What Does the Word Demon Mean in the Bible

[box]RVWD is my abbreviation for Religious Vocabulary Word of the Day. (You can read my introduction to the RVWD series here.) I do not intend for these word investigations to be exhaustive, but I hope they stimulate some thinking about assumptions. Possibly they will help with honest evaluations about what is truth and what is unnecessary baggage in life. [/box]
The word demon comes from the Greek word daimon, according to Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words (Vine’s). Webster’s New World College Dictionary (Fourth Edition) says the Latin version of the word is daemon, which is still considered a variant for English spelling, so you can see the word hasn’t changed much in spelling. When I was studying the word saint recently, I found someone claiming that the word demon is not even in the Bible. This appears to be true in the traditional King James Version (KJV) of the Bible because for some reason the translators didn’t use the English word demon, often sloppily translating the Greek daimon to devil. Other translations, such as the New American Standard Bible (NASB), the New International Version (NIV), and even the New King James Version (NKJV) all use the word demon around 30 times.
The Greek word for devil is diablos, which has a very particular meaning of “accuser, slanderer, or someone who maligns.” This role is uniquely carried out by one referred to as Satan throughout the Bible. No other entity so actively seeks to destroy mankind.
The definition of daimon is “an inferior diety”, which in a Biblical sense means a wrong or evil spirit because there is only one God. Being spirits, they are “invisible and immaterial” (See Vine’s cited above) . (I will study the word spirit more fully another time.) Their unpleasant nature is made clear in context, when it is obvious that the demon(s) in each instance are causing a great deal of trouble, hurting people and causing sickness. (side note: this in no way implies that all sickness is caused by demons, but there are a couple of specific instances where this is stated as the cause, i.e. Luke 13:11, Matthew 9:33). The reference to demons is linked with their other common titles, unclean or evil spirits, in ways that strongly indicate that these terms are about the same types of beings. (see Luke 8:2 and 8:27-29)
The demons have some other curious characteristics. They always know who Jesus Christ is (Matthew 8:29, Luke 4:41), and there are apparently some demons that are worse than others (Matthew 12:45). People who are possessed by them often have unusual bodily strength, although not under their own control and frequently to their own detriment. (Matthew 8:28 and Luke 9:42). To “be possessed”, in the literal sense, means “to be under the control of.”
Demons seem to have some degree of common purpose, because Jesus was accused of being one only to have the accusation proven false because He worked against the demons. (Matthew 12:22-29) Demons are implied to be the agents behind any supernatural phenomena associated with idols, so it seems that demons like to deceive people into thinking they are gods worthy of worship. (1 Corinthians 10:20-21, Rev 9:20) The demons know they will be judged, knowing that their time is limited (Matthew 8:29). And they are subject to the power and decision of Jesus Christ, as evidenced by His ability to tell them to leave people alone.
In the current cultural sense, the word demon can also be used to just indicate “a high degree of energy or enthusiasm” being exhibited. If someone is called a “speed demon” it has no real spiritual connotations. If someone is “cleaning the kitchen like a demon” it just means you had probably better stay out of the way.
Where demons originated is a bit of a mystery and the etymology of the word does not shed any light on this. But they are mentioned repeatedly in the Bible, and not in a complimentary way, to put it mildly. And they have no doubts about who God is. (James 2:19)