In the preface to C.S. Lewis’ classic book, The Screwtape Letters, there is a warning about how one should think about should demons in our world (or as he calls them, “devils”). Lewis writes: There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.” One a sliding scale, I am closer to the former option than the latter. Don’t misunderstand me. I do believe in demons, but the demons I believe in, resemble more closely those described by Lewis than those portrayed in the gospels. C.S. Lewis’ demons make sense to me because I see people tempted each and every day. When the head-demon, “Screwtape,” tells his apprentice, “Wormwood,” how to use prosperity to tempt people, I listen because this is demonic advice that speaks to all of us today. Screwtape says, “Prosperity knits a man to the world. He feels that he is finding his place in it, while really it is finding its place in him.” But there is no corresponding insight when we read about the demons in the New Testament. They didn’t slowly entice people to sin and to abandon their faith. They caused people to live in tombs, throw themselves into fires and drive pigs into the sea. None of that speaks to me about my spiritual life.  

Granted, I see people with mental health issues all the time, but rarely do I see a demon. But it is not just an experiential issue with me. It is also a hermeneutical one. Demons aren’t found in the Old Testament. Instead, they simply show up en masse and unannounced in the gospels and Acts and, for five books, seem to populate the landscape; and then, they almost disappear from sight (a rough count shows that the words demon or any of its synonymous expressions show up around 101 times in the Gospel and Acts, but only fourteen times in the rest of the New Testament). Again, don’t get confused here. I do believe that demons exist, but I am confused about what happened between the Old Testament and the gospels that drove them to occupy such a predominant spot in the gospels and Acts. Sidestepping a discussion on the birds and the bees, we need to ask: From where does this emphasis on demons come? Oddly enough, we can answer this question quite definitely. This emphasis came from the Second Temple period (it’s those 400 not-so-silent years again). 

Now, that is not quite true. Biblically, it is, but not historically, because the literature of the Ancient Near East, especially the literature of Babylon, is filled with gods and lesser gods and even lesser gods who acted both benevolently and malevolently in the world. These lesser gods were often depicted as spirits and demons. Over time, the idea that such spiritual beings existed and were involved in peoples’ lives began to filter down throughout the known world and eventually landed in Greece (it may also be true that the Greeks figured things out on their own). In any case, starting around the mid 400’s BCE, we find Greek philosophers struggling with these same ideas: Why do certain things happen to people? How do they happen? Who is responsible for these flukes of fate?  How can we protect ourselves from evil? And how does evil work its way into our world? Socrates posited the existence of demons, but understood them to be more guardian angels than malevolent spirits. Demons came from the gods to guide people into wisdom and to help them avoid bad choices in life. They never appeared to these people, but rather spoke to them in an inner voice. They also only hinted at what the person should do. They never commanded. They were simply a voice of caution. Gradually, however, the Greeks began to see two different types of demons. There were good demons who acted like guardian angels, and then there were evil demons who were malicious and urged people to do malevolent acts. Interestingly, and I bring this up for no reason whatsoever, the majority of evil Greek demons all had female names.  

With all these ideas swimming in the global pool, it is not surprising that the Jews in the Second Temple period began to wrestle with these same thoughts. But the Jews of this period were always a people of the book and, without some Scriptural basis, they would not entertain any philosophical theory. So, what do you do when you don’t have biblical warrant? You go looking for some. And they found some in an obscure passage in Genesis 6. And when this passage is read in a particular way, they found pure theological gold, the origin of demon activity in the world. Remember, Satan, although he is the Evil One, is always limited by his creatureliness. He is not omnipresent like God. But what if Satan had an army of evil beings that could go out into the world and be his agents of malevolence? That’s what the Second Temple Jewish scholars found in Genesis 6, and for them, it changed everything.  

Let’s read the passage. The first four verses of Genesis 6 say (NIV):

When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.’ The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

Now, granted, this is a strange passage, and scholars throughout the ages have tried to figure out how we should interpret its meaning. The most important interpretative questions concerns where this passage “fits.” Do these verses form the conclusion of the genealogy that began in chapter 5—a sort of summary statement that pulls all this antediluvian history together (at least, those in the line of Seth). Or do these verses act as the introduction to the flood narrative? How you see the function of these verses (as a conclusion or as an introduction) shapes our understanding of the passage significantly. As a conclusion, it is more than benign.It merely says that men (the sons of God) saw women (the daughters of humans) as beautiful and wanted to marry them. And this attraction caused humans to increase in number. And as a result of these relationships, Nephilim were born. These Nephilim accomplished amazing things and became heroes and men of renown. We even know who they were. They were the individuals of Genesis 5—people like Seth and Mahalalel, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech and Noah.  

