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02 – Excursus ( & ) Page 1 of 12

Christ Community Church of the Nazarene

Adult Study Fall 2019

PPPERSEVERANCE ,,, NNNOT PPPERFECTION A Study of the Epistle to the Hebrews

Discussion 2 (Excursus): Angels & Demons

I. among Unclean Spirits/Demons (An Introduction)

A. Foundational Presuppositions and Propositions

1) The Bible presupposes the existence of beings that are not part of the narrated creation in Genesis 1 & 2 (e.g., angels [non-human messengers], unclean spirits, demons, , etc.).

2) To ask about the nature of these creatures is, in many ways, to step outside of the intention of the Biblical authors/editors and possibly even to step outside of their knowledge (inspired knowledge or otherwise).

a) I would argue that the Biblical authors/editors have been inspired to interpret the events which they have recorded and reflected on, and that they have even been inspired to identify correctly the principal actors in those events.

* However, short of finding a Biblical author/editor whose intention was to teach the pre-history or essential nature of these creatures, what exactly they are connects merely with a presumption of the Biblical authors/editors and may not be entirely accurate.

b) All that is to say that when we attempt to explore what precisely these creatures are, when, how, and why they were created, why they do what they do or want what they want, and so on, we are leaving the realm of inspired Biblical teaching/testimony and we are engaging in pure conjecture.

B. Roadmap for Our Discussion

1) Starting where we are and moving backwards…

a) How have contemporary, Western European/American readers dealt with the issues of angels, demons, and/or unclean spirits in the texts of the First and New Testaments?

b) How has the practice of syncretism influenced the mythology that has grown up around this topic in many contexts around the world?

02 – Excursus (Angels & Demons) Page 2 of 12

c) How did the major groups in Jesus’ context understand the terms , , and/or unclean (approximately 200 B.C. to A.D. 200)?

2) Looking to the canonical Bible…

a) How do the First Testament and the seem to utilize these terms generally?

b) Do these terms play any significant role in Hebrews?

3) How might we understand the reality of angels, demons, and/or unclean spirits in light of this entire conversation?

II. Moving Back Through Time

A. The ideas of unclean spirits, demons, and/or angels has had varied treatment in recent decades.

1) In popular Christian fiction, several authors have envisioned a spiritual battlefield which exists around us which has only been hinted at in the Scriptural text. The most notable among these a few decades ago was Frank Peretti.

It had arms and it had legs, but it seemed to move without them, crossing the street and mounting the front steps of the church. Its leering, bulbous eyes reflected the stark blue light of the full moon with their own jaundiced glow. The gnarled head protruded from hunched shoulders, and wisps of rancid red breath seethed in labored hisses through rows of jagged fangs. It either laughed or it coughed—the wheezes puffing out from deep within its throat could have been either. From its crawling posture it reared up on its legs and looked about the quiet neighborhood, the black, leathery jowls pulling back into a hideous death-mask grin. It moved toward the front door. The black hand passed through the door like a spear through liquid; the body hobbled forward and penetrated the door, but only half way. Suddenly, as if colliding with a speeding wall, the creature was knocked backward and into a raging tumble down the steps, the glowing red breath tracing a corkscrew trail through the air. With an eerie cry of rage and indignation, it gathered itself up off the sidewalk and stared at the strange door that would not let it pass through. Then the membranes on its back began to billow, enfolding great bodies of air, and it flew with a roar headlong at the door, through the door, into the foyer—and into a cloud of white hot light. The creature screamed and covered its eyes, then felt itself being grabbed by a huge, powerful vise of a hand. In an instant it was hurling through space like a rag doll, outside again, forcefully ousted. 1

1 Frank E. Peretti, This Present Darkness (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1986), 11-12. 02 – Excursus (Angels & Demons) Page 3 of 12

* This sort of view of spiritual creatures and spiritual warfare still persists outside of the world of fiction in many contemporary contexts.

2) In contemporary psychology (even among Christian psychologists), the idea of demon possession is treated largely as a pre-scientific, superstitious and/or mythological understanding of psychological ailments.

a) David G. Myers is the author of a best-selling introductory textbook to psychology which, in its most recent edition, is still used in Psychology 101 courses all over the country.

b) He is a Christian (He teaches at Hope College), and he wrote a book called Psychology through Eyes of Faith .

