Spooky season reached its annual climax today, with Halloween spirit spreading nationwide.

Among the top ten highest-grossing horror films ever released in October, seven involved a demon or evil spirit causing chaos in some form. The depictions relied on Christian practices for exorcism, but the true inspiration stemmed from Jewish practice and legend.

Before the Second Temple

The modern concept of exorcism did not truly emerge until Greek culture, which derived the word itself from Greek. Jewish texts infrequently involved demonic possession or spiritual haunting. 

The Book of Samuel detailed an encounter David had with a malevolent spirit in the court of King Saul. He purged its presence by playing a lyre whenever it reappeared. 

Samuel, 16: 16 described David’s plan, “Let our lord give the order [and] the courtiers in attendance on you will look for someone who is skilled at playing the lyre; whenever the evil spirit of God comes over you, he will play it and you will feel better.” 

The demon had been sent by God, which differs from all future exorcist stories by featuring independent spirits. The impermanence of the lyre’s effects stood out as a deterrent rather than the cure modern exorcisms intend to provide. David would become king in the very same chapter as the spirit’s constant presence with Saul spelled the end of his reign.

Exorcism in antiquity

Spiritual interference first took root in outside texts as it progressed to the primary Torah canon. The Book of Tobit, a text from the Apocrypha, directly mentioned a demon named Asmodeus and his role in haunting Tobit’s son, Tobias, and his wife-to-be, Sarah. Tobias expanded on his plight in Tobit, 6: 14-15.

“she has already been given in marriage to seven husbands, and that they have died in the bridal chamber…So now I too am afraid of this demon, because it is in love with her and does not harm her; but it kills any man who wishes to come close to her.

Unlike David before him, Tobias had the chance to take action and rid his wife of the demon lusting for her heart. His methodology introduced key themes of fumigation and prayer that have become essential components of exorcism today. 

In Tobit, 8: 2, the Angel Raphael instructed Tobias to fumigate Asmodeus by burning a fish’s heart and liver. Raphael did not specify the type of fish or how it would expel the demon. Regardless, Asmodeus’ haunting of Sarah ended dramatically in Tobit, 8: 3.

“The odor of the fish repulsed the demon, and it fled to the upper regions of Egypt…Raphael went in pursuit of it and there bound it hand and foot.”

After Tobias and Sarah prayed for safety in their marriage, the exorcising process was complete. Producing an odor, in this case of dead fish, set a precedent for incense candles and other fumigation techniques. Christian exorcisms, in particular, ran with the concept and placed immense value on candles. The pairing of demons to the desert would not stick around beyond mentions in texts such as Isaiah, 13: 21.

The Jewish-Roman historian Josephus legitimized the ideas within the Book of Tobit through an account of the Eleazar Miracle. His inclusion of exorcism in “Antiquities of the Jews” appended a new mytho, dating back to King Solomon.

To please Roman Emperor Vespasian, Eleazar similarly relied on fumigation and utilized a root inside his ring to lure the demon out through a possessed man’s nostrils. With the demon separated from its host, Eleazar followed Tobias’ order of events with prayers to banish the evil spirit. He began uttering a list of prayers and finished the removal of the demon. 

Josephus’ greatest addition to exorcism lore came directly after Eleazar said his last prayer. His description of Eleazar included the first test to indicate the spirit’s absence.

“Eleazar would persuade and demonstrate to the spectators that he had such a power, he set a little way off a cup or basin full of water, and commanded the demon, as he went out of the man, to overturn it, and thereby to let the spectators know that he had left the man,” Josephus wrote.

The celebration of phenomena created a societal interest in how men like Eleazar could hold the power to command demons. The dramatic flair of the cup falling over inspired chilling details within uber-popular horror movies such as The Exorcist, with its depictions of demons violently exiting the body.