Demons and the Bible

(The following article is from an address given on 20.07.2026)

In our last session, we considered how that the word “devil” is used in the Bible as a way of speaking of Sin, particularly what Paul calls “sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3).  We saw then, that the source of all temptation and evil is the sinful nature of man himself.  Consider the following:

“Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.  Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” (Jas. 1:14-15).

This is why the prophet Jeremiah said:

“the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9).

This latter reference is particularly relevant to our present considerations – the deceitfulness of the human heart is “above all things”.  There is no need for a rebel angel to induce men to sin and commit trespass, man is quite capable of doing that for himself.  A common misapprehension is that men are seduced and tempted by associate rebel angels called “demons,” and that the presence of evil in the world is evidence of demonic activity.  It is our intention to examine the Bible evidence for such an idea, leading to the conclusion that just as there is no personal rebel angel, the Devil, there are no minions of his either – the source of all sin and evil is man himself.

A DEFINITION

The word “demon” is used a number of times in the Bible (not in the KJV, where the original word is translated “devils”), but on none of those occasions are we specifically given a definition of what that word is describing.  Hence, we must work it out from other information that the Bible does provide.

Those who believe in Demons regard them as being fundamentally evil spirit-creatures, which sided with the rebel angel Lucifer.  He rebelled against God, and became their ruler instead.  These demons are said to go to and fro throughout the earth, inducing men and women to sin, and generally bringing destruction, chaos and evil into the world.  A definition by the self-proclaimed Jehovah’s Witnesses, who do believe in Demons is as follows:

“Demons are “angels that sinned,” spirit creatures who rebelled against God. (2 Peter 2:4).  The first angel to make himself into a demon was Satan the Devil, whom the Bible calls “the ruler of the demons.” (Matthew 12:24, 26) (cited from jw.org).

Wikipedia informs us of the following:

“As lesser spirits doing the Devil’s work, they have additional duties – causing humans to have sinful thoughts and tempting humans to commit sinful actions”

We have already seen that the source of human temptation is the deceitful heart of man – but how do we explain the Bible use of the word “demons”?

As we shall presently demonstrate, the Bible is using the language of the day, to describe certain phenomenon.  Hence, to know what is being referred to by the use of these terms, it would be helpful for us to investigate how folk of the day understood demons.

GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND DEMONS

Plutarch, who lived around 46-120 AD wrote “Oracles in Decline,” where he states the following about Plato, the Greek philosopher:

“Plato relieved philosophers of many serious problems by his discovery of the element underlying created qualities … but in my judgment even more problems and more serious ones have been solved by the discovery of the race of demons that comes between gods and men and somehow links and brings together the community to which we both belong … it was Hessiod who first set out clearly and distinctly the four classes of rational beings – gods, demons, heroes and lastly men”

(Plutarch (c. 46-120 AD), Oracles in Decline)

He further states thus:

“There are indeed beings on the frontier, as it were, between gods and men, susceptible to mortal passions and necessary changes, whom we are right to follow our father’s tradition in believing to be demons and worshipping under that name … the nature of demons is to have the passions of mortality and the power of divinity”

It is clear that the demonology held by the Greek Philosophers is different to that of current demon believing groups, like the JW’s.  According to Plutarch, demons were beings who existed “between gods and men”.  Moreover, these beings were not always evil.  Philo, writing “On the Giants” in around 20-50 AD said this:

“But as men in general speak of good and evil demons, and in like manner of good and evil souls, so also do they speak of angels”

Here, we have a general agreement that demons could be either good or evil.  So the Jewish historian Josephus wrote in “Wars of the Jews” where he thought they came from:

“What man of virtue is there who does not know that those souls which are severed from their fleshly bodies in battles by the sword, are received by the ether … and joined to that company which are placed among the stars; that they become good demons and propitious heroes, and show themselves as such to their posterity afterwards?”

Again, we find that demons were not rebel angels who sided with Lucifer: rather they included the souls of valiant warriors, who “became good demons and propitious heroes”.  This demonstrates another error in understanding – the Bible nowhere teaches the immortality of the soul!

This is important, for it shows that modern Demonology is different both from the prevailing opinion of the day, and also the way in which the Bible uses the word.

