Angels-DEVILS, DEMONS, AND FALLEN ANGELS

Any thorough or systematic discussion of angels must include a discussion
of the so-called fallen

angels, namely, devils and demons.

Although the two words are often used interchangeably for evil spiritual
entities, the original meanings of devil (from Greek diabolos, to
throw across, slander) and demon (from Greek daemon, spirit) were
somewhat more complex.
Devils have always had a negative connotation in Western religions
as evil forces, but the word devil has the same Indo-European
root as the Hindu-Buddhist term deva, which roughly approximates
the Western angel.
Daemons, on the other hand, were ancient Greek tutelary spirits
of either good or bad nature. The Greek word daemon was introduced
in the Roman and Hellenistic world to indicate evil forces, and it thus
entered early Christian writings with the negative connotation of
impure spirits.
The Judeo-Christian tradition elaborated the concept of the Devil
as the fallen angel who tempted Adam and Eve and was forever banished
from Paradise. Christian literature also drew upon the depiction
of evil spirits in Jewish, Persian, and Mesopotamian legends.
In the Christian tradition, devils acquired employment tormenting
the souls of the damned in the underworld (although the earliest
Christian idea was that stern, righteous angels tormented the
damned). As these ideas evolved and the righteous angels were
removed from hell, Satan, ruler of all other devils, became king of the
underworld. Hell then became the headquarters or central staging area
from which demonic forces launched assaults against those on earth,
attempting to snare human souls and otherwise spoil God’s creation.
There are two stories of how these former angels fell from grace.
In the most commonly accepted narrative of events, Satan, formerly
one of God’s favorite angels, leads a rebellion against God. As one
might anticipate, Satan loses, and he and the angels who follow him
(one-third of the celestial host, by some accounts) are tossed out of
heaven. The early Christians and contemporaneous Jews, however,
were familiar with a very different story, in which the angels fall via their lust for human women. A fragment of this
tale was incorporated into a brief passage in
Scripture that alludes to “the sons of God” (i.e.,
the angels), who, viewing beautiful human
women, took them for wives. (Gen. 6:2). This
latter tale was elaborated on in such noncanonical
writings as the Book of Enoch.