Does the Bible teach exorcism rituals?
No -- Jesus' exorcisms are distinguished by personal authority (exousia), not by ritual, and the contrast with Second Temple exorcism methods is total: no substances, no formulas, no angelic intermediaries, just sovereign command.
No. And the contrast between how Jesus casts out demons and how earlier Jewish literature imagined exorcism is striking.
The most detailed pre-Christian exorcism account comes from the book of Tobit (deuterocanonical, not part of the Protestant canon but widely read in the ancient world). In that story, driving out the demon Asmodaeus requires three things: smoke from a fish liver burned on incense, a prayer, and the angel Raphael as intermediary. Three elements -- ritual substance, petition, angelic agent.
Then Jesus walks into the synagogue at Capernaum:
Jesus rebuked him, saying: "Be silent and come out of him!" -- Mark 1:25
That's it. One speaker, one command, no props. The crowd immediately identifies what's different:
"What is this? A new teaching! With authority he commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him." -- Mark 1:27
The key word is exousia (ἐξουσία) -- authority, the inherent right to act. Not ritual technique. Not the right incantation. Not an angelic go-between. Jesus speaks and it happens.
He even tells you what's going on. In Luke 11:20, he interprets his own exorcisms:
"If by the finger of God I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." -- Luke 11:20
The phrase "finger of God" (δακτύλῳ θεοῦ) is an Exodus echo. It appears in Exodus 8:19, where the Egyptian magicians recognize divine power in the plague of gnats: "This is the finger of God." Jesus is framing his exorcisms as a new Exodus -- the same divine power that broke Pharaoh's grip now breaks demonic grip. The exorcisms aren't pest control. They're evidence that God's kingdom has arrived.
This matters for anyone wondering what the Bible actually prescribes for dealing with evil spiritual forces. The answer isn't ritual technique -- it's the recognition of authority. The same Jesus who commanded demons with a word also gave that authority to his disciples (Luke 10:17-19). The power isn't in the method. It's in the person.
The demons themselves understood the arrangement. When the Gadarene demons encountered Jesus, they didn't dispute his power -- they disputed the timing:
"Have you come here before the time to torment us?" -- Matthew 8:29
They knew who he was. They knew judgment was coming. They just didn't expect it yet.
For the full contrast between Second Temple exorcism and Jesus' sovereign authority, see the study "Between the Testaments" -- From Silence to Storm.
Did the Septuagint change what the Bible says about demons?
Yes -- the Greek translators rendered at least three different Hebrew terms as 'demon' (daimonion), and in two cases inserted the word where the Hebrew had no demon term at all, turning empty idols into active spiritual agents.
What is the binding of Satan in Revelation 20, and where does the idea come from?
Revelation 20:2 describes an angel binding Satan for a thousand years using the same Greek verb (edesen, 'he bound') that first appears in the deuterocanonical book of Tobit, where an angel binds a single demon -- the same act, escalated from one demon to Satan himself.
When did Satan become a proper name in the Bible?
The shift begins within the Hebrew canon itself -- 1 Chronicles 21:1 drops the definite article from 'the adversary' (ha-satan) for the first time, and by the New Testament, 'Satan' functions as a personal name in all 37 occurrences.
Why does the New Testament have so many more demons than the Old Testament?
Three things happened between the testaments: the Greek translators upgraded 'worthless idols' into 'active demons,' Second Temple writers built a full demonology from the OT's sparse data, and Jesus reframed the whole category under his sovereign authority.