Arthur Ashley Sykes

A Further Enquiry into the Meaning of Demoniacks in the New Testament

1737

Publisher: London: Printed for J. Roberts in Warwick Lane, 1737

8 x 5 in

(1), [viii], 116 pp., (1)

[English]

Near Fine

An interesting 18th-century work on demons and demonic possession in the Bible. Sykes questions whether the “demoniacks” described in the New Testament were actually believed to be possessed by evil spirits, and instead looks at what the word demon originally meant to the ancient Greeks and early Christians.

Sykes works through the writings of Hesiod, Homer, Pythagoras, Thales, Plutarch, Aristotle, Origen and others, with numerous passages given in the original Greek. He argues that the ancient idea of a demon was much broader than our modern idea of a devil or evil spirit, and could include gods, intermediary beings, ghosts, and the souls of the dead. He then uses this earlier understanding to reexamine passages throughout the Old and New Testaments dealing with demons, possession, and the supernatural.

The book was published during a larger debate over the subject in 1737 and was written in defense of Sykes’s earlier Enquiry into the Meaning of Demoniacks in the New Testament, directly answering objections made by Leonard Twells and Thomas Church. An interesting look at the intersection of early Christianity, ancient demonology, Greek philosophy, and the changing interpretation of demonic possession.

Expertly rebound in half leather over marbled boards with a black and gilt leather label to the front board. A very sharp-looking binding with new endpapers and red speckled edges. Slight foxing to the half-title with only very minor scattered foxing throughout. Small dog-ears to the upper and lower corners of the final leaf, otherwise the interior remains quite clean.