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Acts describes healing as the defeat of harmful evil spirit, following a pattern found in Jubilees where spirits similarly cause illness and Noah learns and applies healing knowledge from heaven.
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Jubilees 10:12
Pseudepigrapha
11 We acted in accord with his entire command. All of the evil ones who were savage we tied up in the place of judgment, while we left a tenth of them to exercise power on the earth before the satan. 12 We told Noah all the medicines for their diseases with their deceptions so that he could cure them by means of the earth's plants. 13 Noah wrote down in a book everything just as we had taught him regarding all the kinds of medicine, and the evil spirits were precluded from pursuing Noah's children. 14 He gave all the books that he had written to his oldest son Shem because he loved him much more than all his sons.
Date: 150-100 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Acts 19:12
New Testament
11 God was performing extraordinary miracles by Paul’s hands, 12 so that when even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his body were brought to the sick, their diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. 13 But some itinerant Jewish exorcists tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were possessed by evil spirits, saying, “I sternly warn you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.” 14 (Now seven sons of a man named Sceva, a Jewish high priest, were doing this.) 15 But the evil spirit replied to them, “I know about Jesus and I am acquainted with Paul, but who are you?”
Date: 75-85 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... this violent activity is reminiscent of the giants’ warlike activity (1 Enoch 7:4–5; 9:9). Here the object of their violence is the human race (verse 12). The imagery is probably metaphorical, although, as Burkitt notes, it fits descriptions of demoniacal seizures. The last verb is also problematic ... Causing illnesses is an activity of the demons in Jubilees 10:12–13. Compare also Luke 7:21; 8:2; Acts 19:12–16, all of “evil spirits.” As a parallel to the paradox of the spirits’ hunger, thirst, and fasting, Charles cites the example of the Jinns ..."
Nickelsburg, George W. E.
A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 1-36, 81-108
(p. 274) Fortress Press, 2001
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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