Many of Jesus' contemporaries sought to chase away demons by means of incantations, pain compliance techniques like smelly roots, or invocation of higher spirits to get rid of lower ones (as in Tobit 6:7-8, 16-17; 8:2-3; Jos. Ant. 8.45-49; Jub. 10:10-13). (One thinks of the children's story of the king who hired cats to chase away mice from his palace, then had to hire dogs to drive off the cats, lions to be rid of the dogs, elephants to scare out the lions-and finally mice to chase the elephants from his now ruined palace.) Jesus instead expelled demons simply by his word (Mt 8:16; compare Twelftree 1986:383). Perhaps in view of the predicted nearness of God's kingdom, Satan's kingdom had initiated a counteroffensive raising the visibility of demon possession in this period (Alexander 1980:249).