Devil (διάβολος)
In this article the conception of the Evil One in the apostolic writings and of the various names used to describe him will be considered; for the passages in EV [Note: V English Version.] where ‘devil’ represents δαιμόνιον See Demon.
1. The name διάβολος .-(a) It is used as a common noun or as an adjective to denote ‘a slanderer’ or ‘slanderous’ (NT in Pastoral Epistles only), as in 1 Timothy 3:11 (women not to be slanderers), 2 Timothy 3:3, Titus 2:3; and so in LXX [Note: XX Septuagint.] of Haman (Esther 7:4, Esther 7:8 :1; Heb. צָר, צרַד, Vulg. [Note: ulg. Vulgate.] hostis and adversarius). The corresponding verb is used of accusation, where the charge is not necessarily false, as in Luke 16:1 (διεβλήθη) of the unjust steward, though probably a secret enmity is inferred; and Papias (ap . Euseb. HE [Note: E Historia Ecclesiastica (Eusebius, etc.).] III. xxxix. 16) uses the verb (unless it is Eusebius’ paraphrase) with reference to the ‘woman accused of many sins before the Lord.’ It is noteworthy in this connexion that the devil’s accusations against man, though undoubtedly hostile, are not always untrue.
(b) As a proper name διάβολος is constantly used in the NT, usually with the article, but occasionally it is anarthrous (Acts 13:10, Acts 13:1 P 5:8, Revelation 12:9; Revelation 20:2). It is explicitly identified in Revelation 12:9; Revelation 20:2 with the Heb. name Satan, and, like that name, it is not used in the NT in the plur. (except in the primary sense of ‘slanderer’ as above), and is not applied to Satan’s angels, as we apply the word ‘devils’ to them. It is curious that we never in English use ‘Devil’ as a proper name without the article, while we always use ‘Satan’ in this way. Hence the title does not convey to our ears quite the same idea as it conveyed to the Jews. Conversely we should do well if we did not always treat ‘Christ’ as a proper name, but sometimes used it as a title or attribute, ‘the Christ,’ as occasionally in RV [Note: V Revised Version.] (e.g. Luke 24:26). In the OT ‘Satan’ (from שָׂטַן, ‘to hate,’ ‘to be an enemy to,’ the root idea being the enmity between the serpent and the seed of the woman, Genesis 3:15) is generally used with the article, word הַשָׂטָן, as denoting the adversary: in 1 K 5:4 it is used without the article, as denoting any adversary (LXX [Note: XX Septuagint.] ἐ πίβουλος, Vulg. [Note: ulg. Vulgate.] Satan). The name ‘Satan,’ however, had not been transliterated into Greek till shortly before the Christian era, for we never find it so rendered in the LXX [Note: XX Septuagint.], but always ὁ διάβολος . The latter is used as a proper name in the LXX [Note: XX Septuagint.] of Job 1:6 f., Zechariah 3:1 (Vulg. [Note: ulg. Vulgate.] Satan), and Wis 2:24 (Vulg. [Note: ulg. Vulgate.] Diabolus); and so often in the NT. There we have, as frequently, ὁ Σαταν ᾶ ς, almost always with an article, but in 2 Corinthians 12:7 we have Σατ ᾶ ν or Σαταν ᾶ without the article; some cursives in Revelation 20:2 have Σαταν ᾶ ς anarthrous. The transliteration ‘Satan’ is found 34 times in the NT, of which 14 cases are in the Gospels.
(c) We find in the apostolic writings some paraphrases of the name ‘Satan.’ ‘The Evil One’ (ὁ πονηρός) is used in Ephesians 6:16, 1 John 2:13 f; 1 John 3:12; 1 John 5:18 f.; this designation is also found 5 times in the Gospels, and, in addition, probably in the last clause of the Lord’s Prayer. In the Apocalypse ‘the dragon’ is frequently used as a synonym for Satan, ὁ δράκων probably meaning ‘the sharp-seeing one,’ from δέρκομαι .* [Note: The word δράκων in the LXX renders three Hebrew words: úÌÇðÌÄéï, tannin (Job 7:12), ðÈúÈùÑ, nâḥâsh (Job 26:13), ìÄåÄéÈúÈï, livyâthân (Job 40:25).] It is used in Revelation 12:3 ff.; Revelation 13:2, Revelation 13:4, Revelation 13:11; Revelation 16:13; Revelation 20:2 as denoting a large serpent (as in classical Greek), explicitly identified with the ‘old serpent’ of Genesis 3 in Revelation 12:9; Revelation 20:2 . This identification is perhaps implied in Romans 16:20, 2 Corinthians 11:3 (cf. Wis 2:24). Satan is also called ‘the Accuser’ and ‘the Destroyer’ (See below, § 2). For other names See Adversary, Air, Belial.