For many religious people the ultimate threat of science is therefore that it will demystify life, destroying our sense of wonder and with it our readiness to believe in and worship an unseen reality. Once we regarded flashes of lightening and claps of thunder as supernatural magic. Now we understand the natural processes at work. Once we viewed certain mental disorders as demon possession. Now we are coming to discern genetic, biochemical, and stress-linked causes. Once we prayed that God would spare children from diphtheria. Now we vaccinate them. Understandably, some Christians have come to regard scientific naturalism as “the strongest intellectual enemy of the church.” 2

3) Conservative Christian scholars, such as D. A. Carson, have sought to explain the apparent discord between our contemporary experience and knowledge and the testimony of the Scriptures with a suggestion which might be called eschatological clustering .

Now let us take up a question that in most circles in North Atlantic countries would scarcely be a burning issue, but that in many parts of sub-Saharan black Africa is vital and pressing: What does the Bible say about demons, and how are Christians to beat them? In the semipopular Christian literature, patterned after a certain systematic mold, one trawls through Scripture and examines, in the first instance, the practiced by Jesus and pulls out texts mentioning “demon” or “demonization” and gradually constructs first a , and then pastoral counsel, to help Christians address these matters. But if one places these texts within the Bible’s plot-line, and asks fundamental questions about the nature of the conflict in which we are engaged and the nature of the victory that Christ has won, one soon perceives that there are other themes that are being overlooked. How much of the presentation of demonic activity in the Synoptic [i.e., Matthew, Mark, and Luke] is bound up with the dawning of the kingdom and the coming of the King? How is such activity related to the End? How much of the proper confrontation of the demonic is bound up with solutions—as in Ephesians 6 and 12? This is not to say that there is

2 David G. Meyers & Malcolm A. Jeeves, Psychology through Eyes of Faith (San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1987), 41. 02 – Excursus (Angels & Demons) Page 4 of 12

no place for explicit . It is to say, rather, that the framework of the discussion and the priorities that emerge look rather different when the Bible’s story-line, climaxing in Christ and his cross-work, resurrection, exaltation and reign, are taken into account. 3

B. The Influence of Syncretism

1) Syncretism is “the combination of different forms of or practice.” 4

a) When we speak of syncretism in Christian practice we are talking about the beliefs and practices that result from a combining of Christian teaching and non-Christian religious beliefs and practices.

b) I would suggest that this was happening even in the earliest period of the Church, particularly as the Church became more and more Gentile and less and less Jewish.

* However, it has continued to happen throughout Church history, first in and then throughout the world as Christianity spread.

2) Many local beliefs about angels, demons, and/or unclean spirits have more to do with the former non-Christian beliefs and practices of individual cultural areas that they do with Scripture specifically.

3) Examples:

C. Angels, demons, and/or unclean spirits in the time of Jesus. 5

1) Roman/Gentile Culture

a) Popular Beliefs

i) As far as we can tell the basic understanding of “demons” in popular Greek culture was that they were the spirits of the dead.

ii) They could appear in varied places, but especially in desolate areas and at night.

iii) They often appeared in the form of beastlike creatures.

3 D. A. Carson, The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), 546-547. 4 Merriam-Webster Dictionary; available from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/syncretism ; Internet; accessed 3 December 2010. 5 Most of this material is gathered from Werner Foerster, “ daivmwn, daimovnion, daimonivzomai, daimoniwvdh", deisidaivmwn, deisidaimoniva ,” ed., Gerhard Kittel, trans. & ed., Geoffrey W. Bromiley, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament , Volume II (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1964), 1- 20. 02 – Excursus (Angels & Demons) Page 5 of 12

iv) They could possess people, and they were seen as responsible for travesties both in nature and in human life.

v) They could be controlled to some degree by magical means.

b) Beliefs of the Philosophers

i) The Greek philosophers thought of demons primarily as divine beings.

a) The term was used at times to describe gods generally.

b) But it was more often associated with lesser .

ii) The main tasks of these beings were to be messengers between the gods and humans.

iii) As popular beliefs intermingled with philosophical speculation, demons became associated primarily with misfortune and distress.

iv) There was some philosophical speculation that these deities occasionally possessed human hosts for their own end.

v) There was some belief (primarily in the Neo-Platonists) in a hierarchy of spiritual beings in the heavens in which the ones which were closer to the earth were more evil than those that were further away (by further away, we mean upwards).

c) Interestingly, there is no sign of Greek belief in “angels” (Greek pneumata [pneuvmata ]) until after the influence of Jewish thought becomes apparent.

