Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Walter Mattfeld" <mattfeld AT mail.pjsnet.com>]

Jonathan D. Safren noted an association of Demons with Full Moon observances
:

> 2) Best time in the month, demon-wise. New Moon celebrated the moon coming
> back, not being devoured. FUll moon is the climax hoped for at New
Moon.Less
> spirits wandering about, less numina (like the kinds that attacked Jacob
at
> Penuel and Moses in the middle of the desert.

Jonathan's comment on Demons brought on a rush of ideas about a number of
issues that this list deals with from time to time.  One such major concern
of this list is dealing with the Hebrew language and its forms and tenses
and meanings. Many obviously are on this list due to their realizing that
the best way to understand the Hebrew Bible is to be able to read it in the
original Hebrew language rather than try to understand it from a persective
based on an English translation. All here, I am sure would acknowledge the
pitfalls of translations, and how religious agendas can affect the choice of
words and sentence structure for some passages.

My English bible mentions in several places in the Old Testament "Demons",
yet when I have pursued the topic I discover that the Hebrew word is not
"Demon" its always some other creature or name. People unacquainted with the
fact that the word Demon doesn't exist in Hebrew (it being a Greek word,
Daemon or Daimon), probably equate these Old Testament beings with the
Demons described in the New Testament.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't believe the Old Testament understood
the world to be under Demonic control, needing a Messiah to be sacrificed,
whose atoning blood would save mankind and restore the Kingdom of Heaven,
seized by Satan and his Demonic forces.

An interesting aspect of Stars being seen as gods, is the Greek notion that
Zeus appointed Daimones (who were later identified with astral bodies or
stars) to rule over mankind, to lead man to righteousness and correct
behavior. The Hellenistic Greek world developed a notion that EVERY HUMAN
BEING, AT BIRTH WAS UNDER THE CONTROL OF A DAIMON. In Plato's days Daimones
acted rather like angels, they carried the will of the gods to man, and
man's prayers to the gods were delivered via the Daimones. In post-Platonic
times some Greek metaphysists developed the notion that not all Daimones
were righteous, some were evil and they became the blame for leading mankind
into unrighteous acts. Hellenized Judaism came to accept this late Greek
concept, and portrayed Daimones as evil instigators. Thus THE DAIMONES WHO
RULED ALL OF THE WORLD on behalf of the gods, came to be by Christian times,
Evil powers who had seized the Kingdom of God, the planet earth, and who
ruled in high places, the world.  Christianity accepted the Greek
metaphysical beliefs and posited that God had sent his son to be a
sacrifice, to rescue mankind from the Daimones. For further details of the
Daimones being transfored into Christian "DEMONS" cf. my article titled "The
New Testament's Demons/Daemones/Daimones (The Pre-Christian Origins of)" at
the following url
http://www.bibleorigins.net/Demons.html

All the best, Walter