Who Is Satan?
The many forms of the devil in the Bible
Wood engraving by Gustave Doré depicting Dante’s Inferno, Canto XXXIV, in which Dante and Virgil encounter Satan in the Ninth Circle of Hell.
From the most comical of cartoons to the most grotesque of gargoyles, the majority of the population today can immediately recognize an image of the devil. But does our modern conception of Satan have any resemblance to the devil in the Bible? Just who is Satan? Is this horned, red-skinned monster with a pitchfork ruling hell truly the great enemy of God envisioned by the writers of the Biblical texts?
The short answer: no, not really.
In the Hebrew Bible, YHWH’s greatest enemies are not fallen angels commanding armies of demons, nor even the gods of other nations, but, rather, human beings. It isn’t the devil that spreads evil across the face of creation—it is mankind. Other than human beings, YHWH has no nemesis, nor are there malevolent spiritual forces not under his authority. YHWH is ultimately a god of justice. He is behind the good and the bad, behind the blessings and the curses. It is within this divine court of justice and retribution that Satan has his origins.
The Hebrew word śāṭān, meaning “accuser” or “adversary,” occurs several times throughout the Hebrew Bible and refers to enemies both human and celestial alike. When referring to the celestial adversary, the word is typically accompanied by the definite article. He is ha-satan—the Accuser—and it is a job description rather than a proper name. From the Accuser’s appearances in the Books of Job and Zechariah, it seems that the job entails calling attention to the unworthiness of mankind. The Accuser is essentially the prosecuting attorney of the divine court of YHWH, and part of his job includes collecting evidence to prove his cases. With this bit of knowledge in mind, it isn’t difficult to envision the various “outcries against sin,” such as that against Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18:20–21), as the voice of the Accuser.
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It is difficult to determine at which point in Israel’s history the Accuser began to take on a much more sinister role in the Israelite/Jewish belief structure, or how heaven’s great prosecutor became the prince of darkness (Ephesians 6:12). It is certainly easy to make the connection between Israel’s time in exile and the likely influence of the cosmic dualism of Persian religion.1 However, even within books written well after the return from foreign lands, the Accuser is still a self-righteous lawyer. Though if 1 Chronicles 21:1 is any indication,2 they began to believe the Accuser wasn’t above getting his hands dirty.
It is perfectly clear, however, that by the first century C.E., Judaism developed a belief in the divine forces of darkness doing battle against the forces of light. This can be seen within the New Testament and other extra-Biblical writings such as those found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. There are likely several factors that inspired these developments, including the influence of Persian, as well as Hellenistic, religions.
If there was an army of evil spiritual forces making war on the righteous, they had to have a commander. It is at this time that the impersonal and lofty Accuser began to acquire the various names and titles that have filled the writings of western civilization for 2,000 years. The Greek word diabolos (from which “devil” is derived), meaning “slanderer,” comes from a verb that means “to hurl” (i.e., accusations).
Diabolos was typically used as the Greek equivalent for the Hebrew śāṭān (in the Septuagint version of Job, for example), though it was not uncommon to simply transliterate the word into the Greek satanas (1 Kings 11:14). Other names used for the leader of the forces of evil at this time include Maśṭēmāh, which means “hatred” (1QM 13:4, 11; Jubilees 10:8), and Belial, a popular name among the writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which means “worthless” or “corrupt.” “Children of Belial” (Hebrew: bene-belial) was a typical phrase used to describe evil people in the Hebrew Bible (e.g., Deuteronomy 13:13; 1 Samuel 1:16; 2 Chronicles 13:7, etc.). If someone were searching for a name that personified evil in the Hebrew Bible, it would be Belial, not Satan. Interesting enough, the name only occurs once in the New Testament (2 Corinthians 6:15), as Paul’s stark contrast to Christ.
It is also in this period that we begin to see the development of the tradition of equating the talking serpent in the Garden of Eden with Satan (Life of Adam and Eve xi–xvii).
Etruscan fresco of Typhon from the Tomba del Tifone in Tarquinia, Italy, c. third century B.C.E. According to Greek mythology, the montrous Titan Typhon battled the mighty Zeus, who bound his foe in the dark depths of Tartarus to bring about a new era of peace.
Satan’s role in the New Testament, though highly expanded, has much more in common with the Accuser of the Hebrew Bible than the commander of the armies of darkness that is typically portrayed in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Even though he is given such lofty titles as “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31), “father of lies” (John 8:44), “god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4), “ruler of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2), and Beelzebul, “ruler of the demons” (Matthew 10:25; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15), Satan is essentially treated as nothing more than a glorified prison warden who has been corrupted by his own power. Throughout the Gospels, Satan’s “kingdom” is never considered to be a burning underworld full of the tormented dead, but, rather, is equated with the bondage of sin and the curses brought upon humanity for acts of unrighteousness. According to Jesus (Matthew 12:29; Mark 3:27; Luke 11:21–22), a “strong man” (Satan) must be bound in order to plunder his house for treasures (humans), and it is clear he viewed his ministry and that of his disciples within this context. All other references to Satan in the New Testament, including those in Revelation, reflect this struggle for spiritual freedom.
Over the course of several centuries of influence from many different cultures, the defeated Accuser of the Christians would go on to appropriate aspects of various divine enemies (Typhon, Hades, Ahriman, Hela, to name but a few) to become the complex mythological monster that was thrown out of heaven at the beginning of time to rule the fiery underworld and torment the souls of the damned. Such a character makes for great movies and Halloween costumes, but would have been virtually unknown to anyone in Biblical times.
