Demons of the Old Testament

[Azimaith]

I don't know if anyone has noticed by I am extremely interested in demonology and such. Now before you label me as some stupid wannabe goth i'll tell you I am a well adjusted college student who actively researches the Judeo Christian Mythos. Alrighty, lets start off with everyones most popular name for a demon.

ASMODAEUS: Asmodaeus is simply hebrew for "evil" or "unclean" spirit. It was eventually used to signify the devil, originally it was an evil spirit. It is origninally believed to come from a persian god named Aeshma-deva. The apocryphal Book of Tobit describes an instance where Raguel's daughter, Sarah, was tormented by the demon. She was married to seven times, each time the Asmodeus killed off the husband before they could have intercourse. Sarah, was about to hang herself in grief, but decided against it after thinking about the shame it would cause her father. She then prayed to God for death.

God answered her prayer by sending the angel, Raphael, to her aid. He instructed Tobiah to place fish liver and heart on the embers for incense. Asmodaeus was repelled by the odor:

"The demon, repelled by the odor of the fish, fled into Upper Egypt; Raphael pursued him there and bound him hand and foot." - Tobit 8:3

Apparently Asmodaeus doesn't like fish.

BAAL: A Caananite god that was adopted by the bablylonians, it meant lord. Naturally as judiasm allows no other gods, baal was turned into a demon.

BA'ALZEBUB: Ba'al-zebub, also called Beelzebub or Beelzebul is known as the 'prince of demons' in the Synoptic Gospels during the accusations of the Pharisees against Jesus.

"The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said, 'He is possessed by Beelzebul,' and 'By the prince of demons he drives out demons.' - Mk 3:22

"This man drives out demons only by the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons." - Mt 12:24

"Some of them said 'By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons." - Lk 11:15


The name Ba'al-zebub is associated with the Philistine city of Ekron. In 2 Kings, after Moab rebelled against Israel, Ahaziah had fallen and injured himself. To find out if he'd recover from the injury he sent out messengers, telling them:

"Go and inquire of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this injury." - 2 Kings 1:2

Ba'alzebub's name derives from the Canaanite "Baal" meaning "lord," and he is known as the "lord of the flies"

BELIAL:Among certain sections of the Jews, Belial was considered the chief of all the devils. In The War of the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness (1QM), one of the Dead Sea scrolls, Belial is the leader of the Sons of Darkness:


'But for corruption thou hast made Belial, an angel of hostility. All his dominions are in darkness, and his purpose is to bring about wickedness and guilt. All the spirits that are associated with him are but angels of destruction.'

Belial is also mentioned in the Fragments of a Zadokite Work (which is also known as The Damascus Document (CD)), which states that at the time of the Antichrist, "Belial shall be let loose against Israel, as God spake through Isaiah the prophet." (6:9). The Fragments also speak of "three nets of Belial" which are said to be fornication, wealth, and polution of the sanctuary. (6:10-11) In this work, Belial is sometimes presented as an agent of divine punishment and sometimes as a rebel, as Mastema is. It was Belial who inspired the Egyptian sorcerers, Jochaneh and his brother, to oppose Moses and Aaron. The Fragments also say that anyone who is ruled by the spirits of Belial and speaks of rebellion should be condemned as a necromancer and wizard.

Belial also means "worthlessness."

AZAZEL: Azazel is the chief of the Se'irim, or goat-demons, who haunted the desert and to whom most primitive Semitic (most likely non-Hebrew) tribes offered sacrifices. The Old Testament states that Jeroboam appointed priests for the Se'irim. But Josiah destroyed the places of their worship, as the practices accompanying this worship involved copulation of women with goats.

The Se'irim, or hairy demons as the word itself means, are mentioned in Leviticus 17:7 and 2 Chronicles 11:15 as "goat-demons". Isaiah 34:14 says that the "goat-demons" greet each other amoung the ruins of Edom along with Lilith and other wild beasts.

The name 'Azazel' may be derived from 'azaz' and 'el' meaning 'strong one of God.' It is thought that Azazel may have been derived from the Canaanite god, 'Asiz, who caused the sun to burn strongly. It has also been theorized that he has been influenced by the Egyptian god, Seth.

MEPHISTOCLES/MEPHISTOPHILES: Mephistophiles is the name of the devil in the Faust myths of the late Middle Ages through the Renaissance. During this period, there was a revival in the popularity of the Devil with the Protestant Reformation, which emphasized the Bible as the sole authority on religious matters, & thus greater emphasis on the New Testament concept of evil. Labels were thrown around between the Protestants and the Catholics - both claiming the other was the tool of the Devil, with Protestants claiming the Pope was the Antichrist. Rumors of Witchcraft and Satanism ran wild.

