spiritual equipment.59 Moreover the power needed to exorcise demons was obtained through prayer.60 With Paul prayer was not only a means of obtaining the Spirit; it was in itself a Spirit-operation.61 The great longing and desire for the yet unattained, which Paul had in his heart, he ascribed to the agency of the Spirit and believed that the Spirit was active in aiding a man to pray aright.62 According to his opinion there were evidently two kinds of prayer, distinguished by the degree of their inspiration: (1) the prayer that was offered under such intense emotion that the human consciousness was lost, -this he calls praying in the spirit; and (2) the prayer in which a man still retained the power of understanding 63 James believed that prayer had healing power and that the prayer of a righteous man had special potency.64

In ancient times fasting was frequently associated with prayer65 and was considered also as a method of securing spiritual power. The reason why fasting was connected with pneumatic conditions was the effect which it had upon the physical organism, as well as the sense of morbid exaltation which it thereby produced and which rendered the seeing of spectral beings, from which power or spiritual knowledge could be gained, more facile. The importance which was attached to fasting as a religious act by the Jews is well known.66 But fasting as a means of bringing on pneumatic states was also practised by the Gentiles and was regarded as one of the strongest means of disturbing the normal functions of the mind and producing ecstatic visions. The Pythia among other things practised fasting for the sake of obtaining inspiration;67 and Galen says that the dreams produced by fasting were clearer than

any others.68 Among the Christians fasting was indulged in, at least according to Acts, when some great task was about to be undertaken or some new plan was to be inaugurated. Special divine power and guidance was

felt to be necessary for its proper execution.69 Paul rarely refers to fasting, and when he does, he perhaps does not attach any spiritual significance to it, but uses the word rather in the sense of ordinary hunger and thirst.70 At any rate fasting does not seem to figure very largely in his thinking. But when Mark wrote his Gospel, he felt the need of explaining why the Christians who originally did not fast, had adopted the custom." And Matthew prefaces the active ministry of

71 Jesus with a fast of forty days and regards this as a part of Jesus' pneumatic training for his life-work.72 His instructions in the Sermon on the Mount regarding the proper method of fasting presupposes the observance of the custom in the Church when he wrote his Gospel.73

While fasting was a sad and self-abnegating method of obtaining spiritual power, a more joyful means of producing ecstatic conditions was found in music. Jesus and his disciples sang a hymn just before they went out to Gethsemane, on which occasion Jesus was in special need of divine power.74 It was evidently the custom among the Corinthian Christians to engage in singing, Paul no doubt being a participator.75 And he urges the Ephesians and Colossians to arouse themselves to ecstatic activities and fill themselves with divine Spirit by singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.76 The singing of hymns must have been quite a general practice with the early Christians, as may be judged from the number of hymns that were already embodied in the New Testament books.77

The reason why music was connected with spirit-operations was the effect which it had upon the emotions. When the Christians sang

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69 Acts 13:2, 3; 14:23.

70 II Cor. 6:5; 11:27. Cf. I Cor. 4:11. The "fastings often” which Paul mentions may refer to occasions when he lacked the means to provide himself with sufficient food, rather than that he indulged in fasting as a religious act. The reference to the Fast in Acts 27:9 would point merely to Paul's acquaintance with this Jewish custom, not necessarily to his observance of it.

71 Mark 2:18-20.

Matthew 4:2. 73 Matthew 6:16 ff. 74 Mark 14:26.

75 I Cor. 14:15, 26. In vs. 15 Paul makes it clear that singing was an operation of the Spirit, and it is to be inferred that this singing like tongues and the praying in the spirit was unintelligible. See Acts 16:25 for another reference to Paul's engaging in singing.

76 Eph. 5:18 f.; Col. 3:16. That singing and music produced pneumatic states is here clearly asserted.

77 The book of Revelation is especially rich in these Christian songs, some of their hymns, their emotions were mightily stirred both on account of the sounds produced and because of the tone of victory which the words embodied; and they, of course, could not explain such a feeling within them except on the grounds of spiritual agency. In this they were in accord with the beliefs of their time. The Jews believed that music inspired their prophets,78 and that it could drive out evil spirits from men, as was the case, for example, with the casting out of Saul's evil spirit through David's musical skill.79 The Greeks had a similar conception and music formed a prominent part in the practices especially in the Orphic and Apollo cults. The music of the former they regarded as more ecstatic than that of the latter, for the Apolline music was more sober and did not affect the emotions so strongly;80 and yet both were considered as possessing divine power. In the popular mind musical sounds were the voice of spirits or demons. Even Pythagoras is said once to have remarked that “the sound indeed which is given by striking brass is the voice of a certain demon contained therein."81 Heirs of such notions, it is easy to see why the early Christians should have reckoned singing as a means of acquiring possession of the Spirit.

