Bible topic

demonology: Definition from Answers.com


The ancient universal belief in demons is reflected in the Bible. In two passages (Deut 32:17; Ps 106:37) the Israelites are charged with having offered sacrifices to demons – a practice expressly condemned and forbidden. This proscribed worship is imputed to Canaanite influences. The demons are depicted as haunting ruined cities and deserts (cf Lev 16:10; Is 13:21).

Several demons are mentioned by name in the OT: Seirim, translated as "demons" or "wild goats", were probably hairy, goat-like demons (Deut 32:17; Ps 106:37; Is 13:21). Keteb, translated as "destruction" or "sudden death" (Deut 32:24; cf Is 28:2; Hos 13:14), has been identified as the bringer of a deadly plague. In the passage in Hosea, Keteb appears as a messenger of Sheol, the personified abode of the dead. Reshef was a god of plague in the ancient Near East. He has also been identified with the Akkadian deity Nergal who is compared to fire in Ugaritic literature. Translators have rendered Reshef both as "fever" and as "fiery lightning" or "sparks that fly upward" (Ps 78:48; Hab 3:5; Job 5:7). Azazel was a demon who lived in the wilderness, translated "scapegoat" in many versions (See AZAZEL) (Lev 16:8, 10, 26). Lilith, called "night creature" in Isaiah 34:14, was in ancient Mesopotamian and Jewish sources a female demon who tempts men sexually and strangles newborn babies. Dever, often translated "pestilence", joins Reshef in appearing before God as he is about to execute judgment on earth (Hab 3:5).

The OT antipathy to magic as practiced by the surrounding peoples meant that while demonology remained a folk-belief, it was excluded from the main line of religious thought.

An echo of the equation between demons and pagan deities found in the OT (Deut 32:17) is to be seen in the NT in such passages as Acts 17:18; I Corinthians 10:20 and Revelation 9:20. Demons are regarded in the NT as originators of evil, both physical and psychic. The mental disorders and physical ailments brought upon men by the entrance of demons (or "unclean spirits") into the human body include the loss of the power of speech (Matt 12:22), insanity (Luke 8:27-33), sickness (Matt 8:14-15), paralysis and lameness (Acts 8:7). The demons and "unclean spirits" are termed the ministers of Satan or Belial; the latter is occasionally called Beelzebub (Matt 10:25; 12:24, 27; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15, 18-19). In these passages, the Pharisees charge Jesus with casting out demons by invoking the name of Satan or Beelzebub.

On a number of occasions, Jesus is reported to have expelled demons from people so afflicted and restored them to sanity or the normal use of their physical faculties (Matt 12:22; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:14). Jesus gives his twelve disciples the power over unclean spirits; that is, the power to cast them out (Matt 10:1; Acts 5:15).