Asmodeus

ASMODEUS, a certain Evil Spirit that beset Sarah the Daughter of Raguel, and killed her seven first Husbands, which she had before Tobias. This Evil Spirit was afterwards Tob. vi. 14. iii. 8.expell’d with the help of smoke arising from the gall of a fish, and bound by the Angel Raphael, in the Desarts of Upper Ch. viii. 2, 3.Egypt. Several very curious questions are proposed concerning this Evil Spirit Asmodeus. Some think the name to be derived from the Hebrew Esh-madai, the fire of אשמדיMedia, because he inspired the people of this Country with the flames of impure love, which he looked upon himself to have under his direction. Others, with much more probability, derive it from the Hebrew השמדיSchamad, to exterminate; so that nothing more is meant by Asmodeus, than the destroying or exterminating Angel.

The Rabbins say that Asmodeus was born in an incestuous manner of Tubalcain and Noema his Sister; and that this Evil Spirit having fallen in love with Sarah the Daughter of Raguel, killed all those who attempted to come near her, and by the brutality of their passion delivered themselves in some sort into his power; for which reason the Angel speaks to this purpose to Tobias: Tobit vi. 17.They who marry forget God, and think only of satisfying their brutal passion, like horses and mules that have no understanding; upon these this Evil Spirit exercises his power. But for you, says he, when you shall come to her, rise up both of you, and pray to God which is merciful, &c.¹

But how, say some, could the smoke made by the gall of a Fish drive away Asmodeus; and how could the Angel Raphael chain him in the utmost parts of Egypt? They who allow Angels and Evil Spirits to have subtle bodies, and think them capable of sensual pleasures, of smelling and hearing, that they love concerts of musick, and sweet odours, resolve these difficulties without hesitation. They will tell us that the strong scent proceeding from the gall of the fish might make Asmodeus leave the chamber where Sarah was, and that afterwards the Angel Raphael might have followed him, and conducted him invisibly, and with a degree of swiftness proportioned to the subtility of his body, into some Cave of Upper Egypt, where he might have shut him up.

But as our faith teaches us other principles, and we hold Angels and Dæmons to be substances purely spiritual, we are of opinion that the effect of the smoke arising from the fish’s gall which Tobias burnt, rested entirely upon the senses of Tobias and Sarah; that it deadened the sense of pleasure in them, and all lustful inclinations; and that the chaining up Asmodeus is to be explained in an allegorical and figurative meaning, as signifying God’s order declared to him by Raphael, which obliged him to come no more near Sarah, nor produce hereafter any signs of his presence, excepting in the utmost parts of Egypt. The Reader may consult our Dissertation concerning the Evil Spirit Asmodeus, which he will find before the Book of Tobit.

The Rabbins² relate that the Dæmon Asmodeus drove Solomon out of his Kingdom, and took his place; but that Solomon upon his return dethroned him, and loaded him with fetters. They tell us farther, that this Prince forced Asmodeus to serve him in his design of building the Temple of Jerusalem; that by some secret which he learned of this Dæmon, he built it without using iron, or making any noise, according to this expression of the Scripture, There was neither hammer, nor ax, nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building. He made use of, as they tell us, the stone Schamir, which cut in sunder stone, as our Glaziers cut their glass with diamond. The Arabian Mahometans believe³, that Solomon chain’d the Dæmon Laora-Elmand on the Mountain Barend.

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