Martin Luther struggled with the concept of the Devil and evil in relation to an omnipotent God, coming close to arguing that the Devil was just a manifestation of the evil side of God (as Christ was the good side of God). He wrote that God's will included the Devil as his tool doing God's work, and that he would not exist if God had not created him. However, while the two may appear to be doing the same will, their purpose is always different, with God always working towards the ultimate good while the Devil's intent was to destroy.

Now these are just a few demons of the the Christian and Judeaic religion.

PS: Many thanks to deliriums realm for help with research as well.

PSS: The spelling Daemon tends has become somewhat prevalent. I believe this is based off the Hebrew Sharp AE sounds that acomplany celestial or infernal beings. Eg. Mikael (The not My-Khul,its Mee-Kay-Ul), Asmodaeus, Samael (Supposedly satans true angelic name meaning Venom of God.) ect ect
PSSS: The number of the beast 666, is way overused, 666 in jewish numerolgy is the number of Nero, basically Nero embodied all the things the jews condemned, Roman rule, decadence, fornication,idolatry ect. Nero is the beast in symbol. Its used waaaay to much and improperly most of the time at that.

[ 09-21-2003, 06:06 PM: Message edited by: Azimaith ]

[Bozos of Bones]

It seems I can ask you something I always wanted to know. You see, I love playing Freespace and it's sequel, and I've noticed the Shivan craft names are from demons. Can you tell me what some of them are?

Mara

Nephilim

Nahema

Taurvi

These are the demons in the game I don't know the meaning of.

[Beoulve]

I thought Beelzebub meant lord of the flies.

[shadowhound]

Originally posted by Beoulve: I thought Beelzebub meant lord of the flies.

Originally posted by Azimaith: BA'ALZEBUB: Ba'alzebub's name derives from the Canaanite "Baal" meaning "lord," and he is known as the "lord of the flies"

[Raistlin Majere]

Originally posted by Beoulve: I thought Beelzebub meant lord of the flies.

"BA'ALZEBUB: Ba'al-zebub, also called Beelzebub or Beelzebul is known as the 'prince of demons' in the Synoptic Gospels during the accusations of the Pharisees against Jesus"

very interesting, btw. i am also interested in demonology...is this all from the bible, or is some from the internet?

[ 09-22-2003, 01:47 PM: Message edited by: Raistlin Majere ]

[Azimaith]

Bible gives far briefer and less indepth this is from several sources. The Book of Tobit it one, The Testaments of solomon contain a wealth of info, so do some of the more recents such as Dictionnaire Infernal by Collin De Plancy.

As for those names, those are indeed fairly rare demon names save for perhaps Nephilim.

Mara: Mara ("death" or "thirst"), also called Papiyan ("more wicked") and Varsavarti ("he who fills desires"), is the evil spirit (or sometimes as simply the personification of evil) in Buddhism who tempted Siddharta during the time he searched for the way, and as he sat beneath the Bo Tree and meditated. During this confrontation, Mara, whose attributes include blindness, murkiness, death, and darkness, attempts to guide Siddharta from the path of enlightenment by tempting him to return to his former ways.

Nephilim/ The Watchers: The nephilim refer to the fallen angels. While Genesis 6 tells that angels married women, it does not condemn this as a sin. Psalm 82 tells that the elohim sinned, but does not tell how (i.e. it does not mention that they married women). It may have been that the angels sinned by reproducing. Certain passages in Jewish Midrash talk of how angels are immortal and do not need to reproduce. Because humans are not, they must reproduce in order to achieve immortality in their descendents.

Haven't heard about the Nahema or Taurvi though..

[shadowhound]

As far as I can remember Nahema was meant to be a demoness of prostitution and a succubi.

Taurvi: Texts refer to Ahura Mazda as having created six (sometimes seven) Amesha Spenta, or archangels. Angra Mainya also created a council of six (sometimes seven) archdemons. The archdemons (daevas) are known as Aka Manah, Indra, Sauru, Taurvi, Zairitsha, and Naonhaithya (the seventh is Aeshma).

[cormack]

I often wonder how the fallen angels feel twards mankind in general. If the story is true the fallen must really be pissed of and trying to do what ever they can do.

Many a RPG games have similarities about this as well as movies current and past. What about the movie Fallen? Had me going.

Even thow many things must have happened before the flood, saying that unions of this type were right is wrong imho. Cormack

[OB1 Kenobi]

This question isn't about demons but it is a related topic. What is an archangel and how does it differ from a "normal" angel?

[shadowhound]

Originally posted by OB1 Kenobi: This question isn't about demons but it is a related topic. What is an archangel and how does it differ from a "normal" angel?

I thought an archangel was simple a higher ranked angel.