of exorcism among early Christians. He does this by investigating the variety of portraits given throughout the New Testament documents, as well as those found connected to Christianity among the first two centuries A.D. In doing so, he describes how the New Testament provides a range of options for understanding and dealing with the demonic.
He concludes that this reflects a variety of vantage points held by early Christians. Mark’s Gospel, for instance, reflects those who held exorcism to be of high importance in relationship to Jesus’ mission, and by extension their own. Others, who would be more comfortable with the Fourth Gospel, diminished exorcism in favor of the defeat of the demonic through encounter with Truth. Matthew and other sources offered various mediating positions. Rather than continuing to emphasize exorcism, the early Christians of the first two centuries sought to highlight other ways to understand and handle the demonic.
Twelftree provides a very thorough, yet compact, exposition of exorcism. Some of his best fruit from this study comes from his ability to use extra-biblical resources to further highlight biblical insight. For instance, he successfully demonstrates the differences of Christian practices of exorcism compared to those of their contemporaries. Along the same vein, by showing the development of exorcism in the writings of the early centuries, Twelftree can reflect which themes and practices from Scripture early Christians found most comfort in emulating. Finally, Twelftree’s honesty and humility proved particularly refreshing and surprising. Upon his realization that some of this study’s conclusions were contrary to positions that he had previously held in earlier works, he corrects his position and offers his reasoning for updating his conclusions.
Unfortunately, some of Twelftree’s analysis suffers from repetition, such as how he investigates the Beelzebub controversy in each of the gospels (and Q), even though they offer no real additional insight. Sometimes he admits that there are few specifics with which to work, and accordingly some of his deductions are loosely testified. For example, he assumes that Paul would have included exorcisms in his descriptions of “signs and wonders.” Finally, Twelftree does not offer much room for contemporary application, how the ancient practices might inform present day practice. He offers just two or three pages of direct application out of the almost 300 page work. Still, In the Name of Jesus is an excellent resource that speaks to the very specific, yet not often highlighted, place of exorcism among the foundations of Christianity.
He concludes that this reflects a variety of vantage points held by early Christians. Mark’s Gospel, for instance, reflects those who held exorcism to be of high importance in relationship to Jesus’ mission, and by extension their own. Others, who would be more comfortable with the Fourth Gospel, diminished exorcism in favor of the defeat of the demonic through encounter with Truth. Matthew and other sources offered various mediating positions. Rather than continuing to emphasize exorcism, the early Christians of the first two centuries sought to highlight other ways to understand and handle the demonic.
Twelftree provides a very thorough, yet compact, exposition of exorcism. Some of his best fruit from this study comes from his ability to use extra-biblical resources to further highlight biblical insight. For instance, he successfully demonstrates the differences of Christian practices of exorcism compared to those of their contemporaries. Along the same vein, by showing the development of exorcism in the writings of the early centuries, Twelftree can reflect which themes and practices from Scripture early Christians found most comfort in emulating. Finally, Twelftree’s honesty and humility proved particularly refreshing and surprising. Upon his realization that some of this study’s conclusions were contrary to positions that he had previously held in earlier works, he corrects his position and offers his reasoning for updating his conclusions.
Unfortunately, some of Twelftree’s analysis suffers from repetition, such as how he investigates the Beelzebub controversy in each of the gospels (and Q), even though they offer no real additional insight. Sometimes he admits that there are few specifics with which to work, and accordingly some of his deductions are loosely testified. For example, he assumes that Paul would have included exorcisms in his descriptions of “signs and wonders.” Finally, Twelftree does not offer much room for contemporary application, how the ancient practices might inform present day practice. He offers just two or three pages of direct application out of the almost 300 page work. Still, In the Name of Jesus is an excellent resource that speaks to the very specific, yet not often highlighted, place of exorcism among the foundations of Christianity.
June 25, 2024
Brilliant and insightful analysis of both the New Testament and writings of the earliest Christian documents. The usefulness of this book is somewhat hampered by Twelftree's adoption of contemporary theories, relying on Q, Markan Priority, and the idea of redaction to analyze a "development" of Christian thought in the canon. Even still, his exegetical work is most valuable and his analysis of the post-New Testament writings are quite thorough. This is a very enlightening book.
January 5, 2018
Though time-consuming and difficult to read, Dr. Twelftree has provided thorough scholarship on a niche topic.
October 10, 2012
In the Name of Jesus: Exorcism among Early Christians is an attempt by Graham Twelftree to investigate descriptions and accounts of early Christian exorcisms. He works through this task, starting with earlier New Testament literature, such as Mark, moves on through Johanine works, and finally inspects Christian literature, as well non-Christian, of the second century. Throughout it all, his conclusion seems to be that Christian emphasis on and practice of exorcism can be arranged in a broad spectrum. While some Christians highly valued exorcism, and some used it even evangelistically, others, such as John, seemed to consider it inadequate for confronting evil. Above all, according to Twelftree, New Testament exorcism was a confrontation between the divine and the demonic. Freedom of practice was exercised, because neither words nor the speaker were essential to the event. Instead, exorcism was successful only by the power of God.
For the most part, Twelftree seems to fairly and adequately address exorcist practice among the earliest Christians. He even attempts to fairly address problems, such as the relative silence of Johanine and Pauline literature upon the subject. In some areas, his investigative reasoning might stretch a bit far, and his reliance upon Q is perhaps a weakness. Twelftree even admits more than once that Q is “a document of uncertain status.” With that said, the book is an excellent read. It provides a survey of early Christian exorcism custom that can illuminate contemporary Christian theology and practice. The short contemporary coda included in the final chapter builds upon the entire study and offers important insight for Christians today. This book is worth a read by any Christian concerned with exorcism or intrigued by descriptions of Jesus Christ’s miracles in the New Testament.
For the most part, Twelftree seems to fairly and adequately address exorcist practice among the earliest Christians. He even attempts to fairly address problems, such as the relative silence of Johanine and Pauline literature upon the subject. In some areas, his investigative reasoning might stretch a bit far, and his reliance upon Q is perhaps a weakness. Twelftree even admits more than once that Q is “a document of uncertain status.” With that said, the book is an excellent read. It provides a survey of early Christian exorcism custom that can illuminate contemporary Christian theology and practice. The short contemporary coda included in the final chapter builds upon the entire study and offers important insight for Christians today. This book is worth a read by any Christian concerned with exorcism or intrigued by descriptions of Jesus Christ’s miracles in the New Testament.
November 17, 2015
Very exhaustive study on what was written about exorcism in the early church. I learned a lot. This is a Biblical Theology as opposed to a systematic theology in that it focuses on the individual men and what they wrote. I did feel it over emphasized the earthly writers to the determent of inspiration of the Holy Spirit. On several occasions he questioned what was written as to if it actually happened. He also questioned whether a certain book should be included in the canon and as to whether or not Paul actually wrote one of the letters attributed to him.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews