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.
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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You wrote that human beings are the enemy of the God of the Bible. Nothing else is farther from the Biblical truth than this remark. God loves the world to the extent that He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16). Our enemies are not flesh and blood, but spiritual powers in the heavenlies (Letter of Paul to the Ephesians).
Satan was active from the very beginning (Gen 3).
Reading your article I realise that the main difference between your and my idea of satan is that you treated the Bible as a human book with growing ideas and insights, while my starting point is that the Bible is a divine book inspired from above.
The difference in starting point will make any discussion idle.
Agree with Tony. Besides there is no mention of man being God’s enemy in the Bible.
God sure killed a lot of people in the Old Testament. If they were not God’s enemies, I sure would hate to see what he would do to his real enemies.
(I have recently started a full Bible listening, and am in Joshua at this time, though I did spend many years in a New Testament Church of Christ. I respectfully offer these comments.)
He did destroy a great many people individually, as well as His entire living creation, in a massive flood. However, He then made an oath/pact with Noah/mankind to never do this again. And, this oath was made in the Old Testament, the Testament you so seemingly, angrily defend as the only authentic text. Oaths/pacts were binding in God’s view, so why would He make a pact to never again destroy those he still considered “enemies”? This is because God works in transcendent ways we cannot understand. This erasure of His initial creation was a first step that would lead to Jesus’ resurrection in the New Testament.
Yes, the Old Testament God was very clear about his “jealous” nature and demanded exact, unceasing obedience, often at the price of someone’s life. As more Godly men came up (Noah, Moses, Joshua, etc.), God (and this is just my personal view, constructed from scripture) found a need to have a more harmonious relationship with His creation. In particular, mankind, who was to be above all other living beings, but obedient to God. He first did this by making man’s life shorter, from ~900 years to 120, for our imperfections (after the fall from Grace in Eden) were too palpable for his Holy nature.
Next were prophecies concerning a savior, preparing the world for the arrival of Jesus, who would ultimately not only bring the “good news” concerning the Kingdom of God and salvation but would also serve as our example of how to live under and with God, for Jesus knew Him intimately as his Son. Finally, Jesus would serve as the focal point for all of God’s wrath concerning His now imperfect/“good” creation’s continued straying (although more and more were coming to understand the Gospel that Jesus taught, and he was perceived as a danger by the Romans). Jesus, even in His perfection was tempted by entities of sin and even asked if “this cup”, His crucifixion, could be taken from Him, but only if it served God’s will.
Jesus cried out from the cross, asking why he’d been “forsaken” by his own Father God, as God turned His back and allowed the plan to be “finished”. That plan had as its goal the acceptance of God/Jesus by imperfect mankind. God HAD to allow free will in the Garden of Eden because any other type of control would not constitute an actual relationship, which is what God has always desired. The use of the term “enemy” is perhaps not fully fleshed out in the article and these comments, because above all else, God is HOLY, and anything that impedes or defiles this holiness is unacceptable to God. God loved His creation and desired a deeper relationship with them, as well as continued obedience to the Laws. This was realized in the Old Testament period and threaded through the New Testament with the arrival of Jesus, His preaching, and ultimate crucifixion AND rising from the dead. So WE could have an intercessor who would please God, and show God’s absolute adoration for His creation, mankind, NOT his “enemies”.
I always think that it is strange God never warns Adam or Eve of a power which will try to tempt them to disobey Him. God created all things and all was described as ‘good’. However ‘Man was made not only to be material beings but able to develop his mind and being so that one day he would care for all other beings and control earthly forces. I think perhaps ‘Satn’ is the personification of our fleshly desires to do and get what we want. The role of adversary given to us is our conscience which Paul points out mankind has ignored..
This whole universe is created only for us. We are very very important people.
we are the children of God
This article recycles obsolete views, ignoring the last couple centuries of discoveries and more importantly ignores everything in Genesis 3 and its context except the mere statement of a snake that speaks, treating this as something about which the reader should show no curiosity (snakes talk every day, right?). The article also sets up a false choice – God’s enemies are either (1) humans, or (2) Satan and demons. Careful reading of Genesis 3 in its context yields much different results. Speaking to the cherubim (angels of God’s presence) towards the end of the chapter the Lord says the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. So man, created lord of creation (including animals such as snakes), did not have knowledge of good and evil. Who does have such knowledge? God, the angels to whom he is speaking, and . . . the tempter, indicating there was some entity behind the talking snake. Further, the enmity predicted apparently between snakes and humans turns out to be fulfilled between two kinds of humans, righteous and wicked, two brothers in fact, Cain and Abel. Genesis 4 is the most overlooked key to understanding the prediction of enmity in gen 3:15, and it also shows in what sense the wicked are “offspring” of the tempter, as Cain shares the ethical traits of the tempter, being a liar and a murderer, and also shares his fate of being cursed by God. That the tempter is an evil version of the cherubim is also suggested by Isaiah’s vision of “Seraphim” in Isaiah 6 – seraphim everywere else refers to poisonous snakes, and this should not be too surprising since angelic beings are often depicted with a mixture of human and animal features. In this case, the Seraphim are depicted as “uncursed” versions of the Genesis 3 serpent, since they have feet and hands, and can stand and fly, in contrast to the cursed being of Genesis 3 who must crawl on his belly. This enemy of God thus becomes the spiritual or ethical father of the wicked, so that God’s human enemies are in parallel with the supernatural. Defeat of the Egyptians at the Red Sea, for example, is described as crushing the heads of Leviathan (Psalm 74), Leviathan being the seven-headed dragon known from Ugarit (described almost identically as in Isa 27:1)., and even earlier, as it is depicted on a Syrian seal from the 3rd millenium BC. [Broken URL removed by site admin]
Wonderful comment, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and insight. How unfathomable must God be, and how lacking is our intellect in grasping His glory! Indeed, for the Bible is a spiritual book, and therefore one must view things in the Spirit also. To say Satan is a mere snake is incredulous. The spirit is not the vessel, and the vessel is not the spirit! God bless you for this comment, I’ll be studying it further.
