{Thou Son of God} (huie tou theou). The recognition of
Jesus by the demons is surprising. The whole subject of
demonology is difficult. Some hold that it is merely the ancient
way of describing disease. But that does not explain the
situation here. Jesus is represented as treating the demons as
real existences separate from the human personality. Missionaries
in China today claim that they have seen demons cast out. The
devil knew Jesus clearly and it is not strange that Jesus was
recognized by the devil's agents. They know that there is nothing
in common between them and the Son of God (h(886d)in kai soi,
ethical dative) and they fear torment "before the time" (pro
kairou). Usually 	a daimonia is the word in the New Testament
for demons, but in  8:31  we have hoi daimones (the only
example in the N.T.). Daimonion is a diminutive of daim(936e). In
Homer daim(936e) is used synonymously with 	heos and 	hea.
Hesiod employed daim(936e) of men of the golden age as tutelary
deities. Homer has the adjective daimonios usually in an evil
sense. Empedocles considered the demons both bad and good. They
were thus used to relieve the gods and goddesses of much
rascality. Grote (_History of Greece_) notes that the Christians
were thus by pagan usage justified in calling idolatry the
worship of demons. See  1Co 10:20f.  1Ti 4:1  Re 9:20  16:13f .
In the Gospels demons are the same as unclean spirits ( Mr
5:12,15  3:22,30  Lu 4:33 ). The demons are disturbers (Vincent)
of the whole life of man ( Mr 5:2f.  7:25  Mt 12:45  Lu
13:11,16 ).