Daemonology Of The Later Jews
Daemonology Of The Later Jews [1]
This subject is inextricably involved with their angelology, although, strictly speaking, angels are good spirits and daemons bad ones. The views of the later Jews are thus summed up by a recent writer (Supernatural Religion, 1:128 sq.):
"In the apocryphal book of Tobit, the angel Raphael prescribes, as an infallible means of driving out the amorous daemon Asnmodeus, fimigation with the heart and liver of a fish; and the angel describes himself as one of the seven holy ones that present the prayers of saints to God. The book of Enoch relates the fall of the angels through love for the daughters of men, and gives the names of twenty-one of them and their leaders: Jequin was he who seduced the holy angels; Ashbeel gave them evil counsel and corrupted them; Gadreel seduced Eve, and also taught the children of men the manufacture and use of murderous and military weapons; Penemuoe taught them many mysteries, also the art of writing; Kaodeja taught then all the wicked practices of spirits and daemons, including magic and exorcism. The offspring of the fallen angels and the daughters of men were giants whose height was three thousand cubits, and they are the daemons still working evil on the earth. Azazel taught men various arts, such as making bracelets and ornaments; Uriel is the angel of thunder and earthquakes; Raphael of the spirits of men; Raquel executes vengeance on the world and the stars; Michael is set over the saints; Sarathael over the misled souls of men; Gabriel over serpents, Paradise, and the cherubim. All the elements of mature are presided over by special spiritual beings. Philo Judaeus and the Talmud are full of similar notions; an angel of the sun and moon is described in the Ascensio Isaiae."