The means of Spirit-possession thus far discussed have been concerned with appeals to the senses of touch, taste, and hearing. But the ancients also made appeals to the sense of sight. Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness and those who looked upon it lived.82 The mysteries had as a part of their initiatory ceremony the è ottela which consisted of the pictorial representation of scenes connected with the myth of the cult. The initiate who looked upon these sacred scenes was illumined and became identified with the deity. And perhaps in connection with this vision sacred exhortations explaining the mystic actions of the god were pronounced. In the Pseudo-Apuleian Asklepios we find a statement like this: "We rejoice that while in our bodies thou didst deify us by the sight of thyself."83 It is thought too that some of

the mysteries employed bright lights in order to produce a powerful emotional impression upon the initiates; and this may be what Lucius refers to when he says: "At midnight I beheld the sun radiating white

light. "84

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The Christians evidently also appealed to the sense of sight, but merely in a figurative sense. In their case it was not an exhibition of material objects or scenes, but an appeal to the historical imagination stated in terms of the éton tela. Paul reminds the Galatians that he had placarded (it poeypávn) the crucified Christ before their eyes. 86 The passages in John in which Jesus is represented as saying that he would be "lifted up," of course, refer to his crucifixion; and yet the idea of illumination and salvation by sight is here present. Jesus, the Light of the world, was lifted up on the cross; those who look upon that cross shall become sons of light. 88 The author of I Peter recommends the sight of good conduct in Christians as a means of converting the unbelieving:87 And the author of II Peter represents the chief of the apostles as an étórtns of the majesty of Christ which manifested itself at the transfiguration.88 It seems clear then that the Christians described certain features of the life of Christ in such a vivid way that they figuratively presented them to their hearers' sight. The result, of course, was an emotional experience, which because of its intensity, was as usual ascribed to the work of the Spirit.89

Finally, faith was reckoned as a means of bringing on ecstatic conditions. It was felt that a man had to have a proper disposition or soul before he could enter into communion with the deity, and faith represented that attitude of receptivity and sense of trust and dependence

84

Apuleius, Metam., XI, 23. 85 Gal. 3:1.

86 John 3:14; 8:28; 12:32 ff. Notice in particular how the discourse in 12:32 ff. turns to the subject of light. Cf. II Cor. 4:4, 6; Heb. 6:4; 10:32. It is also noteworthy how the author of Acts connects Paul's conversion with a vision of a bright light.

87 I Pet. 2:12; 3:2. The significant point to be noticed here is the use of the word, εποπτεύω.

88 II Pet. 1:16 ff.

89 Whether visions in the technical sense were a means of producing ecstatic conditions is rather doubtful. They were rather the result of spirit-possession. Yet the longing for the vision-experience and the expectancy which a belief in visions wrought in a man's soul would tend to bring on a state of ecstatic vision. Men generally find that for which they are looking and hoping, especially when it belongs to the spiritual or immaterial universe.

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which were requisite before the deity or his Spirit would take up his abode in the soul. The Jews made faith practically synonymous with faithfulness, and believed that the faithful observance of the law brought man into proper relation with God. The Greeks however had rather the idea that a man could become united with the deity through sympathy of spirit, and they made faith an abiding disposition of the soul that brought it into harmony with the deity. 91

With the Christians faith was a necessary condition to the reception of the Spirit. Only believers could obtain possession of the Spirit. But various Christian groups evidently differed somewhat in their idea as to the inevitability of the possession of the Spirit following upon a profession of faith. According to the popular conceptions, as represented for example in Acts,92 a man might become a believer and yet not be seized by the Spirit. Since the activity of the Spirit was confined to certain spectacular phenomena that manifested themselves only on special occasions or in certain individuals, the gift of the Spirit was in this sense not the universal possession of all believers. The representation in the Gospels accords in the main with this view of the matter. The disciples are described as believing in Jesus long before his death, and yet with the exception of several special occasions as when Jesus sent them out to preach and heal, or when Peter made his confession,93 they seemingly did not have possession of the Spirit. Luke is particularly specific on this point. 4 And even the Gospel of John defers the acquiring of the Spirit on the part of the disciples until after the glorification of Jesus. 96

With Paul faith was not merely a profession of belief in the identification of Jesus with the Apocalyptic Messiah; it meant also a belief in the death of Jesus on the cross, his resurrection from the dead, and his exaltation to heaven. It was by virtue of these experiences of Jesus that the power of his name became established and acquired a potency that far surpassed the strength of any other being in the universe, spiritual or otherwise. It was by faith that a man became mystically

96 united with this dying and rising deity and acquired possession of the

90 See e. g. Hab. 2:4.

91 See Farnell, Higher Aspects of Gr. Relig., pp. 142 ff. with the authorities cited there.

92 Notice how faith and the Spirit are brought together in Acts 6:5; 11:24. 93 Mark 6:7 ff.; Matthew 16:17. 04 Luke 24:49.

John 7:39. ** Rom. 10:8 ff.; I Cor. 15:1 ff.; Phil. 2:9-11.

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