What we have been taught about demons is only half of the story. They are not fallen angels. They did not start off in heaven or hell. The origin of demons is so dark and strange that most churches do not even talk about it. If we miss where demons come from, then we miss one of the most important reasons of Yeshua’s ministry before his execution and resurrection. As followers of Yeshua, we need to understand the true nature of our spiritual enemies. This article will identify what demons really are.
THE TRANSGRESSION
Most Believers know the basics of the story of the Garden of Eden, and they believe it is why the world is the way it is. But that is actually incomplete. What happened in Eden was just the first of three reasons why there is so much evil and death in the world.
| REBELLION | FALLOUT |
| • The Fall (Genesis 3) cf. Babylonian elements |
• Death (loss of immortality) estranged |
| • Sons of God (Genesis 6:1-4) Babylonian apkallu |
• Lethal threat; origin of demons; depravity |
| • Tower of Babel (Deuteronomy 32:8-9; cp. Psalm 82 Babylonian context (Genesis 10:9 = Shinar; Genesis 11:1; cp. Daniel 1:1-2 |
• Hostility; lethal threat; idolatry |
We fail to understand what Yeshua was doing on the ground in the first century before he was killed and rose from the dead. Yeshua was proclaiming the Gospel, which was: <the Kingdom of Heaven is in your midst>, (because the King Messiah was among them). Many do not appreciate that the Gospel message, that the Kingdom of Heaven had arrived, was not just for human beings, it was also meant for the spiritual enemies of the Eternal to hear; the spiritual enemies who were all over the place, on the ground in the first century. They had an earthly stronghold that had to be defeated. Genesis 6 describes the ‘second supernatural rebellion. Some of the sons of the Eternal, members of the heavenly council, transgressed the boundary between heaven and earth:
Genesis 6:2-3 [Brenton's English version of the Septuagint] 2 And it came to pass when men began to be numerous upon the earth, and daughters were born to them, 3 that the sons of God having seen the daughters of men that they were beautiful, took to themselves wives of all whom they chose.
Both Kepha (Peter) and Yehudah (Jude, the brother of Yeshua) reference this story in the New Testament
2 Peter 2:4-5 [HRB] 4 For if Elohim did not spare sinning cherubs{angels}, but delivered them to chains of darkness, thrust down into Tartarus, having been kept to judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah
Many Christians find these passages too strange and set them aside. Christianity, in general, teaches that the sons of the Eternal («bnei Elohim») are the rulers of Yisra’el. Some claim they are descendants of Seth. Nevertheless, believers have to wrestle with the supernatural realm. As it turns out, there were divine beings that were part of the Eternal’s heavenly hosts who chose to commit an abomination. They took human wives for themselves and had offspring, who were known as the «Nephilim».
Genesis 6:1-7 [HRB] And it came about that men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them. 2 The sons of the Elohim saw the daughters of the men, that they were good, and they took wives for themselves from all those whom they chose. 3 And YAHWEH said, My Spirit shall not always strive with mankind; in their going astray he is flesh. And his days shall be a hundred and twenty years † (times). 4 The nephilim were in the earth in those days, and even afterwards when the sons of the Elohim came in to the daughters of the men, and they gave birth to them; they were the heroes who existed from ancient time, men of renown. 5 And YAHWEH saw that the evil of man was great on the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the day long. 6 And YAHWEH sighed with sorrow that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved to His heart. 7 And YAHWEH said, I will wipe off man whom I have created from the face of the earth, from man to beast, to the creeping thing and to the birds of the heavens; for I repent that I made them. (Words of the Eternal in sapphire)
This bizarre event with angels abandoning their posts and commingling with women began in the days of the Patriarch Jared. He was the great-great-grandfather of Noah. Jared begat Enoch, who begat Methuselah, who begat Lamech, who was the father of Noah. Methuselah’s name was prophetic: it means when he dies then it will come, speaking of the judgment (When he died the flood came).
