Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Early Christian Quotes on Demons

Early Christian Quotes on Demons


Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs 

(1st or 2nd Century)

Testament 1, Paragraph 5:

 

Flee fornication, my children, and command your wives and your daughters not to adorn their heads and their faces; because every woman who acts deceitfully in these things has been reserved for everlasting punishment. For thus they allured the Watchers before the flood; and as these continually beheld them, they fell into the desire for women, and they conceived the act in their mind and changed themselves into the shape of men and appeared to them as husbands; and the women, having in their minds desire for these visitors, gave birth to giants, for the Watchers appeared to them as reaching even to heaven.

 

 

Justin Martyr’s Dialog with Trypho

(Mid-2nd Century)

Chapter 93:

 

God sets before every race of mankind what is always and universally just, as well as all righteousness; and every race knows that adultery and fornication and homicide and such like are sinful; and though they all commit such practices, they do not escape from the knowledge that they act unrighteously whenever they do so, with the exception of those who are possessed with an unclean spirit, and who have been debased by false education, by wicked customs, and by sinful institutions, and who have lost, or rather quenched and stifled their natural ideas.

 

 

Justin Martyr’s First Apology

(Mid-2nd Century)

Chapter 5:

 

In our case, who pledge ourselves to do no wickedness, nor to hold atheistic opinions, you do not examine the charges made against us; but, yielding to unreasoning passion and to the instigation of evil demons, you punish us without consideration or judgment. For the truth shall be spoken; since of old these evil demons, taking on different appearances, defiled women and corrupted boys and showed such fearful sights to men that those who did not use their reason in judging the actions that were done, were struck with terror; and being carried away by fear and not knowing that these were demons, they called them gods and called the demons the names each chose for himself.

 

 

Justin Martyr’s First Apology

(Mid-2nd Century)

Chapter 14:

 

We warn you to be on your guard, or else those demons we have been accusing will deceive you and divert you from reading and understanding what we say. For they strive to hold you as their slaves and servants; and sometimes by appearances in dreams, and sometimes by magical impositions, they subdue everyone who doesn’t make a strong effort to oppose them for their own salvation.

 

 

Justin Martyr’s First Apology

(Mid-2nd Century)

Chapter 26:

 

There was a Samaritan, Simon, a native of the village called Gitto, who in the reign of Claudius Caesar, and in your royal city of Rome, did mighty acts of magic by the power of the devils operating in him.

 

 

Justin Martyr’s Second Apology

(Mid-2nd Century)

Chapter 5:

 

When God had made the whole world and subjected the earth to man and arranged the heavenly bodies and the rotation of seasons so that vegetation would increase, He committed the care of men and of all things under heaven to angels, whom He appointed over them.

 

But the angels transgressed this appointment and were captivated by the love of women and begat children, whom we now call demons; and besides, they afterward subdued the human race to themselves, partly by magical writings and partly by fears and the punishments they brought and partly by teaching them to offer sacrifices and incense and libations…and among men, they sowed murders, wars, adulteries, intemperate deeds, and all wickedness.

 

Later, the poets and mythologists, not knowing that it was the angels and those demons they had fathered who did these things to men and women and cities and nations, ascribed to Neptune and Pluto and their offspring. For whatever name each of the angels had given to himself and his children, that’s what the poets called them.

 

 

Sextus’ Sentences

(Early 3rd Century)

348-349:

 

Unclean demons lay claim to a polluted soul, but evil demons will not be able to hinder a faithful and good soul in the way of God.

 

 

Origen’s De Principiis

(Early to Mid-3rd Century)

Book 3, Chapter 2, Paragraph 4:

 

The thoughts that come from our heart, or the recollection of things we have done, or the contemplation of any things or causes whatever, sometimes proceed from ourselves, and sometimes originate from the opposing powers; sometimes God or the holy angels suggest them.

 

 

Origen’s Against Celsus

(Early to Mid-3rd Century)

Book 4, Chapter 92:

 

It is wicked demons of the race of Titans or Giants who have been guilty of impiety toward the true God and toward the angels in heaven. They have fallen from heaven and haunt the denser parts of bodies and often go to unclean places upon earth. They have some power to tell future events because they don’t have bodies of earthly material.

 

They try to lead the human race away from the true God and secretly enter the bodies of the wilder and more savage and wicked animals and stir them up to do whatever they choose and at whatever time they choose. They cause these animals to make flights and movements of various kinds to make men think they can divine things from irrational animals and neglect to seek after the God who contains all things. Instead of searching after the pure worship of God, these men allow their reasoning powers to grovel on the earth and amongst birds and serpents and even foxes and wolves.

 

 

Origen’s Against Celsus

(Early to Mid-3rd Century)

Book 8, Chapter 36:

 

The demons can do no harm to those who are under the protection of Him who can alone help all who deserve His aid; and He does no less than set His own angels over His devout servant so that none of the hostile angels, nor even he who is called "the prince of this world," can do anything against those who have given themselves to God.

 

 

Commodianus’ Instructions

(Mid-3rd Century)

Chapter 3:

 

When Almighty God, to beautify the nature of the world, willed that that earth should be visited by angels, when they were sent down, they despised His laws. Such was the beauty of women that it turned them aside so that, being contaminated, they could not return to heaven. Rebels from God, they uttered words against Him. Then the Highest uttered His judgment against them, and giants are said to have been born from their seed.

 

By these giants, arts were made known in the earth, and they taught the dyeing of wool and everything which is done; and men erected images to them when they died. But the Almighty, because they were of an evil seed, did not approve that, when dead, they should be brought back from death. So, wandering, they now subvert many bodies, and it is such as these that you now worship and pray to as gods.

 

 

Commodianus’ Instructions

(Mid-3rd Century)

Chapter 22:

 

So it has pleased the Lord of lords Himself in the heavens that demons should wander in the world for our discipline.

 

 

Cyprian’s On the Dress of Virgins

(Mid-3rd Century)

Paragraph 14:

 

When tempted, sinning and apostate angels gave up their heavenly life and suggested wearing dyed clothes and jewelry. They taught women also to paint their eyes with blackness drawn round them in a circle and to stain their cheeks with a deceitful red and to change their hair with false colors and to drive out all truth, both of face and head, by the assault of their own corrupting actions.

 

 

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Find more of what the early Christians thought on my Christian History page!





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