Michael Psellus on the Operation of Daemons

observes Dr. Campbell, “has written an elaborate dissertation to evince that there was no real possession in the demoniacs mentioned in the Gospel, but that the style there employed was adopted merely in conformity to popular prejudice and used of a natural disease. Concerning this doctrine, I shall only say, in passing, that if there had been no more to argue from sacred writ in favor of the common opinion than the name daimonizomenos (one possessed by a demon), or even the phrases daimonion echein (to have a demon), ekballein (to cast out), etc., I should have thought his explanation at least not improbable. But when I find mention made of the number of demons in particular possessions, their action so expressly distinguished from that of the man possessed, conversations held by the former in regard to the disposal of them after their expulsion, and accounts given how they were actually disposed of—when I find desires and passions ascribed peculiarly to them, and comparisons taken from the conduct which they usually observe—it is impossible for me to deny their existence without admitting that the sacred historians were either deceived themselves in regard to them or intended to deceive their readers. Nay, if they were faithful historians, this reflection, I am afraid, will strike still deeper.”

Without consenting to all that Psellus advances on the origin, nature, modes of action, and occasional manifestation of demons, yet, believing implicitly in the sacred Scriptures, we can have no more doubt of the existence of such beings than we have of our own. Dr. Campbell also observes (Diss. vi., p. 1, § 11):—“Though we cannot discover with certainty, from all that is said in the Gospel concerning possessions, whether the demons were conceived to be the ghosts of wicked men deceased, or lapsed angels, or (as was the opinion of some early Christian writers, Justin Martyr, Apology 1) the mongrel breed of certain angels (whom they understood by the sons of God mentioned in Genesis 6:2) and of the daughters of men, it is plain they were conceived