In the New Testament, this neuter noun overwhelmingly refers to malevolent spirits that torment, possess, or afflict people — the "unclean spirits" Jesus and the apostles cast out in dramatic encounters across the Gospels (Matt 9:33; Mark 5:12; Luke 8:30). The Spanish consistently renders it as "demonios," French as "démon," and German as "Dämon," all pointing to the same core concept. A single notable exception occurs in Acts 17:18, where Athenian philosophers accuse Paul of proclaiming "foreign deities" — here the word retains its older classical Greek sense of a divine being or power, as the Spanish "divinidades" helpfully distinguishes from the usual "demonios."