2) Jewish Culture

a) Popular Beliefs

i) Even though, almost all Jewish beliefs regarding spiritual beings find their origin in the language of angels and such in the First Testament, our sources for most popular Jewish beliefs about spiritual beings come from the groups of books known as the and the .

ii) The work of demons in popular belief was primarily to seduce humans (they tempted humans to forsake or disobey ).

iii) The beginning of their “fall” was usually connected with the events just before the flood which are described in Genesis 6.

iv) In popular Jewish belief, demons were already being viewed as subordinate to a larger figure called Satan. 02 – Excursus (Angels & Demons) Page 6 of 12

v) Demons were not seen as of the dead in any popular Jewish belief system that we are aware of.

vi) Popular Jewish belief also seems to have assumed that there were demonic forces at work in Gentile nations and governments.

b) Beliefs of the Rabbis (sometimes called Tannaitic )

i) Here, again, the Jewish conception of spirits is based on that of angels.

ii) For the rabbis, the main function of demons is to do harm to life and limb.

a) For this reason, the rabbis often attributed sickness to demons or demonic activity.

b) Occasionally there were references to demons of seduction (leading men to , for instance).

iii) There is no hierarchical connection in the teaching of the rabbis between demons and Satan.

iv) One was protected from demonic activity by God, His angels, and the study of Torah.

v) Unlike the Greek philosophers, the rabbis did not view demons as intermediaries between God and humans.

a) The spiritual world, for the rabbis, was divided sharply into good and evil (i.e., angels and demons respectively).

b) Only rarely is there any reference to the idea that an angel could become a demon, and these ruminations were associated primarily with the events of Genesis 6.

D. Angels, Demons, and/or Unclean Spirits in the Canonical Bible 6

1) The First Testament

a) There is actually at least one reference to spirits of the dead in the First Testament (see 1 Samuel 28:13).

* In this particular passage the term used for them is ĕlōhīm (

6 This material also comes largely from Foerster, 1-20. 02 – Excursus (Angels & Demons) Page 7 of 12

b) However, for the most part any discussion of malevolent spirits and/or demons is on the fringes of the First Testament.

i) There are only two general Hebrew words that seem possibly to be associated with demons or evil/unclean spirits—shēdīm (

ii) There are some proper names which are depicted possibly as spiritual evil beings and are associated with Gentile nations like Babylon—for example, līlīt (tyl!yl!), 8 'ălūqā (hq`Wlu&), 9 and possibly 'ăzā'zēl (lz}az`u&)10 —, but again, in reference to the first two there is no evidence that the authors/editors supported actual beliefs in these creatures, and the proper translation of the third is hard to determine.

iii) “In general we may say that the OT knows no demons with whom one may have dealings in magic even for the purpose of warding them off.” 11

c) Whereas the Greeks often associated destructive powers with demons, the First Testament ascribed those same powers to the rule of God. 12

d) The Greek translation of the First Testament (that is, the , often abbreviated LXX) seems to have assumed that the Greek term for demon (daimonion [daimovnion ]) referred negatively to heathen/Gentile gods.

e) The Sātān (i.e., The Accuser )

i) The term sātān (/f*s*) in Hebrew means “the accuser” or, in the context of a legal dispute, “the adversary.”

