January 14, 2026 |
'Biblical' Trump
January 14, 2026
Interesting idea from a Farcebook friend, who compared certain current Trump behavior as "biblical." We asked "Perplexity" what biblical figures are thought by modern standards to have been mentally ill or incompetent. The response:
Several major biblical figures have been retrospectively discussed in modern scholarship as possibly showing what today might be called mental illness or psychological disturbance, though all such suggestions are speculative and culturally anachronistic. Most responsible writers emphasize that these are interpretive models, not diagnoses in any clinical sense.[1][2]
## Method and caveats
- Modern psychiatric categories (e.g., depression, psychosis, PTSD) were unknown in the ancient Near East and Second Temple Judaism.[2][1]
- Behaviors the Bible attributes to sin, demons, or divine judgment are sometimes re-read by contemporary scholars as possible symptoms of mental disorders, but this involves translating between very different worldviews.[3][1]
- Consequently, most academic work speaks of “possible” or “suggestive” symptoms rather than declaring specific people clinically **ill** in modern terms.[4][2]
## Figures often discussed
- **King Saul** (1 Samuel)
- Episodes of intense mood swings, torment, and relief when David plays music are sometimes framed as possible major depression with psychotic features, bipolar spectrum, or a chronic mood disorder.[5][1]
- Ancient texts, however, describe this as a “tormenting spirit from the Lord,” showing a theological rather than medical interpretation.[1]
- **Nebuchadnezzar II** (Daniel 4)
- His period of living like an animal and losing “reason” has been read as a psychotic episode, sometimes compared to boanthropy (a delusional belief of being an ox or cow) within modern psychiatry.[5]
- The narrative itself interprets the episode as divine judgment and later restoration of his **sanity** by God, not as a diagnosable disease in contemporary terms.[5]
- **Elijah** (1 Kings 18–19)
- After his prophetic confrontations, he shows exhaustion, fear, wishes for death, and withdrawal, which recent interdisciplinary work has analyzed using frameworks of depression, burnout, or “transitional mental disorders.”[4]
- One 2025 study explicitly compares Elijah’s emotional collapse to the mental health struggles of modern people of faith, while still treating him as a genuine prophet rather than “incompetent.”[4]
- **Job, David, and other lamenters**
- Some modern Christian and psychological writers treat their intense lament, despair, and sometimes suicidal ideation as paradigmatic of anxiety and depressive disorders.[6][7]
- Academic treatments typically see these texts as deliberate theological laments, but note that many readers with depression recognize their own experience in Job or certain psalms.[7][6]
- **Ezekiel**
- Ezekiel’s symbolic actions (lying on one side for hundreds of days, eating food cooked in defiled ways, dramatic visions) led some mid‑20th‑century psychiatrists to label him as schizophrenic or catatonic based on case-like readings.[8][9]
- More recent scholarship largely rejects such direct diagnoses and instead interprets the book through trauma studies, exile psychology, and communal post‑traumatic stress, while noting that earlier writers did indeed question Ezekiel’s mental health by modern criteria.[9][8]
- **Samson**
- A psychoanalytic article argues that Samson exhibits multiple behaviors aligning with antisocial personality disorder (impulsivity, deceit, lack of remorse, reckless endangerment of self and others).[10]
- That analysis shows how modern diagnostic lenses can be applied to ancient narratives, though it remains controversial and far from a consensus.[10]
## New Testament figures and “madness”
- **People described as demon‑possessed**
- Many of the Gospel exorcism stories (e.g., the Gerasene demoniac) are re-read in psychiatry and theology as potential cases of epilepsy, psychotic disorders, or severe personality disorganization that ancient audiences ascribed to spirits.[3][1]
- This parallel is often used in modern Christian mental‑health literature to argue for compassionate treatment rather than moral condemnation.[1][3]
- **Jesus as perceived “out of his mind”**
- Mark 3:21 reports that Jesus’ family went to seize him because they were saying “He is out of his mind,” which several modern interpreters take as evidence that his relatives thought he was mentally unstable or socially deviant.[11][12][13]
- Contemporary theological essays, however, stress that this reflects social perceptions of a radical itinerant preacher, not a scholarly claim that Jesus himself was mentally ill or incompetent.[13][3]
