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Devil in Christianity

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This page is about the Devil in Christianity. For the Islamic devil, see Iblis See Devil for the devil in other religions, the term devil, and the concept in general.
Raising the devil.
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Raising the devil.

In Christianity, the Devil is named Satan, sometimes Lucifer. He is a fallen angel who rebeled against God, and is now the king of Hell. In the Bible, he is identified with the serpent in the Garden of Eden, the Accuser of Job, the tempter of the Gospels, and the dragon in the Book of Revelation. Traditionally, Christians have understood the Devil to be the author of lies and promoter of evil.

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Names of the Devil in Christianity

Old and New Testament names

Originally, only the epithet of "the satan" or "the adversary" was used to denote the character in the Hebrew deity's court that later became known as "the Devil". The article was lost and this title became a proper name: Satan. There is no unambiguous basis for the Devil in the Torah, the Prophets, or the Writings.

Zechariah 3:1--"And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and ha-satan standing at his right hand to resist him." This reading has since been erroneously interpreted by some to mean Satan, "the Devil", but such is not the case. The Hebrew Bible views ha-satan as an angel ministering to the desires of God, acting as Chief Prosecutor.

There are some who erroneously claim that the word 'devil' is from 'd'evil' -'of evil.' Some also believe that because the word 'evil' itself is 'live' spelt backward, the word originated through the nature of evil being "against living things," or the antithesis of life itself. Both claims are false, as the words are etymologically derived from pre-existing languages.

Further development

When the Bible was translated into Latin (the Vulgate), the name Lucifer appeared as a translation of "Morning Star", or the planet Venus, in Isaiah 14:12. Isaiah 14:1-23 is a passage largely concerned with the plight of Babylon, and its king is referred to as "morning star, son of the dawn". This is because the Babylonian king was considered to be of godly status and of symbolic divine parentage (Bel and Ishtar, associated with the planet Venus).

While this information is available to scholars today via translated Babylonian cuneiform text taken from clay tablets, it was not as readily available at the time of the Latin translation of the Bible. Thus, early Christian tradition interpreted the passage as a reference to the moment Satan was thrown from Heaven. Lucifer became another name for Satan and has remained so due to Christian dogma and popular tradition.

The Hebrew Bible word which was later translated to "Lucifer" in English is הילל (transliterated HYLL). Though this word, Heilel, has come to be translated as "morning-star" from the Septuagint's translation of the Scriptures, the letter ה in Hebrew often indicates singularity, much as the English "the," in which case the translation would be ה "the" ילל "yell," or "the wailing yell."

Later, for unknown reasons, Christian demonologists appeared to designate "Satan", "Lucifer", and "Beelzebub" as different entities, each with a different rank in the hellish hierarchy. One hypothesis is that this might have been an attempt to establish a hellish trinity with the same person, akin to the Christian Trinity of Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, but most demonologists do not carry this view.

In Christian tradition

Christian tradition differs from that of Christian demonology in that Satan, Lucifer, Leviathan and Beelzebub all are names that refer to "the Devil", and Prince of this World, The Beast and Dragon (and rarely Serpent or The Old Serpent) use to be elliptic forms to refer to him. The Enemy, The Evil One and The Tempter are other elliptic forms to name the Devil. Belial is held by many to be another name for the Devil. Christian demonology, in contrast, does not have several nicknames for Satan.

It should be noted that the name Mephistopheles is used by some people to refer to the Devil, but it is a mere folkloric custom, and has nothing to do with Christian demonology and Christian tradition. Prince of Darkness and Lord of Darkness are also folkloric names, although they tend to be incorporated to Christian tradition.

The medieval Cathars identified the devil with the demiurge of older gnostic and Neoplatonic tradition. Earlier sects believed the Old Testament Yahweh was, in fact, the devil, based partially on ethical interpretations of the Bible and partially on the beliefs of earlier gnostic sects (such as the Valentinians) who regarded the god of the Old Testament as evil or as an imperfect Demiurge. Early Gnostics called the Demiurge Yao, the Aramaic cognate to the Tetragrammaton, YHWH (Yahweh). Moreover, modern research into Ugaritic texts revealed that the names of the Jewish god were the same as earlier gods worshipped in the same region; Yahweh is cognate to Ugaritic Yaw who was the Semitic deity of chaos, evil, and world domination.

