THE BEGINNINGS OF JEWISH ANGELOLOGY AND DEMONOLOGY

The flourishing of traditions about angels and demons is among the most dramatic developments in Jewish literature in the centuries between the Babylonian Exile (586-538 BCE) and the compilation of the Mishnah (ca. 200 CE). In the Hebrew Bible, speculation of this sort is conspicuously absent. God is depicted as surrounded by unnamed “hosts” and “holy ones,” and mysterious “messengers” (mal’akim) act on his behalf. Yet, as Saul Olyan notes, “no text from pre-exilic Israel presents a detailed or even basic ordering of angels into a hierarchy of divisions with specific functions and responsibilities.” Demons are even less of a concern. “Whether suppressed by the Hebrew Bible . . . or theologically subjected to the dominion of God,” as Dan Ben-Amos observes, “the biblical references to demons and demonic forces are scant.” What is treated mostly in passing and allusive fashion within biblical literature, however, becomes the subject of exuberantly explicit discussion in the writings from Second Temple times (538 BCE to 70 CE). The explosion of Jewish literary interest in angels and demons is one of the most striking intellectual shifts during these politically turbulent and culturally creative centuries, and its products proved foundational for later reflection about divinity, the cosmos, and the human condition within Judaism and Christianity alike.