2. Apostolic doctrine about the devil or Satan .-The apostles, like their Jewish contemporaries, taught that Satan was a personal being, the prince of evil spirits or demons (Revelation 12:7, Revelation 12:9, Ephesians 2:2; cf. Matthew 25:41, Mark 3:22, but the name ‘Beelzebub’ is not found in the NT outside the Gospels), and therefore one of the ‘angels which kept not their own principality’ (Jude 1:6, Jude 1:2 P 2:4). In accordance with the conception of Wis 2:24, that his malignity towards man is caused by envy (for Jewish ideas See Edersheim, LT [Note: T Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (Edersheim).] 4, 1887, i. 165), he is represented as pre-eminently the adversary of man (1 P 5:8), and as accusing him to God (Revelation 12:10 κατήγορος or κατήγωρ; the reference seems to be to Job and Joshua the high priest). He has power in this world, though only for a while (Revelation 12:12), and therefore is called the ‘god of this world’ or ‘age’ (α ἰ ών) who ‘hath blinded the thoughts (νοήματα) of the unbelieving’ (2 Corinthians 4:4; cf. John 14:30; John 16:11 ‘the prince of the [this] world’). This ‘power of Satan’ is contrasted with ‘God’ as ‘darkness’ with ‘light’ in the heavenly vision at St. Paul’s conversion (Acts 26:18). ‘The devil’ has ‘the power of death’ (Hebrews 2:14), not that he can inflict death at will, but that death entered into the world through sin (Romans 5:12) at his instigation (Wis 2:24). As Westcott remarks (on Hebrews 2:14), death as death is no part of the Divine order, but is the devil’s realm; he makes it subservient to his end. He must, therefore, almost certainly be identified with ‘the Destroyer’ who appears as Apollyon (ἀ πολλύων) or Abaddon (אֲבַדּוֹן, lit. [Note: it. literally, literature.] ‘destruction’; See Abaddon) in Revelation 9:11, the king of the locusts who has power to injure men for five months-the name is akin to ‘Asmodaeus’ of to 3:6 (אַשְׁמְדַי, from שָׁמַד, ‘to destroy’), but not with the ‘Destroyer’ of 1 Corinthians 10:10 (See Angels, 5 (b)).
The devil uses his power to seduce man to sin; he tempts Ananias to lie to the Holy Ghost (Acts 5:3); he deceives the whole world (Revelation 12:9; Revelation 20:8, Revelation 20:10); he is pre-eminently ‘the tempter’ (1 Thessalonians 3:5, 1 Corinthians 7:5); he tempts with wiles and devices and snares (Ephesians 6:11, 2 Corinthians 2:11, 1 Timothy 3:7, 2 Timothy 2:26); he uses evil men as his instruments or ministers, who ‘fashion themselves as ministers of righteousness’ even as he ‘fashioned himself into an angel of light’ (2 Corinthians 11:14 f.). A passage in the Pastoral Epistles (1 Timothy 3:6) suggests that the fundamental temptation with which Satan seduces men is pride. The Christian ἐ πίσκο π ος must not be puffed up with pride lest he fall into the condemnation (κρίμα) into which the devil fell (i.e. when cast out of heaven; this seems to be the most probable interpretation, not ‘the judgment wrought by the devil’; cf. John 16:11 ‘the prince of this world hath been judged,’ κέκριται). Satan is far from being omnipotent; man can resist him, and he will flee (James 4:7); man must not ‘give place to’ him, i.e. not give him scope to work (Ephesians 4:27). Not that man can resist by his own strength, but only by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, who helps his infirmity (Romans 8:26, 1 Corinthians 3:16, and in St. Paul’s Epistles passim; cf. Matthew 12:28); the Holy Spirit is man’s Helper or Paraclete against the Evil Spirit.
The devil is described as instigating opposition to Christian work* [Note: In this sense Peter is called ‘Satan’ in Matthew 16:23 .] and persecution; whether by blinding the minds (lit. [Note: it. literally, literature.] thoughts) of the unbelieving (2 Corinthians 4:4), or directly by suggesting opposition, as when he ‘hindered’ St. Paul’s return to Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 2:18), perhaps (as Ramsay thinks [ St. Paul, 1895, p. 230f.]) by putting into the minds of the politarchs the idea of exacting security for the leading Christians of that city (Acts 17:9). Similarly in Revelation 2:10 the devil is said to be about to cast some of the Smyrnaean Christians into prison; and Pergamum, the centre of the Emperor-worship which led to the persecution described in the Apocalypse, is called Satan’s throne (2:13). No phrase marks more clearly than this the difference of attitude towards the Roman official world between the Seer on the one hand and St. Paul and St. Luke on the other, or (as it seems to the present writer) the interval between the dates of writing. The Seer looks on the Emperor and his officials as closely allied with Satan, while St. Paul and St. Luke look upon them as Christ’s instruments (Romans 13:4, etc.; and note the statements about Roman officials in Acts). In close connexion with the above passages, the persecuting Jews are called a ‘synagogue of Satan’ (Revelation 2:9; Revelation 3:9).
