There is no consensus in ancient literature about the nature of demons or evil spirits. The early Jesus traditions pre-suppose or assume an understanding of demons; the Gospel authors assume their readers[1] will readily understand the mention of demons.
Sources for understanding demons include Greco-Roman and Jewish literature before and after the time of Jesus, the Greek Magical Papyri (PGM), curse tablets, and amulets.[2] Curse tablets and magical amulets have been discovered from all over the Mediterranean world, dating both before and after our period. The magical papyri are dated later (3c. CE and onwards), but they reflect the earlier traditions embodied in the curse tablets and magical amulets. Further, we cannot ignore the wider Near East and its possible influence on thinking about demons in first century Palestine.[3] These various sources are often highly syncretistic; there was a significant cross-fertilisation of ideas about demons and gods in the Ancient World.
The differences in source material can be characterised in the following way: in philosophical and literary works, the references to demons are more likely to be discursive and theoretical, whereas in the magical texts, curse tablets and amulets, references to demons are essential to the practical use of these texts in everyday life. It is these latter types of text that are more relevant to the traditions about Jesus’ exorcisms simply because they are set in everyday social contexts.
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Plutarch (c. 46 – c.120 C.E.) is the principal philosophical source for 1c. views on demons. His main writing on the subject, Oracles in Decline,[4] is a dialogue set in Delphi, discussing the question of why Oracles were less used than in previous generations. Plutarch’s characters represent two views on demons – they are either intermediary to the gods and/or they are the souls of the departed dead.[5]
Plutarch’s characters adduce information about demons from the religious rituals and mysteries of the day. Demons are required because the gods cannot directly participate in men’s affairs. They are souls because they manifest the same behavioural characteristics as humans who are essentially “souls”. Generally, they are the souls of the dead, however, some are souls that have never been united with human bodies and are therefore independent spirits—intermediate beings between the gods and men. Demons may be good or evil.[6] Plutarch represents views about demons derived from Plato,[7] who may be considered to have moulded the consensus view for the educated Hellenized classes.
These two views represent alternative understandings that Jesus and/or his disciples may have entertained.[8] However, there is no Gospel-based evidence that Jesus or the disciples subscribed to Hellenistic views. It is more likely that they derived their conceptions from the surrounding Jewish culture, including Jewish literature and Jewish Scripture. We should also bear in mind that Jesus may have entertained a different point of view to that of the disciples on this question.
The main evidence for Jesus’ view on demons is the passage known as the “Beelzebub Controversy”. In this controversy Jesus is accused of being possessed by Beelzebub. This accusation is well attested in early tradition (Luke/Q 11:14-18a, 19-20, 23,[9] Mark 3:19b-30), and the central charge may well have been made on more than one occasion (cf. Matt 9:32-34, 10:25, John 7:20, 8:48-52, 10:20-21). Likewise, Jesus’ answers to the charge have multiple attestations (e.g. GThom 35 as well as Q and Mark). This variety of independent evidence leads scholars to regard the Beelzebub Controversy as genuine.[10]
Mark’s narrative comment on this controversy is that Jesus’ opponents had accused him of having an unclean spirit (Mark 3:30) – and this suggests that Beelzebub was an unclean spirit – a demon. In a Jewish context, “Beelzebub”,[11] the prince of demons (Mark 3:22), is another title for the leading demon in the Story of the Watchers (cf. Dan 4:17) – “Mastema” or “Satan” in Jubilees or Semyaz or Azaz’el[12] in 1 Enoch. These texts develop a Midrash on Genesis 6 and offer an account of the origin of demons.[13]
In 1 Enoch, the sons of God (fallen angels) marry the daughters of men and give birth to giants (1 Enoch 6:1-2, 7:1-2). These angels (led by Semyaz or Azaz’el) are imprisoned in the earth but the spirits of these giants are allowed to roam the earth:
But now the giants who are born from the (union of) the spirits and the flesh shall be called evil spirits[14] upon the earth, because their dwelling shall be upon the earth and inside the earth. Evil spirits have come out of their bodies. Because from the day they were created from the holy ones they became Watchers; their first origin is the spiritual foundation. They shall become evil upon the earth and shall be called evil spirits. The dwelling of the spiritual beings of heaven is heaven; but the dwelling of the spirits of the earth, which are born upon the earth, is the earth. The spirits of the giants oppress each other; they will corrupt, fall, be excited, and fall upon the earth, and cause sorrow. They eat no food, nor become thirsty, nor find obstacles. And these spirits shall rise up against the children of the people and against the women, because they have proceeded from them. 1 Enoch 15:8-12
They have defiled the people and will lead them into error so that they will offer sacrifices to the demons as unto gods, until the great Day of Judgment… 1 Enoch 19:1
These spirits “which come from the flesh” will do their work until the consummation of the age.
