The modern reader of the Gospels is struck very forcibly by the prominent part which is assigned in them to demons or evil spirits. It has been suggested that many of the cases of possession recorded are susceptible of a normal medical explanation, and that Our Lord when confronted with people who believed they were possessed, did not waste time in arguing but tacitly accepted the patient’s belief in order to effect a cure without complicating the issue.

Nevertheless, it is clear that Jesus himself believed in the existence of the Devil and he regarded the expulsion of demons from those possessed by them as a triumph of moral good over moral evil, and as evidence that the sovereignty of God was being established.