A question about the love of god

[Tonus]

There are a number of situations in the Bible where people were healed of sickness or other ailments (paralysis, blindness) without mention of demonic possession, so at the least they understood that a person could be ill and not demon-possessed. There are one or two incidents where demonic possession IS the ailment (the man who hosted the demons who named themselves Legion, for example), and at least one where it can be implied that the demonic possession is the cause of the ailments (the man who begins to speak after an exorcism).

I think that they understood that a person could suffer from disease or other impediments without demonic involvement, and that there were some ailments that they attributed to demonic possession. That they described exorcism separately from "healing the sick" indicates that they at least perceived that demons weren't floating around and sprinkling people with flu dust. But it's not a stretch to imagine that seizures or mental illness were frequently diagnosed as the direct work of evil spirits.