Satan

SATAN

Signifies, properly, adversary, enemy, 1Ki 11:14 Psa 109:6, and is so applied by Jesus to Peter, Mat 16:23 Mar 8:33 . Hence it is used particularly of the grand adversary of souls, the devil, the prince of the fallen angels, the accuser and calumniator of men before God, Job 1:7,12 Zec 3:1,2 Jer 12:10 . He seduces them to sin, 1Ch 21:1 Luk 22:31 ; and is thus the author of that evil, both physical and moral, by which the human race is afflicted, especially of those vicious propensities and wicked actions which are productive of so much misery, and also of death itself, Luk 13:16 Heb 2:14 . Hence Satan is represented both as soliciting men to commit sin, and as the source, the efficient cause of impediments which are thrown in the way of the Christians religion, or which are designed to diminish its efficacy in reforming the hearts and lives of men, and inspiring them with the hope of future bliss, Mat 4:10 Joh 13:27 1Ch 16:20 Zep 2:2 . See DEVIL.The “synagogue of Satan,” Jer 2:9,13, probably denotes the unbelieving Jews, the false zealots for the Law of Moses, who at the beginning were the most eager persecutors of the Christians. They were very numerous at Smyrna, to which church John writes.

Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

Satan

See Devil.

Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church

SATAN

Is a Hebrew word, and signifies an adversary, or enemy, and is commonly applied in Scripture to the devil, or the chief of the fallen angels. “By collecting the passages, ” says Cruden, “where Satan, or the devil, is mentioned, it may be observed, that he fell from heaven with all his company; that God cast him down from thence for the punishment of his pride; that, by his envy and malice, sin, death, and all other evils, came into the world; that, by the permission of God, he exercises a sort of government in the world over his subordinates, over apostate angels like himself; that God makes use of him to prove good men and chastise bad ones; that he is a lying spirit in the mouth of false prophets, seducers, and heretics; that it is he, or some of his, that torment or possess men; that inspire them with evil designs, as he did David, when he suggested to him to number his people; to Judas, to betray his Lord and Master; and to Ananias and Sapphira, to conceal the price of their field. That he roves full of rage like a roaring lion, to tempt, to betray, to destroy, and to involve us in guilt and wickedness; that his power and malice are restrained within certain limits, and controlled by the will of God. In a word, that he is an enemy to God and man, and uses his utmost endeavours to rob God of his glory, and men of their souls.”

See articles ANGEL, DEVIL, TEMPTATION. More particularly as to the temptations of Satan.

1. “He adapts them to our temper and circumstances.

2. He chooses the fittest season to tempt: as youth, age, poverty, prosperity, public devotion, after happy manifestations; or when in a bad frame; after some signal source; when alone, or in the presence of the object; when unemployed and off our guard; in death.

3. He puts on the mask of religious friendship, 2Co 11:14. Mat 4:6. Luk 9:50. Gen 3:1-24 :

4. He manages temptation with the greatest subtlety. He asks but little at first; leaves for a season in order to renew his attack.

5. He leads men to sin with a hope of speedy repentance.

6. He raises suitable instruments, bad habits, relations, Gen 3:1-24 : Job 2:9-10.

See Gilpin on Temptation; Brooks on Satan’s Devices; Bishop Porteus’s Sermons, vol. 2: p. 63; Burgh’s Crito. vol. 1: ess. 3; vol. 2: ess. 4; Howe’s Works, vol. 2: p. 360; Gurnall’s Christian Armour.

Fuente: Theological Dictionary

Satan

(Hebrew: an adversary, enemy)

Name for the chief demon or devil (1 Par 5), frequently used as a common noun in the Old Testament (3 Kings 5). The form Satanas is used throughout the New Testament in the Vulgate, while the form Satan occurs in the Old Testament only. In Matthew 16 it is used in the sense of contrariness or opposition.

Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary

Satan

(Greek diabolos; Lat. diabolus).

The name commonly given to the fallen angels, who are also known as demons (see DEMONOLOGY). With the article (ho) it denotes Lucifer, their chief, as in Matthew 25:41, “the Devil and his angels”.

It may be said of this name, as St. Gregory says of the word angel, “nomen est officii, non naturæ”–the designation of an office, not of a nature. For the Greek word (from diaballein, “to traduce”) means a slanderer, or accuser, and in this sense it is applied to him of whom it is written “the accuser [ho kategoros] of our brethren is cast forth, who accused them before our God day and night” (Apocalypse 12:10). It thus answers to the Hebrew name Satan which signifies an adversary, or an accuser.

