Demons
Ask Me Anything
Week 8: Demons
Are demons still within the spiritual realm?
The Origin of Demons
In Christianity, what began as a belief in demons has evolved into a complex demonology that was been influenced by Jewish tradition and scripture. Jewish demonology was highly developed during and after the Babylonian Exile (600-500 BCE). During the exile, Judaism was surrounded with other religious thought such as Zoroastrianism. In some circles, Christians believe that the deities of other religions were made into demons, or can be interpreted as such.
The origin story of demons comes from Genesis 6:1-8:
"When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.
Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.’ The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.
So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.’ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord."
These stories were told by and for ancient Israelites. For context, during the time period of this story, the nations surrounding Israel claimed to be founded and protected by these giant warriors who were part god, part human, and had divine knowledge. So one way this story can be understood is as commentary saying that these so called "protectors and warriors" of the surrounding nations were actually deceitful, evil fallen angels. Therefore they shouldn’t be honored because they were leading to the corruption of the world. As the story goes, one of these warrior gods, Nimrod, goes on to form Babylon.
As commentary on that story, Moses believes that when Babylon was later scattered in Genesis 10, those nations were handed over to demons (these warrior gods). Moses was the first to name these as demons. These nations worshipped things like sex, money, and military power. They were seen as these lesser spiritual beings that were corrupting God's people. The Hebrew people at that time very much believed in the idea that all suffering in the world was caused by these dark spiritual forces that were at work in the world, and therefore the only way to overcome those things would be through the coming of a Messiah.
The book of Enoch, which is not canonized within Rabbinic or protestant traditions, can tell us more of this story. There are 1st and 2nd books of Enoch, which are both collections of various manuscripts. Most time people refer to 1st Enoch. The stories of Enoch were written as a response to Genesis 5:24: "Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away." This is mentioned in the middle of the lineage that spans from Adam to Noah. Not much is mentioned about Enoch outside of this cryptic blurb. This was not a satisfactory amount of information, therefore Jewish Mystics and even early Christians wrote more stories about the life of Enoch. These stories were based off of Genesis 5:24, and Genesis 6:1-4, which are the texts relating to the Nephilim.
The gist of the story is that there were fallen or rebellious angels, called The Watchers, that came to earth. They impregnated women, and their offspring were the Nephilim. The Watchers were devious, deceitful creatures that were skilled in demonic, dark arts that they would teach to humans in order to corrupt them. This causes so much corruption that humans call out to God, who then dispatches four archangels for various purposes. One angel warned Noah about the impending flood, one imprisoned the fallen angel Azazel, who was responsible for sharing the demonic knowledge with humans. Gabriel is sent to destroy the Nephilim, and Michael is sent to destroy Samyaza, the King of The Watchers. God sends Enoch as a prophet, who alludes to a coming Messiah that will be a light. Enoch is a Jewish Apocalyptic text. It is the first text to mention "son of man" and a "messiah", typically this is accredited to the book of Daniel. Daniel was written later and would have been influenced by Enoch.
The book of Enoch has had a massive impact on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It is referenced in the New Testament, and had a big impact on the gospels, Revelation, and non-canonical texts like Jubilees. Early theologians such as Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian upheld it and equated it to scripture. It wasn't until the fourth century that it started to be more hotly debated. It was one of the highly contested books during the canonization process. It was included in the Christian canon, but later moved into the Apocrypha by Martin Luther. Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity still focusses a lot on Enoch to this day. In fact, the most complete manuscript of Enoch exists in the Ge'ez, Ethiopic language. Enoch has little role in rabbinic Judaism and Protestantism today, though it was highly impactful in the second temple period and early Christianity. We can still see impacts of our belief in the devil, demons and angels from this text.
Demonology
The book of Revelation, which was heavily inspired by Enoch, has a lot to say about demons. According to Rev. 12:7-9 (which was informed by Enoch), demons are fallen angels and have characteristics of angels such as: spiritual, unchanging, immortal. Demons are not considered omniscient, but they can have specific knowledge about certain things. They are also not omnipotent, as it is believed that God limits their powers. The mission of demons is to cause humans to sin, and to torment people (in extreme cases, possession). According to 2 Cor. 11:14, demons can take on any appearance, including "angel of light." Revelation 13, which is about the beast, inspires the idea of demons having horns. Some of the popularly mentioned demons include: Azazel (incarnated in scapegoat, demon of the wilderness), Leviathan and Rahab (chaos demons), and Lilith (a female night demon). Various Jewish folk beliefs like charms, amulets and talismans were used as protection from demons and unclean spirits.
Demons were believed to inhabit wastelands and deserts, which are places that commonly lead to auditory and visual hallucinations. Early Christian monks would go into the desert in an effort to help fight against evil and temptation. They reported that demons and the devil would come to them in visions of seductive women tempting them to violate their purity vows. In the middle ages, there was a rise in suspicion of witchcraft or worship of demons. People were often charged under suspicion of practicing witchcraft or demonic worship. One dark rite was called black mass. There are a lot of theories around black mass, and it had a wide range of practice. One expression of black mass was called "hoc est corpus meum" or the abbreviation, "hocus pocus", which is a term that has survived today in popular magic. The phrase "hoc est corpus meum" which means "this is my body" is from the sacrament of communion. Black mass, particularly Hocus Pocus, is seen as a corruption or parody of the Eucharist liturgy. This theory goes back as far as 1694 to Anglican prelate John Tilloston who claimed, "In all probability those common juggling words of hocus pocus are nothing else but a corruption of hoc est corpus, by way of ridiculous imitation of the priests of the Church of Rome in their trick of Transubstantiation."
Early Christian Theologians
There has been a lot of theological thought around demons throughout Christianity. St. Basil of Caesarea (330-379 CE) believed that demons were dense vapors that could form in the shape of a person or animal and then enter the body. Henry More (1614-1687 CE), an English philosopher, supported this idea as an explanation to why people believed demons to be cold to the touch. Gregory of Nyssa (335-395 CE), believed there were male and female demons that could procreate with humans (other theologians rejected this). Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE) initially believed demons were largely a figment of the imagination, but on rare occasions lead to possessions. Then, later in his life, he believed demons could materialize. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 CE) who seems to always build on Augustine, added that demons tried to seduce humans, and therefore demonic materialization had sexual implications. Alfonso de Spina, who was a Spanish Franciscan Catholic Bishop in the mid to late 15th century, believed that there were only 133,316,666 demons total. He came to this conclusion from reading Revelation 12:3-9, he believed that one third of the angels rebelled from heaven and became demons.
Discussion Questions
Do you believe in demons? Why or why not?
How does this conversation impact your faith or belief in God?
Do you believe that the demons in the Bible were literal?
Resources
The Satan and Demons - The Bible Project
The Book of Enoch Explained - Youtube
Varieties of angels and demons in the religions of the world - Britannica