Lunatic, Epilepsy and the Deaf and Dumb Spirit

Did you know where the term lunatic comes from?

The word “luna”  means moon, and why we call our moon cycle the lunar cycle. A lunatic was referred to as someone ‘being controlled by the moon’, and brought about manifestations of convulsive attacks and seizures.  In the scriptures we see the term  lunatic, and it is interchangeable with epilepsy.

Matthew 4:23And יהושע (Yeshua/Jesus) went about all Galil, teaching in their congregations, and proclaiming the Good News of the reign, and healing every disease and every bodily weakness among the people. 24And news about Him went out into all Syria. And they brought to Him all who were sick, afflicted with various diseases and pains, AND THOSE WHO WERE DEMON-POSSESSED, AND **EPILEPTICS**, AND PARALYTICS. And He healed them.(ISR 98)

The Strongs for epileptics is:

◄ 4583. seléniazomai ►

Strong’s Concordance

seléniazomai: to be moonstruck, spec. be epileptic (supposedly influenced by the moon)
Original Word: σεληνιάζομαι
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: seléniazomai
Phonetic Spelling: (sel-ay-nee-ad’-zom-ahee)
Short Definition: I am a lunatic
Definition: I am a lunatic, am moonstruck, epileptic.

HELPS Word-studies

4583 selēniázomai (from 4582 /selḗnē, “moon”) – properly, moon-struck, acting like a lunatic – literally, “someone controlled by the moon” rather than reason.

Some of the commentaries through Biblehub can be helpful to further expound on areas that give you more insight, history, clarity or confirmation from the Holy Spirit. I have mostly enjoyed Ellicott’s commentary, although also enjoy Matthew Henry as well.

Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers

“Possessed with devils. . . . lunatick.–The phenomena of what is called possession, and the theories to which the phenomena have been referred, will best be discussed in dealing with the great representative instance of the Gadarene demoniacs (Matthew 8:28). Here it will be enough to notice (1) that the word rendered “devil” is not the same as that used for the Tempter in 4:1, but “demon” in the sense of an evil spirit, (2) that the possessed with demons are at once grouped with the “lunaticks,” both exhibiting forms of mental disease, and distinguished from them. The latter term implies in the Greek, as in the Latin and our own, “moonstruck madness”–the belief that the moon exercised a disturbing influence on the brain (a coup de lune being dreaded by Eastern travellers almost as much as a coup de soleil), and that the intensity of the disturbance varied, when the disease had once set in, with the moon’s changes.”

---

Yeshua healed many epileptics.  One particular case I want to focus on, is the young boy who was brought to Yeshua due to his violent convulsions and was unable to be healed by the disciples. Now, the same word used to reference the boy’s condition is the same as mentioned above, seléniazomai. To heal this condition, the boy had a demonic spirit cast out of him called a deaf/dumb spirit, of which caused him to have seizures to be a lunatic/epileptic.

There are 3 accounts of this in the gospels: Matthew 17:14-21, Mark 9:14-29 and Luke 9:37-42.  In the account of Mark, the spirit being cast out is called a deaf/dumb spirit, and in Luke it is called a unclean spirit.  In the account of Matthew, it specifically says that the boy is lunatick/epileptic. In some versions it will show epileptic, and others like the KJV,  will show lunatick.

Matthew 17:14And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, 15LORD, HAVE MERCY ON MY SON: FOR HE IS LUNATICK, AND SORE VEXED;FOR OFTTIMES HE FALLETH INTO THE FIRE, AND OFT INTO THE WATER. 16And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. 17Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. 18AND JESUS REBUKED THE DEVIL; AND HE DEPARTED OUT OF HIM; AND THE CHILD WAS CURED FROM THAT VERY HOUR.(KJV)

Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers

“(15) Lunatick.–See Note on Matthew 4:24. The other Gospels add some further touches. The boy had a “dumb spirit.” When the spirit seized him it “tore him,” and he foamed at the mouth, and gnashed with his teeth. Slowly, and as with difficulty, the paroxysm passed off, and the sufferer was wasting away under the violence of the attacks. The phenomena described are, it need hardly be said, those of epilepsy complicated with insanity, a combination common in all countries, and likely to be aggravated where the “seizure,” which the very word epilepsy implies, was the work of a supernatural power. A prolonged melancholy, an indescribable look of sadness, a sudden falling, and loss of consciousness, with or without convulsions, or passing into a tetanic stiffness, a periodical recurrence coinciding often with the new or full moon (hence probably the description of the boy as “lunatick”), grinding the teeth, foaming at the mouth, are all noted by medical writers as symptoms of the disease.

The names by which it was known in the earlier stages of medical science were all indicative of the awe with which men looked on it. It was the “divine,” the “sacred” disease, as being a direct supernatural infliction. The Latin synonym, morbus comitialis, came from the fact that if a seizure of this kind occurred during the comitia, or assemblies of the Roman Republic, it was looked upon as of such evil omen that the meeting was at once broken up, and all business adjourned. Whether there was in this case something more than disease, viz., a distinct possession by a supernatural force, is a question which belongs to the general subject of the “demoniacs” of the Gospel records. (See Note on 8:28.) Here, at any rate, our Lord’s words (Matthew 17:21) assume, even more emphatically than elsewhere, the reality of the possession. (See Mark 9:25.)”

I also enjoyed what Dr. Henry Wright has to say pertaining to epilepsy and the deaf and dumb spirit, in a book that I highly recommend, called “A More Excellent Way”, and have quoted in another post, Depression: Spiritual Roots and Healing:

---

So, it is quite clear that epilepsy/lunatic is caused by a demonic spirit, yet so many believers scoff at the very thought that many diseases and disorders are caused by a demonic spirit.  People will put faith in doctors that don’t know the root cause of the seizures, and so they seek to suppress them with drugs. Yet it seems foolishness to most people, even those that profess the name Jesus/Yeshua to believe what the Bible clearly shows us, that seizures are caused by a demon. Yah even tells us we have authority over these demons, but most cannot believe that either. Meanwhile the lack of unbelief only gives the demons more authority to afflict people with physical, mental, and spiritual ailments (aka curses).

Luke 10:19Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. 20Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. (KJV)