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Ancient Greek δαίμων
daimōn is a word for "spirit" or "divine power", much like the Latin genius. The Merriam-Webster dictionary
gives the etymology of the Greek word as from the verb daiesthai "to
divide, distribute." The Greek conception of a δαίμων notably appears in the
works of Plato, where it describes the
divine inspiration of Socrates. To
distinguish the classical Greek concept from its later Christian interpretation,
it is usually anglicized as either daemon or daimon rather than
demon.
The Greek term does not have any connotations of evil or malevolence. In
fact, εὐδαιμονία, literally
"good-spiritedness", is a term for "happiness". The term first acquired its
now-current evil connotations in the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible, informed by the
mythology of the ancient Semitic religions. This
connotation was inherited by the Koine text of the New Testament. The medieval and neo-medieval
conception of a "demon" in Western civilization (see the Medieval grimoire called the Ars Goetia)
derives seamlessly from the ambient popular culture of Late (Roman) Antiquity.
Greco-Roman concepts of daemons that passed into Christian culture are
discussed in the entry daemon, though it should be duly noted that
the term referred only to a spiritual force, not a malevolent supernatural
being. The Hellenistic "daemon" eventually came to include many Semitic and Near
Eastern gods as evaluated by Christianity.
The supposed existence of demons is an important concept in many modern
religions and occultist
traditions. In some present-day cultures, demons are still feared in popular superstition, largely due to
their alleged power to possess living creatures. In the
contemporary Western occultist tradition (perhaps epitomized by the work of Aleister Crowley), a
demon, such as Choronzon, the
"Demon of the Abyss", is a useful metaphor for certain inner psychological
processes ("inner demons"), though some may also regard it as an objectively
real phenomenon. Some scholars believe that large
portions of the demonology (see
Asmodai) of Judaism, a key influence on Christianity and Islam, originated in Zoroastrianism, and were transferred to Judaism
during the Persian era.
In Chaldean mythology the seven
evil deities were known as shedu, meaning storm-demons. They were represented in
winged bull form,
derived from the colossal bulls used as protective genii of royal palaces, the
name "shed" assumed also the meaning of a propitious genius in Babylonian magic literature.
It was from Chaldea that the name "shedu" came to the Israelites, and so the
writers of the Tanach applied the word as a dylogism to the Canaanite deities in
the two passages quoted. But they also spoke of "the destroyer" (Exodus xii. 23)
as a demon whose malignant effect upon the houses of the Israelites was to be
warded off by the blood of the paschal sacrifice sprinkled upon the lintel and
the door-post (a corresponding pagan talisman is mentioned in Isaiah lvii. 8).
In II Samuel xxiv; 16 and II Chronicles xxi. 15 the pestilence-dealing demon is
called "the destroying angel" (compare "the angel of the Lord" in II Kings xix.
35; Isaiah xxxvii. 36), because, although they are demons, these "evil
messengers" (Psalms lxxviii. 49; A. V. "evil angels") do only the bidding of
God; they are the agents of His divine wrath.
There are indications that popular Hebrew mythology ascribed to the demons a
certain independence, a malevolent character of their own, because they are
believed to come forth, not from the heavenly abode of God, but from the nether
world.
Hebrew demons were workers of harm. To them were ascribed the various
diseases, particularly such as affect the brain and the inner parts. Hence there
was a fear of "Shabriri" (lit. "dazzling glare"), the demon of blindness, who
rests on uncovered water at night and strikes those with blindness who drink of
it; also mentioned were
the spirit of catalepsy and the spirit of headache, the demon of epilepsy, and
the spirit of nightmare.
These demons were supposed to enter the body and cause the disease while
overwhelming or "seizing" the victim (hence "seizure"). To cure such diseases it
was necessary to draw out the evil demons by certain incantations and talismanic
performances, in which the Essenes
excelled. Josephus, who speaks of
demons as "spirits of the wicked which enter into men that are alive and kill
them", but which can be driven out by a certain root, witnessed such a performance in the presence of the Emperor Vespasian,
and ascribed its
origin to King Solomon.
Pre-Islamic
mythology does not discriminate between gods and demons. The jinn are considered as divinities of inferior rank,
having many human attributes: they eat, drink, and procreate their kind,
sometimes in conjunction with human beings. The jinn smell and lick things, and
have a liking for remnants of food. In eating they use the left hand. Usually
they haunt waste and deserted places, especially the thickets where wild beasts
gather. Cemeteries and dirty places are also favorite abodes. When appearing to
man, jinn sometimes assume the forms of beasts and sometimes those of men.
Generally, jinn are peaceable and well disposed toward men. Many a
pre-Islamic poet was believed to have been inspired by good jinn, but there are
also evil jinn, who contrive to injure men.
