What is the origin of demons and evil spirits?

What is the origin of demons and evil spirits? What is their relationship to the natural order? How does this relate to Psalm 82?
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[@ashleymallard]

I enjoy this format of putting clips from the livestreams into videos. 👍

[@ancientegyptandthebible]

Thank you for letting us know. We did that this week as an experiment. Feedback like that let's us know whether it is worthwhile to continue doing this.

[@Arodri360]

@@ancientegyptandthebibleStream highlights as clips are definitely a great edition to the channel, and enable you to put out more content for those who don’t watch the full streams!

[@chaynaemslie3957]

@@ancientegyptandthebible I’m a fan of it as well

[@Aethelhart]

I'm pretty sure the questioner is asking for your take on Michael Heiser's view, which I would be curious of as well.

[@michelferreira9695]

I found that the Book of Enoch is suffice to understand about demons, since some New Testament authors knew the story behind Enoch's book. Michael Heiser said that this Ancient Middle East literature was well known between the Jews/Israelites. He has a book about demons, although I never read it before.
One thing that I have absolute certainty (based on personal experiences) is that they unbelievably hate us, with indescribable hate.

[@chaynaemslie3957]

Yes. This was my experience as well. Book of Enoch not inspired, but was a book that Biblical authors were familiar with and influenced their worldview. Haven’t read his book, but I should.

[@Jim-Mc]

I like the idea of these spirits being responsible for natural evil before Eden. It also explains why there needed to be an enclosed garden to begin with. Gavin Ortlund has a good video about it.

[@Aethelhart]

I'm pretty confident that I was already subscribed, but after not seeing your videos for awhile, I come to find I'm not.

[@kostapapa1989]

First of all the word "demons" is not hebrew. It is a greek word which meant something different from what christianity later on used it for. It did not carry a negative meaning. It did not exist in the books of Judaism from where the old testament comes. It is basically a word with positive connotation used by ancient greeks to refer to higher entities,not evil ones, that was misused on purpose by christians in the new testament which was written in greek. Seek the original texts in the jewish language.

[@jameswitt108]

The word demon comes from the Greek δαίμων daimon which indeed had a neutral or positive meaning but Jewish texts do mention harmful spirits like shedim and mazzikim and they had exorcism practices way before the advent of Christianity. Early Christians adapted the term to mean malevolent spirits same thing in Zoroastrianism, daevas were once deities but later seen as evil spirits. So, this reinterpretation isn't unique to Christianity.

[@NB-qo4ds]

@ancientegyptandthebible Do you think St Paul's reference to stoicheia is a reference to spiritual beings or to philosophical principles or physical materials or something else? Galatians 4:3,9 and Colossians 2:8,20

[@negativedawahilarious]

Yoo thank you Dr. Falk for making a playlist of these clips

[@Legendary_Detective-Wobbuffet]

I thought it was that evolution was true, and there were two equally intelligent groups of people. Us being the creatures we are, villafied the others as evil and made gods to band us together to war with them. When we killed them off, we just kept telling the stories.

[@tsemayekekema2918]

The origin & definition of demons should ideally be as diverse as the different polytheistic myths in all the cultures Jews & early Christians encountered! It should not be hypersystematised like you see in late medieval demonologies that all modern churches assume!

[@DianeSLoftis]

Excellent clip 👏🏻 Yay.. thank you!

[@johnirish989]

For me all you should have to rely on is Scripture. Paul: all is out of God. (Through God and to God, also.) Isaiah: God creates evil. 45:7. He was a sinner FROM THE BEGINNING. 1 John 3:8. Ditto a liar and murderer.
Genesis 1:1: In beginning. No article. 1:2: Per the Literal Concordant: As for the earth, it CAME TO BE a chaos and vacant. Isaiah 45:18: He did not create it a chaos. Thus, between Gen. 1:1 and 1:2, people allege a disruption (some kind of evil, sin) occurs, and then in 1:3 we get the beginning of His RE-creation with now humanity on the scene. A do-over, if you will. So it seems God begins the evil and sin in the first eon (which we know very little about), and brings the First Adam and his progeny on the scene in the second eon to deal with the problem of evil. Another failure and He floods all but eight out of existence. And then this third wicked eon, which we're still in, where He brings in His chosen people and the Second, Last Adam.
I don't see humans in Psalm 82, but to Dr. Falk's advantage, I thought such spirit powers can't die and 82 speaks of them dying. But I definitely might be wrong because for me, not just the human side of His Son died on the cross.
Side note: Some argue Lucifer is a mistranslation and invention of Jerome. Ditto such words as eternal and eternity. All is of the eons and eonian.

[@vedinthorn]

Nah, psalm 82 is definitely only talking about the elohim.

[@josephpchajek2685]

Psalm 82 -> Human judges, which were adopted by God as son (hence Elohim).
but I guarantee it's not meant the way you're thinking.

[@vedinthorn]

@@josephpchajek2685 I would ha e to be given an internal textual reason to switch the context from God's heavenly courtroom to earth, and I don't see one.

[@marvalice3455]

It can be both at least once. It's not unreasonable at all

[@patrick953]

​@@josephpchajek2685Since when did Yahweh adopt gentile kings as his sons in the old testament?

[@ancientegyptandthebible]

@@marvalice3455 > It can be both at least once. It's not unreasonable at all
Yes!!! This is called "amphiboly," and it is done frequently in Scripture. Ezek 28 starts out talking about the "king of Tyre" but you soon find out that the passage is also talking about the "serpent in the Garden." Hebrew writers easily switch between subjects and sometimes reference subjects simultaneously. Ps 82 is no different in that respect. It starts by talking about "the divine council" but switches to "human judges." It makes this switch moving deftly between subjects. This is not at all uncommon for Israelite literature.