THE OFFSPRING OF THE SONS OF THE ETERNAL AND THE DAUGHTERS OF MAN WERE GIANTS CALLED NEPHILIM
We have to understand that verses 5 and 6, which lead up, to the flood, are not disconnected from verses 1-4. These are also a lead up to the flood. Many read these verses and act as if verse 5 comes out of nowhere.
The wickedness of man comes out of the overflow of events of verses 1-4. This is the second recorded rebellion in the Scriptures. The first was in the Garden of Eden. The second one is right here in Genesis 6. The Eternal regretted that He made man on the earth and aggrieved him to his heart. So, he said, <I will blot out man whom I have created face of the land . . . I am sorry that I have made them>. So, the Eternal flooded the earth (Genesis 6:7)
THE PUNISHMENT
What did the Eternal do with these divine beings and their offspring?
2 Peter 2:4
4 For if Elohim did not spare the messengers who sinned, but sent them to Tartaros, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be kept for judgment,
5 and did not spare the world of old, but preserved Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, and seven others, bringing in the flood on the world of the wicked
Kepha is not describing multiple events that are unrelated to each other. It is the same event. Peter’s greater point by bringing up the flood and what happened to these angels is that this was all about unnatural and defiling lust. It all comes together in verse 10.
2 Peter 2:10 [HRB] and most of all those walking after the flesh in filthy lust and despising authority
The punishment of these divine beings, ‘sons of the Eternal’ are connected to defiling passion and despising authority. That is why Kepha says the angels were put in chains of gloomy darkness. In other words, these ‘sons of God’ were led by their passions for human women and their disobedience to the Eternal. Those are the preconditions for the flood of the whole world.
Yehudah also tells us about judgment of these angels
Jude 1:6 [TS] And the messengers who did not keep their own principality, but left their own dwelling, He has kept in everlasting shackles under darkness for the judgment of the great day.
Both of these writers understood that Genesis 6 recorded the second supernatural rebellion. The fallen ‘sons of God’ were sent to «Tartarus» for their transgression.
«Tartaros»: Strong’s G5020:
• the name of the subterranean region, doleful and dark, regarded by the ancient Greeks as the abode of the wicked dead, where they suffer punishment for their evil deeds; it answers to Gehenna of the Jews
• to thrust down to Tartarus, to hold captive in Tartarus.
GREEK MYTHOLOGY
«Tartarus» is a Greek word for the realm of the dead, what we think of as hell. They stay there until the Day of the Eternal at the end of days. A term like fallen angels makes us think of demons, like the ones Yeshua cast out. But the rebels of Genesis 6 are imprisoned, so they cannot be the demons Yeshua encountered. There is an important distinction. What we call demons today are not the «bnei Elohim» or ‘sons of the Eternal’. They are not the ‘sons of the Eternal’ who had children with the daughters of men.
«Tartaros» is meant to identify the prison of the Titans. In Greek mythology, the Titans were overthrown by the Olympians, who were led by Zeus. And the Titans were cast into the deepest prison below the earth.
In the Iliad by Homer, we read:
(Zeus speaking). . . I shall take him and dash him down the murk of Tartaros (Tartarus), far below, where the uttermost depth of the pit lies under the earth, where there are gates of iron and a brazen door-stone, a far beneath the house of Aides (Hades) as from earth the sky lies.
Homer, Iliad 8. 481 ff
So, Tartarus was this place that was so deep, it was as far below Hades as Hades is from the earth. Another name for it would be the ‘abyss. Now, we know that Greek Mythology is false. It is false because it took something that is true and warped and corrupted the story.
Pagan myths have often distorted an underlying reality that is rooted in what the Scriptures actually teach. Were there divine beings that rebelled against the Most High? Yes, this is what the Scriptures have been communicating from the very beginning. In second Peter, the apostle is saying that it was not the Titans that went to Tartaros. It was the ‘sons of God’ («Benei Elohim»). However, they are not demons.
WHAT ARE DEMONS?
The answer lies in the offspring produced by the forbidden union between the ‘sons of the Eternal’ and the women in Genesis 6. Those offspring were known as the «Nephilim». They were giants. Their descendants became the giant clans Moses and Joshua battled.