Notes
1. Adherents to Zoroastrianism believed in the ongoing battle between Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu (known in later periods as Ormazd and Ahriman), the good creator god of light and order and the evil god of chaos and darkness.
2. Compare the earlier version of the story in 2 Samuel 24 in which YHWH himself is the one who incites David to sin.
This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on November 10, 2016.
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Is there a reason why the author chose not to include the references to Satan in the Apocalypse?
“And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”
Here we see Satan, not as an accuser, but a deceiver, lying to man, tempting him to turn to him from God, so that he, Satan, can then accuse that same man before God.
Nor does the author tell us that, again, according to the Apocalypse, the current non burning version of hell will, in the end, be cast into the literal lake of fire which has been designed by the Creator to contain, torment, but not annihilate Satan, his angels, and those whose name is not written in the book of life.
He really has no idea. Satan has two origins combined into one. It is Draco, who releases the armies of the north. It is also Venus, one of the angels. He/she dares to stay out in the morning when other stars (angels) are gone thinking it is as beautiful as god (YHWH= moon). The lower case “satan” of the Bible i.e. accuser is basically unrelated. The demoness form of Venus (Ishtar) was Lilith…the original wife of Adam as Virgo who stayed behind in the Garden. You need to look at a properly edited original Bronze Age bible text. This can be done by deconstructing the Bible reversing the techniques used to construct it. These are describe by Tigay for Gilgamesh and hold true for the OT from creation to the crowning of Solomon. Granted this is just an except from a much longer thesis.
The Gospels(except John) record an encounter of Jesus with the devil: Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13. John 8:42-47 states Jesus’ words about the
devil’s reality and influence concerning humanity. Inconsequential? Myth? Fairy tale? Not to us who have believed and received Jesus as “. . . the way, the truth, and the life . . .” (John 14:6).
Not to us who believe in the literal, inerrant, infallible Word of God!
I understood that the Hebrew word for Satan also means any impediment, something that is blocking you from advancing.
This article paints a picture that is at best inaccurate. While the book Job does paint a picture of a being bringing accusations against Job, he is far more than just an accuser as 1:12 attest. You also ignore Psalms 82 which refers to Gods divine council showing God judging other elohim for their “showing partiality to the wicked” (vs. 2) Psalm was written before the diasport… I would suggest Hebrew scholar Michael S. Heiser’s book The Unseen Realm for a better picture of satan. One last point, Paul writes in Ephesians 6:12-13 that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but…the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
Issue of Sovereignty Raised. When Satan approached Eve (through the speech of the serpent), he actually challenged the rightfulness and righteousness of Jehovah’s sovereignty. He intimated that God was unrightfully withholding something from the woman; he also declared that God was a liar in saying that she would die if she ate the forbidden fruit. Additionally, Satan made her believe she would be free and independent of God, becoming like God. By this means this wicked spirit creature raised himself higher than God in Eve’s eyes, and Satan became her god, even though Eve, at the time, apparently did not know the identity of the one misleading her. By his action he brought man and woman under his leadership and control, standing up as a rival god in opposition to Jehovah.—Ge 3:1-7. http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200003845#h=7
Good point Satan’s Kingdom is on earth: it is this world, not some underworld of the dead. Ultimately when all the dead are resurrected then hell too becomes non existent, just as Satan will also be nonexistent in the lake of fire:
“And death and the Grave were hurled into the lake of fire. This means the second death, the lake of fire. Furthermore, whoever was not found written in the book of life was hurled into the lake of fire,” Revelation 20:14.
In Luke’s account of the gospel, Jesus remarks that he “watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning: (Luke 10:18, NRSV). Certainly this would be strong evidence that early Christians (if not Jesus himself) viewed Satan as a fallen angel.
O Children of Israel, I thought you might like to know the Islamic perspective on Satan. Satan is called Iblis in the Qur’an. He and Angels were created by God before mankind and Adam in particular. Satan was from the Jinn and not from angels. And only Jinns and mankind have two sides that is to believe or not to believe, two sides on everything. Angels have only one who obey the command given by God. So when God created Adam, He asked his creations of Kinns and Angels to bow down in respect as He said; behold my best creation -Man! Satan rebelled and argued long with God saying how can he be better than me! He is made is filthy earth and I from pure fire. He would not yield to God’s declarations and so God finally ousted him from Paradise and let him free till the Day of Judgment. Satan vowed that now he will prove to God that his decision was unfair and so he will lead his so-called best creation away from him and yet he will remain a believer in the Lordship of God. God said He would fill Hell with his likes and those of mankind who follow him. The story is longer and to cut it short, he was finally turned out an outcast forever. God then started sending Prophets, Books guiding mankind to stay firm on His commandments. He finally said in greater details on this in His last Testament Qur’an. And if this is too much to bear with than I am afraid there is nothing more to say. May God bless all who read this. Ameen.
I David (#1 above) feel it necessary to respond to David (#7 above):
No! Death, Hell, Satan, the False Prophet, The Antichrist, The fallen angels, the souls of unsaved men (not written into the book of life) do not cease to exist when thrown into the lake of fire which IS the second death. If you read the Rev 20:10, you will see that: “…the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever”. Notice this event occurs 1000 years AFTER the false prophet and the antichrist have been thrown into the lake of fire, yet this verse tells us that these two ARE there when the Devil – Satan is thrown in. Then (in verse 20:14) death and hell are added, and finally in 20:15 all those who were judged by their works and found not written in the book of life are thrown into this lake of fire. This is hardly a picture of non-existence