## How modern scholars frame it
- Recent work in theology and psychiatry warns against pathologizing biblical prophets simply because their experiences are intense or unusual, and instead uses mental‑health categories as conversation partners for understanding suffering, trauma, and religious experience.[2][8][3]
- Many pastoral and psychological applications highlight these figures (especially Job, Elijah, David, and the psalmists) as biblical companions for those living with depression, anxiety, or psychosis today, rather than as examples of disqualifying **incompetence**.[6][7][4]
Sources
[1] Judeo-Christian concepts related to psychiatry - PMC - NIH https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3705683/
[2] [PDF] Theology and Psychiatry https://www.saet.ac.uk/Christianity/TheologyandPsychiatry.pdf
[3] MENTAL HEALTH AND THE GOSPEL: BOYLE LECTURE 2020 https://www.zygonjournal.org/article/id/14705/
[4] [PDF] Potential mental disorder symptoms in the prophet Elijah https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1441&context=psych
[5] Mental Illness in the Bible - Understanding the Scriptures https://www.understanding-the-scriptures.org/mrntal-illness-bible/
[6] [PDF] examining the relationship between biblical characters and https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2317&context=masters
[7] 6 People in the Bible Who Struggled With Their Mental Health https://reclaimtoday.org/6-people-in-the-bible-who-struggled-with-their-mental-health/
[8] Trauma and Post-Trauma in the Book of Ezekiel - SciELO South Africa http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1010-99192020000100003
[9] Exile: History, Interpretation, and Theology https://www.saet.ac.uk/Christianity/ExileHistoryInterpretationandTheology
[10] Analyzing Biblical Psychoanalysis https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/bible-interpretation/analyzing-biblical-psychoanalysis/
[11] Did Jesus Family Think He Was Crazy? https://goandtellministries.org/jesus-family-thought-he-was-crazy-too/
[12] What Does Mark 3:20-21 Mean? Does His Mother Think He Is Crazy. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskBibleScholars/comments/al2bck/what_does_mark_32021_mean_does_his_mother_think/
[13] Did Jesus' Family Think Him Mad? - Catholic Charismatic Renewal https://www.ccr.org.au/item/56-did-jesus-family-think-him-mad
[14] Did Jesus' Family Think He Was Crazy? - - Mike Leake https://www.mikeleake.net/2023/04/did-jesus-family-think-he-was-crazy.html
[15] Is mental instability caused by demon possession? - Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/317070118948079/posts/1453641428624270/
Several major biblical figures have been retrospectively discussed in modern scholarship as possibly showing what today might be called mental illness or psychological disturbance, though all such suggestions are speculative and culturally anachronistic. Most responsible writers emphasize that these are interpretive models, not diagnoses in any clinical sense.[1][2]
## Method and caveats
- Modern psychiatric categories (e.g., depression, psychosis, PTSD) were unknown in the ancient Near East and Second Temple Judaism.[2][1]
- Behaviors the Bible attributes to sin, demons, or divine judgment are sometimes re-read by contemporary scholars as possible symptoms of mental disorders, but this involves translating between very different worldviews.[3][1]
- Consequently, most academic work speaks of “possible” or “suggestive” symptoms rather than declaring specific people clinically **ill** in modern terms.[4][2]
## Figures often discussed
- **King Saul** (1 Samuel)
- Episodes of intense mood swings, torment, and relief when David plays music are sometimes framed as possible major depression with psychotic features, bipolar spectrum, or a chronic mood disorder.[5][1]
- Ancient texts, however, describe this as a “tormenting spirit from the Lord,” showing a theological rather than medical interpretation.[1]
- **Nebuchadnezzar II** (Daniel 4)
- His period of living like an animal and losing “reason” has been read as a psychotic episode, sometimes compared to boanthropy (a delusional belief of being an ox or cow) within modern psychiatry.[5]
- The narrative itself interprets the episode as divine judgment and later restoration of his **sanity** by God, not as a diagnosable disease in contemporary terms.[5]
- **Elijah** (1 Kings 18–19)
- After his prophetic confrontations, he shows exhaustion, fear, wishes for death, and withdrawal, which recent interdisciplinary work has analyzed using frameworks of depression, burnout, or “transitional mental disorders.”[4]
- One 2025 study explicitly compares Elijah’s emotional collapse to the mental health struggles of modern people of faith, while still treating him as a genuine prophet rather than “incompetent.”[4]
- **Job, David, and other lamenters**