This is only a brief and simple survey of the story of the Watchers. There are complex issues of interpretation raised by the text, which we have ignored. These do not affect our objective in considering 1 Enoch, because we are just concerned with how the work accounts for the origin of demons.[15] 1 Enoch provides a precise explanation of a) why there are evil spirits; b) why these beings are “spirit”; and c) why they dwell on earth.
Jubilees is the other major surviving source from the inter-testamental period that describes the fall of angels from heaven. O. S. Wintermute comments,
If Jubilees is dated between 161-149 BC, it becomes an important primary source for studying the evolution of the various religious parties which became prominent in Judea just before the birth of Christ.[16]
Jubilees gives a slightly different caste to the story of the Watchers. The leading evil spirit, Mastema or Satan, is one of the giants and left free to supervise other evil spirits; in 1 Enoch, Azaz’el or Semyaz is a fallen angel and imprisoned in the earth.
In response to the prayer of Noah for protection against the spirits of the giants, God instructs his angels to “bind them” in the earth. In response to this command Mastema addresses God:
And the Lord God bade us to bind all. And the chief of the spirits, Mastema, came and said:
‘Lord, Creator, let some of them remain before me and let them hearken to my voice, and do all that I shall say unto them; for if some of them are not left to me, I shall not be able to execute the power of my will on the children of men because they are intended to corrupt and lead astray before my judgement because the evil of the sons of men is great.’
And he said:
‘Let the tenth part of them remain before him, and let nine parts descend into the place of condemnation.’
And one of us he commanded that we should teach Noah all their medicines; for he knew that they would not walk in uprightness, nor strive in righteousness. And we did according to all his words: all the malignant evil ones we bound in the place of condemnation, and a tenth part of them we left that they might be subject before Satan on the earth. And we explained to Noah all the medicines of their diseases, together with their seductions, how he might heal them with herbs of the earth. And Noah wrote down all things in a book as we instructed him concerning every kind of medicine. Thus the evil spirits were precluded from hurting the sons of Noah. Jubilees 10:1-14[17]
The dimension that Jewish literature adds to Hellenistic ideas about demons is the nomination of a leading demon: the Devil and Satan. In Greek religion, demons might be the intermediaries of the gods, but no one particular “god” is signalled out as a leader of demons.[18] In Jubilees, Mastema or Satan is given a recurring adversarial role in Israelite history.[19]
The scholarly consensus is that Jewish demonologies developed after the Exile as a result of contact with Persian thinking:
The idea that demons were responsible for all moral and physical evil had penetrated deeply into Jewish religious thought in the period following the Babylonian exile, no doubt as a result of Iranian influence on Judaism in the fifth and the fourth centuries BC when Palestine as well as Jews from the eastern Diaspora were subject to Persian rule.[20]
Of the two traditions, Jubilees is closer than 1 Enoch to Jesus’ controversy with his opponents. Mastema was a “prince”, and being a “prince” is a characteristic of Beelzebub. Jesus shows understanding of Jewish thinking in this area: he accepts that Beelzebub is a “prince”—for he talks of a kingdom and he accepts the casting out of demons “by” a figure of power. Jesus also substitutes “Satan” for the title “Beelzebub”, which is also a title for Mastema.
In terms of Jesus and his disciples’ thinking on demons, it is likely that some rendition of the Watchers Story informed their dealings with the people. Its popularity is evidenced in the number of surviving 1c. texts that mention the story, for example, in the Essene documents—the Genesis Apocryphon (1QapGen 2:1), and the Damascus Document (CD 2:14-20);[21] and in various inter-testamental works.[22]
[1] For an overview of issues relating to identifying the readers of the Gospels, see Richard Bauckham, ed., The Gospels for All Christians: Rethinking the Gospel Audiences (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1998).
[2] The magical texts have been published in, K. Preisendanz and A. Henrichs, eds., Papyri Graecae Magicae (2 vols; Stuttgart: Teubner, 1973-4). The curse tablets have been published in J. G. Gager, Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1992). The magical amulets have been published in E. R. Goodenough, Jewish Symbols of the Greco-Roman Period (13 vols; New York, Pantheon Press, 1953-64).
