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THREAD: on demon possession

The term ‘demon-possessed’ is common in modern Bible translations (eg ESV, HCSB, NIV, NKJV at Matt 8:28) & has become a standard phrase.

It conveys to people that 1 or more demons possess a person.

That’s the problem. We’ll see there’s been a shift.
The Greek is usually a single verb daimonizomai, which we might literalistically render as ‘be demonized’.

But earlier translations tended to express that the person had the demon, not the demon, the person.
The #LindisfarneGospels give us beautiful Latin with Anglo-Saxon glosses above.

Here’s Matthew 4:24: Latin et qui daemonia habebant ‘and whoever had demons’.

You can probably make out the words ‘devil’ & ‘have’ in the Anglo-Saxon.

So the people have the devils, not vice versa.
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