Demons are mentioned in the New testamenet-they are said to be evil spirits, capable of turning a soul toward Hell and damnation. But I cannot seem to get a clear picture of exactly what they are. In the firts place, God created everything-including Satan and the “fallen” angels. So where do these “demons” come in?
The origen of the word is greek-in that tradition, a “demon” is some kind of spirit “companion” (not necessarily bad). So, i have a few questions:
-if unknown to the Hebrews, when did the demons first appear?
-they are said to 'tempt" humans to evil-with what? promises?
This is all complicated by the temptation of Christ-in it, he tells Satan to “get the behind me”-do I take this as meaning that Satan is out of the picture?
Many teach that they are the very fallen angels you mention. However, lately, this has been disputed.
And demons are definitely a part of the judeochristian myth. They are mentioned in a lot of Jewish folklore, for sure.
Messy, innit? Are “demons” the same as “devils?”
The Bible doesn’t say a whole lot. Were the demons of the Gadarene swine once angels, who followed Satan in revolt against God’s authority? If demons are all pent in hell, how do they get out to cause woe here on earth? What level of power does Satan actually have? If it is a heresy to claim that he can “create,” then what can he do, exactly?
(Any salesman can tell you, pitching an offer to a prospective client is a form of creative thinking.)
If you really want more answers, read Dante and Milton. They may not be true answers, but they are answers. If you want Biblical Truth, read the Bible…and groan under the inadequacy of the explanation. Is the Dragon of Revelation literally a dragon? If so, why did the angel tell John to “eat the scroll.” Is devouring parchment really how knowledge is imparted in heaven? If one idea is a metaphor, why not other ideas? When do you know?
Saint Augustine was asked, “What was God doing before he made the world?” He answered, “He was creating hell for people who ask questions like this.”
A sobering thought.
For a more scientific approach, why not actually perform the ceremony to raise a demon…and ask it directly? Can’t beat first-hand knowledge, right?
True, but it is unclear exactly when they appear in Jewish folklore.
Many “deamons” are simply personifications of (OT) Biblical terms which originally did not refer to actual supernatural entities - such as “Belial”. Originally, it just meant “worthless people” - as in “sons of belial”. Eventually, the notion arose that this “Belial” was an actual entity.
The Dead Sea Scrolls have reference to “angels of darkness” who correspond roughly with the Christian notion of fallen angels, and the Jewish notion of angels often has a very dark side to it - thinking of the killer of the first-born in the Exodus story here. However, like Satan in Job, it isn’t at all clear that they aren’t, as it were, working for the Big Guy Upstairs. 
Certainly, later Jewish folklore has deamons galore - Asmodeus shows up in the Talmud, and even more famously, Lilith. The actual OT roots of such beings are, in ever case, pretty sparse - though later writers were able to make imaginative work of oddities in the OT to make room for them. My personal favorite is that Lilith was Adam’s first wife, which makes use of the fact that there are two different creation myths in Genesis - the first has God making man and woman in his image at the same time, and the second has God making Adam first, and Eve from Adam’s rib. Explaination: Adam had a first wife, Lilith, but they fight (because Lilith claims to be equal to Adam!)- he ‘divorces’ her and God makes Eve out of Adam’s rib (so, presumably, inferior). Later, Lilith becomes a deamon, associated with lust and murder.
The only actual reference to “Lilith” in the OT is to a sort of jackal-like creature associated with desolation - it is totally obscure what exactly it is.
I can tell you what I was taught: demons are fallen angels, under the control/domination/military order (depending on the particular flavor of the moment) of Satan.
They are allowed to exist and torment humankind to drive us to God and salvation through Jesus, because apparently random normal life isn’t shitty enough to make sure we make the ‘right’ choice - we also have to get tortured a bit.
They also exist as an object lesson - there but for the Grace of God go I. They’re going to be eternally damned, and there’s nothing they can do to get out of their fate.
This supposedly leads to two additional points: we as humans have free will (the angels/demons apparently only got the one choice, and now can’t back out of it - I never got a straight answer about how they rebelled without free will in the first place). We humans (created in God’s image) can choose to live “holy” lives, the demons can’t, so they have to be evil. The lesson there being we’re supposed to be better than the angels/demons because we’re CHOOSING to be good, while they HAVE to be good/evil.