However, if it is an introduction to the flood story, these verses serve as the reason why the flood happened. When read this way, we see a group of heavenly beings (the “sons of God” was a common way to refer to angels) who looked down upon the earth and liked what they saw—human women. And so, they decided to abandon heaven and go have sex with these women. Later, since these angels “fell” out of heaven (or jumped), they came to be known as “fallen angels.” And here’s the bad news—by renouncing their status as angels, these beings were forever banned from heaven.  But God did not just punish the angels. Human choice was involved; and therefore, humanity must also bear some of the consequences. Humans would no longer live past 120 years old. Verse 4 is ambiguous, especially in regards to who these Nephilim were (the word seems to be based on a Hebrew root word, meaning “to fall,” but most modern translations—because it is so obscure—simply leave it untranslated) and what part these Nephilim play in the story.  

The Jewish scholars of the Second Temple period also noted this ambiguity and began thinking about what it could possibly mean. We see a hint of what they were thinking in the Greek translation of the Old Testament (called the Septuagint). The Septuagint translates verse 4 as: “Now the giants were on the earth in those days and afterward. When the sons of God used to go into the daughters of humans, they produced offspring for themselves. These were the giants that were of old, humans of renown.” We now have a twist to the story. The Nephilim are no more. They have been replaced by giants, and these giants are the offspring of the illicit relationship between fallen angels and human women. The Septuagint also says that these giants were around for a while and that they were “renowned.” 

Interestingly, not once in this story do we read that God condemns any of these actions. God remains silent as does the biblical author. However, as an introduction to the flood story, it has to be negative because the next verses are definitely negative (as anyone can plainly see). There, we read (Gen. 6:5-7): 

The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.’” 

Let me amend what I just said: The next verses are incredibly negative! They seem to indicate that as a result of verses 1-4, God regretted that he had made the world. He saw the abundance of wickedness. He saw how every inclination of the human heart was evil, and he was deeply troubled and grieved over all of this. And so, he decided to destroy everything on the planet. Matthias Henze summarizes the implications here: 

The sudden increase in human wickedness is linked to the angelic descent. The function of the fallen angel story in the Bible is to explain why the wickedness of humankind increased so exponentially that God felt compelled to undo his own creation. The fallen angels are responsible for the deteriorating conditions on earth right before the flood, even if it is never spelled out in the Bible. And God responded swiftly to this grievous sin by sending a great flood, a punishment of monumental proportions.”  

How do Genesis 6 and the story of the flood relate to the demons we find in the gospels? We now have two connecting points. We have the beginning of the story, and we have the end. Next week, we will show how the Jewish scholars of the Second Temple period filled in the gaps and made it all come together. And then, we will talk about what it all means.

In the meantime, you could not do much better after a conversation about demons to listen to some quotes from my favorite demon, Screwtape (I’ve never said that I have a favorite demon before; and while it is true, it still sounds funny). So, here are four of my favorite Screwtape quotes. Now, before you read them, please remember two things. First, remember that Screwtape is a head-demon who is mentoring a lesser-demon named Wormwood on how to tempt a new believer effectively. Second, remember all this advice is from hell; It’s from one demon to another. So, when Screwtape talks about “our cause,” remember, he is discussing Satan’s cause. When Screwtape talks about the “enemy,” he is talking about God. When Screwtape talks derogatorily and from a distance about “He,” he is talking about God. That should help you understood the following four quotes. Let’s begin. Screwtape says to Wormwood: 

Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.” 

Second, “When He talks of their losing their selves, He means only abandoning the clamor of self-will; once they have done that, He really gives them back all their personality, and boasts (I am afraid, sincerely) that when they are wholly His they will be more themselves than ever.”

Third, “Remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards, if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts. . . .” 

And last, “It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out.” 

As I always say, if you have to think about demons, think about the good ones; and these four quotes are some of the best in the book.   

More demons next week. In the meantime, ponder these four quotes. After all, an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.