Jared Lee Loughner: Moonstruck, Lunatic, or Possessed?

Okay, I need your patience.  Walk with me through a little etymology.  First a verse in two translations:

Matthew 17:15 Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water.  (English Standard Version)

Matthew 17:15 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. (King James Version)

The Greek word translated  into “epileptic” or “lunatick” is a word that has as its root the Greek word for moon.  That is why Dr. Gibbs who  wrote the new Concordia Commentary on Matthew translates the word “moonstruck.”   And while that translation is certainly appropriate, I haven’t heard that word used since Cher stepped off the big screen in 1987 and even then I didn’t know what it meant.  So, how did the KJV get the word “lunatic?”  Well, the latin word for moon is “luna.”  So they hid the word moon and gave us a word we are more familiar with, lunatic.   But how did the modern translations get to “epileptic?”  As far as I can tell they matched up the symptoms listed in Matthew 17 with a common modern medical diagnosis.

But I am not sure translators should play doctor.  I am sure that Jesus did not send this man to medical doctor for treatment.  Even the ESV says,

Matthew 17:18 “And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly.”

A demon?   Not Epilepsy.  Not even just a weird connection to the moon.   This man had a demon.  But surely we sophisticated modern types don’t believe in such a thing.

And so when Jared Lee Loughner brings violence into the grocery store parking lot, those that can speak of the incident without reference to political rhetoric go right to a mental diagnosis.   Bring on Keith Ablow.  Maybe Dr Phil should be called.  The psychiatrist is the expert.  And so we call him sick.  We call him deranged.  The most self-absorbed doctor will read the diagnosis right away from the DSM-IV.

Maybe, just maybe, he needed something other than mental health help, or at least in addition to it.  When behavior is wildly bizarre and evil is so obvious, why is it that we can no longer consider that perhaps there was trouble with more than this man’s neurons and brain chemicals.  Perhaps he had a demon, and needed release in the name of Jesus.  But who would even consider such help?  Who would ever call a man of God to come and help?  Who would speak the name of Jesus?

When we deny the presence of demons, I suppose we leave ourselves vulnerable to their effects.  Do I know if Jared Lee Loughner was  moonstruck, a lunatic, or possessed?  I do not.  I just wish we in the church, we the people of the Book, would at least consider the last option, knowing we have the cure.