Biblical Demonology: 7vi – The Yiddeoni, The “Knowing Ones”

Who were the yiddeoni, the “knowing ones” that appear in various Old Testament Bible passages? Were they human beings, as some translations imply? Were they spirit beings that were able to bring back knowledge of future events, possibly traversing between different time dimensions?

The yiddeoni (lit. ‘knowing ones’) appear 11 times in the Hebrew Old Testament [1], but we shall just focus upon one particular verse to see how they’ve been translated and how it affects our understanding:

Do not turn to people with an ‘ôb in them or consult a knowing one to avoid becoming unclean…

Leviticus 19:31 (My Version)

All the English versions of Leviticus 19:31 can be analysed in parallel here.

The Yiddeoni – Human Beings?

Due to certain Bible translations, the yiddeoni appear to be human beings involved in certain divinatory practices that were outlawed to the Israelites:

• Diviners (JUB)
• Fortune-tellers (EXB, ICB, NCV)
• Necromancers (ESV, MEV)
• Soothsayers (DARBY, GNB, LEB)
• Spiritists (HCSB, NASB, NIV)
• Wizards (ASV, KJV, NRSV, YLT)

Engaging in these activities could indeed render someone to be called a ‘knowing one’. However, it should be noted that these are post-biblical attributions of the term [2], and we should the context of the verse would be able to help unpack the meaning of this term.

The term yiddeoni always appears in conjunction with the phrase a person “with an ‘ôb“. The translations mentioned above which render the ‘ôb term as a human / physical object could be forgiven for also translating the yiddeoni similarly as a human. However, we have shown in other articles that the ‘ôb is a deceased human spirit. If the ‘ôb are spirits, could the yiddeoni also be spirits and not humans?

The Yiddeoni – Spirit Beings?

Certain other translations of Leviticus 19:31 have the following translations of yiddeoni:

• Familiar Spirits (NKJV – note the difference to the KJV ‘wizards’ above)
• Spirits (NABRE)
• Spirits of divination (AMP, CEB)
• Spirits of the dead (VOICE)

Why the move to translating them as spirit beings? In Deuteronomy 18:11, where we read of certain prohibited actions including “one who inquires of a spirit or a knowing one” (the literal translation of šō·’êl ’ō·wḇ wə·yid·də·‘ō·nî) [3]. When we read Isaiah 19:3, we find a host of spirit beings:

the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out, and I will confound their plans; they will consult the idols (’ĕlîlîm) and the spirits of the dead (’ôbōwṯ) and the ghosts (’iṭṭîm), and the familiar spirits (yiddə‘ōnîm)

Isaiah 19:3 (NRSV)

A literal translation of Leviticus 20:27 reads:

And a man or a woman who is a medium or who has familiar spirits …

It therefore appears that the yiddeoni were indeed a category of spirit beings that were intimately involved with the practitioner of a particular spiritual practice: ‘ôb where someone was initiating contacting the dead; yiddeoni where someone was attempting to access future information.

Schmidt [4] argues for the yiddeoni as human spirits due to their close proximity textually with the ‘ôb (deceased ancestors), the ’iṭṭîm (ghosts) and the mētîm (the dead) in passages which mention those who enquire of them.

Yiddeoni – Atemporal Spirits

The atemporal aspect of the yiddeoni is similar to the spirit of Python (πνεῦμα Πύθωνα, pneuma Pythona), a fortune-telling spirit in the girl whom Paul and Silas encountered at Philippi:

One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. 

Acts 16:16 (NRSV)

The exact mechanics of how a human spirit could access different time dimensions is not understood. Whether, like the spirits who possessed Göttliebin Dittus, they were under the influence of a nonhuman spirit that did have such access, or they themselves have that access we are unable to know. What we do know is that modern physics seems to suggest that there can be at least two time dimensions (2T Physics), one of which we carnate beings have access to, so perhaps this is a possible mechanism.

Conclusion

The yiddeoni were originally understood as divinatory human spirits that somehow had access to future knowledge. It is only post-biblical traditions which sought to render the yiddeoni as physical human agencies.

Like the ‘ôb, the yiddeoni resided inside the body of the oracle, which is concerning seeing as surrendering one’s body to the possession of another spirit is considered dangerous, and for ancient Israelites attracted the death penalty for such activities.

We can now add the yiddeoni to the Class III of Walton’s Daimons classification [5]:

Addendum

It must be noted that the ability to perceive the future may not necessarily be down to possession by yiddeoni spirits. Prophecy, when from God, may include an element of foreknowledge of events, and studies of pre-cognition seem to suggest that certain aspects of the human psyche may at times be able to foretell events. Whether this latter ability is a God-given gift, our own inbuilt abilities that we have yet to understand, or from external agencies is a matter of discernment. It is inadvisable to actively invite an external spirit to possess you for the purposes of foretelling the future, and could cause both mental and spiritual harm in the end. As 1 John 4 tells us “Test the spirits, for not every one comes from God.”

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Bibliography

DDD – Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible

Heiser, M. S. (2020), Demons: What the Bible Really Says About the Powers of Darkness, Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Schmidt, B. B. (1996) Israel’s Beneficient Dead: Ancestor Cult and Necromancy in Ancient Israelite Religion and Tradition, Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.

Van der Toorn, K., Van der Horst, P. W., et al (1998), Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. Lieden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers.

Walton, J. H. and Walton, J. H. (2019), Demons and Spirits in Biblical Theology: Reading the Biblical Text in Its Cultural and Literary Context, Eugene, OR: Cascade.

Footnotes

[1] Lev 19:31; 20:6,27; Deut 1811; 1 Sam 28:3,9; 2 Kings 21:6; 2 Chron 33:6; 2 Kings 23:24; Isa 8:19; 19:3)

[2] DDD, 907 – 908.

[3] Heiser, 17; Schmidt, 147.

[4] Schmidt, 153.

[5] Walton, 56.