To many in the church in the West, exorcism seems like the stuff of movies. It requires acceptance of the premise that evil spirits exist and can invade, control, and impair the health of an individual and that the individual can, in turn, be cured through someone forcing the evil spirits to leave. -For the vast majority of biblical scholars, - asserts Graham H. Twelftree, -this is tantamount to believing in such entities as elves, dragons, or a flat earth.- But for Christians throughout the world--especially the developing world--exorcism is an important part of the freedom that can be had...

That the synoptic writers believed that Jesus cast out demons and that such a role figured prominently in the Synoptics' portrait of him can scarcely be denied. And yet, only scant scholarly attention has been focused on Jesus' role as exorcist. Even less consideration has been given to the significance of Jesus as exorcist for understanding the historical Jesus.Now, in a provocative and insightful study, Graham Twelftree helps New Testament scholars move beyond such myopia. Twelftree examines exorcists and exorcism in first-century Palestine, assesses the New Testament accounts of demons and...

How can we explain the difference between the -miraculous- Christianity expressed in the Gospels and the nearly miracle-free Christianity of Paul? In this historically informed study, senior New Testament scholar Graham Twelftree challenges the view that Paul was primarily a thinker and reimagines him as an apostle of Jesus for whom the miraculous was of profound importance. Highlighting often-overlooked material in Paul's letters, Twelftree offers a fresh consideration of what the life and work of Paul might teach us about miracles in early Christianity and sheds light on how early...