The Devil in the Old Testament

The Devil's most dramatic appearance in the Old Testament is as the serpent in the Garden of Eden. He also appears in the heavenly court to challenge Job. The references to Lucifer are traditionally identified as referring to the Devil by name.

The creation story found in the book of Genesis reports that a serpent tempted Adam and Eve to partake of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. In the Jewish tradition, the serpent was always taken to be literally a snake. The story tells us the origin of how the snake lost its legs. Later Christian theologies interpreted this serpent to be Satan, to the point where many Christians are unaware that the actual Hebrew text does not identify the serpent as Satan. The identification of the snake with Satan is found in the Old Testament in Genesis 3:15, where God says that the offspring of the woman, who is Jesus Christ will crush the serpent's head. This is confirmed as Romans 16:20 says, "And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly". The New Testament Rev 20:2. In Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Satan is one of humanity's three enemies, along with sin and death (in some other forms of Christianity the other two enemies of mankind are "the world"#redirect [Jam 4:4], and self (man's natural tendency to sin); [Rom 6:6].

Satan also gets David to take a census of his people.

The Devil In the New Testament

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The Devil figures much more prominently in the New Testament and in Christian theology generally. In the New Testament, Satan appears as a tempter for Jesus, for example. In John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost, the theme is further developed—Satan is believed to have been an archangel who turned against God before the creation of man. Prophecies in Isaiah 14For example, see Jerome, "To Eustochium", Letter 22.4, To Eustochium and Ezekiel 28 are thought by some to be referring metaphorically to Satan, rather than to the king of Babylon. Babylon in Revelation is a symbol for an evil world, one of which Satan would be head in the Tribulational period of the end times.#redirect According to this view, Satan waged war against God, his Creator, and was banished from Heaven because of this.

St. Michael's defeat of Satan.
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St. Michael's defeat of Satan.

According to most Christian eschatology, Satan will wage a final war against Jesus, before being cast into Hell for "aeonios." Aeonios, literally translated, means of or pertaining to an age, which is incorrectly translated as "all eternity." The Unification Church, a sect that deviates from mainstream Christianity, teaches that Satan will be restored in the last days and become a good angel again see [Lucifer, A Criminal Against Humanity]. A few early Church Fathers are known to have prayed for Satan's eventual repentance; it was not generally believed that this would happen. On the other hand, Dispensationalists teach that Jesus returns to earth before the Tribulational period to reclaim the righteous, dead and living, to meet Him in the air (known as the Rapture see [1 Thess 4:17]. Many Fundamentalists believe that immediately following this, the Tribulational period will occur as prophesied in the book of Daniel, while others (especially Seventh-day Adventists) believe that immediately following Jesus' Second Coming, Satan will be bound on this Earth for a thousand years, after which he will be “loosed for a little season” a short time, see [Rev 20:1-3]—this is when the battle of Armageddon (the final confrontation between good and evil) will be waged—and Satan and his followers will be destroyed once and for all, the Earth will be cleansed of all evil and there will be “a new Heaven and a new Earth” where sin will reign no more see [Rev 21:1-4].

Various Views

Gnostics

In various Gnostic sects, Satan was praised as the giver of knowledge, sometimes with references to Lucifer, “the light-bringer.” Some claimed that the being imagined as God by Christians and Jews was in fact Satan, as a world as imperfect as ours could not be created by a perfect God (Christians may argue that this contention is disproved in the Bible text as it explains that God's perfect world [Gen 1:31] was corrupted and made imperfect by Adam and Eve's original sin; see [Gen 3]; [Rom 5:12]; [Rom 8:22-23]).

Middle Ages

Particularly in the medieval period, Satan was often depicted as having horns and a goat's hindquarters. He has also been depicted as carrying a trident, and with a forked tail. None of these images seem to be based on Biblical materials, as Satans physical appearance is never described in the bible, Qur'an or any other religious text. Rather, this image is apparently based on pagan horned gods, such as Pan and Dionysus, common to many mythologies Powell, Barry B. Classical Myth. Second ed. With new translations of ancient texts by Herbert M. Howe. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1998.. Pan in particular looks very much like the images of the medieval Satan. Some images are based on Baphomet, which is portrayed in Eliphas Lévi's 1854 Dogme et rituel de la haute magie (English translation Transcendental Magic, its Doctrine and Ritual)[Levi]. Even some Satanists use Baphomet as the image of Satan in Satanic worship. Neo-pagans and others allege that this image was chosen specifically to discredit the Horned God of ancient paganism to convert people to the christian faith.



