For Freedom or Bondage? by Acolatse Esther E.;

Author:Acolatse, Esther E.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Eerdmans
Published: 2014-01-23T00:00:00+00:00

Demonology in the Old Testament

Research in biblical theology and ethics gives us valuable insight into the role of demons or demonology in the Scriptures. According to Werner Foer­ster, demonology and demons are peripheral to the Old Testament.19 Occasionally in stories and in cultic usage, the word demon plays a part, but demons and demonology have no great influence in the Old Testament. In fact, only rarely does the Old Testament make mention of demons. Foerster notes that there is a reference to “demon,” for instance, in the account of the destruction of Babylon (Isa. 13:21). But these are merely descriptions and give no indication that demons were commonly accepted as an agent in the destruction of peoples (2 Chr. 11:15). Furthermore, the only implicit reference regarding protection from demons is in Psalm 91:6. It is only the Septuagint, however, that allows for this interpretation. The Old Testament generally does not emphasize demons or their place in human affairs, “not even for the purpose of warding them off.”20 In his studies in biblical demonology, Merrill Unger arrives at a similar conclusion regarding demons in the Old Testament — and further asks whether human beings should probe issues on which God is apparently silent.21 Since the biblical narrative as well as biblical scholarship support these assertions, the insistence on drawing affinities between current African cosmologies and an allegedly biblical worldview begins to break down. Most of the arguments supporting such an affinity are based on an erroneously assumed correspondence between the African worldview and the Old Testament narratives.

Unlike the vague Old Testament depiction of demons, the Greek conception was more elaborate and embraced forces that mediated between God and human beings. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, these forces were normally called messengers, or Angelos. They brought both good and bad tidings, blessings and destruction, to peoples and nations. The Old Testament ascribes the destructive powers to God that the Greek world attributed to demons. God is the ruler of all, and evil spirits are at his disposal. He calls forth hail from its house and it obeys (Ps. 147:17). The Old Testament attributes all good and evil to the one and only omnipotent God of Israel and the whole earth. It was only in this way that the monotheism of the Old Testament was maintained. Any other thinking created the impression that there was another God in the universe and suggested that the God of Israel was not completely in charge. The present African Christian scene, with its fascination with the powers and with the influence of demonic forces, gives the impression that there is a power struggle between God and the ruler of demonic forces — Satan. However, we do not find this idea in the Old Testament. The idea of spirits outside of God’s domain is found mainly in the intertestamental writings, such as the Book of Tobit, which attributes the destruction of human beings to evil and envious spirits.

The Tannaitic or Rabbinical Judaism that developed after the first century bases the concept of spirits on that of angels.

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