Quote:
Originally Posted by pelagius
SIEQ, do you know if Q has any "devil casting out" material in it (probably not since it is mostly sayings material)?
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Being just a scholarly construct, "Q" is Mark's unknown source(s), and is believed to also have been a source for the Gospel of Thomas (specifically of the sayings material which you referenced and which are also found in Mark). The devil casting out material is very important to Mark's theology, in a broad way it fits into the redemption of Israel, but it isn't in the GoT.
Luke is actually useful here as he tells us that he gets his information from earlier, though second and third hand, sources (inferentially including Mark), and thinks he has the truth of things figured out for Theophilus. Luke includes the casting out of devils in his Gospel.
Matthew doesn't sanitize Mark's casting out of devils and he is prone to rewriting Mark in the name of theology.
My take on John's gospel is that while their might be a little in there that is somehow attritutable to John, it seems to have been revised and pieced together as the work of probably at least three authors. John 20 and 21 look to be two seperate and distinct endings (John 21 explaining the apostle's death--something I've never heard discussed by rank and file Mormons), and the prologue to John and other passages have the feel of neo-platonist philosophy (and even gnosticism, to my eye). The Gospel of John probably has parts that were written quite early on in Christian history (the "Signs Gospel" assumed to be the source of the seven signs material), but I don't think it took it's current form until later. Probably near the end of the First Century.
Weighing all of this in with what I know of 1st century Judaism, it is fair to conclude that many early Christians believed in posession.