Mastema
Mastema is the 'Chief of Spirits' described in the Book of Jubilees, written around 150 BC. He intervened before all the demon offspring of the Watchers were sealed away, requesting Yahweh to let him keep some to become his workers. Mastema uses these demons to tempt humans into committing more sins so that he may punish them for their wickedness, and later induces Yahweh to test Abraham by ordering him to sacrifice Isaac.
↻ synthesized from 3 sources
When
- First attested
- 200 BCE
- Attested period
- -200 – 100
- Historical notes
- Appears in the Book of Jubilees written around 150 BC as the Chief of Spirits.
Relationships
- co occurs with
- Michael the Archangel, Angra Mainyu, Watchers, Semjâzâ, Satanael, angels of destruction, Angel of Light, Mot, Dumah, Satan, Azazel, Belial, Samael, Abaddon, Azrael
- serves
- Yahweh
Mentioned by
Sources
Source passages
“Mastema, the 'Chief of Spirits', intervenes before all of their demon offspring are sealed away, requesting for Yahweh to let him keep some of them to become his workers. Yahweh acquiesces to this request and Mastema uses them to tempt humans”
#2252 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5
“In this work, Belial is sometimes presented as an agent of divine punishment and sometimes as a rebel, as Mastema is.”
#25869 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5
“List of angels in theology Mastema Mot”
#39907 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001