ARE DEMONS IMMORTAL SOULS?
By Stephen T. Fowler
BRO. SMITH: I have just listened to a discourse delivered by an Elder of the Disciple church on the miracles performed by our Saviour in casting out devils, and unclean spirits, in which he made the statement that the word devils used in the New Testament was translated from the Greek word daimoon which should be translated demons, the meaning of which (according to a variety of authority which he quoted) is disembodied spirits, or the spirits of dead men. Consequently he took the position that the devils which our Saviour cast out were disembodied spirits who had taken up their abode in those persons from whom they were expelled. He also quoted, I believe, from the epistle of Ignatius to show that our Saviour used the word daimoon (meaning disembodied spirit) in Luke xxiv, 39. He referred also to necromancy forbidden by God, and defined it as foretelling by the spirits of the dead. If the above statements are correct in regard to the meaning of the original word daimoon, it would be strong proof that there is a part of man which can think and act independent of the body. Believing that there is another explanation which can be given of the word above mentioned which would be more in harmony with the other teachings of the word of God on this point, I would request you or some other brother to give your views on the subject in the Review and Herald. To me it is altogether a new way of proving the immortality of the soul. I would also like to have a true definition of the Hebrew word from which Neoromancer is translated. STEPHEN T. FOWLER.
New Brunswick, B. N. A. The criticism referred to by our correspondent in the foregoing is not correct. That the Disciple Elder could produce some authority for calling demons departed spirits, is not to be questioned; for some lexicographers so define it; always, however, in a secondary sense. And by producing these, and keeping back all other definitions, he would be able to make his case appear quite strong to those unprepared to detect the sophistry. This, however, is not the principal and primary signification of the word. As to the use of the word in the New Testament, we first remark that the word devils is usually translated from daimonion instead of daimon [δαίμων], the latter occurring but five times, the former sixty. Daimonion is defined by Greenfield, “A heathen god, deity, demon, evil spirit, devil.” This is his entire definition. The word is defined by Robinson thus: “A demon; i. e. 1. Generally, a deity, a god; spoken of heathen gods. 2. Specially, a demon, genius, e. g., tutelary and good like that of Socrates, or also adverse and evil. Hence, in New Testament, a demon, devil, an evil spirit; the same as an unclean spirit, Luke viii, 29, 39. These spirits are represented as fallen angels, 2 Pet. ii, 4,” &c. Both these authorities make daimon to mean the same; and neither of them give to either word, in any case the signification of “departed soul.” Of the word daimonion, the entire definition given by Liddell and Scott is, 1. The deity, or divine essence. 2. An inferior race of divine beings, demons. 3. The name by which Socrates called his genius, or the spirit he supposed to dwell within him. In New Testament especially, an evil spirit, a devil.” They give the word daimon the definition of, 1. A god or goddess. 2. The deity the divine essence. 3. The souls of men of the golden age, hovering between heaven and earth, and acting as tutelary deities. 4. In New Testament, an evil spirit, devil.” Daimonion is first defined by Parkhurst, “A deity, a god, or more accurately, some power or supposed intelligence in the grand object of heathen idolatry, the material heavens or air.” After quoting from various authors quite largely on this point, he gives a second definition as follows: “II. Besides those original daimonia, those material mediators, or the intelligences residing in them, whom Apuleius calls ‘a higher kind of demons, who were always free from the incumbrances of the body, and out of which higher order Plato supposes that guardians were appointed unto men,’—besides these, the heathen acknowledged another sort, namely, ‘the souls of men deified or canonized after death.’” Hesiod is his authority for this definition. A third definition then follows in these words: “III. And most generally, an evil spirit, a devil, one of those angels who kept not their first estate, and are called by the collective name, Satan, and the Devil; and who at the time of our Saviour’s appearance in the world, were permitted to possess, and in various and dreadful manners to