- Some modern Christian and psychological writers treat their intense lament, despair, and sometimes suicidal ideation as paradigmatic of anxiety and depressive disorders.[6][7]
- Academic treatments typically see these texts as deliberate theological laments, but note that many readers with depression recognize their own experience in Job or certain psalms.[7][6]
- **Ezekiel**
- Ezekiel’s symbolic actions (lying on one side for hundreds of days, eating food cooked in defiled ways, dramatic visions) led some mid‑20th‑century psychiatrists to label him as schizophrenic or catatonic based on case-like readings.[8][9]
- More recent scholarship largely rejects such direct diagnoses and instead interprets the book through trauma studies, exile psychology, and communal post‑traumatic stress, while noting that earlier writers did indeed question Ezekiel’s mental health by modern criteria.[9][8]
- **Samson**
- A psychoanalytic article argues that Samson exhibits multiple behaviors aligning with antisocial personality disorder (impulsivity, deceit, lack of remorse, reckless endangerment of self and others).[10]
- That analysis shows how modern diagnostic lenses can be applied to ancient narratives, though it remains controversial and far from a consensus.[10]
## New Testament figures and “madness”
- **People described as demon‑possessed**
- Many of the Gospel exorcism stories (e.g., the Gerasene demoniac) are re-read in psychiatry and theology as potential cases of epilepsy, psychotic disorders, or severe personality disorganization that ancient audiences ascribed to spirits.[3][1]
- This parallel is often used in modern Christian mental‑health literature to argue for compassionate treatment rather than moral condemnation.[1][3]
- **Jesus as perceived “out of his mind”**
- Mark 3:21 reports that Jesus’ family went to seize him because they were saying “He is out of his mind,” which several modern interpreters take as evidence that his relatives thought he was mentally unstable or socially deviant.[11][12][13]
- Contemporary theological essays, however, stress that this reflects social perceptions of a radical itinerant preacher, not a scholarly claim that Jesus himself was mentally ill or incompetent.[13][3]
## How modern scholars frame it
- Recent work in theology and psychiatry warns against pathologizing biblical prophets simply because their experiences are intense or unusual, and instead uses mental‑health categories as conversation partners for understanding suffering, trauma, and religious experience.[2][8][3]
- Many pastoral and psychological applications highlight these figures (especially Job, Elijah, David, and the psalmists) as biblical companions for those living with depression, anxiety, or psychosis today, rather than as examples of disqualifying **incompetence**.[6][7][4]
Sources
[1] Judeo-Christian concepts related to psychiatry - PMC - NIH https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3705683/
[2] [PDF] Theology and Psychiatry https://www.saet.ac.uk/Christianity/TheologyandPsychiatry.pdf
[3] MENTAL HEALTH AND THE GOSPEL: BOYLE LECTURE 2020 https://www.zygonjournal.org/article/id/14705/
[4] [PDF] Potential mental disorder symptoms in the prophet Elijah https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1441&context=psych
[5] Mental Illness in the Bible - Understanding the Scriptures https://www.understanding-the-scriptures.org/mrntal-illness-bible/
[6] [PDF] examining the relationship between biblical characters and https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2317&context=masters
[7] 6 People in the Bible Who Struggled With Their Mental Health https://reclaimtoday.org/6-people-in-the-bible-who-struggled-with-their-mental-health/
[8] Trauma and Post-Trauma in the Book of Ezekiel - SciELO South Africa http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1010-99192020000100003
[9] Exile: History, Interpretation, and Theology https://www.saet.ac.uk/Christianity/ExileHistoryInterpretationandTheology
[10] Analyzing Biblical Psychoanalysis https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/bible-interpretation/analyzing-biblical-psychoanalysis/
[11] Did Jesus Family Think He Was Crazy? https://goandtellministries.org/jesus-family-thought-he-was-crazy-too/
[12] What Does Mark 3:20-21 Mean? Does His Mother Think He Is Crazy. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskBibleScholars/comments/al2bck/what_does_mark_32021_mean_does_his_mother_think/
[13] Did Jesus' Family Think Him Mad? - Catholic Charismatic Renewal https://www.ccr.org.au/item/56-did-jesus-family-think-him-mad
[14] Did Jesus' Family Think He Was Crazy? - - Mike Leake https://www.mikeleake.net/2023/04/did-jesus-family-think-he-was-crazy.html
[15] Is mental instability caused by demon possession? - Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/317070118948079/posts/1453641428624270/
