ABSTRACT
The oddity of apocalyptic expectations within the larger Greco-Roman world must be acknowledged immediately. Here in an explicit, dramatic and terrible way, the imminent Endtime influences the significance of every act. Although there are no exorcisms within the apocalyptic material, there is a distinctive understanding of the identity and nature of demons. The existence of the demons is based on a “foundational legend,” namely, The Watchers. It is within this greater, overarching story with its prophecies of ultimate judgment and punishment that demons are given their role. Only when we see that a Christian narrator has taken pains to include some of these distinctive features in a Jesus exorcism story may we conclude that the meaning of the exorcism as well as its implications for the role of Jesus is meant to be situated against the unusual cosmological expectation of apocalypticism.