Genesis 6:4
The nephilim were in the earth in those days, and even afterwards
In the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy, we learn about the giants Moses and Joshua encountered. They not only descended from the Nephilim, but they are called by other names like the «Anakim» and the «Rephaim». That last name stands out. Several Scripture passages describe the dead spirits of the «Rephaim» in the realm of the dead. Again, what we would think of as hell.
Isaiah 26:14 [Jewish Publication Society Old Testament]
The dead live not, the shades rise not
Now, this word for ‘shades in the Hebrew is the word «Rephaim». Dr. Michael Heiser points out, that «Rephaim» is another name for the Nephilim in certain parts of the Old Testament
Deuteronomy 2:10 [TS]
10 The Emim lived there in days gone by, a great and plentiful people, and tall as the Anakim; °
11 they are reckoned to be giants, they too, like the Anakim; but the Moabites call them Emim.
Now, all of these giants are described as descendants of an earlier race in the Scriptures, the Nephilim
Numbers 13:33 [TS] “And we saw there the Nephilim, sons of Anaq, of the Nephilim. And we were like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and so we were in their eyes.”
All of these giant tribes are categorized by the Scriptures as being descendants of the ‘sons of the Eternal’. But, what is interesting about the Rephaim is they are described as disembodied sprits that dwell in «Sheol». This is because they are the unnatural offspring of divine rebellion. These, in their day, were giants, they were kings. However, when these hybrid enemies were taken from the earth whether by the flood or by Yisra’el’s conquest after the Exodus their spirits went to the underworld, to Sheol. And their presence there is both a consequence of their unnatural origin and part of the Eternals larger judgment against the divine rebellion that produced them.
DEMONS: TWO STAGES
There are two stages of the story of demons:
• On the one hand, you have the story of their origin , which is in Genesis chapter 6. They are the offspring of the ‘sons of the Eternal’ (divine beings, angels) and the daughters of men. They are the giants of old, the Nephilim.
• Then, you also have their afterlife story where they become restless, disembodied spirits.
These are two stages of the same story. That is what demons are. They are the after death spirits of the Nephilim, who have become supernatural residents of the underworld.
EXTRABIBLICAL WRITERS
Extrabiblical Jewish writers believe the demons like those described in the Gospels were disembodied spirits of the giants. They base this on the Scriptures’ mention of dead «Rephaim» in the underworld. Jewish books like First Enoch and the Book of the Giants from the Dead Sea Scrolls make that point explicitly.
First century Jewish historian Josephus wrote about these historical events
For many angels of God accompanied with women and . . . despisers of all that was good . . . these men did what resembled the acts of those whom the Grecians called giants.
Then we have the writings of Clement of Alexandria who said angels:
. . . partook of human lust . . . fell into cohabitation with women . . . men sprang much greater in stature than ordinary men, whom they afterwards called giants . . .God wished to cast them away . . . he sent a deluge of water . . .
We now come to Irenaeus:
. . . angels linked themselves with offspring of the daughters of men, who bore to them sons, who . . . were called Giants. The angels, then, brought . . . teachings hateful to God . . .
Athenagoras of Athens:
. . . fell into impure love of virgins . . . of these lovers of virgins, therefore, were begotten those who are called giants . . .
The writings of Eusebius are considered to be very trustworthy and reliable. He wrote:
. . . they gave themselves wholly over all kinds of profanity . . . daring to wage war with God . . . when they conducted themselves thus, the all-seeing God sent down upon them floods.
Justin Martyr was a Theologian from the early Church wrote
. . . angels whom He (God) appointed over them (man). But the angels transgressed this appointment and were captivated by love of women
THE BOOK OF ENOCH
Now, the Book of Enoch is not inspired by the Eternal. However, it is a serious and ancient source of information. Some scholars believe that Enoch wrote the first 36 chapters of
1 Enoch. There is no question that some Scriptural authors, particularly the Apostle Peter and Jude, were not only aware of First Enoch, but they drew from it to make theological points in their letters. In 2 Peter 2:4, Kepha draws from 1 Enoch to tell us that angels who sinned were cast into «Tartarus». In First Enoch, the author call these beings watchers, and he describes them as being bound and cast into the abyss for judgment.
