Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible Online

I. Name ‘Unclean spirit’ occurs only once in the OT ( Zech. 13.2 rûaḥ haṭṭumʾâ, lit. ‘the spirit of impurity’) and 21 times in the NT in both singular and plural. It is found only in the synoptic gospels and Acts and twice in Rev. The related phrase ‘evil spirit’ ( pneuma ponēron) occurs in the OT (Evil spirit of God) and eight times in the NT. Often the noun daimonion is used synonymously (see below and Demon). II. Identity The belief in supernatural non-corporeal beings considered not to be gods and affecting the life of corporeal beings (men and animals) is widespr…

I. Name In the Book of Acts (17.23) Luke tells how Paul the apostle addresses the Athenians on the Areopagus and takes as his point of departure an inscription on an altar he saw in the city. This inscription, he says, ran as follows: “For an unknown god” (ἀγνώστῳ θεῷ). II. Identity All the other evidence for a cult of (an) unknown god(s) is later than Acts. In the 2nd cent. ce, Pausanias says that near the harbour of Phalerum (Athens) there were altars of gods named ‘unknown ones’ and of heroes (βωμοὶ δὲ θεῶν τε ὀνομαζομένων ἀγνώστῶν καὶ ἡρώων, I, 1, 4). In his description of…