Note 63 — Quest. VII. (continued 2)

“Mark iii. 11, v. 7; Luke viii. 28; and Mat. viii. 29. These extraordinary personages in the New Testament, are not called devils, Διαβολοι, in the original; that word never occurring in the Christian scriptures, but in the singular number, and as applied to one Being alone. They are called dæmons, Δαιμονες or Δαιμονια. Yet they are plainly devils in fact; being called Unclean Spirits, though sometimes only Spirits (Mark ix. 20; and Luke x. 20;) and showing themselves to be devils, by their whole history. In Mat. xii. 24 and 26 particularly, the Pharisees say ‘our Saviour casts out devils, (dæmons) by Beelzebub the prince of the devils (dæmons);’ and our Saviour replies, that then ‘Satan casts out Satan.’ See also Luke x. 17-18; where the apostles rejoicing declare, ‘even the devils (dæmons) are subject unto us;’ and our Saviour says unto them, ‘I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.’ So very false in itself, and directly contradicted by the very words of our Saviour, is that hypothesis of Dr. Campbell’s in his new translation of the Gospels; which asserts these possessions of the New Testament to be nowhere attributed to the devil, and which avers the dominion or authority of the devil to be nowhere ascribed to the dæmons! Beelzebub is expressly called the prince of the dæmons, the dæmons are expressly denominated Satan with him, and these are only inferior devils subordinate to the great one. And though the word dæmons (as Dr. Campbell urges) might critically be more exact in a translation; yet the word devils better accords, with the usages of our language and the course of our ideas. Exactness therefore has been properly sacrificed to utility.”

WHITAKER.