Secondly, because the demons are out there, we’re supposed to overcome the temptations that they throw at us, and welcome more and worse temptations (but not go seeking them out - this was also a fuzzy area I never got a good answer for) so that we pile up “crowns in heaven” which are a material indicator of how strong our faith was in life that we overcame spiritual torment and stayed true to the faith.
I never saw any sort of Biblical or official textual basis for this, and quite a lot of it was on the order of “God revealed to me (the pastor/deacon/church father) in a dream/vision” which at the time was a viable form of validation for me.
For your specific questions:
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demons are there to be an antagonist and a spiritual “stick” to counter the “carrot” of heaven/eternal life.
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generally demons tempt people with what people want, and don’t tend to get by living good humble Christian lives: physical health, worldly power, money, influence on events or people, sometimes even power over spirits/spiritual forces. Of course all of these promises are known by good Christians to be lies, since the only power demons have is what they’re granted by God, through Jesus, and by extension Christians themselves. (thus exorcisms being possible)
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Satan is generally treated as an absentee force. He’s often considered to be “confined” to Hell, and therefore unable to directly influence the world, where the individual demons are considered too piddly to bother keeping them under house arrest.
All of this is really tacked on as aftermarket influences tho, and the amount of demon lore (and even belief) is going to be radically different in the various branches of denominations.
All of my experience is through the Pentecostal end of things. When I was Lutheran, we never bothered with any demon crap - you were just supposed to be good and go to heaven.
(It should be obvious by the tone of the above, but as a disclaimer, I am no longer a believer, and consider all of the above to be a load of bunkum. However, in all honesty, I did truly believe it at the time, and my younger brother was actually the subject of an exorcism due to extensive and continuing behavior problems. We were big on demons for quite a while.)
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See if your library has a copy of Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore. Fun read.
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I had thought that they did have free will, and about 1/3 of the total chose poorly.
There are also some charming fables about a handful who tried to remain neutral, and are punished in various form of limbo. (“So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” So to speak: different context, but same idea.)
If angels didn’t have free will, then punishing them for “revolt” would be meaningless. For such a person, “I was only following orders” would, in fact, be a valid defense. It would be like condemning a wasp for stinging you.
This “Yahoo Answers” column makes for some interesting reading at a very introductory level.
While I take your point, stinging me is an automatic death sentence. Condemnation. No appeal.
So what do they look like?
Are they simply spiritual beings (that cannot be seen)?
If they have bodies, how large?
Do they get rewarded for nefarious service?
Or are they simply catchall terms for bad things?
nm
Demons are the ghosts of cannibalistic giants. It’s in the book of Enoch, which is in the Ehtiopian Bible, and is referenced in the normal protestant Bible in the book of Jude (although they may not be the same books of Enoch, mind).
The cannibalistic giants are the offspring of human women and “Watchers”, apparently some unusually horny form of angel.
Angels are only specifically said not to have free will in Islam. In that tradition the equivalent of demons and rebellious angels are rebellious djinn, as djinn have free will.
This.
Actually, ALL the angels are Watchers. The watchers who got fired and cast out of heaven are your devils. I haven’t been able to work out if devils are hateful toward humans, or if they just have a beef with The Big Guy–Milton felt they were primarily pissed off at God and mess with humans just to piss Him off. In that view they’re at least apathetic toward us except inasmuch as our corruption aggravates their former boss. There was a group of Watchers on Earth for some reason or other who became particularly enamored of human wimmins and made babies with them. They also gave them knowledge of various things like plant medicine, makeup, metalworking, and such that arguably gave rise to civilization.
The babies were the giants. The giants for various reasons turned on the humans. Their spirits are the demons. Because God didn’t make them, they don’t have a place in heaven and are restricted to an afterlife on earth. Now they’re pissed off and powerful spirits who are not pleasantly inclined toward humans. I haven’t seen any references about how they feel about their daddies, but given their bitter nature I suppose they’d be a bit negative toward them as well .