Editing Demon (section)

=== Apocalyptic period and early Christianity ===
The concept of demons as servants of the Devil entered the [[Christianity|Christian tradition]] via [[Post-exilic|Post-exilic Judaism]].<ref>Van der Toorn, Karel, Bob Becking, and Pieter Willem van der Horst, eds. Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999. p. 236</ref> Inspired by Zoroastrian dualistic cosmology,<ref>Van der Toorn, Karel, Bob Becking, and Pieter Willem van der Horst, eds. Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999.p. 238</ref> the non-Jewish deities were demonized, as evident from [[Intertestamental period|intertestamental writings]]. The [[apocalyptic literature]] then builds the foundation for the authors of the Gospels in first-century [[Palestine]].<ref>Wright, A. T. (2016). The Demonology of 1 Enoch and the New Testament Gospels. Enoch and the Synoptic Gospels: Reminiscences, Allusions, Intertextuality, 216.</ref>

In antiquity, belief in demonic agents of misfortune were widespread.<ref>Brown, Peter. Sorcery, Demons, and the Rise of Christianity from Late Antiquity into the Middle Ages. New York, NY, 1970. p. 28</ref> The early Christian community took it for granted that people outside the Judeo-Christian community were worshipping demons.<ref>Brown, Peter. Sorcery, Demons, and the Rise of Christianity from Late Antiquity into the Middle Ages. New York, NY, 1970. p. 24</ref> [[Conversion to Christianity]] meant renunciation of the demons by the bearers of the [[Holy Spirit]].<ref>Brown, Peter. Sorcery, Demons, and the Rise of Christianity from Late Antiquity into the Middle Ages. New York, NY, 1970. p. 31-32</ref>

By the end of the sixth century, the [[Mediterranean |Mediterranean Christian society]] widely considered themselves to be unequivocally Christian, with an exception to Jews, the last record of worshipping another pre-Christian deity being in 570s.<ref>Brown, Peter. Sorcery, Demons, and the Rise of Christianity from Late Antiquity into the Middle Ages. New York, NY, 1970. p. 35</ref>