[@blackdog75]

could this be what paul was referring to in colossians 2:8?

[@Th3BigBoy]

Why do you say that?

[@blackdog75]

@@Th3BigBoy when he mentions the elemental spirits of the world

[@paradisecityX0]

I always figured that the elohim (spirit beings in general) including Lucifer sprang from God's essence and took on a will of their own. Aren't Demons disembodied spirits of dead nephilim?

[@ancientegyptandthebible]

> Aren't Demons disembodied spirits of dead nephilim?
That's Second Temple Period speculation, but the Bible itself contradicts that speculation.

[@chaynaemslie3957]

@@ancientegyptandthebibledoes it contradict or just silent on the matter? We know there are fallen angels for sure though.

[@ancientegyptandthebible]

@@chaynaemslie3957 It contradicts because Gen 6:4 states that the Nephilim were "men." Now, that doesn't discount there being fallen angels. Only that fallen angels aren't nephilim.

[@oscarmagana8322]

I’m curious, if the Biblical text is silent on specific origin of demons, why would the nephilim being human negate the origin of demons coming from their disembodied spirits? I know you take the Divine King interpretation of Gen 6, so I totally get why thinking Demons coming from nephilim is a hard connection absent second temple material, but if a view like Heiser’s was found to be a better interpretation on the sons of god being divine beings(like through more persuasive evidence or arguments), then I don’t see how that view would contradict the text. The second temple writers didn’t see that contradiction obviously. If we take the divine king interpretation, it’s really weird to say demons came from their disembodied nephilim, but I don’t see how it’s contradictory. The Idea of that origin in that interpretation doesn’t make sense…but that doesn’t make it contradictory if we don’t have a statement in the biblical text that say the specific origin of Demons.
Love your channel by the way, and I could totally be missing something

[@ancientegyptandthebible]

@@oscarmagana8322
> I’m curious, if the Biblical text is silent on specific origin of demons, why would the nephilim being human negate the origin of demons coming from their disembodied spirits?
Because the Nephilim as defined in the text as purely human according to Gen 6:4, and the souls of dead humans go to immediate judgment (Hebr 9:27). Human beings are embodied beings. We lack the spiritual essence (once deceased) to be more than spirits of the dead. Our agency comes through our embodiment. A demon's agency has power that does not require embodiment.
> I know you take the Divine King interpretation of Gen 6, so I totally get why thinking Demons coming from nephilim is a hard connection absent second temple material, but if a view like Heiser’s was found to be a better interpretation on the sons of god being divine beings(like through more persuasive evidence or arguments), then I don’t see how that view would contradict the text.
But that is the question, is it not? Is Heiser's view a better interpretation with a late bronze age context as opposed to a 2nd Temple Period context? Divine beings like the sons of god simply cannot take on human flesh or create physical bodies for themselves. When "embodied," that is a similacra, an ephemeral form without true physical substance. No true physical substance, no true human-compatible DNA, no ability to procreate with human women. It's that simple. Beside, I take the caste of priests view of the sons of god, not the divine king view--the two views differ slightly.
> The second temple writers didn’t see that contradiction obviously.
Of course, not. They had their own context that differed from the LBA.
> If we take the divine king interpretation, it’s really weird to say demons came from their disembodied nephilim, but I don’t see how it’s contradictory.
It's contradictory because Nephilim are just men under that view. Men don't become angels or demons.
> The Idea of that origin in that interpretation doesn’t make sense…but that doesn’t make it contradictory if we don’t have a statement in the biblical text that say the specific origin of Demons.
We do know that evil spirits exists prior to Gen 6. So why couldn't the primordial spirits who abandoned their duties in Jude 6 be the origin of demons, instead of the Nephilim? That would at least be consistent with an origin story for demonic powers and remain consistent with the statement in Gen 6 that the Nephilim were human.
> Love your channel by the way, and I could totally be missing something
Thank you. We are glad you could be part of the community. ☺

[@traceursebas]

So chaos entities are sort of a byproduct if creation!

[@ancientegyptandthebible]

Yup.

[@negativedawahilarious]

can you clarify it brother

[@Dracossack.]

@@ancientegyptandthebibleThe language of byproduct seems incongruent with biblical theology, since that seems to imply that Yahweh wasn’t in complete control over what he was making?

[@ancientegyptandthebible]

@@Dracossack. It's not that Yahweh wasn't in control. It was that he had foresight. Yahweh knew that his would have withdraw from creation to prevent the summary judgment of sin. Creation would still have to be maintained without his presence under those circumstances. So, Yahweh made creation complete by making the inanimate creation and the animate creation to maintain the inanimate creation.

[@Kakaragi]

Would you say that Zeus and the Devil are one and the same?

[@ancientegyptandthebible]

Not directly. Some idols are without doubt demon worship, but by no means all. Some idols, simply put, are nothing at all. Zeus was said to be the king of the gods. Every pantheon had a king of the gods. No one in any culture thought they were worshipping the Devil by worshipping the local culture's king of the gods. That's not to say there wasn't a demonic presence behind that worship. However, that would be an indirect influence, not a direct equivalence.

[@paradisecityX0]

Not remotely the same

[@Kakaragi]

@@paradisecityX0 You sure, I think everyone knows about how Zeus revels in sexual sin, which doesn’t seem outside of the Devil’s realm

[@paradisecityX0]

@Kakaragi Many gods engaged in that behavior. That's how the nephilim came to be.
Btw the Stoics thought Zeus and God were one and the same. But we know that's not true in the slightest

[@Kakaragi]

@@paradisecityX0 I am aware about the other gods doing the same, I just bring up Zeus though because he’s most prominent for that kind of behavior (and people call Aphrodite the god of lust)