Texts in Conversation
Revelation’s description of locusts with human faces and hair like women resembles the demon Obyzouth in the Testament of Solomon, whose animal features and wild hair highlights her dangerous and chaotic nature. Both use feminine imagery to evoke fear through the blurring of natural boundaries.
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Revelation 9:8
New Testament
5 The locusts were not given permission to kill them, but only to torture them for five months, and their torture was like that of a scorpion when it stings a person. 6 In those days people will seek death, but will not be able to find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them. 7 Now the locusts looked like horses equipped for battle. On their heads were something like crowns similar to gold, and their faces looked like men’s faces. 8 They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. 9 They had breastplates like iron breastplates, and the sound of their wings was like the noise of many horse-drawn chariots charging into battle. 10 They have tails and stingers like scorpions, and their ability to injure people for five months is in their tails.
Date: 92-96 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Testament of Solomon 29
Pseudepigrapha
56 I then asked the demon, ‘What are you called?’ It replied, ‘I am known as the crest of dragons.’ I commanded it to assist in making bricks for the Temple construction. Remarkably, it had human hands. 57 I worshipped the Lord God of Israel and summoned another spirit. This spirit appeared in the form of a woman without limbs, with disheveled hair. I asked, ‘Who are you?’ She responded, ‘Who are you to inquire about me? Yet, since you must know, here I am, bound before you. Go and cleanse yourself in your royal chambers, then return to judge me.’
Date: 100-900 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Solomon interrogates Obyzouth, a female demon with disheveled hair. Disheveled hair evokes Medusa, guardian goddess of Aphrodite, but demons with wild hair also appears in Revelation 9:8. Obyzouth travels all night looking for women giving birth in order to make them strangle their baby. The angel Raphael thwarts her by writing her name on a papyri ..."
Long, Phillip J.
Testament of Solomon: A Catalog of Demons
(pp. 1-5) Grace Christian University, 2017
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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