* The term is rarely used in reference to non-human agents in the First Testament.

ii) However, there are a number of interesting passages in which sātān has been used in reference to an apparently non-human agent.

a) In Numbers 22:22 & 32 the angel of the LORD is called the sātān (usually translated “adversary”).

b) In Zechariah 3:1-10, the prophet describes a scene in which a high priest named Joshua 13 is standing before the angel of the LORD being accused by the

7 The most interesting passage incorporating this word is Psalm 91:6. 8 See e.g., Isaiah 34:14. 9 See e.g., Proverbs 30:15 10 See e.g., Leviticus 16:8, 10, & 26. 11 Foerster, 11. 12 Compare, e.g., the narratives of David’s numbering the people in 2 Samuel 24:1-25 & 1 Chronicles 21:1 – 22:1. 02 – Excursus (Angels & Demons) Page 8 of 12

sātān , and in this context the word looks like it could refer to a particular being.

g) Of course, most of us are familiar with the story in Job of the sātān going before God to accuse Job. 14

d) Finally, in 2 Samuel 24:1-25 the text indicates that God incited David to number the people of Israel in order to punish them. When that story is retold, however, in 1 Chronicles 21:1 – 22:1 God has been replaced with the phrase “the sātān ”).

iii) What should be clear in this discussion is that the term sātān in the First Testament appears to be more of a title to be associated with particular actions or roles than it is a name to be associated with a particular being.

f) There are only two overt references to what might be termed spiritual warfare in the First Testament.

i) The first is in 2 Kings 6:15-19

15 When an attendant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. His servant said, “Alas, master! What shall we do?” 16 He replied, “Do not be afraid, for there are more with us than there are with them.” 17 Then Elisha prayed: “O LORD , please open his eyes that he may see.” So the LORD opened the eyes of the servant, and he saw; the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. 18 When the Arameans came down against him, Elisha prayed to the LORD , and said, “Strike this people, please, with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness as Elisha had asked. 19 Elisha said to them, “This is not the way, and this is not the city; follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.” And he led them to Samaria. 15

ii) The second is Daniel 10:2-14

2 At that time I, Daniel, had been mourning for three weeks. 3 I had eaten no rich food, no meat or wine had entered my mouth, and I had not anointed myself at all, for the full three weeks. 4 On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river (that is, the Tigris), 5 I looked up and saw a man clothed in linen, with a belt of gold from Uphaz around his waist. 6 His body was like beryl, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the roar of a multitude. 7 I, Daniel, alone saw the ; the people who were with me did not see the vision,

13 Interestingly, the Greek name Jesus is a transliteration of the Hebrew name Joshua. 14 See Job 1:6-12 & 2:1-7. 15 The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), 2 Ki 6:15–19. 02 – Excursus (Angels & Demons) Page 9 of 12

though a great trembling fell upon them, and they fled and hid themselves. 8 So I was left alone to see this great vision. My strength left me, and my complexion grew deathly pale, and I retained no strength. 9 Then I heard the sound of his words; and when I heard the sound of his words, I fell into a , face to the ground. 10 But then a hand touched me and roused me to my hands and knees. 11 He said to me, “Daniel, greatly beloved, pay attention to the words that I am going to speak to you. Stand on your feet, for I have now been sent to you.” So while he was speaking this word to me, I stood up trembling. 12 He said to me, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. 13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia opposed me twenty-one days. So Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I left him there with the prince of the kingdom of Persia, 14 and have come to help you understand what is to happen to your people at the end of days. For there is a further vision for those days.” 16

2) The New Testament

a) The New Testament follows the First Testament pretty closely.

i) Demons are not depicted as spirits of the dead. Rather, the dead sleep until the resurrection. 17

ii) Only angels appear to be intermediaries between God and humanity. 18

iii) Jesus did not speak of individual seducing spirits (as some Jewish popular belief maintained).

a) Evil, in the teachings of Jesus, comes from the heart, not from without.

10 Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” 12 Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the took offense when they heard what you said?” 13 He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.” 15 But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.” 16 Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and

16 Ibid., Da 10:2–14. 17 See e.g., 1 Thessalonians 4:16; 1 Corinthians 15:23b; Hebrews 9:27; & Revelation 20:4, 11 ff. 18 See e.g., Matthew 1:20-23; 2:13-15, 19-21; 4:11; 28:1-7; Luke 1:11-20, 26-38; 2:8-14; 22:43; Acts 5:17- 21; 8:26; 10:1-8; 12:6-11, 20-23; 27:22-26; and all the varied references in Revelation. 02 – Excursus (Angels & Demons) Page 10 of 12

this is what defiles. 19 For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.” 19

b) However, in the writings of Paul, there is some sense that the Gospel and the provide protection from the assaults of evil forces, depicted mostly as national/political forces, at least in Ephesians. 20

b) The only significant references to demons in the New Testament are in the context of possessed people (they are never depicted as wandering spirits, , or any other such thing).

