DEMONOLOGY
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DEMONOLOGY
liificance, in the fact that, while the word in its original
sense was synonymous with lucifer, it has now come to
mean much the same as devil. There is also a curious
roiiicidcnce in the similarity in sound between daeva,
the modern Persian dei; anil the word devil. Looking
.it the likeness both in sound and in significance, one
would be tempted to say that they must have a com-
mon origin, but for the fact that we know with
lertiiinty that the word devil comes from diabQlus
"id;ioXo? — SiajiaWdv), and Can have no connexion willi tlu" Pei'sian or Sanskrit root.
Although there are marked difTerenees between the
lemons of the Avesta and the tlevil in Scripture and I hristian theology (for Christian doctrine is free from ihi^ dualism of the Mazdean system), the essential
I ruggle between good and evil is still the same in both cases. Arid the pictures of the holiness and fidelity of /.iiroaster when he is a.s.sailed by the temptations and l>ersecutions of Anro Mainyus and his demons may well recall the trials of saints imder the assaults of Satan or suggest some faint analogy with the great scene of the temptation of Christ in the wilderness. Fortunately for English readers, a portion of the Vendidad (fargard xix), which contains the tempta- tion of Zoroaster, has been admirably rendered in a doctrinal paraphrase in Dr. Casartelli's " Leaves from my Eastern Garden". The important part played by the demons in the Mazdean system may be seen from the title of the Vendidad, which is the largest and most complete part of the Avesta, so much so that when the sacred book is written or printed without the com- mentaries it is generally known as Vendidad Sade, which means something that is "given against the demons" — vidacvodMa, i. e. contra dcemones dolus or antidcemoniacua.
Jewish Demonology. — When we turn from the Avesta to the Sacred Books of the Jews, that is to say to the canonical Scripture, we are struck by the absence of an elaborate demonology such as that of the Persians and Assyrians. There is much, indeed, about the angels of the Lord, the hosts of heaven, the seraphim and cherubim, and other spirits who stand before the throne or minister to men. But the mention of the evil spirits is comparatively slight. Not that their existence is ignored, for we have the temptation by the serpent, in which Jews as well as Christians recognize the work of the Evil Spirit. In Job, again, Satan ap- pears as the tempter and the accuser of the just man; in Kings it is he who incites David to murder the prophet ; in Zacharias lie is seen in his office of accuser. An evil spirit comes upon the false prophets. Saul is afflicted, or apparently possessed, by an evil spirit. The activity of the demon in magic arts is indicated in the works wrought by the magicians of Pharaoh, and in the Levitical laws against wizards or witches. The scapegoat Ls sent into the wilderness to Azazael, who is supposed by some to be a demon (see Atonement, Day of), and to this may be added a remarkable pas- sage in Lsai;is which seems to countenance the com- mon belief that demons dwell in wa.ste places: "And demons and monsters shall meet, and the hairy ones shall cry out one to another, there hath the lamia lain down, and found rest for herself" (Isaijis, xxxiv, 14). It is true that the Hebrew word here rendered by "demons" may merely mean wild animals. But, on the other hand, D'l^JJL", which is rendered very literally as "hairy ones", Ls translated "demons" by Targuni and Peshitta, and is supposed to mean a goat- shaped deity analogous to the (Ireek Pan. ,\nd "lamia" represents the original Lilith, a spirit of the night who in Hebrew legend is the demon wife of Adam.
A further development of the demonology of the Old Testament is seen in the Book of Tobias, which, though not included in the Jewi.sh Canon, w:^* written in Hebrew or Chaldean, and a version in the latter language has lately been recovered among some rab-
binical writings. Here we have the demon Asmodeus,
who plays the part assigned to demons in many ethnic
demonologies and folk-legends. He has been identi-
fied by some good authorities with the Aeshmo Daeva
of the Avesta; but Whitehouse doubts this identifica-
tion and prefers the alternative Hebrew etymology.
In any case Asmodeus became a prominent figure in
later Hebrew demonology, and some strange tales told
about him in the Talmud are quite in the vein of " The
Araliiaii Nights". The rabbinical demonology of the
Talnukl and .Midrashim is very far from the reticence
ami sobriety of the canonical writings in regard to this
subject. Some modern critics ascribe this rich growth
of demonology among the Jews to the effects of the
Captivity, and regard it as the result of Babylonian or
Persian influence. But though in its abumlance and
elaboration it may bear some formal resemblanee to
these external systems, there seems no reason to re-
gard it as simply a case of appropriation from the doc-
trines of strangers. For when we come to compare
them more closely, we may well feel that the Jewish
demonology has a distinctive character of its own, and
should rather be regarded as an outgrowth from be-
liefs and ideas which were present in the mind of the
chosen people before they came into contact with Per-
sians and Babylonians. It is certainly significant
that, instead of borrowing from the abundant legends
and doctrines ready to their hand in the alien systems,
the rabbinical demonologists sought their starting-
point in .some text of their own scriptures and drew
forth all they wanted by means of their subtle and in-
genious methods of exegesis. Thus the aforesaid text
of Isaias furnished, under the name of Lilith, a myste-
rious female night spirit who ap[)arently abode in des-
olate places, and forthwith they made her the demon
wife of Adam and the mother of demons. But
whence, it may be asked, had these exponents of the
.sacred text any warrant for saying that our first father
contracted a mixed marriage with a being of another
race and begot children other than human? They
simply took the t«xt of Genesis, v: "And Adam lived
a hundred and thirty years, and begot a son to his
own image and likeness". This explicit statement,
they said, plainly implies that previous to that time he
had begotten sons who were not to his own image and
likeness ; for this he must needs have found some help-
meet of another race than his own, to wit a demon
wife, to become the mother of demons. This notice of
a union between mankind and beings of a different
order had long been a familiar feature in pagan myth-
ology and demonology, and, as will presently appear,
some early Christian commentators discovered some
countenance for it in Genesis, vi, 2, which tells how the
sons of God "took to themselves wives of the daugh-
ters of men". One charael eristic of Jewish demon-
ology was the amazing multitude of the demons.
According to all accounts every man has thousands of
them at his side. The air is full of them; and, since
they were the causes of divers disexses, it w:is well
that men should keep some guard on their mouths
lest, swallowing a demon, they might be affiictetl with
some deadly disease. This may recall the common
tendency to personify epidemic diseases and speak of
"the cholera fiend", "the influenza fiend", etc. And
it may be remarked that the old superstition of the.se
Jewish demonologists presents a curiously close analogy
to the theory of modern medical science. I'^or we are
now told that the air is full of microbes and germs of
disease, and that by inhaling any of the,s(; living organ-
isms we receive the disease into our systc'iiis.
Demonology of the Early Christian Writers. — \Vliat- ever may be said of this theory of the Rabbis, that the air is full of demons, and that men art? in danger of receiving them into their systems, it may certainly be said that in the days of the early Christians the air was dangerously full of demonologies, and that men were in peculiar peril of adopting erroneous doctrines