3. The conflict with Satan .-Michael and his good angels are represented as at war in heaven with the devil and his angels (Revelation 12:7) as a direct result of the spiritual travail of the Christian Church (vv. 2-6). Satan is cast down to the earth and persecutes the Church (v. 13). but he is bound by the angel for a thousand years, i.e. for a long period, and cast into the abyss that he may no longer deceive (20:2f.). This period of binding synchronizes with Christ’s reign of a thousand years (See v. 7), when the triumph is shared by the martyrs (vv. 4-6); this is the ‘first resurrection,’ and is best interpreted as taking place in the present life, and as referring to the cessation of the persecution, which was to last for a comparatively short time-3½ days (11:9, 11) as compared with 1000 years (20:2, 4), and to the establishment of a dominant Christianity. but the reign of Christ is not said to be ‘on earth.’ The reign of the martyrs was not to be an earthly one; they ‘would live and reign with Christ as kings and priests in the hearts of all succeeding generations of Christians, while their work bore fruit in the subjection of the civilized world to the obedience of the faith.… the age of the martyrs, however long it might last, would be followed by a far longer period of Christian supremacy’ (Swete, extending and adapting Augustine, de Civ. Dei, xx. 7ff.). In other words, Satan’s power for evil now is not to be compared with his power at the beginning of our era. This conception of an anticipatory victory over Satan may be compared with Romans 16:20, 1 John 3:8; 1 John 5:18 .
After the thousand years the devil will be released (Revelation 20:3); there will be a great activity of all the powers of evil before the Last Day; but he will be finally overthrown (v. 10), and Christ’s triumph will be complete. This is the great message of the Apocalypse. The struggle between the Church and the World will end in Satan being vanquished for ever.
4. Satan dwelling in men .-This subject is considered in art. [Note: rt. article.] Demon; but certain NT phrases may be noticed here.
(a) Wicked men are called ‘children of the devil’ (Acts 13:10, Elymas; 1 John 3:10); and in Revelation 2:24 the ‘mysteries’ of the false teachers at Thyatira are called ‘the deep things of Satan, as they say,’ as opposed to the ‘deep things of God’ of which St. Paul speaks (1 Corinthians 2:10; cf. Romans 11:33, Ephesians 3:18; i.e. ‘the deep things as they call them, but they are the deep things of Satan.’ In these wicked men and teachers Satan is conceived as dwelling; but pre-eminently he dwells in the man who is his representative, and who is endowed with his attributes, ‘the lawless one’ (Antichrist) who works false miracles and has his Parousia even as Christ has (2 Thessalonians 2:9, where See Milligan’s note).
(b) Delivering unto Satan .-This phrase is found in 1 Corinthians 5:4 f. and 1 Timothy 1:20, and is perhaps based on Job 1:12; Job 2:6, where the patriarch is delivered to Satan to be tried by suffering. In St. Paul the phrase seems to denote excommunication, the excommunicate becoming a dwelling-place for the Evil One. It is, indeed, thought by some that the phrase ‘destruction of the flesh’ in 1 Corinthians 5:5 means the infliction of death, as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira (Alford, Goudge, etc.). but in 1 Tim. death cannot be intended, for the object of the discipline is that the offender may be taught not to blaspheme; and in 1 Cor. the balance of probability perhaps lies with the opinion that the offender is the same as the man who was received back into communion in 2 Corinthians 2:7; 2 Corinthians 7:12 (for the contrary view See A. Menzies, Second Corinthians, London, 1912, p. xvii ff.). Ramsay thinks that the phrase was an adaptation of a pagan idea in which the punishment of an offender is left to the gods. Undoubtedly excommunication in the early Church was a severe penalty; bodily sufferings are not impossibly referred to, for these are attributed to Satan in the NT (Luke 13:16, the woman whom Satan had bound), and St. Paul calls his ‘stake in the flesh,’ whatever form of suffering that might have been, ‘a messenger of Satan to buffet me’ (2 Corinthians 12:7). Yet this discipline is intended to bring about repentance, ‘that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.’
Literature.-H. St. J. Thackeray, The Relation of St. Paul to Contemporary Jewish Thought, 1900, p. 142ff. (esp. p. 170f.); E. B. Redlich, St. Paul and his Companions, 1913, index, s.v. ‘Satan’; A. Nairne, The Epistle of Priesthood, 1913, pp. 57, 267ff.; T. J. Hardy, The Religious Instinct, 1913, p. 151ff.; T. Haering, The Christian Faith, Eng. tr. [Note: r. translated, translation.], 1913, i. 481f. See art. [Note: rt. article.] Demon. For the Apocalypse passages See especially H. B. Swete’s admirable Commentary, London, 1906.
A. J. Maclean.