the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Devils
People's Dictionary of the Bible
or Devils, Demons. Although there is only one being known as the devil, the English version of the Scriptures often uses the words devil and devils, where it should read demon and demons. The words in the original Greek are different from the word used when the devil is referred to. Frequent accounts are given of persons possessed by demons, and of our Lord casting out demons. They are evil spirits plainly distinguished from the persons whom they possess, sometimes a number of them entering into a person. Luke 8:1; Luke 8:30. They can go out of persons and can enter into swine. Matthew 8:31; Mark 5:11-13. They have a separate consciousness; they know the Lord Jesus Christ, Luke 4:41; Luke 8:28, and are addressed by Christ as personal beings, Mark 1:24; Mark 5:9; and they are looking forward to the day of judgment, to them the day of torment Matthew 8:29; James 2:19. As frequent accounts are given, in the Old Testament and in the New, of the devil and of demons entering into persons, there is no reason to doubt that they do so now.
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Rice, Edwin Wilbur, DD. Entry for 'Devils'. People's Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/rpd/d/devils.html. 1893.
