==Demons, Demonology

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I. Ancient Near East

II. Hebrew Bible/Old Testament

III. New Testament

IV. Greco-Roman Antiquity

V. Judaism

VI. Christianity

VII. Islam

VIII. Other Religions

IX. Literature

X. Visual Arts

XI. Music

XII. Film

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I. Ancient Near East

A. Egypt

>For the ancient Egyptian culture, it is rather problematic to speak of demons. While many entities have been labeled as such by modern scholars, it is difficult to point out a clear emic conception. In the Coptic language, the latest phase of Egyptian, the word īkh serves to render the Greek δαμων. This word derives from the Egyptian term ꜣḫ which, however, originally designated the blessed and glorified dead. Still, later usage shows a shift in meaning toward ambivalent spirits that can wreak serious damage and are thus close to the modern conception of demons.

B. Mesopotamia, Syria, and Anatolia

>In the study of Mesopotamian religion, the term “demon” is used as a designation for harmful beings associated with the divine sphere, but not as an object of cultic veneration. Sumerian and Akkadian lack generic terms for this class of beings, but the names of some individual demons, especially Sumerian udug (Akkadian utukku), could be used inclusively. When employed in a more generic sense, udug, galla (gallû), alad (šēdu), lama (lamassu) could be classified as “evil” or “good”; this indicates that evil demons and protective spirits, though forming distinct groups, were regarded in principle as belonging to the same class. The protective spirit of a person could be called a digˆir (ilu) “god,” and its unfavorable counterpart, the evil “god” (digˆir-h˚ul, ilu lemnu), is often included in enumerations of demons. Such lists also include the evil ghost (gi-dim-h˚ul, eṭemmu lemnu), since angry, uncared-for ghosts of deceased people threatened humans in the same way as demons.

II. Hebrew Bible/Old Testament

>1. In the ANE, demons were considered to be superhuman and semi-divine beings associated with the realm of chaos and thought to embody dangerous, destructive, and evil characteristics. They were credited with being the source of sickness of the body, mental insanity, child death, and other forms of distress. Cosmologically they were believed to be the direct offspring of chaos, such as in Mesopotamia, or as part of the contra-divine evil forces, such as in Hellenistic Judaism and Persian Zoroastrism. In spite of their negative character, demons could also be considered as apotropaic and even protective spirits, turning their otherwise dangerous characteristics against other evil forces. Often no clear distinction between evil demons and other potentially dangerous numinous beings, such as the biblical Seraphim (cf. Deut 11 : 8–15; Isa 6), could be made. Though we do not have identifiable demons from Iron-e I–II iconographical sources from Israel, we can draw some conclusions on their appearance from depictions of apotropaic beings in the glyptic arts of ancient Syria-Palestine and related material from Mesopotamia. Demons were depicted as composite beings, incorporating body parts of humans with animals of prey (e.g., lions, wild canines, birds of prey) or other dangerous animals (e.g., snakes, scorpions, wild bulls, etc.). Their otherworldly character was often emphasized by wings, which are typical for divine and semi-divine beings.

III. New Testament

>1. Demonology provides a mythical context – that is, a received “holy narrative” capable of generating a believed reality (Bell: 35–36) – for understanding evil, which the NT portrays in terms of conflict between the kingdom of God and the rule of Satan. The writers of the NT inherited their demonology from the Hellenistic Jewish environment familiar to Jesus and his immediate followers, which built upon the HB’s hostility toward foreign gods and the limited dualism of the postexilic period that provided for God’s ultimate authority. Expanding upon Gen 6 : 1–4, apocalyptic literature of 3rd – second century BCE in particular (e.g., 1 Enoch, Jubilees) constructed an etiology of sin based on the corruption of the angelic watchers and the expectation of their eschatological judgment that finds direct reference in the NT’s Christ-centered message of salvation (Jude 6, 14–15; 2 Pet 2 : 4; cf. Rev 12 : 7–9) (Auffarth: 5; Reed: 1–4). Sectarian texts from Qumran that provided ethical instruction on the good and evil human inclinations (e.g., 1QS III, 17–21) also resonate with NT teachings and the Two Ways doctrine of early Christianity (Did. 1–6; Barn. 18–21)

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IV. Greco-Roman Antiquity

>1. The term “demon” means god, divine power, or fate. Etymologically, it probably comes from δαμαι, “to divide, distribute” (cf. Frisk: 540–41). In early Greek texts, the use of the term is variable and ambiguous; a reflected classification of demon in the sense of “demonology” can only be established after Plato. In the following, the meaning of the word will be shown based on examples of Greek texts from Homer to the 4th century CE, and afterwards based on the Latin version from Apuleius.

V. Judaism

A. Second Temple and Hellenistic Judaism

>The belief in the existence and powers of demons, and the proliferation of methods for their expulsion or subjugation, were common features of Jewish culture at least from the Second Temple period. Evidence of such beliefs and practices is found in many literary texts of the Second Temple period and in a handful of exorcistic texts whose fragments have been found at Qumran, or which are cited in contemporary literary texts. All these sources have much to say about the demons’ origins and activities and about the texts and practices used to fight them.

B. Rabbinic Judaism

>Despite the crushing Jewish defeats in the Great Revolt of 66–73 CE and the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132-35 CE, and the many transformations in Jewish society and culture which were precipitated by these cataclysmic events, Jewish beliefs about demons and the practices used against them seem to have continued into the rabbinic period. To be sure, there were some new developments – most notably, the use of written amulets and (in Mesopotamia) special incantation bowls in order to fight demons – but many of the old beliefs and practices remained in vogue, and most of the changes are better seen as gradual developments than as a complete break with the past. As we can see from rabbinic literature, most Jews, including the rabbis themselves, firmly believed in the existence of demons, and many Jews, including many rabbis, actively sought to ward them off or drive them away.

C. Medieval Judaism

>As in earlier periods, in the Middle Ages many Jews believed in the existence of demons and had a range of practices intended to keep them at bay. But in the Middle Ages, three new developments had an important impact on Jewish demonology. First, though perhaps least important, there arose in the Jewish community, for the first time in Jewish cultural history, a group of extreme rationalists who either denied the very existence of demons, or at least sought to exorcize them out of Jewish culture. It was primarily Maimonides (1138–1204) and his followers who sought to uproot all magical beliefs and practices from the Jewish religious system and from the Jews’ daily lives, and to portray them as both halakhically forbidden and scientifically erroneous (see, e.g., Maimonides, MishT, Avodah Zarah 4.7; Guide 3.37). It must be noted, however, that even Maimonides took issue primarily with the practice of magic, divination, and astrology, but made no effort to eradicate the very belief in demons (apart from excising them from his own works, even when using rabbinic sources which explicitly mentioned them), apparently realizing that this was a lost cause.

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