Corpus-Paul

[Graydonsny AT aol.com]

John,

Hi!.  None of the texts mentioned refer to demon possession.  Paul no doubt 
was involved in healing (1 Cor. 12:9), and he surely faced a dark side.  But 
we have no mention of demonic possession and exorcism.  I am puzzled by the 
entire matter.  Why do Paul and the author of John speak of healing, but 
never of demon possession as the cause of it?  They come from the same time 
and culture, more or less, as the authors of the Synoptics and Acts.  What 
was the difference?

Let me put it more radically.  If we had as our canon the Hebrew Scriptures 
(sans Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha), the Gospel of John and the letters of 
Paul, we would never suspect that demon possession was a cause of illness in 
the biblical tradition.  Why?

Graydon F. Snyder
Chicago Theological Seminary