Yehudah (Jude) is even more explicit than that. Jude 14 not only explicitly mentions Enoch, he quotes directly from First Enoch:
Jude 1:14 [TS]
14 And Ḥanok, the seventh from Adam, also prophesied of these, saying, “See, יהוה comes with His myriads of set-apart ones,
15 to execute judgment on all, to punish all who are wicked among them concerning all their wicked works which they have committed in a wicked way, and concerning all the harsh words which wicked sinners have spoken against Him.”
Yehudah is quoting from First Enoch.
We read in First Enoch:
8 And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling.
9 Evil spirits have proceeded from their bodies because they are born from men and from the Holy watchers is their beginning and primal origin. They shall be evil spirits on earth and evil spirits shall they be called.
(Book of Enoch, chapter 15 verses 8 and 9)
First Enoch goes on to say that the sole purpose of these spirits is to cause trouble, to afflict, to oppress, to destroy, to attack, to do battle, work destruction on the earth. Everything they do has that underlying goal.
UNCLEAN SPIRITS
Having the above information, the encounters that Yeshua had with demon-possessed people in the Gospels, start to make more sense. However, notice that in the Gospels, demons are not always referred to as demons. They are often called evil spirits. As a matter of fact, eight times in the New Testament, the phrase is used to refer to demons. There is another term that describes demons. And this term is used more frequently than any other. The term ‘unclean spirits’ is used around 20 times in the Gospels.
Matthew 8:28 [TS] 28 And when He came to the other side, to the country of the Girgashites, two demon-possessed ones met Him, coming out of the tombs, very fierce, so that no one was able to pass that way. 29 And see, they cried out, saying, “What have we to do with You, יהושע, Son of Elohim? Have You come here to torture us, before the appointed time?”
This is Matthew’s account of what took place on this encounter. However, if we look at the parallel accounts in the books of Mark and Luke, the words ‘unclean spirits’ are used:
Mark 5:2 - . . . there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, [TS] Luke 8:29 - For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.[TS]
In Matthew 8:28 we read that the two demon-possessed men come out of the tombs. The tombs where dead bodies are laid to rest. Demons were referred to as unclean spirits. Many Jews understood these spirits to come from the realm of the dead. Just as dead bodies were unclean, you go back to the Old Testament to look at the purity passages regarding the dead, these spirits were also unclean. But it gets worse than that. They were also considered unclean because of the nature of their ontological mixture. They were the mixture of supernatural and human. This is not what the Eternal intended when he made the world, and thus they were considered unclean. So we have a double uncleanliness about these particular spirits. They come from the dead bodies. They are also an ontological mixture that was never intended. Additionally, Luke’s account of Yeshua’s exorcism, gives us another connection to demons and to the Nephilim.
Luke 8:31-32[TS]
31 And they were begging Him that He would not command them to go out into the bottomless pit{the abyss}.
32 And a herd of many pigs was feeding there on the mountain. And they begged Him to allow them to go into them. And He allowed them.
At the beginning of this article, we pointed out that an earthly stronghold of the enemy had to be defeated. That is what Yeshua was doing when he casts out demons. He was taking back ground from these hostile powers and reclaiming it for the Kingdom of Heaven.
Now we know what demons are according to the Scriptures, what they were doing in Yeshua’s time and what they continue to on the earth until the day of judgment. These are not just random spirits, floating around the earth. They are the restless, unclean remnants of a rebellion that began long before we were born. However, they were also defeated a long time ago.
Yeshua did not just come to save us from sin, he came to reclaim enemy territory, to set captives free, and to destroy the works of the adversary. That is why we can live without fear, but not without vigilance. The supernatural realm is real. The battle is real. The more we understand it through Scripture, the better we stand firm and we can resist the enemy. The same Yeshua who silenced the demons with a word is the one who live in you now.
Source:
Nate Sala; Dr. Michael Heiser