VII. Greek Demonology

The development of Greek demonology seems to be controversial. E. McCasland, investigating the demon exorcism of Jesus in his book, By the Finger of God, says he is unable to find significant Greek references in the first century to disease-causing evil spirits:

So far as I have been able to discover, there is not a single authentic Greek or Roman document of the first century, except the New Testament, which shows a case of demon possession and exorcism. Probably the greatest authority on first century Greek religion is Pausanias. He gives an elaborate account of Greek shrines, beliefs, miracle stories, and divine healing of disease, but not a word about demon possession and exorcism. ..
Plutarch does not present a single case of actual demon possession and exorcism. What of Cicero and the elder Pliny? These writers are of great value for the light which they throw on the religious practices and folklore of the time. Be we search in vain for evidence that they were familiar with demon possession."(22)
On the other hand, E. Langton in Essentials of Demonology finds plenty to discuss:
Among the Greeks, as elsewhere, a numerous class of demons is composed of departed human spirits which, for various reasons, are thought to have become hostile to the living. By the time of the classical writers some of these spirits seem to have developed into gods of the underworld. ..
The ghosts or spirits called Keres, of which the Greeks thus thought to rid them­selves, were pictured as tiny winged creatures. Numerous representations of them have been found on the vase paintings of the period. ..
All kinds of physical ills are traceable to the action of Keres, for example blindness and madness. By the Greeks, as by the Babylonians and Assyrians, the sensation of nightmare was attributed to a demon."(23)
This controversy may be important for the students of Greek demonology as such, but for the purposes of biblical criticism it seems immaterial. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John do not speak of "Keres." The New Testa­ment Satan does not resemble the gods of the Greek underworld nearly as much as it does earlier Persian and Jewish apocalyptic demons. Even the words used by the gospel writers are either taken from Hebrew (Satan, Beelzebul, and the special use of "diabolos") or else have the same conno­tations as Hebrew words (demon, evil and unclean spirits, etc.).

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22.Selby McCasland, By the Finger of God (1951), p. 66.
23.Langton, op. cit., pp. 81-82.

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