Mention is made of the Devil in many passages of the Old and New Testaments, but there is no full account given in any one place, and the Scripture teaching on this topic can only be ascertained by combining a number of scattered notices from Genesis to Apocalypse, and reading them in the light of patristic and theological tradition. The authoritative teaching of the Church on this topic is set forth in the decrees of the Fourth Lateran Council (cap. i, “Firmiter credimus”), wherein, after saying that God in the beginning had created together two creatures, the spiritual and the corporeal, that is to say the angelic and the earthly, and lastly man, who was made of both spirit and body, the council continues: “Diabolus enim et alii dæmones a Deo quidem naturâ creati sunt boni, sed ipsi per se facti sunt mali.” (“the Devil and the other demons were created by God good in their nature but they by themselves have made themselves evil.”)

Here it is clearly taught that the Devil and the other demons are spiritual or angelic creatures created by God in a state of innocence, and that they became evil by their own act. It is added that man sinned by the suggestion of the Devil, and that in the next world the wicked shall suffer perpetual punishment with the Devil. The doctrine which may thus be set forth in a few words has furnished a fruitful theme for theological speculation for the Fathers and Schoolmen, as well as later theologians, some of whom, Suarez for example, have treated it very fully. On the other hand it has also been the subject of many heretical or erroneous opinions, some of which owe their origin to pre-Christian systems of demonology. In later years Rationalist writers have rejected the doctrine altogether, and seek to show that it has been borrowed by Judaism and Christianity from external systems of religion wherein it was a natural development of primitive Animism.

As may be gathered from the language of the Lateran definition, the Devil and the other demons are but a part of the angelic creation, and their natural powers do not differ from those of the angels who remained faithful. Like the other angels, they are pure spiritual beings without any body, and in their original state they are endowed with supernatural grace and placed in a condition of probation. It was only by their fall that they became devils. This was before the sin of our first parents, since this sin itself is ascribed to the instigation of the Devil: “By the envy of the Devil, death came into the world” (Wisdom 2:24). Yet it is remarkable that for an account of the fall of the angels we must turn to the last book of the Bible. For as such we may regard the vision in the Apocalypse, albeit the picture of the past is blended with prophecies of what shall be in the future:

And there was a great battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels: and they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who seduceth the whole world; and he was cast unto the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. (Apocalypse 12:7-9)

To this may be added the words of St. Jude: “And the angels who kept not their principality, but forsook their own habitation, he hath reserved under darkness in everlasting chains, unto the judgment of the great day” (Jude 1:6; cf. 2 Peter 2:4).

In the Old Testament we have a brief reference to the Fall in Job 4:18: “In his angels he found wickedness”. But to this must be added the two classic texts in the prophets:

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who didst rise in the morning? how art thou fallen to the earth, that didst wound the nations? And thou saidst in thy heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the most High. But yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, into the depth of the pit. (Isaiah 14:12-15)

This parable of the prophet is expressly directed against the King of Babylon, but both the early Fathers and later Catholic commentators agree in understanding it as applying with deeper significance to the fall of the rebel angel. And the older commentators generally consider that this interpretation is confirmed by the words of Our Lord to his disciples: “I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven” (Luke 10:18). For these words were regarded as a rebuke to the disciples, who were thus warned of the danger of pride by being reminded of the fall of Lucifer. But modern commentators take this text in a different sense, and refer it not to the original fall of Satan, but his overthrow by the faith of the disciples, who cast out devils in the name of their Master. And this new interpretation, as Schanz observes, is more in keeping with the context.

The parallel prophetic passage is Ezekiel’s lamentation upon the king of Tyre:

You were the seal of resemblance, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. You were in the pleasures of the paradise of God; every precious stone was thy covering; the sardius, the topaz, and the jasper, the chrysolite, and the onyx, and the beryl, the sapphire, and the carbuncle, and the emerald; gold the work of your beauty: and your pipes were prepared in the day that you were created. You a cherub stretched out, and protecting, and I set you in the holy mountain of God, you have walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were perfect in your wave from the day of creation, until iniquity was found in you. (Ezekiel 28:12-15)

There is much in the context that can only be understood literally of an earthly king concerning whom the words are professedly spoken, but it is clear that in any case the king is likened to an angel in Paradise who is ruined by his own iniquity.

