Demons in the New Testament

The Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek was widely used in the early Christian church. They translated the Hebrew word "satan" into the Greek word "diaboloc," from which we derive our English term "devil" and "diabolic." By this time, the concept of an all-evil Satanic supernatural being and his army of demons had been well developed. Satan was visualized as a spiritual being who had fewer powers than God. For example, he could only be in one place at one time. Thus, in order for him to be an effective worker of worldwide evil, he needed countless helpers. Satan and his demons (also known as evil spirits, devils, unclean spirits) are portrayed as forming a secret, invisible army of subversion and possession, totally dedicated to the tormenting of humans.

Jesus, his disciples and the other inhabitants of 1st century Palestine lived in a pre-scientific age. What we now call physics, astronomy, psychology and other sciences were essentially undeveloped. Lacking a scientific understanding of natural happenings, they looked for supernatural causes. They believed that an person could be possessed by one or more demons, and exhibit strange behavior. Demonic possession and demonic activity accounted for various forms of mental illness and disorders, bad weather, lightning, thunder, unfortunate accidents, dreams of nocturnal seduction, and so on.