Although I do not intend to delve deeply into the subject, I think it is fitting that I at least call to your mind some of the misunderstandings and abuses that are current in some Christian circles today. It is popular and quite easy for us to blame our misdeeds on the devil. “The devil made me do it!” You may be surprised to learn that in Judaism, there is no concept of a devil as being a separate entity co-equal with God and warring against God. That particular theological concept is known as Dualism, and it basically creeps into both Judaism and later into Christianity, through the Zoroastrianism of Persia from the 4th century BCE and following.

In the Bible, the devil, or hasatan, the accuser, was a created being, created by God and subject to do his will. Throughout the course of biblical history until the 4th and 5th century BCE, you read nothing about demons, devils, demonology. It is not until much later that these ideas and concepts began to creep into Judaism, to a degree, and to a much larger degree into Christianity. Much of what we attribute to demons is simply the yetzer hara and, if we want victory over it, we are not going to get it by going through deliverance 49 times.