Latter Day Saints

Latter Day Saints believe that the Devil is a bodiless spirit son of God, whereas Jesus Christ is the Firstborn spirit son and the Only Begotten Son in the flesh.[link] 



Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Satan is a real person. Satan was created a perfect spirit creature, but he became "Satan the Devil" when he acted on his desire to turn Adam and Eve away from worship of Jehovah to himself. They do not regard "Lucifer" as his original name, but as descriptive designation applied to the "king of Babylon." Isa. 14:4, 12. The rendering Lucifer is derived from the Latin Vulgate.


By use of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, Satan seduced Eve by implying that God's rulership was selfish and unjust. "Is it really so that God said YOU must not eat from every tree of the garden?" Eve's reply was that only one tree had been prohibited from their use on penalty of death. Satan challenged this: "You positively will not die. For God knows that in the very day of your eating from it your eyes are bound to be opened and you are bound to be like God, knowing good and bad". Gen 3:1, 4, 5 So, Satan's approach was a dual deception: First, that God was withholding good from them and second that he was lying in the process.


Eve succumbed to this deception along with Adam, who allowed himself to become complicit in the matter. Jehovah cast them out of paradise where they did indeed begin their descent into death and imperfection. The Bible shows that the majority of their offspring followed them in this course.


Now humanity is caught between Satan and God falling to either side to prove which is right; whether mankind will fall to self-worship—thus falling under Satan's influence—or remain true to their Creator.


Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Satan is still the god of this world, citing references at [2 Cor. 4:4]; [1 John 5:19]; [Mt 4:8-11].[Who Really Rules the World?]



As a sympathetic characer




Satan, from Gustave Doré's illustations for Paradise Lost.

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Satan, from Gustave Doré's illustations for Paradise Lost.







In Paradise Lost, Satan is the protagonist of the first half of the story, who styles himself as an ambitious underdog rebelling against Heaven. He becomes less sympathetic in the second half as the snake that tempts Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The epic poem by John Milton, Paradise Lost, has a stylized depiction of the devil that influenced C. S. Lewis (The Screwtape Letters and Space Trilogy), and the J. R. R. Tolkien characters Melkor and Sauron.


Both Faust and The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus feature the devil known as Mephistopheles, who is summoned by Faust to sell his soul for a limited number of years of pleasure. Mephistopheles often shows regret and remorse for rebelling against God. In one famous scene from Faustus, Mephistopheles tells Faust that he cannot leave Hell. When Faust tells him that he seems to be free of Hell at that moment, the devil responds with "Why this is hell, nor am I out of it./ Think’st thou that I, who saw the face of God,/And tasted the eternal joys of heaven,/ Am not tormented with ten thousand hells/ In being deprived of everlasting bliss?" Rather than glorifying the Devil, he is shown as a sad figure.




Disputes


Is the Devil in Hell?

The belief that Satan is in Hell has its roots in Christian literature rather than in the Bible.  The Bible states that he still roams heaven and earth. [Job 1:6-7] It also states that Satan appeared with other angels "before the Lord," presumably in heaven. When God asked Satan where he had been, Satan replied, "From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it". Satan has not been and is not in Hell. [1 Peter 5:8] declares, "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour". 


Passages such as these suggest that Satan is not in Hell and probably spends most of his time seeking to destroy the lives of human beings and to keep them separated from God.



How could an angel commit sin and rebel against God?

Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologiae, said:



"An angel or any other rational creature considered in his own nature, can sin; and to whatever creature it belongs not to sin, such creature has it as a gift of grace, and not from the condition of nature. The reason of this is, because sinning is nothing else than a deviation from that rectitude which an act ought to have; whether we speak of sin in nature, art, or morals. That act alone, the rule of which is the very virtue of the agent, can never fall short of rectitude. Were the craftsman's hand the rule itself engraving, he could not engrave the wood otherwise than rightly; but if the rightness of engraving be judged by another rule, then the engraving may be right or faulty." (ST I.63.1, italics added)



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