Demon
Large portions of Jewish demonology, a key influence on Christianity and Islam, originated from a later form of Zoroastrianism, and was transferred to Judaism during the Persian era.
"[10] The term had first acquired its negative connotations in the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, which drew on the mythology of ancient Semitic religions.
[11] The Western Modern era conception of demons, as in the Ars Goetia, derives seamlessly from the ambient popular culture of Late Antiquity.
[17] One class of demons that were believed to reside in the underworld were known as galla;[18] their primary purpose appears to have been to drag unfortunate mortals back to Kur.
[37][38] To sanction the invocation of non-Christian supernatural powers, Christian missionaries, such as John Cassian in the fifth century,[37] declared the pagan gods to be demons, servants of Lucifer, who bring disorder to the world.
[47] Within context of the Islamic belief system, demons are considered to be yet another creature of God, rather than independent parts of the world,[48][49](p452) as evident from Abu Ali Bal'ami's interpretation of Tarikh al-Tabari[46](p40) and the Süleymanname (written at the time of Suleiman the Magnificent).
[52] Common features of these Middle Eastern demons are their immortality and pernicious nature, they can turn invisible, and can be enslaved when pierced by a silver needle.
Under influence of Islamic philosophy, Medieval occult traditions and Renaissance magic, demons are often seen as beneficial and useful, lacking an inherent negative connotation.
[65] In the 16th to early 17th centuries, the idea – inherited from Renaissance magic and occultism – that demonic forces could be conjured and controlled may have paved the way for the development of modern sciences.
[66] In Hermetic- and Kabbalist philosophy, demons could be subjugated and shaped the idea that humans can control their social environment and their surrounding natural forces.
[76] Examples of Gnostic portrayals of demons can be found in the Apocryphon of John in which they are said to have helped to construct the physical Adam[77] and in Pistis Sophia which states they are ruled over by Hekate and punish corrupt souls.
[80] Prominent infernal beings found in the World of Darkness include lilith, nalai (vampire), niuli (hobgoblin), gadalta (ghost), satani (Satan) and various other demons and evil spirits.
[85] Ibn al-Jawzi, in his work Talbīs Iblīs ('devils' delusion'), credits the Manichaeans with believing that each Light and Darkness (God and the Devil) consist of four bodies and one spirit.
Their offspring, the nephilim (nĕf īlīm) or asrestar (āsarēštārān), Ašqalūn and Nebrō'ēl in particular, play instrumental roles in the creation of Adam and Eve.
[13] Josephus, who spoke of demons as "spirits of the wicked which enter into men that are alive and kill them", but which could be driven out by a certain root,[94] witnessed such a performance in the presence of the Emperor Vespasian[95] and ascribed its origin to King Solomon.
Many early Christians, like Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, and Lactantius assumed demons were ghosts of the Nephilim, known from Intertestamental writings.
In the Book of Jubilees, which is considered canonical only by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church,[127] this same event is told slightly differently: "All the powers of [the demon] Mastema had been let loose to slay all the first-born in the land of Egypt.
[133] Many ascetics, like Origen and Anthony the Great, described demons as psychological powers, tempting to evil,[134] in contrast to benevolent angels advising good.
The lowest demons, on the other hand, are almost mindless, gross, and grunting spirits, which try to possess people instinctively, simply attracted by the warmth and life of humans.
The devil's position is impossible to assign in this scheme and it does not respond to living perceptions of felt experience and was considered rather impractical to have a lasting effect or impact on Christian demonology.
[146] While the jinn are morally ambivalent, the šayāṭīn represent malevolent forces akin to the devils of the Judeo-Christian tradition,[147]: 286 and are actively obstructing the execution of God's will.
[158][159] "Guardians" are tied to a specific place; their demonic activity is topographically defined and their function can be benevolent towards those who have the secret knowledge to face them.
[160] Wanderers can also be agents of chaos, arising from the world beyond creation to bring about misfortune and suffering without any divine instructions, led only by evil motivations.
These include categories of beings such as the yao 妖 – shapeshifters with the power to cause insanity, to inflict poison, and to bring about disease, and the mo 魔 – derived from Indian mythology and entering through the influence of Buddhism.
'tree swelling') – demons forming over time in trees of immense age, capable of inflicting disease and killing human passers-by and birds flying overhead.
'drumbeat marquis'), a demon associated with camphor trees in mountain forests, and which takes the form of a human-headed dog, and in the southern provinces, the banana-leaf spirits.
In the superstitious climate of the previous centuries, people mistaken as tigers and wolves in human disguise were often put to death or starved in their cells by magistrates.
Humans that have committed extraordinary wrongs are condemned to roam as lonely, often mischief mongers, spirits for a length of time before being reborn.
[citation needed] A minority of Muslim scholars in the Medieval Age, often associated with the Muʿtazila and the Jahmītes, denied that demons (jinn, devils, divs etc.)
In Glimpses of the Devil Peck goes into significant detail describing how he became interested in exorcism in order to debunk the myth of possession by evil spirits – only to be convinced otherwise after encountering two cases which did not fit into any category known to psychology or psychiatry.
