ETB: 1 Corinthians 7; 2 Corinthians 2; 11–12; TGP: Ephesians 6:10-20; 1 John 3:10-18

Of and Devil the A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW ISTOCK PHOTO

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ACE YOUR DEMONS” Right: Dating to says popular advice, but the 3rd cent. BC and carved from such salty wisdom severely the mountain disregards humanity’s pest- rock overlook- “F ing Antioch, a ridden history with demons and the colossal depiction devil. For millennia, people struggled of the head of to understand the diverse super- . The figure was carved in an natural powers teeming at seem- attempt to save ingly every juncture of human life. Antioch from a plague afflicting Despite the religious cults that erect- persons in the ed temples and shrines to numer- area. Charon was ous gods and goddesses, the ancients the ferryman who took the dead never found a satisfactory approach across the River to deal with the relentless demons . ROGERS (5/15/1) PHOTO/ DAVID ILLUSTRATOR that mercilessly harassed people. Such was life until Jesus arrived. Now the demons implored Him not to send them to their final destiny (Luke 8:31).

Ancient Understandings Long ago, dealing with demons was like handling lice, flies, or gnats: get rid of one and seemingly more arrive. Shrines and temples did not help. Ancient religion was useless against the frustrating, daily incursions from an PHOTO/ G.B. HOWELL/ CHICAGO FIELD MUSEUM (35/57/7) ILLUSTRATOR ever-encroaching Left: Bronze amu- attached to a place to a body. Early world. To get relief, let depicting an near a sick person in Egypt’s history, Assyrian , frightened away spells and pass- one was taught to Pazuzu, who was the spirit imagined words were carved honor countless tra- known as the to be attacking the into tomb walls or “king of the evil body; dated about on coffins. Papyrus ditions: do not Liludemons,” the 800–500 BC. copies of the Book stay overnight in a company of dev- of the Dead made house of study; do astating desert Above: Scene spells and pass- winds, and the from the Egyptian words available to not sit under a drain- terrifying spirit of Book of the Dead commoners, who pipe; do not crush a louse on ILLUSTRATOR the unburied dead. shows bottom left, buried them with PHOTO/ BRITISH Assyrians believed Anubis, the god of deceased loved your garment; do not drink MUSEUM/ LONDON (31/9/36) an image of Pazuzu mortuary, tending ones. water at night.1 Initially, ancient peoples the gods but higher than men.”3 evil. They thought some demons understood demons to be interme- In early usage, the Greek words did good, while others brought evil diary spirits occupying the unde- “daimonion” and “diamon,”4 from upon humanity.6 fined realms between the gods and which the English word “demon” Mesopotamia, by far, strug- humanity.2 Some regarded demons derives, meant “divine being” gled the most to understand the as spirits of the dead that inter- and referred to the lower divines demonic. They clearly associated vened in human affairs. Later, phi- while theos referred to the higher evil with demonic entities and losophers upgraded them to the divines.5 Many ancient peoples did believed demons won power over sphere of the divine: “lower than not associate all the demonic with humans when people violated

88 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SPRING 2018 religious values and prohibitions. Elsewhere, Egyptians assigned Old Testament Era Mesopotamians eventually charac- natural phenomena like storms and Remarkably, the Old Testament terized violations as “sins,” actions floods to the gods but were terri- gives little attention to demonic that exposed people to demonic fied of the disembodied spirits of activity. Twice it renders the curses and possession.7 In time, the dead who supposedly devised Hebrew word shedim as “demons” people blamed demons for all kinds a range of evil deeds against (Deut. 32:17; Ps. 106:37). Otherwise of misfortunes—from being sick to humans. Rattled, Egyptians fumi- people either assigned losing important items.8 gated the inward spaces of their phenomena to God or described Horrified, Mesopotamians temples and homes to chase away them in ways that did not convey viewed their world as becoming lingering spirits.14 inherent demonism.17 Though evil saturated by evil spirits that sup- Like the Egyptians, eventually phenomena went under explained, posedly worked mischief among all peoples realized that institution- the Israelites did not experience defenseless humans. They thought al religion had no effect on demonic the terrible sense of being occupied demons assumed animal forms and activity. Expedient measures were by demon hordes in the same way preferred uninhabited locations: needed. Thus talismans, amulets, the Mesopotamians had interpreted deserts, mountains, ruins, and buri- spells, incantations, and exorcisms their experiences. al places.9 People even associated became a common albeit supposed- The Old Testament does affirm, demons with air, believing these ly essential part of life.15 A sample though, the presence of a being that unseen entities could arrive on spell survives from Mesopotamia: is evil personified. This was the ser- strange winds from faraway lands.10 pent that tempted Eve in the garden. Nevertheless demons turned up You shall not repetitiously This being, Satan, brought accusa- everywhere: in homes, foodstuffs, stay around (the person) in tion against Job (Job 1:6-12; 2:1-7); and water containers.11 People outer corners! stood before the of God, eventually blamed demons for all You shall not repeatedly sit ready to accuse Joshua the high adversities, especially personal (next) to him in inner corners! priest (Zech. 3:1); and incited David sickness and widespread disease.12 You shall not incessantly to conduct a census (1 Chron. 21:1). In their paranoia, Mesopotamians whirl around him in the city! Having survived the horrendous named their demons, hoping magic You shall not recurringly cir- experience of being forced from could neutralize the mayhem these culate along the [river] bank! their homeland, being put into

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (10/12/2) PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ ILLUSTRATOR unseen beings created.13 Go to the bottom of the under- Babylonian captivity, and then liv- world into your darkness!16 ing under postexilic domination by foreigners caused the Jews to ponder the systems of evil. Many of their ideas concerning fallen and

The slope of the hill from Gergesa into the Sea of Galilee; many believe this is where Jesus cast the demons into the pigs.

