Topic
Lunatic(K)
5 passages cited, from 1 classic reference work.
These works date from 1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Deuteronomy 28:34ISBE
So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.
- 1 Samuel 21:13ISBE
And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard.
- 1 Samuel 21:15ISBE
Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?
- Matthew 17:15ISBE
Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.
- Luke 8:26ISBE
¶ And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee.
In the reference works
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 6 references
lu'-na-tik:
I. Epilepsy.
1. Incorrect Translation:
The English word "lunatic," which in popular speech signifies a sufferer from any mental derangement, whether periodic or chronic, other than congenital idiocy, appears in the King James Version as a translation of the Greek word seleniazomai, in the two passages where it occurs. In the Revised Version (British and American) the word has very properly been displaced by the strictly accurate term "epileptic." This change is justified not only by the extra-Biblical usage (see Liddell and Scott, under the word), but clearly enough by Mt 17:15 (compare 4:24), where epilepsy is circumstantially described.
2. Original Meaning:
The original meaning of the term seleniazomai, "moon-struck," is connected with the popular belief, widespread and of strange persistency, that the moon, in certain of its phases, is injurious to human beings, especially in the case of diseases of a periodic or remittent character. There are no data by which to determine whether, in the New Testament times, this particular word represented a living and active belief or had passed into the state of usage in which the original metaphor disappears, and the word simply indicates the fact signified without reference to the idea embodied in the etymology. We still use the word "lunatic" to signify a person mentally diseased, although we have long since ceased to believe in the moon's influence in such cases.
II. Madness.
The Bible designates "madness," or alienation of mind, by various terms, all of which seem to be onomatopoetic. These various words seem to be derived from the strange and fierce or mournful cries uttered by the unfortunate victims of this dread malady. In De 28:34 the word "maddened" is meshugga`, participle of shagha` (compare also 1Sa 21:15). With this corresponds the word mainomai, in the New Testament. In 1Sa 21:13 (Hebrew 14) the word is a form of the verb chalal, which is also a derivative from the sound indicated.
In certain cases, though by no means uniformly, madness is ascribed to demon-possession (Lu 8:26 f) . One is struck by the fact that mental derangement occupies a very small place in Scripture.
Louis Matthews Sweet
Texts: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.