As we discovered in the last post, there is no biblical evidence that demons are fallen angels. So, what are demons? Since the Bible is largely silent on the issue, we have to turn to outside the Bible. I believe that the best explanation of demons comes from 1 Enoch, and that the Bible does at least support or oblige the claims made in 1 Enoch.
First, what is 1 Enoch, where does it come from, and why should we believe it? 1 Enoch is pseudepigrapha meaning it is an apocryphal text that is attributed to an author that didn’t actually write it. In this case, the book is attributed to Enoch, the grandfather of Noah, but the text has been dated to the Second Temple Period. Therefore, it is very unlikely if not impossible for Enoch to be the original author, though the book could still be written based on traditions passed down since Enoch.
The book tells the story of Enoch’s life, Noah, the flood, the watchers, and Enoch’s ascension into heaven. Enoch’s ascension may seem strange, but it does seem to appear in the Bible in Genesis 5:24,
24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
The Bible states that God took Enoch, and not that Enoch died. Most relevant to this discussion though, 1 Enoch expands on the events of Genesis 6:1-4,
1 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
These verses describe how the sons of God or spiritual beings descended from Heaven in order to lay with the daughters of men. This interaction created children and these children were the Nephilim or the giants. Now giants are fairly common in the Old Testament, most notably in the story of David and Goliath. The term used in Genesis 6 is Nephilim which does appear again in Numbers 13:33 when the spies went into the promised land.
33 “And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
This connection is important to establish the origin of the giants mentioned throughout the Old Testament as well as connect the Nephilim to the Rephaim which we will discuss in a moment.
A thing to address is how do these Nephilim appear after the flood when they were created prior and presumably none of Noah’s family were giants. There are two main ways to address this point. First, a local flood theory allows that some living things could have survived the flood though the Bible seems clear that all living flesh was destroyed. There is evidence from sources such as Josephus that some survived the flood, but the biblical text seems clear on this point. The second and more likely option in my opinion is that the sons of God descended again after the flood. Genesis 6:4 does not state this was a singular event and does say that the Nephilim were on the earth in those days “and also afterward” which may indicate a second incursion. Either way, I think there is a clear connection between the Nephilim and the giants that appear after the flood.
Now, 1 Enoch describes that when Nephilim are killed, their evil spirits leave their body and dwell on earth to afflict men. Chapter 15 of 1 Enoch states,
8 And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon 9 the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling. Evil spirits have proceeded from their bodies; because they are born from men and from the holy Watchers is their beginning and primal origin; 10 they shall be evil spirits on earth, and evil spirits shall they be called. [As for the spirits of heaven, in heaven shall be their dwelling, but as for the spirits of the earth which were born upon the earth, on the earth shall be their dwelling.] And the spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on the earth, and cause trouble: they take no food, but nevertheless 12 hunger and thirst, and cause offences. And these spirits shall rise up against the children of men and against the women, because they have proceeded from them.
Now, this is a great story, but why should we believe it? Well first, 1 Enoch is quoted and referenced in the Bible. Jude 14-15,
14 It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
is a quote of 1 Enoch 1:9,
And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones
To execute judgement upon all,
And to destroy all the ungodly:
And to convict all flesh
Of all the works of their ungodliness which they have ungodly committed,
And of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.
Furthermore, 1 Peter 3:18-20,
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.
and 2 Peter 2:4,
4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;
seem to be clear references or allusions to 1 Enoch Chapter 10,
4 …and his seed may be preserved for all the generations of the world.’ And again the Lord said to Raphael: ‘Bind Azazel hand and foot, and cast him into the darkness: and make an opening 5 in the desert, which is in Dudael, and cast him therein. And place upon him rough and jagged rocks, and cover him with darkness, and let him abide there for ever, and cover his face that he may 6 not see light. And on the day of the great judgement he shall be cast into the fire. And heal the earth which the angels have corrupted, and proclaim the healing of the earth, that they may heal the plague, and that all the children of men may not perish through all the secret things…
and 1 Enoch Chapter 12.
3 And I Enoch was blessing the Lord of majesty and the King of the ages, and lo! the Watchers 4 called me -Enoch the scribe- and said to me: ‘Enoch, thou scribe of righteousness, go, declare to the Watchers of the heaven who have left the high heaven, the holy eternal place, and have defiled themselves with women, and have done as the children of earth do, and have taken unto themselves 5 wives:…
2 Peter 2:4 describes how the angels were cast into hell in a very similar way as 1 Enoch 10, and 1 Peter 3:18-20 describes Jesus proclaiming to the spirits in prison in a way not unlike how Enoch was told to declare to the Watchers in prison. Now, I am not making these connections to argue that 1 Enoch is inspired or should be in the canon, but I do think that New Testament writers were at the very least familiar with this text. They seem to ascribe some sort of truth to 1 Enoch and the content contained therein, so I don’t think it is invalid to believe what is in 1 Enoch just as we would believe the writings of Josephus or any other ancient historical text.
So, as we saw above, 1 Enoch 15 describes the evil spirits that arose from the bodies of the dead Nephilim. If we use that as a starting point, the Bible does offer supporting verses that can help us further understand this view. Demons originate from Nephilim which are the offspring of Angel-Human relations in Genesis 6. The word Nephilim is used again in Numbers 13 as seen above to describe the giants seen by the Israelite spies. The word Nephilim is not used again to describe these giants, but other terms are used to describe these beings including Rephaim which is also a very interesting Hebrew word.
Rephaim or the Hebrew ‘rep̄ā·ʾîm’ is used throughout the Old Testament to refer to giants or giant populations. In 1 Chronicles 20:4 the word is translated in ESV to “giants”,
4 And after this there arose war with the Philistines at Gezer. Then Sibbecai the Hushathite struck down Sippai, who was one of the descendants of the giants, and the Philistines were subdued.
Deuteronomy 2:11 equates the Anakim (the population the spies called Nephilim) and the Rephaim,
11 Like the Anakim they are also counted as Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim.
Deuteronomy 3:11 describes King Og as a Rephaim, and it notes the large size of his bed.
11 (For only Og the king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bed was a bed of iron. Is it not in Rabbah of the Ammonites? Nine cubits was its length, and four cubits its breadth, according to the common cubit.)
Clearly the Rephaim were giants that lived in the land, but that word is also used through the Old Testament to refer the spirits of the Underworld. Job 26:5 translates Rephaim as “dead”,
5 The dead tremble under the waters and their inhabitants.
In this verse, it it’s important to note that “under the waters” is often equated to Sheol or the realm of the dead. In Jonah 2:2-4, he describes calling out from Sheol while in the belly of the fish under the waters,
5 “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress,
and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
and you heard my voice.
3 For you cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows
passed over me.
Again Rephaim is used to describe the dead in Isaiah 26:14 where it is translated to “shades”,
14 They are dead, they will not live;
they are shades, they will not arise;
to that end you have visited them with destruction
and wiped out all remembrance of them.
These verses of Isaiah are proclaiming the judgement and destruction of the ungodly lords, and the word Rephaim is being connected to the dead of the underworld and specifically the dead of the evil and ungodly.
So, as we have seen, 1 Enoch connects the Nephilim to the evil spirits, the Bible connects the Nephilim to Rephaim, and then connects the Rephaim back to the evil spirits. This seems to be a coherent view of both Biblical and extra biblical texts that provides a solid understanding and background for demons.
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