Topical Studies
What the Bible says about
Doctrines of Demons
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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Genesis 1:27-28
In Jewish folklore, Adam's first wife was not Eve but a goddess named Lilith, who refused to submit to Adam in the name of equality. The legend of Lilith long pre-dates Judaism. According to Janet Howe Gaines in her article "Lilith" (Bible Review), her dark origins lie in Babylonian demonology, first mentioned in an epic poem about Gilgamesh. Her name derives from a class of demons called lilitu, usually translated as "night monsters," who were believed to inhabit desolate areas. Lilith is reputed to seduce and otherwise abuse young men and attack pregnant women. Blamed for miscarriages and infant mortality, she was cast as the patron of abortions as her legend grew. Time passed, and the Babylonian Empire faded, but this night-demon's myth spread to other nations that embellished her legend. The Hittites, Egyptians, and Greeks picked up the story, and everywhere Lilith went, she represented chaos, seduction, and ungodliness. Among the Jews, the Essene community at Qumran was enthralled by demonism. Lilith shows up in some Dead Sea Scrolls, mentioned in a hymn apparently used in exorcisms. Centuries later, Lilith also appears in the Babylonian Talmud, where she is portrayed very much like Babylonian depictions of her. One Talmudic reference even warns that people should not sleep alone at night because Lilith might slay them. When she was reconceived as the original woman during the Middle Ages, the Lilith story took off. The myth of Lilith became an answer to something that puzzled some scholars: When they compared the Genesis 1 creation of man and woman with the Genesis 2 story of Adam and Eve, they saw more differences than similarities. They perceived that Adam and Eve's story happened much later than the sixth day of creation, so they reasoned that the Genesis 1 account must refer to a different woman since God created Eve from Adam later. Lilith conveniently came out of the shadows of legend and stepped into the role of the original woman. The scholars answered the later need for Eve by supposing that Lilith felt she was being treated as man's inferior despite being made at the same time and from the same dust. She claimed her independence by going into the wilderness, and since it was not good for man to be alone, God created a helper from Adam's side—or so the medieval story goes. Like comic book and movie superhero tales, the story of Lilith went through different retellings, each adding a bit more to her myth. Lilith received a major retelling in the collection of writings known as the Zohar. Written in the thirteenth century, the Zohar is the seminal work of Kabbalah, basically a commentary on the Torah through the lens of mysticism. The Zohar reinforces Lilith as the first woman, an abuser of men, and a breeder of evil spirits. It provides Lilith with a companion, Samael, the male personification of evil, associated with the serpent, the leader of fallen angels. After cohabiting with Samael, Lilith is punished and turned into a demon goddess. Lilith and Samael ally and embody the dark realm. When we constrain ourselves to what the Bible says, one unambiguous interpretation or picture arises. But if we start looking to myths or folklore to fill perceived gaps, something very different emerges. If we allow them, such fables will attach to Scripture like parasites and twist the meaning of God's Word. Because of such deviations, Paul warns of false doctrine and heeding fables (I Timothy 1:3-4). He counsels Timothy, "Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons . . .. But reject profane and old wives' fables . . ." (I Timothy 4:1, 7). A few verses later, he admonishes him to "give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine . . .. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine" (I Timothy 4:13, 16), instructing him to "[avoid] the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge" (I Timothy 6:20). In his second epistle to his protégé, he warns against those who "will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables" (II Timothy 4:4). The apostle similarly exhorts Titus about "not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth" (Titus 1:14).
