Exposition
Superstition and demons (3)
Richard Morgan
In this concluding article in this series, we concentrate on
what the New Testament and, in particular, Paul’s speech
at Athens, has to add to our understanding of demons,
before drawing some conclusions.
I
N THE LAST article we saw the way in which
the Old Testament demythologises the concept
of supernatural demons. In the New Testament
the Apostle Paul takes up the mantle, so let’s
look at his reaction when he was provoked by
the idolatry of the Athenians. Having perceived
how full of idolatry Athens was, he debated
with some of the great minds in the city: “So he
reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the
devout persons, and in the market place every
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day with those who happened to be
there. Some of the Epicurean and
Stoic philosophers also conversed
with him. And some said, ‘What does
this babbler wish to say?’ Others said,
‘He seems to be a preacher of foreign
divinities’—because he was preaching Jesus and
the resurrection” (Acts 17:17,18).1
The Epicureans and Stoics were members of
two schools of philosophical thought, which, although very different, were nevertheless united
by one thing: belief in demons. They were intrigued by Paul’s preaching and wondered what
1. Quotations from the ESV unless marked otherwise.
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these “foreign divinities” (AV “strange gods”)
were—‘Jesus’ and ‘the Resurrection’—perhaps
thinking that ‘Resurrection’ (Gk. anastasia) was a
goddess (hence the plural “divinities”).
What is interesting about this word the philosophers use is that it is not the normal Greek
word for a god (theos), but daimonion, the word for
demons. This was how the Greeks described their
‘small’ gods, the inferior divinities that were the
intermediaries between man and the Olympian
gods. They were normally benevolent, and the
Greeks had a different word (keres) for the malevolent gods; so we have to be careful not to ascribe
the Athenian concept of Acts 17 universally—that
is, to all Biblical occurrences of the word daimon.
The demons referred to in the Gospel records, for
instance, are far from benevolent. However, the
fact remains that, wherever in the Bible we read
of demons, they were believed to be small gods,
but in reality were, of course, merely naturally
occurring things, and part of the creation of the
one true God.
The Acts 17 account continues: “And they
took hold of [Paul] and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, ‘May we know what this new
teaching is that you are presenting? For you
bring some strange things to our ears. We wish
to know therefore what these things mean.’ Now
all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived
there would spend their time in nothing except
telling or hearing something new” (vv. 19-21).
Notice the repetition of the word ‘new’—“this
new teaching”; “something new.” Perhaps there is
another subtle allusion here to Deuteronomy 32:17
and the words “. . . to new gods that had come
recently.” It certainly appears that this passage
was in Paul’s mind.
His initial response is extremely insightful:
“So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus,
said: ‘Men of Athens, I perceive that in every
way you are very religious’” (Acts 17:22). The
apostle is being very diplomatic. By calling the
Athenians “religious” he would have appeared
complimentary to those who revered the small
gods of the Greek world. But he is using a Greek
word, here translated “religious,” which is in fact
one of the keys to the whole topic of demons and
its connection with superstition. Indeed, the AV
renders this word “superstitious,” in an attempt
to translate into English a word which has a very
telling literal meaning.
The word is deisidaimonesteros, which is used
in only this one place in the New Testament. You
will notice that it contains the word daimon, and
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we might literally render it ‘reverence or fear of
demons.’ The related noun deisidaimonia also occurs only once in the New Testament: “Rather
they had certain points of dispute with him about
their own religion and about a certain Jesus, who
was dead, but whom Paul asserted to be alive”
(25:19). Here the word “religion,” deisidaimonia
(translated “superstition” in the AV), is used by
Festus to describe Paul’s religion, because that
was the word used in the Greco-Roman world of
the first century. So what would this term have
meant to the Greek philosophers in Athens?
Both the Greeks and the Romans tended to
model their relationships with the gods more on a
political and social basis than a religious one. But
religious worship of the gods still occurred, and
the Greek language had a word used to deride the
man who feared and trembled before the gods.
The word they used was deisidaimonia, much as
we might say that someone with undue fear is
exhibiting paranoia. It was the word used for what
the Greeks and Romans meant by ‘superstition’
(hence the AV translation), and it was used in
both a positive and a negative light. Positively, it
referred to a devotion to the gods which was to
be admired, but negatively to too much devotion.
When Paul used the word he was deliberately
being suitably ambiguous!
A classical example
It is believed that Theophrastus, the successor to
Aristotle, wrote his book The Characters around
300 B.C. It is a collection of thirty sketches of
people of undesirable characteristics, and one
of the characters is someone who suffers from
deisidaimonia. It is well worth reading the whole
section “The Superstitious Man”:
“Superstition would seem to be simply cowardice in regard to the supernatural. The
superstitious man is one who will wash his
hands at a fountain, sprinkle himself from a
temple-font, put a bit of laurel-leaf into his
mouth, and so go about the day. If a weasel run
across his path, he will not pursue his walk
until someone else has traversed the road,
or until he has thrown three stones across it.
When he sees a serpent in his house, if it be
the red snake, he will invoke Sabazius,—if
the sacred snake, he will straightway place a
shrine on the spot. He will pour oil from his
flask on the smooth stones at the cross-roads,
as he goes by, and will fall on his knees and
worship them before he departs. If a mouse
gnaws through a meal-bag, he will go to the
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expounder of sacred law and ask what is to be
done; and, if the answer is, ‘Give it to a cobbler
to stitch up,’ he will disregard the counsel, and
go his way, and expiate the omen by sacrifice.
