Casting out Demons in the New Testament

[Aetos]

I have a simple question. I thought that I read one time in the New Testament of someone trying to cast out a demon. The person failed and was attacked by the person possessed. I have been searching the bible online, but cannot find this. Am I just confusing this with some other book?

I thought I recall the demon saying that we know Jesus but you we do not know and the demon bodily attacked the person. I found a place in Mark where some of the deciples failed to cast out demons and Jesus explained the reason they failed was that “these” kind require prayer and fasting.

Thanks,

Aetos.

 

[Fidelis]

From The Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 19:

11 And God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. 13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to pronounce the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” 14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. 15 But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” 16 And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, mastered all of them, and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 And this became known to all residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks; and fear fell upon them all; and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.

 

[R_C]

I have a simple question. I thought that I read one time in the New Testament of someone trying to cast out a demon. The person failed and was attacked by the person possessed. I have been searching the bible online, but cannot find this. Am I just confusing this with some other book? I thought I recall the demon saying that we know Jesus but you we do not know and the demon bodily attacked the person.

You correctly recall Acts 19:15

One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?”

These men were not disciples of Christ, and it so happens that when they faced a man possessed by fallen angels of higher rank who didn’t just flee at the name of the Lord, they faced the sad consequence of attempting to exorcise without the authority of the apostles. The demon cleverly makes them aware of this by acknowledging the authority of Christ and of his bishop s. Paul, but making it obvious that they had no authority whatsoever - neither from Christ, nor from the Church - to command him to depart. The apostolic churches still hold to this truth by keeping the rite of exorcism reserved to ordained ministers.

I found a place in Mark where some of the deciples failed to cast out demons and Jesus explained the reason they failed was that “these” kind require prayer and fasting.

This is found in Mark 9 and other Gospels as well. Demons indeed are of different “kinds” (or ranks), and some demons are “deaf and mute” because they do not answer to the one trying to drive him away and appear to totally ignore him. For reasons that are to some extent mysterious, prayer and fasting give greater authority over these - I personally think it is because on one side they weaken the exorcist, which makes him spiritually stronger, and on the other it emphasizes the focus on Christ as the one who acts and renders the man more humble, deepening his reliance on Christ alone.