In English translations of the Bible, unclean spirit is a common renderingFor instance, in the King James Version, Wycliffe's Bible, Tyndale Bible, New Revised Standard Version, American Standard Version, International Standard Version, World English Bible, New English Translation; "foule sprete" in the Coverdale Bible. of Greek pneuma akatharton (πνεῦμα ἀκάθαρτον; plural pneumata akatharta (πνεύματα ἀκάθαρτα)), which in its single occurrence in the Septuagint translates Hebrew ().
The Greek term appears 21 times in the New Testament in the context of demonic possession.The term appears 21 times counting both singular and plural. J. Reiling, "Unclean spirits," in Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, henceforth abbreviated DDD (William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999), p. 882 online. It is also translated into English as spirit of impurityAs in the New International Version. See Karen Hartnup, On the Beliefs of the Greeks: Leo Allatios and Popular Orthodoxy (Brill, 2004), p. 88, especially note 16 online. or more loosely as "evil spirit." The Latin equivalent is spiritus immundus.Pierre Maréchaux, "Les noces de Panurge et de Mercure: Rabelais et la leçon de Martianus Capella," in Études Rabelaisiennes 33 (1998), p. 167 online.
The association of physical and spiritual cleanliness is, if not universal, widespread and continues into the 21st century: "To be virtuous is to be physically clean and free from the impurity that is sin," notes an article in Scientific American published 10 March 2009.Gary Sherman and Gerald Clore, "Clean and Virtuous: When Physical Purity Becomes Moral Purity," Scientific American 10 March 2009, accessed online 20 April 2009; also WebCite archive. Some scholarshipClinton Wahlen presents an overview of this scholarship in Jesus and the Impurity of Spirits in the Synoptic Gospels (Mohr Siebeck, 2004). For a table of terms used for evil powers in the New Testament, see p. 177 online. seeks to differentiate between "unclean spirit" and "evil spirit" (pneuma ponêron) or "demon" (daimonion).DDD, p. 882. For daimon, not considered a synonym, see The concept of pneuma following.
The concept of pneuma In the Christian scriptures, the word pneuma (plural pneumata) is used variously for the human soul, angelic or demonic spirits, and the Holy Spirit, depending on context or with a grammatical modifier.Wayne A. Grudem, The First Epistle of Peter: An Introduction and Commentary (William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1988) pp. 208–209 online; Eric Sorensen, Possession and Exorcism in the New Testament and Early Christianity (Mohr Siebeck, 2002), p. 121 online. New Testament usage of the words pneuma and daimonion in relation to demons follows that of later Judaism; the two words are to be distinguished from daimon, which appears only once (at )A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature, edited by David Lyle Jeffrey (William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1992), p. 195; DDD, p. 239. and in classical antiquity has a neutral meaning of "spirit" or "god, demigod."Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, edited by Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich, translated and abridged by Geoffrey W. Bromley (William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1985), p. 139 online; Dan Burton and David Grandy Magic, Mystery, and Science: The Occult in Western Civilization (Indiana University Press, 2003), p. 123 online. For those who practiced the traditional religions of antiquity, possession by a pneuma could be a desired state of visionary trance.Greek Magical Papyri IV.1121–24, discussed under Pneuma pythona below. See also David Edward Aune, Prophecy in Early Christianity and the Ancient Mediterranean World (William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1983), p. 47 online.
In the New Testament, the Greek modifier akatharton, although sometimes translated in context as "evil,"At Mark 1:23, for instance, the New Living Translation has "evil spirit," but glosses "Greek 'unclean'." means more precisely "impure, not purified," and reflects a concern for ritual purification shared with or derived from Judaism, though reinterpreted.DDD, p. 882, with additional citations. See also Ritual washing in Judaism, Tumah, and Mikvah. Connections and differences between Judaic impurity and Christian are explored extensively by Wahlen, Jesus and the Impurity of Spirits, introduction, pp. 1–22. In early Christianity, the catechumen was routinely prepared for baptism by exorcism even when demonic possession was not suspected; in the case of adult converts, the "unclean spirits" to be driven away might be identified with the gods of other religions.Indicated, for instance, by Tertullian, Apologeticus 23.15-16. See Peter Cramer, Baptism and Change in the Early Middle Ages, c. 200–c. 1150 (Cambridge University Press, 2003), passim, especially the process as described by Hippolytus of Rome, pp. 11ff online; Jeffrey Burton Russell, Satan: The Early Christian Tradition (Cornell University Press, 1987), p. 101 online; G.J. Riley, "Demon," in DDD, pp. 235–240, especially p. 238 online. See also Pneuma pythona below.
The practice of insufflation and exsufflation, or the use of released breath in ritual, depends on conceptualizing a spiritual entity as air in motion, "invisible yet active":DDD, p. 882. both Greek pneuma and Latin spiritus had an original meaning of "breath, mobile air."
