The word here, is _daimoon_. It is used, in different forms, sixty-five times by our Lord and his apostles; and on no occasion do they hint that they use the word in a sense different from its then accepted signification; to learn which, recourse must be had to the testimony of the Pagan, Jewish, and Christian writers of those times.(6)
HESIOD taught that, "The spirits of departed mortals become _demons_ when separated from their earthly bodies;" and PLUTARCH, that "The demons of the Greeks were the _ghosts_ and _genii_ of departed men." "All Pagan antiquity affirms," says Dr. CAMPBELL, "that from Titan and Saturn, the poetic progeny of Coelus and Terra, down to Æsculapius, Proteus, and Minos, all their _divinities_ were the _ghosts_ of dead men; and were so regarded by the most erudite of the Pagans themselves."
Among the Pagans, the term _demon_, as often represented a good as an evil spirit; but among the Jews, it generally, if not universally, denoted an unclean, malign, or wicked spirit. Thus JOSEPHUS says: "Demons are the spirits of wicked men." PHILO says that "The souls of dead men are called demons." "The notion," says Dr. LARDNER, "of demons, or the souls of dead men, having power over living men, was universally prevalent among the heathen of these times [the first two centuries], and believed by many Christians." JUSTIN MARTYR speaks of "those who are seized by the souls of the dead, whom we call _demons_ and madmen." Ignatius quotes the words of Christ to Peter thus: "Handle me and see; for I am not a _daimoon asomaton_,--a disembodied demon,"--_i.e._ a spirit without a body.
The foregoing is evidence of the New Testament signification of the word _daimoon_, here improperly rendered devils,--spirits of which, the frog-like agencies are affirmed to be.
Demon worship is a characteristic of the three religions referred to. As already shown, all Pagans regarded their gods as the ghosts of dead men; and the Bible speaks of them as devils, _i.e._ _demons_. Moses says of them, "Even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods," (Deut. 12:31); while the Psalmist affirms that "they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto _devils_," Ps. 106:37. "They sacrificed unto _devils_, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up," Deut. 32:17. Jeroboam "ordained him priests for the high places, and for the _devils_," 2 Chron. 11:15. "The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to _devils_, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with _devils_. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of _devils_; ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of _devils_,"--_i.e._ of _demons_.