Even for those who in no way doubt or dispute it, the doctrine set forth in these texts and patristic interpretations may well suggest a multitude of questions, and theologians have not been loath to ask and answer them. And in the first place what was the nature of the sin of the rebel angels? In any case this was a point presenting considerable difficulty, especially for theologians, who had formed a high estimate of the powers and possibilities of angelic knowledge, a subject which had a peculiar attraction for many of the great masters of scholastic speculation. For if sin be, as it surely is, the height of folly, the choice of darkness for light, of evil for good, it would seem that it can only be accounted for by some ignorance, or inadvertence, or weakness, or the influence of some overmastering passion. But most of these explanations seem to be precluded by the powers and perfections of the angelic nature. The weakness of the flesh, which accounts for such a mass of human wickedness, was altogether absent from the angels. There could be no place for carnal sin without the corpus delicti. And even some sins that are purely spiritual or intellectual seem to present an almost insuperable difficulty in the case of the angels. This may certainly be said of the sin which by many of the best authorities is regarded as being actually the great offense of Lucifer, to wit, the desire of independence of God and equality with God. It is true that this seems to be asserted in the passage of Isaiah (14:13). And it is naturally suggested by the idea of rebellion against an earthly sovereign, wherein the chief of the rebels very commonly covets the kingly throne. At the same time the high rank which Lucifer is generally supposed to have held in the hierarchy of angels might seem to make this offense more likely in his case, for, as history shows, it is the subject who stands nearest the throne who is most open to temptations of ambition. But this analogy is not a little misleading. For the exaltation of the subject may bring his power so near that of his sovereign that he may well be able to assert his independence or to usurp the throne; and even where this is not actually the case he may at any rate contemplate the possibility of a successful rebellion. Moreover, the powers and dignities of an earthly prince may be compatible with much ignorance and folly. But it is obviously otherwise in the case of the angels. For, whatever gifts and powers may be conferred on the highest of the heavenly princes, he will still be removed by an infinite distance from the plenitude of God’s power and majesty, so that a successful rebellion against that power or any equality with that majesty would be an absolute impossibility. And what is more, the highest of the angels, by reason of their greater intellectual illumination, must have the clearest knowledge of this utter impossibility of attaining to equality with God. This difficulty is clearly put by the Disciple in St. Anselm’s dialogue “De Casu Diaboli” (cap. iv); for the saint felt that the angelic intellect, at any rate, must see the force of the “ontological argument” (see ONTOLOGY). “If”, he asks, “God cannot be thought of except as sole, and as of such an essence that nothing can be thought of like to Him [then] how could the Devil have wished for what could not be thought of?–He surely was not so dull of understanding as to be ignorant of the inconceivability of any other entity like to God” (Si Deus cogitari non potest, nisi ita solus, ut nihil illi simile cogitari possit, quomodo diabolus potuit velle quod non potuit cogitari? Non enim ita obtusæ mentis erat, ut nihil aliud simile Deo cogitari posse nesciret). The Devil, that is to say, was not so obtuse as not to know that it was impossible to conceive of anything like (i.e. equal) to God. And what he could not think he could not will. St. Anselm’s answer is that there need be no question of absolute equality; yet to will anything against the Divine will is to seek to have that independence which belongs to God alone, and in this respect to be equal to God. In the same sense St. Thomas (I:63:3) answers the question, whether the Devil desired to be “as God”. If by this we mean equality with God, then the Devil could not desire it, since he knew this to be impossible, and he was not blinded by passion or evil habit so as to choose that which is impossible, as may happen with men. And even if it were possible for a creature to become God, an angel could not desire this, since, by becoming equal with God he would cease to be an angel, and no creature can desire its own destruction or an essential change in its being. These arguments are combated by Scotus (In II lib. Sent., dist. vi, Q. i.), who distinguishes between efficacious volition and the volition of complaisance, and maintains that by the latter act an angel could desire that which is impossible. In the same way he urges that, though a creature cannot directly will its own destruction, it can do this consequenter, i.e. it can will something from which this would follow.

Although St. Thomas regards the desire of equality with God as something impossible, he teaches nevertheless (loc. cit.) that Satan sinned by desiring to be “as God”, according to the passage in the prophet (Isaiah 14), and he understands this to mean likeness, not equality. But here again there is need of a distinction. For men and angels have a certain likeness to God in their natural perfections, which are but a reflection of his surpassing beauty, and yet a further likeness is given them by supernatural grace and glory. Was it either of these likenesses that the devil desired? And if it be so, how could it be a sin? For was not this the end for which men and angels were created? Certainly, as Thomas teaches, not every desire of likeness with God would be sinful, since all may rightly desire that manner of likeness which is appointed them by the will of their Creator. There is sin only where the desire is inordinate, as in seeking something contrary to the Divine will, or in seeking the appointed likeness in a wrong way. The sin of Satan in this matter may have consisted in desiring to attain supernatural beatitude by his natural powers or, what may seem yet stranger, in seeking his beatitude in the natural perfections and reflecting the supernatural. In either case, as St. Thomas considers, this first sin of Satan was the sin of pride. Scotus, however (loc. cit., Q. ii), teaches that this sin was not pride properly so called, but should rather be described as a species of spiritual lust.