SPRING 2018 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR 89 Left: From the Below: Terra- Mycenaean citadel. cotta plaque from Fragment of a wall Mespotamia dated painting depicting to the 1st half of demons in an appar- the 2nd millenni- ent hunting scene; um BC. The scene 13th cent. BC. depicts the death Three demons walk, of the demon holding a pole from Humbaba, who which they would was surnamed hang their prey. “the Terrible.”

1. Naomi Janowitz, Magic in the Roman World: Pagans, Jews and Christians (London: Routledge, 2001), 27. Edward Langdon, Essentials of Demonology (London: Epworth, 1949), 23. 2. Everett Ferguson, Demonology of the Early Christian World (New York: Edwin Mellon, 1984), 35.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ G.B. HOWELL/ ATHENS ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM (35/3/79) PHOTO/ G.B. HOWELL/ ATHENS ILLUSTRATOR 3. Eamonn O’Doherty and A. van den Bom, “Demon” in Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Bible (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1963), 546. 4. Daimonion is the common Greek word for “demon,” occurring 63 times. Daimon is the common Classical Greek word for “demon” but occurs only once in the New Testament, their leader, the prince of darkness, Matt. 8:31. David E. Aune, solidified during these experiences “Demon; Demonology” in The International Standard Bible and afterward. “During the intert- Encyclopedia, gen. ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, rev. ed., vol 1 (Grand Rapids: estamental period most people, Eerdmans, 1979), 919. including the Jews, . . . believed that 5. Georg Luck, Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman the world was full of supernatu- Worlds (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. ral agencies working for good or to His Press, 1985), 163. “daimo/nion“ (daimonion; deity, PHOTO/ G.B. HOWELL/ LOUVRE MUSEUM (35/11/40) ILLUSTRATOR 19 demon) and “dai/mon“ (daimon, demon) in Walter Bauer, ill.” Angels did good and demons, coming into the A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other evil. Satan, who had Old Testament kingdom of the Devil and deliv- Early Christian Literature, trans. and ed. William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich, 2nd ed., rev. F. Wilbur Gingrich cameo appearances, led the demons. ering those in darkness. Thus and Frederick W. Danker (Chicago: University of Chicago from Mary Magdalene He cast Press, 1979), 169. 20 6. Charles Yeboah, “Demon” in Eerdmans Dictionary New Testament Era out seven demons (Luke 8:2). of the Bible, ed.-in-chief David Noel Freedman (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 337. By the first century, both Jews and Many times demons recognized 7. Gerald Messadié, A History of the Devil, trans. Gentiles had developed a greater Jesus; they knew He came to con- Mare Romano (New York: Kodansha International, 1996), 103–104. understanding of demons. The New quer them (Matt. 8:29; Mark 1:24). 8. Janowitz, Magic in the Roman World, 27. Testament thus depicts demons Additionally, He gave His disci- 9. Langdon, Essentials of Demonology, 21. 10. Anne Marie Kitz, “Demons in the Hebrew as being both powerful and per- ples power to “tread upon serpents Bible and the Ancient Near East” in Journal of Biblical vasive. Demons appeared shortly and scorpions” (Luke 10:19, nasb), Literature 135, no. 3 (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2016): 457. after Jesus’ wilderness temptation referring to demons. Indeed though- 11. Langdon, Essentials of Demonology, 23. 12. Ibid., 22. (Matt. 4:24). The New Testament out His ministry, Jesus showed that 13. R. K. Harrison, “Demon” in The Zondervan depicts demons tormenting humans His authority is greater than the Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009), 2:96–97. and harassing the progress of God’s sum of all demonic power. 14. Ibid., 2:98. kingdom. They moved in swarms, Since the first century, peo- 15. Ibid., 2:96. 16. Kitz, “Demons in the Hebrew Bible and the lived among the dead, and invaded ple have had a fascination with Ancient Near East,” 457. people’s lives. They caused disease demons and the devil. Such inter- 17. Harrison, “Demon,” 2:98. 20 18. Aune, “Demonology,” 920–21. and inflicted untold misery upon est, though, can be dangerous. 19. Harrison, “Demon,” 2:102. 20. Greg J. Riley, “Demon” in Dictionary and Demons defenseless people. Christians need not give their in the Bible, ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Christ the Deliverer, though, attention to the evil one. We can Pieter W. van der Horst (New York: E. J. Brill, 1995), arrived. To Him demons would have assurance that Jesus still gives 445–56. powerlessly yield. Jesus talked about His followers victory over “the entering the strong man’s house, father of lies” (John 8:44, nasb) Mark R. Dunn is the teaching pas- binding him, and taking his prop- and “the rulers of the darkness of tor at Duncanville’s First Baptist erty (Mark 3:27, nasb), a reference this world” (Eph. 6:12, kjv). I Church in Duncanville, Texas.

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