The online Etymology Dictionary provides the following about the word “demon”:

“c. 1200, ‘an evil spirit, malignant supernatural being, an incubus, a devil,’ from Latin daemon ‘spirit,’ from Greek daimōn ‘deity, divine power; lesser god; guiding spirit, tutelary deity’ (sometimes including souls of the dead); ‘one’s genius, lot, or fortune;’ from PIE *dai-mon- ‘divider, provider’ (of fortunes or destinies), from root *da- ‘to divide.’

The highlighted section illustrates that one of the meanings of the word is to be a divider, or provider of fortunes or destinies.

LINKED TO FALSE WORSHIP

The Apostle Paul links demon worship with idolatry:

“What shall I say then?  That the idol is anything, or that which is offered in sacrifice to Idols is anything?”

“But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with demons …” (1 Cor. 10:19,20).

Notice that in this passage, he uses the word “demons” interchangeably with the word “idols”.  He further associates them with the objects of false worship:

“ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of demons …” (1 Cor. 10:21)

But idols do not exist!  Hence we read:

“As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are sacrificed unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.” (1 Cor. 8:4).

If idols are “nothing”, and the demons are idols – then they are “nothing” also!

The Old Testament also refers to demons in the context of false worship.  Consider the following:

“They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger. They sacrificed unto demons, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.”  (Deut 32:16,17).

BEELZEBUB

We quoted earlier from the jw.org website, that:

“The first angel to make himself into a demon was Satan the Devil, whom the Bible calls “the ruler of the demons.”—Matthew 12:24, 26.”

However, if we look up Matthew 12, given as evidence here, that is not what we find.  The Bible does not describe “Satan the Devil” as originally being an Angel, and becoming “the ruler of the demons” at all!  What it does speak of is a belief of the Pharisees regarding a false god:

“… But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out demons, but by Beelzebub the Prince of the demons” (Mat. 12:24).

Notice, the reference is not to “Satan the Devil”, but “Beelzebub”.  Who or what is Beelzebub?  This is a reference to the idolatry of the Jews in the Old Testament, where they appropriated gods of the heathen nations for their own worship.  The Old Testament refers to this deity as a Philistine god of Ekron:

“… Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, and said unto them, Go, enquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron whether I shall recover of this disease” (2 Kings 1:2).

Here, King Ahaziah had an accident where he had a fall and hurt himself badly.  He then sent his messengers to consult the god of Ekron, to see whether he would recover – and the chapter continues to describe how he was rebuked by the prophet of Yahweh, the Hebrew God, for seeking to idols (see the whole chapter).  The Baal gods were a continual snare to Israel, who worshipped them rather than the God who delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians.

We find then that Beelzebub, AKA Baal-zebub was a god of the heathen: an idol which was “nothing”, as we saw earlier.  It was not the modern Devil, or Satan, but an ancient idol, and part of Israel’s false worship.  But the interesting point to note, is that this idol was thought by the Pharisees to be the “prince of demons”.  The important point is that the narrative is not recording the words of the Lord, but the traditions of men, held by the Pharisees.  This is what they thought – and they were in error!

A CONCLUSION

From the above, we can deduce that:

• • • Demons beliefs originated in pagan worship systems, and could be good or bad – which is different to today’s demonology
    • Demons were part of Israel’s idolatrous worship
    • To affirm the existence of Demons, we must also accept the existence of the Baal gods, particularly Baal-Zebub, which Israel worshipped alongside other idols.

DEMONS AND HEALING

Turning to the Bible itself, the closest we get to a definition of Demons, is a description of how people were healed from them.  The record in Matthew describes this:

““And they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed of demons and those which were lunatics, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them” (Mat. 4:24)

Again, Luke 8 records the healing of Mary Magdalene:

“Certain woman, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils (Luke 8:2)

And Matthew chapter 8:

“… they brought unto him many that were possessed by demons: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses”. (Mat 8:16-17)

This citation from the prophet Isaiah is most interesting, as it doesn’t mention demons, but it does refer to healing:

“… Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted …

… he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes, we are healed” (Isa 53:4-5)

This leads us to another aspect which we will consider shortly – the healing miracles of Christ, demonstrate how he will “heal” his brethren from the malady of mortality.  Through his sufferings, “we are healed”.

