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Just because modern authorities choose to lump possible cases of demon possession into the convenient category of mental illness, doesn’t mean that the authorities in Jesus’ time were unaware of, or failed to acknowledge, the difference.
Matthew 4:24: And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. (KJV)
The word translated “lunatick” in the KJV is the Greek word meaning “moon struck”. As Mickleson’s lexicon (an updated Strong’s) puts it: “to be moon-struck, i.e. crazy”. The older translations express it similarly. The Thayer lexicon agrees (although it also includes the common rendering in modern translations), stating:
1. to be moon-struck or lunatic
2. to be epileptic
a. epilepsy being supposed to return and increase with the increase of the moon. This meaning is doubtful as the Greeks knew nothing of epilepsy.
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In English, “moonstruck” means, based on its historical roots, “as if being affected by the moon” – for instance mentally unbalanced, or romantically sentimental. Ancient Greek appears to have had a similar scope of meaning.
So it would seem that the modern trend to play down the recognition of mental illness in ancient times, has even affected modern translators – they seem to feel the need to err on the side of “acceptability” to preclude any inhibition to the acceptance of and sale of their works.
The World continues to intrude, even into what should be protected quarters.
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