[3] For example, see the entry under “Demons and Monsters” in J. Black and A. Green, eds., Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia (London: The British Museum Press, 1992).
[4] See Oracles in Decline, 414-417, 431 in Plutarch: Selected Essays and Dialogues, (ed., D. Russell; Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1993).
[5] For a study on the extensive evidence showing the popularity of the “ghosts view” of demons, see P. G. Bolt, “Jesus, The Daimons and the Dead” in The Unseen World (ed., A. N. S. Lane; Carlisle: Paternoster, 1996).
[6] Philo voices the same view, “But as men in general speak of good and evil demons, and in like manner of good and evil souls, so also do they speak of angels…”, On The Giants, 16, in The Works of Philo (ed., C. D. Yonge; Peabody: Hendrickson, 1993).
[7] See Symposium 202d-203, Timaeus 40d, Cratylus 397d-398b, Republic, 427b, 469a, 540c, and Laws 909b in Plato: Complete Works (ed., J. M. Cooper; New York: Hackett 1997). All subsequent quotations of Plato are from this edition.
[8] That the disciples may have believed in ghosts – see Matt 14:26, Luke 24:37 cf. Acts 23:8-9.
[9] For a popular introduction to the theory behind Q, which includes a reconstructed text of Q, see Burton L. Mack, The Lost Gospel: The Book of Q and Christian Origins (Shaftsbury: Element, 1993). For a presentation of Q with critical apparatus and parallels with other gospels, see John S. Kloppenborg, Q Parallels (Sonoma: Polebridge, 1988). We follow Kloppenborg in his assessment of the content of Q.
[10] For a discussion see Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz, The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide (London: SCM Press, 1998), 298-299.
[11] The meaning of this title is disputed but we favour the view that it connotes “Baal, the Prince”. This is suggested by archaeological discoveries at Ras Shamra (Ugarit), which have uncovered uses of the title zbl. bcl for Baal. See A. S. Kapelrud, The Ras Shamra Discoveries and the Old Testament (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1965), 33, 37; U. Oldenberg, The Conflict Between El and Baal in Canaanite Religion (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1969), 82, n. 1; T. Jemielty, Satire and the Hebrew Prophets (Louisville: WJK Press, 1992), 88.
[12] For a discussion of the names of the leading angel see, M. E. Mills, Human Agents of Cosmic Power (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1990), ch. 5.
[13] Quotations from 1 Enoch are from the translation in J. H. Charlesworth, ed., The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (2 vols; New York: Doubleday, 1983-85).
[14] This concept of “evil spirit” is different to the one found in the Old Testament, which is associated with angels (Jud 9:23, 1 Sam 16:14, Ps 78:49) – here in 1 Enoch they are the spirits of dead giants.
[15] For a discussion of the Story of the Watchers in 1 Enoch see N. Forsyth, The Old Enemy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987), chs. 7-9.
[16] O. S. Wintermute, “Introduction” to Jubilees in Charlesworth, ed., Pseudepigrapha, 1:46.
[17] This translation is from H. C. Kee, ed., The Origins of Christianity: Sources and Documents (London: SPCK, 1973).
[18] See W. Burkert, Greek Religion (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1985), 179-181, 329-332.
[19] See Jubilees 11:15, 17:15-18:13, 23:29, 46:1-2, 48:2, 12, and 50:5.
[20] G. Vermes, Jesus the Jew (London: SCM Press, 1993), 61. See also, Forsyth, The Old Enemy, 147 and H. C. Kee, Medicine, Miracle and Magic (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1986), 70.
[21] Another Dead Sea fragment, 4Q180, also mentions Azaz’el and the fallen angels. Unless otherwise noted all references to the Dead Sea Scrolls are to the edition, Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (London: Penguin, 1998).
[22] The theme is also mentioned in the largely 2c. B.C.E. work, Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs – T. Reuben 5:6-7, T. Naphtali 3:2, 5. The giants are mentioned in the Wisdom of Solomon 14:6, (1c. B.C.E.), Sirach 16:7, (2c. B.C.E.), Baruch 3:26, (1c.-3c. B.C.E.), 3 Maccabees 2:4, (1c. B.C.E.). This spread of witness to the story shows that it was a popular belief. All of these works can be found in Charlesworth, ed., Pseudepigrapha.
Is Pentecost Happening Today? (Part 7) – Tongues Shall Cease