Although nothing definite can be known as to the precise nature of the probation of the angels and the manner in which many of them fell, many theologians have conjectured, with some show of probability, that the mystery of the Divine Incarnation was revealed to them, that they saw that a nature lower than their own was to be hypostatically united to the Person of God the Son, and that all the hierarchy of heaven must bow in adoration before the majesty of the Incarnate Word; and this, it is supposed, was the occasion of the pride of Lucifer (cf. Suarez, De Angelis, lib. VII, xiii). As might be expected, the advocates of this view seek support in certain passages of Scripture, notably in the words of the Psalmist as they are cited in the Epistle to the Hebrews: “And again, when he bringeth in the first-begotten into the world, he saith: And let all the angels of God adore Him” (Hebrews 1:6; Psalm 96:7). And if the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse may be taken to refer, at least in a secondary sense, to the original fall of the angels, it may seem somewhat significant that it opens with the vision of the Woman and her Child. But this interpretation is by no means certain, for the text in Hebrews 1, may be referred to the second coming of Christ, and much the same may be said of the passage in the Apocalypse.

It would seem that this account of the trial of the angels is more in accordance with what is known as the Scotist doctrine on the motives of the Incarnation than with the Thomist view, that the Incarnation was occasioned by the sin of our first parents. For since the sin itself was committed at the instigation of Satan, it presupposes the fall of the angels. How, then, could Satan’s probation consist in the fore-knowledge of that which would, ex hypothesi, only come to pass in the event of his fall? In the same way it would seem that the aforesaid theory is incompatible with another opinion held by some old theologians, to wit, that men were created to fill up the gaps in the ranks of the angels. For this again supposes that if no angels had sinned no men would have been made, and in consequence there would have been no union of the Divine Person with a nature lower than the angels.

As might be expected from the attention they had bestowed on the question of the intellectual powers of the angels, the medieval theologians had much to say on the time of their probation. The angelic mind was conceived of as acting instantaneously, not, like the mind of man, passing by discursive reasoning from premises to conclusions. It was pure intelligence as distinguished from reason. Hence it would seem that there was no need of any extended trial. And in fact we find St. Thomas and Scotus discussing the question whether the whole course might not have been accomplished in the first instant in which the angels were created. The Angelic Doctor argues that the Fall could not have taken place in the first instant. And it certainly seems that if the creature came into being in the very act of sinning the sin itself might be said to come from the Creator. But this argument, together with many others, is answered with his accustomed acuteness by Scotus, who maintains the abstract possibility of sin in the first instant. But whether possible or not, it is agreed that this is not what actually happened. For the authority of the passages in Isaiah and Ezekiel, which were generally accepted as referring to the fall of Lucifer, might well suffice to show that for at least one instant he had existed in a state of innocence and brightness. To modern readers the notion that the sin was committed in the second instant of creation may seem scarcely less incredible than the possibility of a fall in the very first. But this may be partly due to the fact that we are really thinking of human modes of knowledge, and fail to take into account the Scholastic conception of angelic cognition. For a being who was capable of seeing many things at once, a single instant might be equivalent to the longer period needed by slowly-moving mortals.

This dispute, as to the time taken by the probation and fall of Satan, has a purely speculative interest. But the corresponding question as to the rapidity of the sentence and punishment is in some ways a more important matter. There can indeed be no doubt that Satan and his rebel angels were very speedily punished for their rebellion. This would seem to be sufficiently indicated in some of the texts which are understood to refer to the fall of the angels. It might be inferred, moreover, from the swiftness with which punishment followed on the offense in the case of our first parents, although man’s mind moves more slowly than that of the angels, and he had more excuse in his own weakness and in the power of his tempter. It was partly for this reason, indeed, that man found mercy, whereas there was no redemption for the angels. For, as St. Peter says, “God spared not the angels that sinned” (2 Peter 2:4). This, it may be observed, is asserted universally, indicating that all who fell suffered punishment. For these and other reasons theologians very commonly teach that the doom and punishment followed in the next instant after the offense, and many go so far as to say there was no possibility of repentance. But here it will be well to bear in mind the distinction drawn between revealed doctrine, which comes with authority, and theological speculation, which to a great extent rests on reasoning. No one who is really familiar with the medieval masters, with their wide differences, their independence, their bold speculation, is likely to confuse the two together. But in these days there is some danger that we may lose sight of the distinction. It is true that, when it fulfils certain definite conditions, the agreement of theologians may serve as a sure testimony to revealed doctrine, and some of their thoughts and even their very words have been adopted by the Church in her definitions of dogma. But at the same time these masters of theological thought freely put forward many more or less plausible opinions, which come to us with reasoning rather than authority, and must needs stand or fall with the arguments by which they are supported. In this way we may find that many of them may agree in holding that the angels who sinned had no possibility of repentance. But it may be that it is a matter of argument, that each one holds it for a reason of his own and denies the validity of the arguments adduced by others. Some argue that from the nature of the angelic mind and will there was an intrinsic impossibility of repentance. But it may be observed that in any case the basis of this argument is not revealed teaching, but philosophical speculation. And it is scarcely surprising to find that its sufficiency is denied by equally orthodox doctors who hold that if the fallen angels could not repent this was either because the doom was instantaneous, and left no space for repentance, or because the needful grace was denied them. Others, again, possibly with better reason, are neither satisfied that sufficient grace and room for repentance were in fact refused, nor can they see any good ground for thinking this likely, or for regarding it as in harmony with all that we know of the Divine mercy and goodness. In the absence of any certain decision on this subject, we may be allowed to hold, with Suarez, that, however brief it may have been, there was enough delay to leave an opportunity for repentance, and that the necessary grace was not wholly withheld. If none actually repented, this may be explained in some measure by saying that their strength of will and fixity of purpose made repentance exceedingly difficult, though not impossible; that the time, though sufficient, was short; and that grace was not given in such abundance as to overcome these difficulties.