Those in the Hebrew
Bible are of two classes, the se'irim and the shedim. The
se'irim ("hairy beings"), to which some Israelites offered sacrifices in the
open fields, are satyr-like creatures,
described as dancing in the wilderness, and which are
identical with the jinn, such as Dantalion, the 71st spirit of
Solomon. (But compare the completely European woodwose.) Possibly to the same class
belongs Azazel, the goat-like demons of
the wilderness, probably the
chief of the se'irim, and Lilith. Possibly "the
roes and hinds of the field", by which Shulamit conjures the daughters of
Jerusalem to bring her back to her lover, are faunlike spirits similar to the se'irim, though of
a harmless nature.
The evil spirit that troubled Saul (I Samuel 16:14 et seq.) may have been a
demon, though
the Masoretic text tells us that the spirit was sent
by God.
Some benevolent shedim were used in kabbalistic ceremonies (as with
the golem of Rabbi Yehuda Loevy),
and malevolent shedim (mazikin, from the root meaning "to damage")
were often creedited with possession. Similarly, a shed might inhabit an
otherwise inanimate statue.
In some rabbinic sources, the demons were believed to be under the dominion
of a king or chief, either Asmodai or, in the older
Haggadah, Samael ("the angel of death"), who kills by
his deadly poison, and is called "chief of the devils". Occasionally a demon is
called "satan": "Stand not in the way of
an ox when coming from the pasture, for Satan dances between his horns".
Demonology never became an essential feature of Jewish theology. The
reality of demons was never questioned by the Talmudists and late rabbis; most
accepted their existence as a fact. Nor did most of the medieval thinkers
question their reality. Only rationalists like Maimonides and Abraham ibn Ezra, clearly denied their
existence. Their point of view eventually became the mainstream Jewish
understanding.
Rabbinical demonology has three classes
of demons, though they are scarcely separable one from another. There were the
shedim, the mazziḳim ("harmers"), and
the ruḥin ("spirits"). Besides these there
were lilin ("night spirits"), ṭelane
("shade", or "evening spirits"), ṭiharire
("midday spirits"), and ẓafrire ("morning
spirits"), as well as the "demons that bring famine" and "such as cause storm
and earthquake"
"Demon" has a number of meanings, all related to the idea of a spirit that
inhabited a place, or that accompanied a person. Whether such a daemon
was benevolent or malevolent, the Greek word meant something different from the
later medieval notions of 'demon', and scholars debate the time in which first
century usage by Jews and Christians in its original
Greek sense became transformed to the later medieval sense. It should be noted
that some denominations asserting Christian faith also include, exclusively or
otherwise, fallen angels
as de facto demons; this definition also covers the "sons of God" described in
Genesis who abandoned their posts in heaven to mate with human women on Earth
before the Deluge
In the Gospel of
Mark, Jesus casts out many demons, or evil spirits, from those who are
afflicted with various ailments. Jesus is far superior to the power of demons
over the beings that they inhabit, and he is able to free these victims by
commanding and casting out the demons, by binding them, and forbidding them to
return. Jesus also lends this power to some of his disciples, who rejoice at
their new found ability to cast out all demons.
By way of contrast, in the book of Acts a group of Judaistic exorcists known
as the sons of Sceva try to cast out a very powerful spirit without believing in
or knowing Jesus, but fail with disastrous consequences. However Jesus himself
never fails to vanquish a demon, no matter how powerful (see the account of the
demon-possessed man at Gerasim), and even defeats Satan in the wilderness (see Gospel of
Matthew).
There is a description in the Book of Revelation 12:7-17 of a battle
between God's army and Satan's followers, and their subsequent expulsion from
Heaven to Earth to persecute humans — although this event is related as being
foretold and taking place in the future. In Luke 10:18 it is mentioned that a power
granted by Jesus to cast out demons made Satan "fall like lightning from
heaven."
Augustine of
Hippo's reading of Plotinus, in
City of
God (ch.11) is ambiguous as to whether daemons had become
'demonized' by the early 5th century:
- "He [Plotinus] also states that the blessed are called in Greek
eudaimones, because they are good souls, that is to say, good demons,
confirming his opinion that the souls of men are demons.
The contemporary Roman Catholic Church unequivocally teaches that angels and
demons are real personal beings, not just symbolic devices. The Catholic Church
has a cadre of officially sanctioned exorcists which perform many exorcisms each year. The exorcists of
the Catholic Church teach that demons attack humans continually but that
afflicted persons can be effectively healed and protected either by the formal
rite of exorcism, authorized to be performed only by bishops and those they
designate, or by prayers of deliverance which any Christian can offer for
themselves or others.
Building upon the few references to daemons in the New Testament,
especially the visionary poetry of the Apocalypse of John, Christian writers of apocrypha from the 2nd century onwards created a more
complicated tapestry of beliefs about "demons" that was largely independent of
Christian scripture.
At various times in Christian history, attempts have been made to classify
these beings according to various proposed demonic
hierarchies.
According to most Christian demonology demons will be
eternally punished and never reconciled with God. Other theories postulate a Universal
reconciliation, in which Satan, the fallen angels, and the souls of the dead
that were condemned to Hell are reconciled with God. This doctrine is today
often associated with the Unification Church. Origen, Jerome
and Gregory of
Nyssa also mentioned this possibility.