In Judaism
References to a "spirit of impurity" or an "evil spirit" (ruaḥ tum'ah) are found in the Hebrew Bible, in Rabbinic literature, and in Pseudepigrapha.Howard Jacobson, A Commentary on Pseudo-Philo's Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum, with Latin Text and English Translation (Brill, 1996), vol. 2, p. 1118 online (equivalent Hebrew) phrases provided); postbiblical sources cited by Barry D. Smith, "Spirit, Evil/Unclean," in Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, p. 1248 online. It can be difficult to distinguish between a demon and an unclean or evil spirit in Judaic theology or contemporary scholarship; both entities like to inhabit wild or desolate places. Commonly the unclean spirit refers to Dybbuks, spirits of deceased persons who were not laid to rest and thus became demons. Other demonic entities are shedim, which appears only twice in the Tanakh; originally a loan-word from Akkadian for a protective, benevolent spirit (sedu), but from Jewish perspective were foreign gods and according to established Jewish lore own beings, created by Jahwe.Shedim at and . See W. Gunther Plaut, The Torah: A Modern Commentary (Union for Reform Judaism, 2005), p. 1403 online; Dan Burton and David Grandy, Magic, Mystery, and Science: The Occult in Western Civilization (Indiana University Press, 2003), p. 120 online.
The se’irim or śa‘ir are goat-demons or "hairy demons"Pilosi, "the hairy ones," in the Church Fathers; Katherine Nell MacFarlane, "Isidore of Seville on the Pagan Gods (Origines VIII. 11)," Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 70 (1980), pp. 35–36. (sometimes translated as "satyrs") associated with other harmful supernatural beings and with ruins, i.e., human structures that threaten to revert to the wild.Se’irim in and . See Dan Ben-Amos, Folktales of the Jews: Tales from Eastern Europe (Jewish Publication Society, 2007), vol. 2, p. 37 online, and "On Demons," in Creation and Re-creation in Jewish Thought: Festschrift in Honor of Joseph Dan on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday (Mohr Siebeck, 2005), p. 29ff. online. Also A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature, pp. 194–195. The demonic figure Azazel, depicted with goat-like features and in one instance as an unclean bird, is consigned to desert places as impure.Walter J. Houston, "Leviticus," in Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2003), p. 114 online; Daniel C. Harlow, The Greek Apocalypse of Baruch (3 Baruch) in Hellenistic Judaism and Early Christianity (Brill, 1996), p. 66 online; Bernard Jacob Bamberger, Fallen Angels: Soldiers of Satan's Realm (Jewish Publication Society, 1952, repub. 2006), p. 46 online. The Babylonian TalmudSanhedrin 65b. says that a person who wanted to attract an impure spirit might fast and spend the night in a cemetery;Jonathan Seidel, "Magical Texts of the Cairo Geniza," in Spirit Possession in Judaism (Wayne State University Press, 2003), p. 88, note 14. in the traditional religions of the Near East and Europe, one ritual mode for seeking a divinely inspired revelation or prophecy required incubation at the tomb of an ancestor or hero.Daniel Ogden, Greek and Roman Necromancy (Princeton University Press, 2001), passim, part 1, chapters 1–6. A cemetery, already a locus of "unclean" spirits or a multiplicity of gods, was considered an appropriate dump when biblical leaders destroy sacred objects of other religions or statues representing the gods. and , the latter specifying the Kidron Valley, where there were many tombs; see Joe M. Sprinkle, "Grave," in Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, p. 527. To pneuma to akatharton appears in the Septuagint at ,A Greek text with French translation may be viewed online. where pseudoprophetai ("false prophets") speak in the name of Yahweh but are possessed by an unclean spirit.Cristiano Grottanelli, "Possessed Transsexuals in Antiquity: A Double Transformation," in Self and Self-Transformation in the History of Religions (Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 101 online. This occurrence of "unclean spirit" is unique in the Tanakh; the Hebrew is rûah hattum’â.DDD, p. 882.
The syncretic magical practice of late antiquity drew on Hebraic elements, and spells from the Greek Magical Papyri evoke and attempt to command Jewish angels, demons, and other beings regarded as spiritually powerful. At one point, a compiler of the magical text emphasizes the Jewish aspect of purity, insisting that "this spell is Hebraic and is preserved among pure men", advising that the practitioner should keep himself pure and refrain from eating pork.Pieter Willem van der Horst, "The Great Magical Papyrus of Paris (PGM IV) and the Bible," in Jews and Christians in Their Graeco-Roman Context (Mohr Siebeck, 2006), pp. 269–279, especially p. 277, limited preview online. An English translation of the complete exorcism may be viewed in Daniel Odgen, Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Sourcebook (Oxford University Press US, 2002), pp. 169–170 online. It has been pointed out that since refraining from pork is a special preparation for the spell, the seeker of its effects was likely not Jewish, but a gentile who wanted the efficacy of Jewish magic; see Lynn LiDonnici, "According to the Jews: Identified (and Identifying) 'Jewish' Elements in the Greek Magical Papyri," Heavenly Tablets: Interpretation, Identity and Tradition in Ancient Judaism (Brill, 2007), pp. 98–99. The spell concludes with a protracted insufflation. A tradition of Solomonic exorcism continued into medieval Europe; an example is recorded by Gregory the Thaumaturge: "I adjure you all unclean spirits by Elohim, Adonai, Sabaoth, to come out and depart from the servant of God."Gregory the Thaumaturge, Precatio et exorcismus (Patrologia Graeca 36.734), cited by Jonathan Seidel, "Magical Texts of the Cairo Geniza," in Spirit Possession in Judaism, p. 92, note 39 online. Full discussion by David R. Jordan and Roy D. Kotansky, "A Solomonic Exorcism," in Kölner Papyri (P. Köln), vol. 8 (Abhandlungen der Nordrhein-Westfälischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Sonderreihe, Papyrologia Coloniensia), Sonderreihe vol. VII/8 (Opladen: Westdeutscher, 1997), no. 338, pp. 53–69.