CHAPTER 1
Hebrew Terms for Evil Spiritual Beings
Our task in this chapter is to briefly study Hebrew terms in the Old Testament that describe evil spiritsâsupernatural entities that oppose God. English Bible readers will presume this means a study of demons. That presents us with an immediate obstacle. Scholars who have devoted considerable attention to this topic have long pointed out that âthere is no equivalent expression for the word âdemonâ in the Semitic languages.â1 This is indeed the case, which may sound odd. John Walton summarizes the situation concisely:
No general term for âdemonsâ exists in any of the major cultures of the ancient Near East or in the Hebrew Bible. They are generally considered one of the categories of âspirit beingsâ (along with gods and ghosts). The term demons has had a checkered history; in todayâs theological usage the term denotes beings, often fallen angels, who are intrinsically evil and who do the bidding of their master, Satan. This definition, however, only became commonplace long after the Hebrew Bible was complete.2
Despite this reality, we are not without material! A variety of terms in the Hebrew Bible are relevant to our topic. But in order to understand why the plethora of terms exists and their relationship to one another, they need to be framed in accord with the ancient Israelite worldview.
As noted in the preview to this section, Old Testament writers linked the rebellion of supernatural beings to the hazards and calamities they experienced. The life God desired for human beings on earth had been diverted and corrupted. The fears and threats of the natural world were consequences of divine rebellions, from which death and chaos overspread the world of humanity. For this reason most of the terms we find in the Old Testament can be categorized as either (1) terms that are associated with the realm of the dead and its inhabitants, with fearful places associated with that realm, or with the threat of death itself, or (2) terms associated with geographical dominion by supernatural powers in rebellion against Yahweh, the God of Israel. But before we get to those two categories, we should begin with some general terms related to what an evil spirit is, ontologically speaking.
TERMS DESCRIBING THE NATURE OF EVIL SPIRITS
Ontology refers to what a thing is, a thingâs nature. By definition, an evil spirit is a spirit. What I wrote in another volume about the good members of Godâs heavenly host is pertinent here, for evil spirits are members of Godâs heavenly host who have chosen to rebel against his will. Passages such as 1 Kings 22:19â23 make it clear that âthe members of Godâs heavenly host are spirits (Hebrew: rûងÎt; singular: rĂ»aáž„)âentities that, by nature, are not embodied, at least in the sense of our human experience of being physical in form.â3
The point of âspiritâ language is contrast with the world of humankind. The members of Godâs heavenly host are not, by nature, embodied, physical beings of our terrestrial world.4 This is why the Old Testament writers occasionally use Hebrew ĆĄamayim (âheavenly onesâ), kĆkebıÌm (âstarsâ), and qedĆƥıÌm (âholy onesâ). The first two terms typically refer to the visible sky and celestial objects in that sky. Using such language of entities in Godâs service metaphorically places them in the nonterrestrial spiritual realm, the plane of reality in which God exists (Ps 115:3; Isa 66:1; Job 38:7â8). A designation such as âholy onesâ situates these beings in Godâs presenceâas opposed to the world of humankind (e.g., Ps 89:5â7; Job 15:15).
One frequently misunderstood term that identifies a being as a member of the nonhuman, nonterrestrial world is ÊŸelĆhıÌm (âgodâ; âgodsâ). Iâve written extensively on this term and how the biblical writers affirmed the existence of multiple ÊŸelĆhıÌmâthat is, a populated spiritual world.5 Since the biblical writers identify a range of entities as ÊŸelĆhıÌm that they explicitly differentiate from Yahweh and emphasize as lesser beings than Yahweh, it is clear that the term ÊŸelĆhıÌm is not a label for only one Supreme Being. As I have noted elsewhere:
A biblical writer would use ÊŸelĆhıÌm to label any entity that is not embodied by nature and is a member of the spiritual realm. This âotherworldlinessâ is an attribute all residents of the spiritual world possess. Every member of the spiritual world can be thought of as ÊŸelĆhıÌm since the term tells us where an entity belongs in terms of its nature.6
The term ÊŸelĆhıÌm simply means âdivine beingsââresidents of the supernatural world.7 By choosing ÊŸelĆhıÌm to describe a particular being, the biblical writer was not denying the uniqueness of Yahweh, the God of Israel. Rather, the term helped them affirm that there was an animate, spiritual world, of which Yahweh was a member. Yahweh was, of course, unique in that he was the uncreated Creator of these other spiritual beings and superior to them in his attributes.
