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By Benjamin Hawkins and Keith Collier
Stokes presents research at International SBL Ryan Stokes, assistant professor of Old Testament, recently presented his research on early Jewish explanations of the origins of evil spirits to top scholars from around the world during the international meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) in Amsterdam, July 22-26. Completing his Ph.D. at Yale University, Stokes wrote his dissertation on early Jewish and Old Testament descriptions of Satan. Building upon such research during his presentation at the recent SBL meeting, Stokes described how Second-Temple Jewish literature explained the origins of evil spirits. In particular, he considered interpretations of Genesis recorded in two ancient Jewish texts, “The Book of Watchers” and “The Book of Jubilees,” as well as exorcism texts and the “Treatise of Two Spirits” found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. In Genesis 6, the “sons of God” have children by the “daughters of men.” In a recent interview, Stokes explained that some early Jews believed that the “sons of God” were angelic beings. The children they had by the “daughters of men” were giants, part angel and part human, who killed and sometimes ate people. As a result, God put these giants to death, but their spirits remained on earth as evil spirits. Contrary to popular belief today, Stokes said, these early Jewish writers did not think of evil spirits as fallen angels. “Evil spirits in early Jewish literature are not fallen angels,” Stokes said. “For early Jews, they were the children of fallen angels. … In early Jewish literature, demons and evil spirits aren’t the same things either. Those are different things. So you have angels, you have fallen angels, you have evils spirits, and you have Satan. And these are all different categories of things.” Similarly, he explained that some early Jews distinguished between angels, cherubim and seraphim, which they also believed to be different creatures.
Distinguished Alumnus, Eugene Florence, dies at 108 Eugene Florence, 108, went to be with the Lord, Sept. 12. He preached the Gospel for more than 70 years, having served as the pastor of four churches in small Texas towns. In 2004, at the age of 100, Florence was awarded a Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern for coursework he had completed in 1951. In 2006, he preached in Southwestern Seminary’s chapel service. In 2008, at the age of 104, he was honored with the Distinguished Alumnus Award.
46 SouthwesternNews Fall 2012
Adoniram Judson: A Bicentennial Appreciation of the Pioneer American Missionary
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