squirrelyguy
Well-known member
The Biblical case for the idea that demons, aka evil spirits, cannot be fallen angels but are far more likely to be disembodied people, is a simple matter of deduction.
We know that what the Bible calls a "spirit" is non-corporeal, i.e. it does not have a form that can be touched physically by us. Jesus tells His disciples after His resurrection in Luke 24:39 to "Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have."
Angels, however, are corporeal; they do have a physical form. We see in Scripture that angels can be touched, speak with audible voices, disguise themselves as humans, can be wrestled with, and even eat our food.
It would follow then that what the Bible refers to as evil spirits (used synonymously with demons) cannot merely be fallen angels, but are far more likely to be disembodied people who have somehow remained stuck on earth, and who desperately seek to inhabit living bodies again.
There is another point to be made on this: in Luke 10:19, Christ seems to explicitly distinguish between fallen angels and demons. The text says "Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you." The interpretation of "serpents" as devils, or fallen angels, would seem natural enough to us since Satan himself is explicitly characterized as a serpent in Scripture.
But as for the meaning of "scorpions", the best clue comes from an extrabiblical papyrus fragment containing a non-canonical story of Jesus. In Oxyrhynchus 840, Jesus gets into an argument with a Pharisee over the fact that He and His disciples did not wash themselves before entering the temple; Jesus points out that the Pharisee himself only washed in unclean water before entering, saying "And when you washed yourself, you scrubbed the outer layer of skin, the layer of skin that prostitutes and flute-girls anoint and wash and scrub when they put on make up to become the desire of the men. But inside they are filled with scorpions and all unrighteousness." Here, the word "scorpions" is undoubtedly used as a metaphor for demons.
We know that what the Bible calls a "spirit" is non-corporeal, i.e. it does not have a form that can be touched physically by us. Jesus tells His disciples after His resurrection in Luke 24:39 to "Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have."
Angels, however, are corporeal; they do have a physical form. We see in Scripture that angels can be touched, speak with audible voices, disguise themselves as humans, can be wrestled with, and even eat our food.
It would follow then that what the Bible refers to as evil spirits (used synonymously with demons) cannot merely be fallen angels, but are far more likely to be disembodied people who have somehow remained stuck on earth, and who desperately seek to inhabit living bodies again.
There is another point to be made on this: in Luke 10:19, Christ seems to explicitly distinguish between fallen angels and demons. The text says "Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you." The interpretation of "serpents" as devils, or fallen angels, would seem natural enough to us since Satan himself is explicitly characterized as a serpent in Scripture.
But as for the meaning of "scorpions", the best clue comes from an extrabiblical papyrus fragment containing a non-canonical story of Jesus. In Oxyrhynchus 840, Jesus gets into an argument with a Pharisee over the fact that He and His disciples did not wash themselves before entering the temple; Jesus points out that the Pharisee himself only washed in unclean water before entering, saying "And when you washed yourself, you scrubbed the outer layer of skin, the layer of skin that prostitutes and flute-girls anoint and wash and scrub when they put on make up to become the desire of the men. But inside they are filled with scorpions and all unrighteousness." Here, the word "scorpions" is undoubtedly used as a metaphor for demons.