The word ÊŸelĆhıÌm is vocabulary that works in concert with terms such as rûងÎt (âspiritsâ). Some of the spirit beings created by God to serve him in the spiritual realm rebelled against him.8 Their rebellion did not mean they were no longer part of that world or that they became something other than what they were. They are still spiritual beings. Rather, rebellion affected (and still characterizes) their disposition toward, and relationship to, Yahweh.
Beyond these ontological terms, it is helpful to group terms describing evil spirits in the Old Testament. These can be broadly categorized as: (1) terms that are associated with the realm of the dead and its inhabitants; (2) terms that denote geographical dominion of supernatural powers in rebellion against Yahweh; and (3) preternatural creatures associated with idolatry and unholy ground. The vocabulary explored in these categories derives from the divine rebellions described in the early chapters of Genesis.
It is important to note that the vocabulary for evil spirits in the Old Testament appears to have no unifying principle. Recognizing and understanding the supernatural nature of what unfolds in Genesis 3; 6:1â4; and 11:1â9 (compare Deut 32:8â9) provides the framework for how Old Testament writers thought about the unseen spirit world and its relationship to the terrestrial world.9 We will also need to consider the matter of âpseudo-demonsâ in the academic discussion of certain terms in the Hebrew Old Testament.
Terms Associated with the Realm of the Dead and Its Inhabitants
The coherence of this category extends from divine rebellions described in Genesis 3 (the fall) and Genesis 6:1â4 (the transgression of the sons of God). We must content ourselves at this point with cursory observations in that regard. The fall brought death to humankind. Its supernatural antagonist, described with the term nÄáž„ÄĆĄ (âserpentâ) in that passage, was cast down to ÊŸereáčŁ, a term most often translated âearthâ but which is also used for the domain of the dead (Jonah 2:6; Jer 17:13; Ps 71:20). Jonah 2:6 is especially instructive in this regard, in that the word ÊŸereáčŁ is found in parallel with the term ĆĄaáž„at (âpitâ), a term frequently employed to speak of the grave or underworld (Job 33:18, 22, 24, 28, 30; Ps 30:9; Isa 51:14).
The most familiar evil supernatural figure in the biblical underworld is the serpent of Edenâknown later, beginning in the Second Temple period, as âSatan.â My wording here suggests that the serpent is never called âSatanâ (ĆÄáčÄn) in any verse of the Old Testament. That is, indeed, the case. The subject of why this is so, how the characterization of this figure developed, and how passages other than Genesis 3 contribute to a theology of this figure is very complicated and controversial, and it will be addressed in more detail later.10
The realm of the deadâthat afterlife destination for all mortalsâis referred to by a variety of terms in the Hebrew Old Testament, including sheÊŸĂŽl (âSheolâ; âthe graveâ), mÄwet (âdeathâ), ÊŸereáčŁ (âland [of the dead]â), and bĂŽr (âpitâ).11 As the realm of the disembodied dead, this place has no literal latitude and longitude. Nevertheless, the association of death with burial led biblical writers to describe the dead as âgoing downâ (Heb. y-r-d) to that place (Num 16:30; Job 7:9; Isa 57:9). Lewis summarizes this conception: Sheol ârepresents the lowest place imaginable (Deut 32:22; Isa 7:11) often used in contrast with the highest heavens (Amos 9:2; Ps 139:8; Job 11:8).â12
In Old Testament theology this realm was populated by spirit inhabitants in addition to the disembodied human dead. Whi...