Possession`

We should note that in possession stories, the possessed names Jesus. Naming was a power play in those times and the power of naming can be seen all over Biblical writing. Whether or not people were actually possessed, we may never know. It’s possible that these people were otherwise ill. It’s possible that they were simply so hostile that Jesus’ people assigned such behavior as possession, since ancient understandings of the world allowed for such supernatural occurrences. Again, whether any person as an individual chooses to believe that such things actually happened as interpreted by Biblical storytellers, we can see that it doesn’t need to affect the way we understand the stories. That Jesus healed and listened can be taken from the story, whether or not he calmed a hostile man or exorcised a demon.