The language of the prophets (Isaiah 14; Ezekiel 28) would seem to show that Lucifer held a very high rank in the heavenly hierarchy. And, accordingly, we find many theologians maintaining that before his fall he was the foremost of all the angels. Suarez is disposed to admit that he was the highest negatively, i.e. that no one was higher, though many may have been his equals. But here again we are in the region of pious opinions, for some divines maintain that, far from being first of all, he did not belong to one of the highest choirs–Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones–but to one of the lower orders of angels. In any case it appears that he holds a certain sovereignty over those who followed him in his rebellion. For we read of “the Devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41), “the dragon and his angels” (Apocalypse 12:7), “Beelzebub, the prince of devils”–which, whatever be the interpretation of the name, clearly refers to Satan, as appears from the context: “And if Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? Because you say that through Beelzebub I cast out devils” (Luke 11:15, 18), and “the prince of the Powers of this air” (Ephesians 2:2). At first sight it may seem strange that there should be any order or subordination amongst those rebellious spirits, and that those who rose against their Maker should obey one of their own fellows who had led them to destruction. And the analogy of similar movements among men might suggest that the rebellion would be likely to issue in anarchy and division. But it must be remembered that the fall of the angels did not impair their natural powers, that Lucifer still retained the gifts that enabled him to influence his brethren before their fall, and that their superior intelligence would show them that they could achieve more success and do more harm to others by unity and organization than by independence and division.

Besides exercising this authority over those who were called “his angels”, Satan has extended his empire over the minds of evil men. Thus, in the passage just cited from St. Paul, we read, “And you, when you were dead in your offenses and sins, wherein in times past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of this air, of the spirit that now worketh on the children of unbelief” (Ephesians 2:1-2). In the same way Christ in the Gospel calls him “the prince of this world”. For when His enemies are coming to take Him, He looks beyond the instruments of evil to the master who moves them, and says: “I will not now speak many things to you, for the prince of this world cometh, and in me he hath not anything” (John 14:30). There is no need to discuss the view of some theologians who surmise that Lucifer was one of the angels who ruled and administered the heavenly bodies, and that this planet was committed to his care. For in any case the sovereignty with which these texts are primarily concerned is but the rude right of conquest and the power of evil influence. His sway began by his victory over our first parents, who, yielding to his suggestions, were brought under his bondage. All sinners who do his will become in so far his servants. For, as St. Gregory says, he is the head of all the wicked–“Surely the Devil is the head of all the wicked; and of this head all the wicked are members” (Certe iniquorum omnium caput diabolus est; et hujus capitis membra sunt omnes iniqui.–Hom. 16, in Evangel.). This headship over the wicked, as St. Thomas is careful to explain, differs widely from Christ’s headship over the Church, inasmuch as Satan is only head by outward government and not also, as Christ is, by inward, life-giving influence (Summa III:8:7). With the growing wickedness of the world and the spreading of paganism and false religions and magic rites, the rule of Satan was extended and strengthened till his power was broken by the victory of Christ, who for this reason said, on the eve of His Passion: “Now is the judgment of the world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out” (John 12:31). By the victory of the Cross Christ delivered men from the bondage of Satan and at the same time paid the debt due to Divine justice by shedding His blood in atonement for our sins. In their endeavours to explain this great mystery, some old theologians, misled by the metaphor of a ransom for captives made in war, came to the strange conclusion that the price of Redemption was paid to Satan. But this error was effectively refuted by St. Anselm, who showed that Satan had no rights over his captives and that the great price wherewith we were bought was paid to God alone (cf. ATONEMENT).

