Beyond Good and Evil

This dissertation explores the different ways in which early Jews understood demonic entities in their ancient and antique historical contexts. Unlike traditional scholarly studies which have often approached the topic primarily from the grand theological narratives of monotheism and the problem of evil, this dissertation strives to rethink the appropriateness of these analytical paradigms and evaluate demonic discourse in the Hebrew Bible, Second Temple Judaism, and rabbinic literature with a more acute attendance to the social, cultural, political, material, and intellectual dynamics that played a role in shaping how early Jews experienced and interacted with these nonhuman entities. Following an introduction to the study and its particular use of key terminology, the first chapter critically addresses the influential scholarly outlooks on the subject that have continued to dominate the academic discourse as well as charts out in broad strokes a more nuanced and multidimentional approach that takes into account how the eclectic and divergent ways in which the biblical writers, Second Temple scribes, and rabbinic sages engaged demonic discourse was determined not merely by their theological ideals, but also by shifting social structures, crosscultural exposure, and the changing political dynamics of the ancient and late antique Near East. This first chapter sets the methodological foundation adopted in the proceeding three chapters of the dissertation, each of which represents a focused case study upon one particular variety of early Jewish demonic entity (i.e., the šedîm; the lîlît, and the angels of destruction) that demonstrates how this multidimensional approach allows for a more subtle and multifaceted reading of the development of early Jewish demonic discourse. Through these individual case studies, this dissertation argues that it is only when we fully address the situatedness of the enchanted landscape of early Jewish demonic discourse beyond its theological moorings that we can authentically begin to understand the interrelationship between the Hebrew Bible, Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls, and Babylonian Talmud and the environments behind their imaginative engagements with fallen angels, inimical spirits, and a diverse assortment of demonic beings.