What are daemons in the Bible?
Rich mythology of such creatures is found throughout the ancient world. They were understood to cause a variety of problems that people face in everyday life, such as disease and problems in childbirth. For this reason, magical practices, including incantation spells and the use of amulets, constitute important evidence for the study of demons. What…
Rich mythology of such creatures is found throughout the ancient world. They were understood to cause a variety of problems that people face in everyday life, such as disease and problems in childbirth. For this reason, magical practices, including incantation spells and the use of amulets, constitute important evidence for the study of demons.
What are daemons in the Bible?
The term demon is derived from the Greek word daimōn, which means a “supernatural being” or “spirit.” Though it has commonly been associated with evil or malevolent spirits, the term originally meant a spiritual being that influenced a person’s character. In the Bible, deamon means evil spirit. angels.
There is a rich lore regarding demons in the ancient Near East. The evidence, however, is surprisingly sparse for such figures in the Hebrew Bible. A resurgence of interest in demons occurred in Early Judaism. Jewish traditions about demons from this era not only inform conceptions of evil spirits in later periods of Judaism, but also comprise an important part of the Jewish heritage of Christianity, which is evident in both the New Testament and subsequent Christian literature.
