Top Highlights

• The Old Testament writers linked the rebellion of supernatural beings with the mirror-opposition to the eternal, joyful life intended by the creation of earth and humanity. A loving God created the earth as his own abode-temple,1 intending humanity to be part of his family. Supernatural mutinies brought death, disaster, and disease to earth. Instea...
• An Old Testament theology of the powers of darkness connects sinister spiritual beings with death, the realm of the dead, and an ongoing assault on the harmony, order, and well-being the good God of all the earth desired in the world he had created for humankind.
• No general term for “demons” exists in any of the major cultures of the ancient Near East or in the Hebrew Bible. They are generally considered one of the categories of “spirit beings” (along with gods and ghosts). The term demons has had a checkered history; in today’s theological usage the term denotes beings, often fallen angels, who are intrins...