John (above) is 100% right. It’s one of the reasons I stopped subscribing. BAR writers tend to favor older, conservative views rather than the wealth of amazing recent findings and biblical understanding that challenges their stodgy, tired perspectives (for which reason they almost completely ignore the work of David Rohl, Immanuel Velikovsky and Dr. Michael Heiser, amongst others who’ve been shaking up the establishment views). Not only does this author ignore Genesis 3 (and all the work that’s recently been written about it), but he ignores Genesis 6, the incursion of the Ben Elohim Watcher spirits and their offspring, expanded on in 1 Enoch, as well as the role of the corrupt Divine Council in the Hebrew Scriptures.
I was thinking exactly the same thing as you express in your comment. Heiser’s work in particular opened my eyes to the forces that are at work in the unseen realm.
In order to understand the scriptures, one has to believe in a supreme creator who has inspired certain humans to to write a synopsis of our creation and purpose for being. I think the author misunderstands the scriptures and the reason for their existence. I’ve been studying the scriptures for well over 50 years and I still lack the knowledge I desire, but I will always believe in a Supreme Being due to personal experiences.
Technically, or theoretically, we don’t exist, or shouldn’t. Space itself should not exist. If it were possible to create an absolute vacuum in a container and put it on a shelf for a million or more years and at the end of that time would you expect to find anything but a vacuum in that container? And yet, here we are.
I can’t explain it but I realize that everything in this universe was created by the greatest engineer in existence. Forget about the stars in the countless galaxies, just look at how man is made. What an engineering feat, a pump, circulating system, various filtering systems, sensors for sound, touch, vision, fuel intake, waste disposable systems, sensors that act like solenoid valves switching from one circuit to another, all maintained by a magnificent computer, and on and on.
But now to my question..Every manufacturer makes a prototype and every prototype is tested before putting on the market. Is it possible that this planet earth and all in it are merely prototypes of what is to be perfected? Could the creature that became Satan have been placed like a governor to oversee the human race and couldn’t he have been tested as well as we humans?
Isn’t it possible that this magnificent engineer has intended for his creation, man, to live forever and has created the galaxies for man to explore after attaining perfection? Something to think about!
Who made your magnificent engineer?
This kid’s views are not biblical
Indeed Satan as we have come to understand him is also associated with the temptation to sin. Rather than being hideous, he is beautiful and tempting.
In Job, an exceptionally ancient book, Satan is part of the heavenly court. He accuses God of favoritism with Job. In the end, Satan loses the bet that Job will deny God’s goodness and fidelity.
Over time, our eyes are opened to find this lovely creature is the personification of hatred, evil, and death. Our human understanding is always undergoing expansion, much as Peter grew to love Gentiles and share fellowship with them.
So, the author is right in the majority of his argument. Where he is incorrect is labeling humanity as God’s enemy. We are his wayward children and the purpose for creation.
I think it is a very interesting article. The concept of “the Satan” is interesting and the meaning of the term well described here. Its derivation from Zoroastrianism is possibly interesting, but Zoroastrianism had a dualistic view of a good and a bad God—both equal in rank. Judaism and Christianity have never seen the Devil (“the Accuser”….”the Satan”) as an equal to God.
When Jesus talked about seeing “the Satan”or “Satan”fall like lightning from heaven (Luke 10), or when the Bible talks about Jesus being tempted by Satan in the wilderness (read Marl 1) or Paul talks to the Corinthians about Satan disguising himself as an angel of light — or Peter confronting two church members in the Book of Acts and saying Satan filled their hearts to lie — I think we are talking about something less ghoulish than a medieval painting would ever have been able to portray — and certainly someone more than ä glorified prison warden who has been corrupted by his own power,”as the author claims.
Scripture is clear. Lucifer, son of the morning star, a covering cherub, wanted to be above God (Ezekiel) and convinced a third of the angels that he would be a better governor and was cast down to this earth, Even Jesus stated this. So why is this writer all over the place with an unrealistic approach to the father of evil-Satan? Equivocation is for those who do not want to believe. Their is a real Satan who hates God and hates anyone who believes in His Son. This is not a figment of some imagination and soon you will see him and his demons let loose to destroy any and all. No. He is not stoking the imaginary fires of hell now but someday soon, he will be cast into the lake of fire along with sin and sinners.