the credulity of the time gave itself full scope.  But still these difficulties must not be exaggerated.  The disorders which were explained by “possessions” were often very slight.  In our times, in Syria, they regard as mad or possessed by a demon (these two ideas were expressed by the same word, medjnoun[9]) people who are only somewhat eccentric.  A gentle word often suffices in such cases to drive away the demon.  Such were doubtless the means employed by Jesus.  Who knows if his celebrity as exorcist was not spread almost without his own knowledge?  Persons who reside in the East are occasionally surprised to find themselves, after some time, in possession of a great reputation, as doctors, sorcerers, or discoverers of treasures, without being able to account to themselves for the facts which have given rise to these strange fancies.

[Footnote 1:  Vendidad, xi. 26; Yacna, x. 18.]

[Footnote 2:  Tobit, iii. 8, vi. 14; Talm. of Bab., Gittin, 68 a.]

[Footnote 3:  Comp.  Mark xvi. 9; Luke viii. 2; Gospel of the Infancy, 16, 33; Syrian Code, published in the Anecdota Syriaca of M. Land, i., p. 152.]

[Footnote 4:  Jos., Bell.  Jud., VII. vi. 3; Lucian, Philopseud., 16; Philostratus, Life of Apoll., iii. 38, iv. 20; Aretus, De causis morb. chron., i. 4.]

[Footnote 5:  Matt. ix. 33, xii. 22; Mark ix. 16, 24; Luke xi. 14.]

[Footnote 6:  Tobit, viii. 2, 3; Matt. xii. 27; Mark ix. 38; Acts xix. 13; Josephus, Ant., VIII. ii. 5; Justin, Dial. cum Tryph., 85; Lucian, Epigr., xxiii. (xvii.  Dindorf).]

[Footnote 7:  Matt. xvii. 20; Mark ix. 24, and following.]

[Footnote 8:  Matt. viii. 28, ix. 34, xii. 43, and following, xvii. 14, and following, 20; Mark v. 1, and following; Luke viii. 27, and following.]

[Footnote 9:  The phrase, Daemonium habes (Matt. xi. 18:  Luke vii. 33; John vii. 20, viii. 48, and following, x. 20, and following) should be translated by:  “Thou art mad,” as we should say in Arabic:  Medjnoun ente.  The verb [Greek:  daimonan] has also, in all classical antiquity, the meaning of “to be mad.”]

Many circumstances, moreover, seem to indicate that Jesus only became a thaumaturgus late in life and against his inclination.  He often performs his miracles only after he has been besought to do so, and with a degree of reluctance, reproaching those who asked them for the grossness of their minds.[1] One singularity, apparently inexplicable, is the care he takes to perform his miracles in secret, and the request he addresses to those whom he heals to tell no one.[2] When the demons wish to proclaim him the Son of God, he forbids them to open their mouths; but they recognize him in spite of himself.[3] These traits are especially characteristic in Mark, who is pre-eminently the evangelist of miracles and exorcisms.