What has been said so far may suffice to show the part played by the Devil in human history, whether in regard to the individual soul or the whole race of Adam. It is indicated, indeed, in his name of Satan, the adversary, the opposer, the accuser, as well as by his headship of the wicked ranged under his banner in continual warfare with the kingdom of Christ. The two cities whose struggle is described by St. Augustine are already indicated in the words of the Apostle, “In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil: for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God appeared, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). Whether or not the foreknowledge of the Incarnation was the occasion of his own fall, his subsequent course has certainly shown him the relentless enemy of mankind and the determined opponent of the Divine economy of redemption. And since he lured our first parents to their fall he has ceased not to tempt their children in order to involve them in his own ruin. There is no reason, indeed, for thinking that all sins and all temptations must needs come directly from the Devil or one of his ministers of evil. For it is certain that if, after the first fall of Adam, or at the time of the coming of Christ, Satan and his angels had been bound so fast that they might tempt no more, the world would still have been filled with evils. For men would have had enough of temptation in the weakness and waywardness of their hearts. But in that case the evil would clearly have been far less than it is now, for the activity of Satan does much more than merely add a further source of temptation to the weakness of the world and the flesh; it means a combination and an intelligent direction of all the elements of evil. The whole Church and each one of her children are beset by dangers, the fire of persecution, the enervation of ease, the dangers of wealth and of poverty, heresies and errors of opposite characters, rationalism and superstition, fanaticism and indifference. It would be bad enough if all these forces were acting apart and without any definite purpose, but the perils of the situation are incalculably increased when all may be organized and directed by vigilant and hostile intelligences. It is this that makes the Apostle, though he well knew the perils of the world and the weakness of the flesh, lay special stress on the greater dangers that come from the assaults of those mighty spirits of evil in whom he recognized our real and most formidable foes–“Put you on the armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places . . . Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, having on the breastplate of justice, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one” (Ephesians 6:11, 16).

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W.H. KENT Transcribed by Rick McCarty

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IVCopyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York

Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia

Satan

The Scripture term for the chief of fallen spirits, and the arch-principle of evil. The doctrine of Satan and of satanic agency is to be made out from revelation, and from reflection in agreement with revelation. The obscurity of the subject need not deter us from a candid investigation of it.

I. Scripture Names or Titles of Satan. Besides Satan, he is called the Devil, the Dragon, the Evil One, the Angel of the Bottomless Pit, the Prince of this World, the Prince of the Power of the Air, the God of this World, Apollyon, Abaddon, Belial, Beelzebub. Satan and devil are the names by which he is oftener distinguished than by any other, the former being applied to him about forty times and the latter about fifty times. See each term.

Satan is the Hebrew word , satan’, transferred to the English. It is derived from the verb , which means to lie in wait, to oppose, to be an adversary; hence, the noun denotes an adversary, or opposer. The word in its generic sense occurs in 1Ki 11:14 : The Lord raised up an adversary (satan; Sept. ) against Solomon, i.e. Hadad the Edomite. In the 23d verse the word occurs again, applied to Rezan. It is used in the same sense in 1Sa 29:4, where David is termed an adversary, and in Num 22:22, where the angel stood in the way for an adversary (satan) to Balaam, i.e. to oppose him when he went with the princes of Moab. See also 2Sa 19:22, 1Ki 5:4; 1Ki 11:25 Psa 109:6, where the Sept. has , , , etc. In Zec 3:1-2, the word occurs in its specific sense as a proper name. And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan. Here it is manifest, both from the context and the use of the article, that some particular adversary is denoted. In Job 1:2, the same use of the word with the article occurs several times. The events in which Satan is represented as the agent confirm this view. He was a distinguished adversary and tempter. See also 1Ch 21:1. In all these latter passages the Sept. has , and the Vulg. Satan. When we pass from the Old to the New Test., this doctrine of an invisible evil agent becomes more clear. With the advent of Christ and the opening of the Christian dispensation, the great opposer of that kingdom, the particular adversary and antagonist of the Savior, would naturally become more active and more known. The antagonism of Satan and his kingdom to Christ and his kingdom runs through the whole of the New Test., as will appear from the following passages and their contexts: Mat 4:10; Mat 12:26; Mar 4:15; Luk 10:18; Luk 22:3; Luk 22:31; Act 26:18; Rom 16:20; 2Co 11:14; Rev 2:13; Rev 12:9. Peter is once called Satan, because his spirit and conduct, at a certain time, were so much in opposition to the spirit and intent of Christ, and so much in the same line of direction with the workings of Satan. This is the only application of the word in the New Test. to any but the prince of the apostate angels. In the New Test. the word is , followed by the Vulg. Satanas, except in 2Co 12:7, where is used. It is found in twenty-five places (exclusive of parallel passages), and the corresponding word in about the same number. The title is used three times; is used certainly six times, probably more frequently, and twice.