In contemporary Christianity, demons are generally considered to
be angels who fell from grace by rebelling
against God. However, other schools of thought
in Christianity or Judaism teach that demons, or evil spirits, are a result of
the sexual relationships between fallen angels and human women. When these
hybrids (Nephilim) died they left behind disembodied spirits that "roam the
earth in search of rest" (Luke 11:24). Many non-canonical historical texts
describe in detail these unions and the consequences thereof. This belief is
repeated in other major ancient religions and mythologies. Christians who reject
this view do so by ascribing the description of "Sons of God" in Genesis 6 to be
the sons of Seth (one of Adam's sons).
There are some who say that the sin of the angels was pride and disobedience,
these being the sins that caused Satan's downfall (Ezek. 28). If this be the
true view, then we are to understand the words, "estate" or "principality" in
Deuteronomy 32:8 and Jude 6 ("And the angels which kept not their first estate,
but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under
darkness unto the judgment of the great day.") as indicating that instead of
being satisfied with the dignity once for all assigned to them under the Son of
God, they aspired higher....
Islam recognizes the existence of the
jinn. Jinns are not the "genies" of modern
lore, and they are not all evil, as demons are described in Christianity, but as
creatures that co-exist with humans. In Islam the evil jinns are referred to as
the shayātīn, or devils, and Iblis (Satan) is their chief. Iblis was the first Jinn
who disobeyed Allah. According to Islam,
the jinn are made from the fire (whereas angels are made from light and mankind
is made from altered clay).
According to the Qur'an, Iblis
was once a pious servant of Allah, but when Allah created Adam from clay, Iblis became
very jealous, and arrogant and disobeyed Allah.
Adam was the first man, and man was the greatest creation of Allah. Iblis
could not stand this, and refused to acknowledge a creature made of "dirt"
(man). Allah condemned Iblis to be punished after death eternally in the hellfire. Allah had created hell.
Iblis asked Allah if he may live to the last day and have the ability to
mislead mankind and jinns, Allah said that Iblis may only mislead those whom
have forsaken Allah. Iblis then turned himself into the Devil and had the powers
of trickery.
Adam
and Eve
(Hawwa in Arabic) were both together misled by Iblis into eating the forbidden fruit, and
consequently fell from the garden of Eden to Earth.
The word "genie" comes comes from the French for genius used in translations
of Arabic text and only sounds coincidentally like the Arabic jinn. This is not
surprising considering the story of `Alā' ad-Dīn, (anglicized as Aladdin), passed through Arabian
merchants en route to Europe.
Hindu mythology include numerous varieties of anthropomorphic beings that
might be classified as demons, including Rakshasas (belligerent, shapechanging terrestrial
demons), Asuras
(demigods), Vetalas (bat-like spirits),
and Pishachas
(cannibalistic demons).
Originally, Asura, in the earliest hymns of the Rig Veda, meant any supernatural
spirit—good or bad. Hence even some of the devas (demigods), especially Varuna, have the epithet of Asura. In fact,
since the /s/ of the Indic linguistic branch is cognate with the /h/ of the
Early Iranian languages, the word Asura, representing a category of celestial
beings, became the word Ahura (Mazda), the Supreme God of the monotheistic Zoroastrians. But very
soon, among the Indo-Aryans, Asura came to exclusively mean any of a race of
anthropomorphic but hideous demons. All words such as Asura, Daitya (lit., sons
of the demon-mother "Diti"), Rakshasa (lit. from "harm to be guarded against")
are translated into English as demon. These demons are inherently evil and are
in a constant battle against the demigods. Hence in Hindu iconography, the gods
and demigods are shown to carry weapons to kill the asuras. Unlike Christianity,
the demons are not the cause of the evil and unhappiness in present mankind
(which occurs on the account of ignorance from recognizing one's true self). In
later Puranic mythology, exceptions do occur in the demonic race to produce
god-fearing Asuras like Prahalada. Also, many Asuras are said to have been
granted boons from one of the members of the Hindu trinity, viz., Brahma, Vishnu
and Shiva when the latter had been
appeased from penances. All Asuras, unlike the devas, are said to be mortals
(though they vehemently wish to become immortal). Many people metaphorically
interpret these demons as manifestations of the ignoble passions in human
mind.
On the account of the Hindu theory of reincarnation and transmigration of
souls according to one's Karma, other
kinds of demons can also be enlisted. If a human does extremely horrible and
sinful karmas in his life, his soul (Atman) will, upon his
death, directly turn into an evil ghostly spirit, many kinds of which are
recognized in the later Hindu texts. These demons could be Vetalas, Pishachas, Bhūtas etc.
In the Bahá'í
Faith, demons are not regarded as independent evil spirits as they
are in some faiths. All evil spirits described in various faith traditions such
as satan, fallen angels, demons and jinns are metaphors for the base character
traits a human being may acquire and manifest when he turns away from God and
follows his lower nature. Belief in the existence of ghosts and earthbound
spirits is rejected and considered to be the product of superstition.
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