User:RacheleJocelynMiryam/Angels and Demons in Biblical Interpretation

Overview
Many texts that are not included in the Hebrew Bible have similar stories to tell. They are considered holy by some and not by others. These books, such as Jubilees, clearly show a strong resemblance to a few stories in the Hebrew Bible, but they have overt differences. Their edits to the original story often have to do with the inclusion or disappearance of angels and demons. We call these similar stories "biblical interpretation" or "biblical exegesis."

Angels in Biblical Interpretation
Angels are sometimes included into biblical works to act as messengers between heaven and earth. For example, in the story of Mount Sinai, Exodus has no mention of angels at all while Jubilees chooses to include them. The inclusion of the angel in this passage indicates that the story had an, “interpretative artistry in both method and content; it also carries a message”(Albani 55). In Exodus 19-20 God speaks to Moses directly, telling him to write the ten commandments and to follow God, but in Jubilees 1:26 and Jubilees 2:1 God speaks to an angel who then relays the message to Moses, sending quite a different message to readers about God’s role and His intentions. Not only is the message related to Moses by an angel, but it is the “angel of the presence who enjoys a special intimacy with God” (Najman 316). The author may have included the “angel of presence” in the retelling of this story in order to establish the authority of angels “to recipients who passed on the traditions to their children. Thus, angelic authority is invoked by Jubilees twice over: once as past tradition, and once as present origin” (Najman 317). The text reveals the “authority of the specific, angelically licensed interpreters” (Najman 320). While the angel delivers God’s laws to Moses, it is understood that the angel’s “authority results in turn from his elevated status and from his acting at God’s command” (Najman 317). The goal of the addition of the angel is for the “distancing of God from the everyday events of the world” (Segal 5).

Angels are also used as voices in God’s court. In Genesis 21-22, God decides on his own accord that Abraham was faithful to Him and therefore needed to be tested. In Jubilees, however, “there were voices in heaven regarding Abraham, that he was faithful in all that He told him, and that he loved the Lord, and that in every affliction he was faithful” (Jubilees 17:15). Once again, the biblical interpretation chose to use angels, while the original biblical text did not.

After reading these parallel stories as well as others, one main difference between some Hebrew Bible stories and their biblical interpretation spin-offs is the choice to use or not use angels.

Demons in Biblical Interpretation
Another main difference in many biblical interpretations is the role of demons and how powerful or powerless they are in comparison to God. Demons are sometimes included into biblical interpretation to show how they bend to the will of God. In the story of Passover, the bible tells the story as “the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt” (Exodus 12:21-29). In Jubilees, however, this same event is told slightly differently: “All the powers of [the demon] Mastema had been let loose to slay all the first-born in the land of Egypt...And the powers of the Lord did everything according as the Lord commanded them” (Jubilees 49:2-4). The contrast of these two passages shows how the writers of Jubilees wanted demons to be seen as subservient beings to God. Another factor in using demons is that God is not displayed as a murderer as He is in Exodus.

Demons are also often shown as destructors in these stories. In Genesis in the story of the flood, the author explains how God was noticing “how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways” (Genesis 6:12). This wording seems to suggest that God blamed humans for their wrongdoings. In the biblical interpretation of this story, in contrast, it was not shown as the people’s faults at all but instead the fault of “the unclean demons [who] began to lead astray the children of the sons of Noah, and to make to err and destroy them” (Jubilees 10:1). Demons are also displayed as diabolic figures that seek to drive humans away from God. In Jubilees Mastema questions the loyalty of Abraham and tells God to “bid him offer him as a burnt offering on the altar, and Thou wilt see if he will do this command” (Jubilees 17:16). The discrepancy between the story in Jubilees and the story in Genesis 22 exists with the presence of Mastema. In Genesis, God tests the will of Abraham merely to determine whether he is a true follower, however; in Jubilees Mastema has an agenda behind promoting the sacrifice of Abraham’s son, “an even more demonic act than that of the Satan in Job” (Bernstein 267). These two interpretations of the same story have drastically different moral implications solely because of the existence or non-existence of demons.

Purpose for Biblical Exegesis
Biblical interpretation reflects the sentiments and contemporary events that were occurring during the Second Temple Period. The need to re-write historical texts and the usage of angels and demons in these new passages may point toward the underlying problems and values in society at the time. In determining the role of the supernatural beings in Jubilees, “the general effect of the insertion of the angels into the stories is the distancing of God from the everyday events of the world, transforming him into a transcendental deity” (Segal 5).