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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, feminine hair highlights her dangerous and chaotic nature.
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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 53
Pseudepigrapha
52 I insisted, ‘I command you by the name of the God of Hosts to tell me by what name you and your host are subdued.’ The spirit answered, ‘The one known as ‘the great among men,’ who will endure much from humans, whose name sums to 644 and is called Emmanuel, he is the one who binds us and will cast us into the abyss. His name resonates in three letters that summon him.’ 53 Hearing this, I, Solomon, praised God and ordered the legion of the demon to collect wood from the forests. I directed the lion-shaped demon himself to use his teeth to saw the wood for use in the eternal fire of the Temple.
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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