What we find then, is that the Bible uses the language of demon possession to describe illnesses, which could be healed.  This is further illustrated in the healing of Legion:

“They went out to see what was done; and came to Jesus, and found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind … they also which saw it told them by what means he that was possessed of the demons was healed” (Luke 8:35-36)

This passage is most instructive, for the consequence of the demons departing, is that this man was “in his right mind” – which indicates that prior to this healing, he was not in his right mind!  In other words, he was suffering from a mental aberration, or illness as we would put it today.

Matthew chapter 4 shows the same position:

“they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed by demons, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the Palsy and he healed them.” (Mat. 4:24).

It is clear from the above, that mental disorders were attributed to demon possession.  This can also be seen in the way in which Jesus himself was regarded:

“… many of them said, He hath a demon, and is mad, why hear ye him?” (Jno 10:20).

“… others said, These are not the words of him that hath a demon.  Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?” (Jno. 10:21).

Notice that they accused Jesus of having a mental health problem – i.e. he was mad – and they attributed it to demon-possession.  In our day, the maladies are called Mental Illnesses and include such sicknesses as Schizophrenia and Multiple Personality Disorder – and they can be successfully treated with medicine, not exorcisms!

A CONCLUSION

• • • Demons in the Bible = sickness, including mental illnesses, such as Schizophrenia and Multiple Personality Disorder.
    • Today such illnesses are successfully treated with medication – are the demons afraid of tablets?

A CASE STUDY – THE GADARENE DEMONIAC

The Bible gives us significant detail in the healing of Legion, “a man with an unclean spirit”.  Of him, it is written:

“who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains … and always night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones … and he asked him, what is thy name? and he answered, saying, My name is Legion for we are many” (Mrk. 5: see verses 1-9).

This case is sometimes used to describe a person who is possessed by multiple demons.  But notice that we already saw above, then when healed, Legion was “in his right mind” – which proves it was a mental illness that was cured.  He would appear to be suffering from either a Multiple Personality Disorder, or Schizophrenia, which caused him to self-harm – cutting himself with stones.  Most likely it was Schizophrenia, a condition whereby the sufferer experiences delusions and hallucinations, such as hearing voices, and becoming paranoid.  This illness can cause the sufferer to self-harm and lose contact with the real world.  Hearing many voices in his head, Legion said “we are many”, and was in need of healing.

A LIVING PARABLE TO ISRAEL

When we consider the healing miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ, we find that they were not merely acts of humanitarian kindness – they were also designed to teach spiritual lessons.  The description given regarding Legion alludes very strongly to the Old Testament accounts regarding Israel, who were possessed by idolatrous beliefs.  We have already demonstrated the link between demons and idols, but consider the following, and compare it with the record in Mark chapter 5:

“A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick; which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine’s flesh …”. (Isa. 65:3,4)

“Which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills …”    (Isaiah 65:7)

“They shall also strip thee out of thy clothes, and take away thy fair jewels” (Eze. 23:26, cf 16:39)

“The king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon” (2 Chron. 33:11)

Zedekiah: “… bound him with fetters of brass …”. (2 Kings 25:7)

“… he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea” (Mic. 7:19).

We find then, that the account of Legion’s healing from his demons uses Old Testament descriptions concerning Israel.  This illustrates how Israel themselves could be healed of their possession of false gods – including “Baal-zebub”.  Therefore, when the Bible uses the word “demon”, it is not merely accommodating the language of the day.  Rather, it is using that language to teach underlying spiritual principles: that the demons/idols (i.e. spirit of madness) which Israel were possessed by, could be healed by the work of Jesus.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

In the above, we have seen the following points:

• • • The real source of all sin and suffering is man himself
    • The heart of man is deceitful above everything else – even demons
    • Pagan “demons” were intermediary beings, who were the souls of dead heroes – either good or evil, and providers of fortunes
    • Demons were also part of false worship, as in the case of Baal-zebub, yet such idols are “nothing”
    • Bible “demons” include mental illnesses which can be treated today with medication
    • Jesus used the terms of this false belief as a tool to describe how Israel, possessed by a belief in idols, and false ideas might eventually be healed and redeemed by his work

Christopher Maddocks