c) However:

“Nevertheless, the fact that demons are mentioned only with relative infrequency in the NT does not mean that their existence and operation are contested or doubted. For Paul witchcraft is meddling with demons. But there can also be intercourse with demons in the normal heathen cultus (1 C. 10:20 f.). While idols are nothing, and the Christian enjoys freedom, demons stand behind paganism.” 21

i) In the New Testament, the sātān is called “the prince of the power of the air,” 22 and all demonic activity is perceived as subject to that creature.

ii) Though the sātān is said to “masquerade as an angel of light,” 23 there is no textual connection made between the sātān and his demons (sometimes called his angels/messengers) and God’s angels.

d) Some, but not all sicknesses, are associated with the activity of demons in the New Testament.

* However, there are passages in the New Testament that seem to associate illness in general with the oppression of the sātān (also called the ). 24

e) Most demon possession in the Gospels and Acts relate primarily to injurious spirits that have caused a person to harm himself/herself and have overwhelmed his/her conscious mind and freedom of choice.

f) Demons in the New Testament have a knowledge of God that they are almost compelled to confess in the presence of Jesus.

19 NRSV , Mt 15:10–20. 20 See e.g., Ephesians 6:10-17. 21 Foerster, 17. 22 See Ephesians 2:2. 23 See 2 Corinthians 11:14. 24 See e.g., Acts 10:38. 02 – Excursus (Angels & Demons) Page 11 of 12

g) With all that said, for followers of Jesus in the New Testament, there is no need to fear these evil forces. Effectively, they have been conquered by Jesus’ ministry and the inauguration of the Kingdom of God.

3) Demon/Unclean Spirit in the Language of Isaiah 40-66

a) There is an interesting use of a form of the word demon in the Greek translation of Isaiah 65:1-7 which may relate to the narrative of the Gentile demoniac possessed by a of demons in Mark 5:1-20.

1I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask, to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, “Here I am, here I am,” to a nation that did not call on my name. 2I held out my hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices; 3a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and offering on bricks [the Greek translation of the Hebrew has insertinsertedededed the phrase “to the demons” here]here]; 4who sit inside tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat swine’s flesh, with broth of abominable things in their vessels; 5who say, “Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.” These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all day long. 6See, it is written before me: I will not keep silent, but I will repay; I will indeed repay into their laps 7their iniquities and their ancestors’ iniquities together, says the LORD ;25

b) Mark’s favorite term for “demons” is unclean spirits . There is another interesting passage in Isaiah relating to uncleanness that may help to decipher Mark’s emphasis on demonic activity in Jesus’ ministry.

4From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. 5You meet those who gladly do right, those who remember you in your ways. But you were angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself we transgressed. 6We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. 7There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity. 8Yet, O LORD , you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. 9Do not be exceedingly angry, O LORD , and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people. 26

III. How Might We Understand Demons/Unclean Spirits in Light of All of This? A Suggestion

A. An interesting wrinkle in Mark…

25 NRSV , Is 65:1–7. 26 NRSV , Is 64:4–9. 02 – Excursus (Angels & Demons) Page 12 of 12

1) Notice the difference in the way the demons identified Jesus in 1:24/3:11 and the way Jesus’ was identified in 5:7.

2) Are there implications to these differences?

B. Piecing together Jesus’ insistence that evil comes out of the heart, James’ insistence that each person is tempted by their own evil desires, and the implications in both Jesus’ life and Paul’s teaching that the sātān is at work testing/tempting.

1) Recalling the First Testament/Jewish view of the relationship between spirit and flesh.

2) Recalling the Garden of Eden.

3) Tying in Paul’s teaching in Romans 1:18-32 & Isaiah 64:4-9.

4) Dealing with the themes of wilderness/dessert that we have been talking about over the last weeks.

C. A Suggestion…

1) Perhaps demons/unclean spirits are…

2) Perhaps Satanic oppression is…

3) Perhaps the implications for Mark are…

IV. Conclusion