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Amanda Witmer, Jesus the Galilean Exorcist: His Exorcisms in Social and Political Context , Library of New Testament Studies 459, Library of the Historical Jesus Studies vol. 10 (New York/London: T&T Clark International, 2012). x + 247 pp., $ 120 hardback.

Amanda Witmer, Jesus the Galilean Exorcist: His Exorcisms in Social and Political Context ,... Amanda Witmer’s interesting study has a two-fold aim: She attempts to isolate the “early and authentic exorcism traditions” in the Gospels and to apply sociological and anthropological insights in order to “reconstruct the historical Jesus as an exorcist.” (10) Witmer asserts that the exorcisms described in the synoptic Gospels must be understood from both a theological and a socio-political perspective. She starts out (chapters one and two) by describing spirit possession and exorcism in the ancient world, particularly in the Jewish context of the late Hellenistic and early Roman period (167 BCE-70 CE). In her third chapter, she discusses the socio-political context of Galilee around 30 CE, illuminating the links between the presence of particular characteristics within a culture and the incidence of spirit possession and exorcism. Witmer shows how closely the spiritual and the political were connected in the Greco-Roman and Jewish context of the New Testament, how it was commonly believed that political events were linked with cosmological events, and that evil spirits had an influence on the socio-political landscape. In agrarian Galilee, where the profits of production benefited a small elite group while the majority of the population scrabbled to make a living as tenant http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Pneuma Brill

Amanda Witmer, Jesus the Galilean Exorcist: His Exorcisms in Social and Political Context , Library of New Testament Studies 459, Library of the Historical Jesus Studies vol. 10 (New York/London: T&T Clark International, 2012). x + 247 pp., $ 120 hardback.

Währisch-Oblau, Claudia
Pneuma , Volume 35 (2): 311 – Jan 1, 2013
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
Subject
Book Reviews
ISSN
0272-0965
eISSN
1570-0747
DOI
10.1163/15700747-12341344
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Amanda Witmer’s interesting study has a two-fold aim: She attempts to isolate the “early and authentic exorcism traditions” in the Gospels and to apply sociological and anthropological insights in order to “reconstruct the historical Jesus as an exorcist.” (10) Witmer asserts that the exorcisms described in the synoptic Gospels must be understood from both a theological and a socio-political perspective. She starts out (chapters one and two) by describing spirit possession and exorcism in the ancient world, particularly in the Jewish context of the late Hellenistic and early Roman period (167 BCE-70 CE). In her third chapter, she discusses the socio-political context of Galilee around 30 CE, illuminating the links between the presence of particular characteristics within a culture and the incidence of spirit possession and exorcism. Witmer shows how closely the spiritual and the political were connected in the Greco-Roman and Jewish context of the New Testament, how it was commonly believed that political events were linked with cosmological events, and that evil spirits had an influence on the socio-political landscape. In agrarian Galilee, where the profits of production benefited a small elite group while the majority of the population scrabbled to make a living as tenant

Journal

Pneuma – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 2013

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