torment, the bodies of men, by which means was manifestly displayed their malice to mankind; as our Saviour’s divine power and benevolence to human nature were demonstrated by casting them out.” Under the word daimon, second definition, he says, “In the New Testament it is used only for an evil spirit, a fallen angel, a devil, unless, perhaps, in Rev. xviii, 2.” So much for the definition of these terms. Our principal concern of course is, to know in what sense they are used in the New Testament. And it will be noticed that while only two of the authorities quoted refer to the heathen practice of deifying departed souls, supposed to be conscious, and then calling them demons, they are all particular to state explicitly that in the New Testament these terms are only used to signify fallen angels or devils. How the word came to be applied to departed souls in any case, is not difficult to conceive. The heathen having become indoctrinated into the first teaching of Satan on this subject, “Ye shall not surely die,” but “shall be as gods,” Gen. iii, 4, 5, and believing such25to be the condition of departed souls, of course applied to them a term expressive of it. But the fact that the term is ever used in any other sense, is fatal to the claim of the Disciple Elder that it must mean departed spirits in the New Testament. Thus, we meet with the term daimon, or daimonion, on the sacred record. Now if the word had no other meaning but departed spirit, his claim would be good that it must mean so here. As it is, we reply, The word has other meanings besides deified dead men; it means also fallen angels, evil spirits; we claim that it has this meaning in the New Testament, and before you can show that it here means departed spirits, you must bring more proof than the simple fact that it was occasionally so used by heathen writers to conform to their heathenish views. All the lexicographers above quoted, we have seen are agreed that in the New Testament the word means only an evil spirit. We may instance in Mark iii, 22, 23, one of the many passages which show in what sense our Lord used it. He was here accused by the scribes of casting out devils [demons] by Beelzebub, the prince of devils [demons]. He replied, “How can Satan cast out Satan?” Our Lord thus settles the question that all the demons he cast out were a part of the great family of Satan, that is, fallen angels, evil spirits. “Doddrige calls this a demonstration of the point, and consequently maintains that ‘Satan was considered as the prince of the demons who were cast out by Christ, and are elsewhere represented as his angels’ (Family Expositor, i, 337, Lond. 1799).”—Kitto. Dr. Hales (Sacred Chronol. Vol. iii, p. 521) thinks that the “heathen ‘doctrine of demons’” may be referred to by Paul in 1 Cor. viii, 4–6; Eph. ii, 18; 1 Tim. ii, 5–7, and adds: “The Jews, however, and the later Greek philosophers, Plutarch, &c., used the word demons in a bad sense, as denoting evil or infernal spirits. And it is so understood everywhere else in the New Testament, except the foregoing passages, according to the observation of Bishop Newton in his masterly dissertation xxii, on St. Paul’s doctrine of demons, and apostasy of the latter times foretold, 1 Tim. iv, 1–3, Vol. ii, pp. 437–445.” Lardner, on the word demon (Vol. i, p. 470), says, “But generally, for certain, in the New Testament, and ever since, among all Christian writers, the word has been used to denote an evil spirit.” Concerning the views of the fathers it is of no consequence to inquire. Whatever comes from that age when heathenism was engrafting itself upon Christianity is of doubtful authority. A celebrated writer affirms that every error which has ever disgraced the Romish church can be defended from their writings, or what purport to be such; for the church of Rome has had every opportunity to cut and carve them as she wished, and has not been slow to improve it. Our Lord, as any one will see by looking at the Greek Testament, did not use the word daimon, but pneuma, in Luke xxiv, 39. The word necromancer occurs but once in the Old Testament, Deut. xviii, 11, and is made of two words, one signifying to inquire of, and the other meaning the dead; literally one who inquires of the dead. Webster says, “Necromancy, properly the art of revealing future events by means of a pretended communication with the dead. This imposture is prohibited.” There is nothing in the Bible or elsewhere to show that it was what it claimed to be. We have said enough to show that the Bible teaching of the unconsciousness of the dead, is not shaken by the heathen doctrine of demons.