Devil () is the more frequent term of designation given to Satan in the New Test. Both Satan and devil are in several instances applied to the same being (Rev 12:9), That old serpent, the devil and Satan. Christ, in the temptation (Matthew 4), in his repulse of the tempter, calls him Satan; while the evangelists distinguish him by the term devil. Devil is the word transferred from the verb , to thrust through, to carry over, and, tropically, to inform against, to accuse. He is also called the accuser of the brethren (Rev 12:10). The Hebrew term Satan is more generic than the word devil, at least by its etymology. The former expresses his character as an opposer of all good; the latter denotes more particularly the relation which he bears to the saints, as their traducer and accuser. is the uniform translation which the Sept. gives of the Hebrew Satan when used with the article. Farmer says that the term Satan is not appropriated to one particular person or spirit, but signifies an adversary, or opponent in general. This is to no purpose, since it is also applied to the devil as an adversary in particular. There are four instances in the New Test. in which the word devil, diabolos, is applied to human beings. In three out of the four it is in the plural number, expressive of quality and not personality (1Ti 3:11; 2Ti 3:3; Tit 2:3). In the fourth instance (Joh 6:70), Jesus says to his disciples, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? This is the only instance in the New Test. of its application to a human being in the singular number; and here Dr. Campbell thinks it should not be translated devil. The translation is, however, of no consequence, since it is with the use of the original word that this article is concerned. The obvious reasons for this application of to Judas, as an exception to the general rule, go to confirm the rule. The rule is that, in the New Test. usage, the word in the singular number denotes individuality, and is applied to Satan as a proper name. By the exception, it is applied to Judas, from his resemblance to the devil, as an accuser and betrayer of Christ, and from his contributing to aid him in his designs against Christ. With these exceptions, the usus loquendi of the New Test. shows to be a proper name, applied to an extraordinary being, whose influence upon the human race is great and mischievous (Mat 4:1-11; Luk 8:12; Joh 8:44; Act 13:10; Eph 6:11; 1Pe 5:8; 1Jn 3:8; Rev 12:9). SEE DEVIL.

The term devil, which is in the New Test. the uniform translation of , is also frequently the translation of daemon, , and daemonion, . Between these words and the English translators have made no distinction. The former are almost always used in connection with demoniacal possessions, and are applied to the possessing spirits, but never to the prince of those spirits. On the other hand, is never applied to the daemons, but only to their prince, thus showing that the one is used definitely as a proper name, while the others are used indefinitely as generic terms. The sacred writers made a distinction, which in the English and most modern versions is lost. SEE DEMON.

II. Personality of Satan. We determine this point by the same criteria that we use in determining whether Caesar and Napoleon were real, personal beings, or the personifications of abstract ideas, viz. by the tenor of history concerning them, and the ascription of personal attributes to them. All the forms of personal agency are made use of by the sacred writers in setting forth the character and conduct of Satan. They describe him as having power and dominion, messengers and followers. He tempts and resists; he is held accountable, charged with guilt; is to be judged, and to receive final punishment. On the supposition that it was the object of the sacred writers to teach the proper personality of Satan, they could have found no more express terms than those which they have actually used. To suppose that all this semblance of a real, veritable, conscious moral agent is only a trope, a prosopopoeia, is to make the inspired penmen guilty of employing a figure in such a way that, by no ascertained laws of language, it could be known that it was a figure in such a way that it could not be taken to be a figure, without violence to all the rhetorical rules by which they on other occasions are known to have been guided. A personification protracted through such a book as the Bible. even should we suppose it to have been written by one person, is altogether anomalous and inadmissible. But to suppose that the several writers of the different books of the Bible, diverse in their style and intellectual habits, writing under widely differing circumstances, through a period of nearly two thousand years, should each, from Moses to John, fall into the use of the same personification, is to require men to believe that the inspired writers, who ought to have done the least violence to the common laws of language, have really done the most.

But there are other difficulties than these general ones by which the theory of personification is encumbered. This theory supposes the devil to be the principle of evil. Let it be applied in the interpretation of two or three passages of Scripture. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil (Mat 4:1-11). Was Jesus tempted by a real, personal being? or was it by the principle of evil? If by the latter, in whom or what did this principle reside? Was it in Jesus? Then it could not be true that in him was no sin. The very principle of sin was in him, which would have made him the tempter of himself. This is bad hermeneutics, producing worse theology. Let it also be remembered that this principle of evil, in order to be moral evil, must inhere in some conscious moral being. Sin is evil only as it implies the state or action of some personal and accountable agent. Again: He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth: he is a liar and the father of it (Joh 8:44). With what propriety could these specific acts of guilt be charged upon an abstraction? An abstraction a murderer! a liar! Seriously to affirm such things of the mere abstraction of evil is a solemn fiction; while to assert them of a fallen angel, who beguiled Eve by falsehood, and brought death upon all the race of man, is an intelligible and affecting truth.

