Mastema — “Hostility” or “Animosity” — is a demon and accusing-angel of Jewish lore, prominent in the Book of Jubilees: the prince of the evil spirits and the accuser, an ambivalent figure who, like Satan, tests and accuses humankind, yet acts within the bounds of the divine order — the personification of hostility who serves, in a dark way, the purposes of God. He is the adversary by divine permission.
The Prince of Hostility
Mastema (Mastemah, “hostility,” “enmity,” “accusation”) is named in the Book of Jubilees as the chief of the evil spirits — the prince of the demons (the spirits descended from the fallen Watchers and the Nephilim) and the great accuser and tester of humankind. He is, in many ways, a figure parallel to Satan or [sammael]: the adversary who accuses, tempts, and afflicts — yet who operates within the divine order, by God’s permission, as an instrument of testing and judgment.
The Accuser by Permission
Mastema’s ambivalent role is striking. In Jubilees, when God moves to destroy all the demons after the Flood, Mastema petitions that a tenth of the evil spirits be left to him, that he might continue to test, corrupt, and judge humankind — and God grants this, so that Mastema remains the prince of the spirits that afflict and tempt the living. It is Mastema who, in Jubilees, prompts the testing of Abraham (the binding of Isaac), and who hardens Pharaoh and opposes Moses — the adversary who tests the faithful and serves, paradoxically, the divine purpose through his hostility. He is the accuser permitted to accuse, the tempter permitted to tempt.
The Adversary of the Divine Order
Mastema embodies the principle of hostility and accusation within the cosmic order — the necessary adversary who tests humankind, the prince of the evil spirits who afflict and corrupt, yet who is bound by and serves the divine will. He is closely related to, or identified with, Satan, Belial, and Sammael as figures of the accuser and the adversary. As the chief of the demons in the Book of Jubilees, he holds an important place in Jewish demonology. In Mastema, Jewish lore gave form to hostility and the accuser by divine permission — the prince of the evil spirits who tests, tempts, and accuses humankind, the adversary who afflicts the faithful yet serves the divine purpose, the personification of enmity within the cosmic order.