208 A History of Judaism
are you?’ Then the man with the evil spirit leapt on them, mastered them
all, and so overpowered them that they fled out of the house naked and
wounded.^11
Exorcisms presuppose a world containing unseen evil forces which
can operate against the interests of humans unless God intervenes. The
Hebrew Bible has little to say about the nature of demons and evil spirits
(although their existence is presumed), but in the late third century bce
the Book of the Watchers, preserved in I Enoch, attributed the origins of
evil spirits to forbidden intercourse between fallen angels (or ‘watchers’)
and human women. These evil spirits are envisaged in some texts from
Qumran as ranged (as the Sons of Darkness) against the Sons of Light;
in the last days, according to the War Scroll (composed probably in the
first century bce), ‘in three lots shall the sons of light brace themselves in
battle to strike down iniquity, and in three lots shall Belial brace itself to
thrust back the company of God.’ The role of Belial (and other figures,
such as Mastema, who is sometimes identified with Belial) as leader of
these ‘spirits of the angel of destruction’ reflects a moderately dualistic
view of the cosmos in which, despite the overwhelming power of God as
creator, the state of the present world is governed by the tensions of con-
flicting powers, with the world and humanity divided into two opposing
but not coeternal forces as described in the book of Jubilees:
During the third week of this jubilee impure demons began to mislead Noah’s
grandchildren, to make them act foolishly, and to destroy them. Then Noah’s
sons came to their father Noah and told him about the demons who were
misleading, blinding, and killing his grandchildren. He prayed before the
Lord his God and said: ‘God of the spirits which are in all animate beings ...
because your mercy for me has been large and your kindness to me has been
great: may your mercy be lifted over the children of your children; and may
the wicked spirits not rule them in order to destroy them from the earth.
Now you bless me and my children so that we may increase, become numer-
ous, and fill the earth. You know how your Watchers, the fathers of these
spirits, have acted during my lifetime. As for these spirits who have remained
alive, imprison them and hold them captive in the place of judgement. May
they not cause destruction among your servant’s sons, my God, for they are
savage and were created for the purpose of destroying.^12
Such notions may have helped to explain how the supreme benev-
olent deity allows evil to flourish in the world, but they coexisted with
the Deuteronomistic concept of divine punishment for sin which