Mastema: Who Bargained With God to Keep a Tenth of the Demons?

The prince of evil spirits who, in Jubilees, negotiates with God to keep a tenth of the demons free after the Flood.

Mastema, from a Hebrew word for "hostility," is the chief of evil spirits in the Book of Jubilees. After the Flood he asks God to leave some of the spirits free, and God lets him keep a tenth.

Mastema is the chief of evil spirits in the Book of Jubilees. His name comes from a Hebrew word meaning "hostility" or "enmity." After the Flood, the spirits of the dead giants begin leading Noah's grandchildren astray. Noah prays for them to be locked away, and God orders them bound. Then Mastema speaks up: "Lord, Creator, let some of them remain before me, and let them harken to my voice."

God agrees to a deal. "Let the tenth part of them remain before him, and let nine parts descend into the place of condemnation." To compensate, an angel teaches Noah the healing uses of plants, which Noah writes in a book and gives to his son Shem. It is an origin story for both demons and medicine.

Mastema keeps turning up in Jubilees in roles the Bible gives to God or leaves unexplained. He suggests testing Abraham with the sacrifice of Isaac, much as the accuser does in Job. He tries to kill Moses on the road to Egypt, the puzzling episode of Exodus 4:24. He helps Pharaoh's magicians and is bound during the Exodus so he cannot accuse Israel. The Dead Sea Scrolls speak of an "angel of Mastema" too. Mastema shows how Jewish writers of the second century BCE were building a figure like the later Satan: a prosecutor with a workforce, operating with God's permission.