Bible Review

Throughout this study, the author has benefited greatly from the excellent work by Patrick D. Miller in The Religion of Ancient Israel, Library of Ancient Israel (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox, 2000).

Baraitha Sanhedrin 43a.

This understanding, instead of the traditional “sin couches at the doorway,” is proposed by E A. Speiser, Genesis, Anchor Bible 1 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964), pp. 32–33.

I briefly sketched out the following comparison of demonology and covenant in Propp, “Monotheism and Moses: The Problem of Early Israelite Religion,” Ugarit-Forschungen 31 (1999), pp. 548–549.

See William H.C. Propp, Exodus 1–18, Anchor Bible 1 (New York: Doubleday, 1999), pp. 434–439.

The classic discussion is Paul Volz, Das Dämonische in Jahwe (Tübingen: Mohr, 1924).

In contrast, the Mishnah (Avot 5:6) describes the demons’ creation on the eve of the first Sabbath. Similar traditions are found in Persian and Arabic sources.

In postbiblical Hebrew, the generic term šēdîm means “evil spirits, demons.” But in their biblical attestations (Deuteronomy 32:17; Psalm 106:37), šēdîm simply are “gods,” to whom Israel is forbidden to sacrifice. This corresponds with the derivation from Akkadian šēdu, “spirit, god.”