Exactly what it says on the (dramatic) title.

We always hear about Biblically accurate angels: the burning wheels with tons of eyes, the strange looking creatures that sound like they come from the anime “Evangelion”, the cherubim with 4 faces, but I had a thought while watching The Exorcist: Believer (it was…not good for anyone wondering. At all. The disrespect Regan’s mom had towards Merrin and Karras after they died saving her daughter was baffling to listen to, especially…but i digress) a couple of days ago, specifically, if that’s how the demonically possessed are said to more or less act in the Judeo-Christian scriptures, or if they’re they completely different to what we see in movies and games. I’m guessing it’s more than likely the second one, right, but I’m curious about the details like the signs someone’s possessed, the demon’s endgoal, and what they look like, basically everything you can gimme to sate this curiosity or to send me on a rabbit hole, if you’d be so kind?

  • kromem@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    There really isn’t any until the exorcisms of the NT, which is again missing much description.

    Even the parts that some people think are describing demons often aren’t.

    For example, the locusts of Revelations:

    And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit; he opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given authority like the authority of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to damage the grass of the earth or any green growth or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were allowed to torment them for five months but not to kill them, and the agony suffered was like that caused by a scorpion when it stings someone. And in those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.

    In appearance the locusts were like horses equipped for battle. On their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth; they had scales like iron breastplates, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. They have tails like scorpions, with stingers, and in their tails is their power to harm people for five months. They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.

    Look closely at a few of the details there:

    • allowed to torment for five months
    • the agony suffered was like that caused by a scorpion when it stings someone
    • like horses equipped for battle
    • On their heads were what looked like crowns of gold
    • faces were like human faces
    • hair like women’s hair
    • their teeth like lions’ teeth
    • scales like iron breastplates
    • the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots
    • tails like scorpions, with stingers
    • in their tails is their power to harm people for five months
    • have as king over them

    So back in the day, there was no Greek word for a specific hornet, just a general term that applied to any wasps.

    But in Judea the equivalent of the murder hornet was Vespa Orientalis.

    This hornet, like many wasps, was active outside its nest for 5 months.

    At the time, they thought a hive was ruled by a king, not a queen (thanks a lot Aristotle). And their nests are made underground (like the pit in the passage above).

    Like most hornets, they had mandibles with large ‘teeth’ like a lion.

    Unlike locusts, their faces were more human looking with the placement of the eyes centrally as opposed to on the edges of the head.

    They were covered in fine hairs like a woman’s body hair.

    Covered in segmented ‘scales’ with stings painful like a scorpion.

    They had a yellow stripe across the lower part like a saddle (this was actually used to effectively solar power the insect).

    But the most striking similarity between the above passage and this specific insect native to the area was the gold crown marker on its head: https://www.biolib.cz/IMG/GAL/33881.jpg

    So while people have had their imaginations running wild with Fabio looking scorpion/horse chimeras for years now, it may have simply been a poetic description of the local murder hornet equivalent being really active and stinging people - a nightmarish scenario for anyone who has been on the wrong end of a hornet before, but not quite the nightmarish people have been dreaming up since.

    • Kayel@aussie.zone
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      1 year ago

      As a lover if insects and arachnids who spends significant time in nature and the garden, the fear I feel for wasps is indescribable.

      The idea someone, two millennia ago, wrote wasps to be the most evil, feared, sadistic thing in their experience of the world resonates with me deeply.

    • MrBubbles96@lemmy.mlOP
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      1 year ago

      The Fabio looking hornet demon was a hilarious, albiet terrifying mental image, but yeah as a repeat victim of the business end of a hornet, I can confirm the validity of that description and agree that they’re clearly of the devil lol