He is apt, also, to purify his house frequently,
alleging that Hecate has been brought into it
by spells; and, if an owl is startled by him in
his walk, he will exclaim ‘Glory be to Athene!’
before he proceeds. He will not tread upon
a tombstone, or come near a dead body or a
woman defiled by childbirth, saying that it is
expedient for him not to be polluted. Also on
the fourth and seventh days of each month he
will order his servants to mull wine, and go
out and buy myrtle-wreaths, frankincense,
and smilax; and, on coming in, will spend
the day in crowning the Hermaphrodites.
When he has seen a vision, he will go to the
interpreters of dreams, the seers, the augurs,
to ask them to what god or goddess he ought
to pray. Every month he will repair to the
priests of the Orphic Mysteries, to partake in
their rites, accompanied by his wife, or (if she
is too busy) by his children and their nurse.
He would seem, too, to be of those who are
scrupulous in sprinkling themselves with
sea-water; and, if ever he observes anyone
feasting on the garlic at the cross-roads, he
will go away, pour water over his head, and,
summoning the priestesses, bid them carry a
squill or a puppy around him for purification.
And, if he sees a maniac or an epileptic man,
he will shudder and spit into his bosom.”
Such was the negative side of deisidaimonia to
the Greeks. The extreme picture painted here is
of someone who spends so much time worrying
about this or that superstition that it completely
interferes with normal daily activity. It is not
hard to see similarities in the modern world,
with people throwing salt over their shoulders,
knocking on wood, or doing their best to avoid
walking under ladders. Superstition—reverence
of demons—is alive and well!
Back in Acts, Paul now delivers to the Greeks
a message designed to turn their superstitious
world upside-down: “For as I passed along and
observed the objects of your worship, I found also
an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown
god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown,
this I proclaim to you” (17:23). Taking advantage
of their superstition—even to the lengths of having an extra altar, just in case they had missed a
god—Paul is now going to deliver a defence of the
one true God: “The God Who made the world and
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everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth,
does not live in temples made by man” (v. 24).
Notice Paul’s emphasis: “The God Who made
the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven
and earth . . .” Like Deuteronomy 32, Paul emphatically asserts the supreme sovereignty of Yahweh.
He continues in the same vein in the next verse:
“nor is He served by human hands, as though
He needed anything, since He Himself gives to
all mankind life and breath and everything.” All
mankind, life and breath, and everything! God is
involved with all people on the face of the earth,
says Paul, in all aspects of their being.
Then, picking up on Deuteronomy 32 yet
again, he says: “And He made from one man
every nation of mankind to live on all the face
of the earth, having determined allotted periods
and the boundaries of their dwelling place” (v.
26). Remember, Deuteronomy 32:8 speaks of God
dividing up the earth and establishing human
history by His providence; and Paul says the
same thing here (and this is when he quotes
from the poet Aratus): “. . . that they should seek
God, in the hope that they might feel their way
towards Him and find Him. Yet He is actually
not far from each one of us, for ‘In Him we live
and move and have our being’; as even some of
your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed
His offspring’” (Acts 17:27,28).
Their own pagan poets recognised the sovereignty of God (even if they ascribed it to Zeus)
as the Creator and, in that sense, Father of all
mankind, just as Deuteronomy 32:6,7 had described. And so, says Paul, we ought to reject the
foolishness of idols: “Being then God’s offspring,
we ought not to think that the divine being is like
gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the
art and imagination of man” (Acts 17:29).
Conclusions
Paul’s closing appeal in verses 30 and 31 quotes
from a psalm which sums up his message: “The
times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He
commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has fixed a day on which He will judge
the world in righteousness by a man whom He
has appointed; and of this He has given assurance
to all by raising him from the dead.”
Superstition needs repentance. We might think
that we are not superstitious types, but, as we
have seen, superstition is a major part of much of
human religious history, and part of our natural
make-up. When we rely on a ritualistic observance of religious activities, rather than actually
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reflecting the image and likeness of God in our
characters, we are being superstitious, suffering
from a deisidaimonia that ultimately means a lack
of faith in the true God in Whom we live and
move and have our being. We do well to heed
Paul’s warning that God has fixed a day in which
He will “judge the world in righteousness”—a
quotation from Psalm 96: “He comes to judge the
earth. He will judge the world in righteousness,
and the peoples in His faithfulness” (v. 13).
Why was this psalm on the mind of the Apostle Paul? It describes perfectly the message Paul
was trying to convey through his preaching in
Athens. The psalm begins like this:
“Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the
LORD, all the earth!
Sing to the LORD, bless His name; tell of His
salvation from day to day.
Declare His glory among the nations, His
marvellous works among all the peoples!”
(vv. 1-3)—
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precisely what Paul was doing, declaring the
glory and marvellous works of Yahweh among
the nations. And how does the psalm continue?
“For great is the LORD, and greatly to be
praised;
He is to be feared above all gods” (v. 4).
Deisidaimonia—fear of demons—negates the
teaching of the psalmist. We need to exorcise
from our lives all those seemingly innocuous little
things we do in the name of ‘religion’ but which
are in truth merely lucky charms, ritualistic vanities or superstitious rites. We cannot be righteous
by blindly following religious form; we cannot
invoke the blessings of God by vain repetitions.
Rather, let us learn the truth of what Paul taught
in Athens regarding the Creator of the heavens,
and the words of the psalmist, who says:
“For all the gods of the peples are worthless
idols, but the LORD made the heavens” (v. 5).
(Concluded)
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