David C. Grabbe
Inventing Goddesses and Demons (Part One)
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Isaiah 34:13-14
Lilith, a demon goddess of the night and the alleged first wife of Adam, found her way into Jewish folklore from the ancient Babylonians. Lilith and her companion, Samael (a Satan figure), are prominent characters in Jewish mythology but not in the Bible. However, some scholars believe that Isaiah 34:13-14 refers to this night demon and supports her legend. In the New King James Version, the Hebrew word underlying "the night creature" is lilith, which derives from the root laylah, meaning "night." Isaiah 34:14 is the only place lilith occurs in Scripture, so its meaning is somewhat obscure aside from the implication of nocturnality. Strong's Concordance suggests it means "screech owl," and based on the context of wild animals in abandoned places, this definition would be a natural fit. The Bible uses lilith as a common word. Nothing ties it to the Babylonian myth of Lilith, not even a suggestion that lilith is an individual's name. Even so, the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) capitalizes Lilith, turning the word into a personality. Apparently influenced by the Jewish legend of Lilith, the NRSV translators believed that Isaiah included a demon goddess in this prophecy of Edom's desolation. Since the prophet and his audience would have been aware of the Lilith myth, Isaiah 34:14 must refer to the infamous night demon, they allege. This reasoning is flimsy, to say the least. The translators assume Isaiah refers to a personality simply because a similarly named character appears in contemporary folklore. A modern parallel demonstrates how absurd this reasoning is. In a sermon, John Ritenbaugh off-handedly referred to Esau as a "joker." Was he saying that Esau is an incarnation of one of Batman's enemies, the Joker, in today's comic mythology? Of course not. The creators of Batman used the word "joker" as a name for an invented personality, but it has no connection to the subject of John's sermon. Likewise, the Hebrew word lilith looks like the Babylonian word lilitu, its word for "night monsters." Because of the similar spellings, some scholars perceive an overlap and insert a demon goddess into Isaiah's prophecy, despite the Bible containing nothing else to support it. Isaiah 34 prophesies of God's judgment on Edom. Much of the chapter deals with the future desolation of the land of Edom, which will be fulfilled around the time of Christ's return. At that point, the angel from heaven will bind Satan and his demons in the bottomless pit (Revelation 20:1-3). Edom's territory will be empty, except for the wild animals Isaiah names. The wilderness will not be a haunt for a demon named Lilith because Christ will have restrained all the demons. Verse 14 is about a nocturnal animal, not a night monster. Notice that when we constrain ourselves to what the Bible says, one unambiguous interpretation or picture arises. But if we start looking to myths or folklore to fill perceived gaps, something very different emerges. If we allow them, such fables will attach to Scripture like parasites and twist the meaning of God's Word. Because of such deviations, Paul warns of false doctrine and heeding fables (I Timothy 1:3-4). He counsels Timothy, "Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons . . .. But reject profane and old wives' fables . . ." (I Timothy 4:1, 7). A few verses later, he admonishes him to "give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine . . .. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine" (I Timothy 4:13, 16), instructing him to "[avoid] the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge" (I Timothy 6:20). In his second epistle to his protégé, he warns against those who "will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables" (II Timothy 4:4). The apostle similarly exhorts Titus about "not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth" (Titus 1:14). The myth of Lilith eminently qualifies as a Jewish fable, profane and idle babbling, and a contradiction.
David C. Grabbe
Inventing Goddesses and Demons (Part Two)
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2 Peter 3:1-4
At the very core of the gospel message is the assurance that Jesus Christ will return and establish His Kingdom on earth. Our hope is in His second coming because we recognize that we need His merciful intervention before humanity wipes itself out. As things continue to deteriorate, we keep returning to this confident expectation that there is a solution to the problems that mankind faces, but that solution is still just over the horizon. However, it seems like His return has been “just over the horizon” our entire lives, and we may wonder at times why the end has not yet come. In this regard, II Peter 3 is invaluable for keeping the right perspective on Christ's return, and especially its timing. The apostle Peter helps us to focus on the right things in anticipation of that day. Peter begins the chapter with a reminder of all the things the prophets and apostles had been inspired to preach. The timing of Christ's return was the source of quite a bit of confusion in the first century, and so Peter reminds his audience that a tremendous amount of God's Word has to do with that very topic. The Bible contains a solid foundation for at least a general understanding of the end times, even though the exact timing is not spelled out. In these verses, Peter addresses the prevailing notion that “life goes on” and the public's scoffing at the idea that the Creator would return and intervene in human affairs. In the previous chapter, he paid considerable attention to false prophets, false teachers, and false doctrines that were troubling the church from the inside. In chapter 3, Peter draws attention to all that the true prophets and apostles had written because their writings needed to be the basis of evaluating what the contemporary teachers were saying. Along the same lines, Paul says in I Timothy 4:1 that “the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. . . .” A picture emerges of people who had “the faith”—a specific faith—at one time, but whose natural desires have overshadowed it. They had regressed to the place where they scoff at the idea that there is anything more to life than what they can discern with their senses. As their faith deteriorates, they conclude that nothing has really changed in the millennia of (accepted) human history, so it is doubtful that this world will ever end. So Peter writes to those who have not departed from the faith, pointing out that God's Word is filled with examples of His intervention, so that they—and we—might be bolstered in the face of the scoffing.
David C. Grabbe
How Much Longer Do We Have?
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