The Origin of Evil Spirits

Archie T. Wright traces the development of the concept of evil spirits from the Hebrew Bible through postbiblical Jewish literature, examining the reception history of Genesis 6:1-4 in early Enochic and Philonic Judaism during the Second Temple Period. He suggests that the nonspecificity inherent in Genesis 6:1-4 opened the basis for the later emergence of an etiology of evil spirits as Jewish authors engaged with the text. As a result, Genesis 6:1-4 played an important part in the development of demonology in Second Temple Judaism.