It would be a waste of time to prove that, in various degrees of clearness, the personal existence of a Spirit of Evil is revealed again and again in Scripture. Every quality, every action, which can indicate personality, is attributed to him in language which cannot be explained away. It is not difficult to see why it should be thus revealed. It is obvious that the fact of his existence is of spiritual importance, and it is also clear, from the nature of the case, that it could not be discovered, although it might be suspected, by human reason. It is in the power of that reason to test any supposed manifestations of supernatural power, and any asserted principles of divine action which fall within its sphere of experience ( the earthly things of Joh 3:12). It may by such examination satisfy itself of the truth and divinity of a Person or a book; but, having done this, it must then accept and understand, without being able to test, or to explain, the disclosures of this divine authority upon subjects beyond this world (the heavenly things, of which it is said that none can see or disclose them, save the Son of Man who is in heaven).

It is true that human thought can assert an a priori probability or improbability in such statements made, based on the perception of a greater or less degree of accordance in principle between the things seen and the things unseen, between the effects, which are visible, and the causes, which are revealed from the regions of mystery. But even this power of weighing probability is applicable rather to the fact and tendency than to the method of supernatural action. This is true even of natural action beyond the sphere of human observation. In the discussion of the plurality of worlds, for example, it may be asserted without doubt that in all the orbs of the universe the divine power, wisdom, and goodness must be exercised; but the inference that the method of their exercise is found there, as here, in the creation of sentient and rational beings is one at best of but moderate probability. Still more is this the case in the spiritual world. Whatever supernatural orders of beings may exist, we can conclude that in their case, as in ours, the divine government must be carried on by the union of individual freedom of action with the overruling power of God, and must tend finally to that good which is his central attribute. But beyond this we can assert nothing to be certain, and can scarcely even say of any part of the method of this government whether it is antecedently probable or improbable. Thus, on our present subject, man can ascertain by observation the existence of evil that is, of facts and thoughts contrary to the standard which conscience asserts to be the true one, bringing with them suffering and misery as their inevitable results. If he attempts to trace them to their causes, he finds them to arise, for each individual, partly from the power of certain internal impulses which act upon the will, partly from the influence of external circumstances. These circumstances themselves arise, either from the laws of nature and society, or by the deliberate action of other men. lie can conclude with certainty that both series of causes must exist by the permission of God, and must finally be overruled to his will. But whether there exist any superhuman but subordinate cause of the circumstances, and whether there be any similar influence acting in the origination of the impulses which move the will, this is a question which he cannot answer with certainty. Analogy, from the observation of the only ultimate cause which he can discover in the visible world viz. the free action of a personal will may lead him, and generally has led him, to conjecture the affirmative; but still the inquiry remains unanswered by authority start.

The tendency of the mind in its inquiry is generally towards one or other of two extremes. The first is to consider evil as a negative imperfection arising, in some unknown and inexplicable way, from the nature of matter, or from some disturbing influences which limit the action of goodness on earth; in fact, to ignore as much of evil as possible, and to decline to refer the residuum to any positive cause at all. The other is the old Persian or Manichaean hypothesis, which traces the existence of evil to a rival creator, not subordinate to the Creator of good, though perhaps inferior to him in power, and destined to be overcome by him at last. Between these two extremes the mind varied through many gradations of thought and countless forms of superstition. Each hypothesis had its arguments of probability against the other. The first labored under the difficulty of being insufficient as an account of the anomalous facts, and indeterminate in its account of the disturbing cause; the second sinned against that belief in the unity of God and the natural supremacy of goodness, which is supported by the deepest instincts of the heart. But both were laid in a sphere beyond human cognizance; neither could be proved or disproved with certainty.

The revelation of Scripture, speaking with authority, meets the truth and removes the error inherent in both these hypotheses. It asserts in the strongest terms the perfect supremacy of God, so that under his permission alone, and for his inscrutable purposes, evil is allowed to exist (see, for example, Pro 16:4; Isa 45:7; Amo 3:6; comp. Rom 9:22-23). It regards this evil as an anomaly and corruption, to be taken away by a new manifestation of divine love in the incarnation and atonement. The conquest of it began virtually in God’s ordinance after the fall itself, was effected actually on the cross, and shall be perfected in its results at the judgment day. Still Scripture recognizes the existence of evil in the world, not only as felt in outward circumstances ( the world), and as inborn in the soul of man ( the flesh), but also as proceeding from the influence of an evil spirit, exercising that mysterious power of free will, which Gods rational creatures possess, to rebel against him, and to draw others into the same rebellion ( the devil).

In accordance with the economy and progressiveness of Gods revelation, the existence of Satan is but gradually revealed. In the first entrance of evil into the world, the temptation is referred only to the serpent. It is true that the whole narrative, and especially the spiritual nature of the temptation ( to be as gods), which was united to the sensual motive, would force on any thoughtful reader the conclusion that something more than a mere animal agency was at work; but the time had not then come to reveal, what afterwards was revealed, that he who sinneth is of the devil (1Jn 3:8), and that the old serpent of Genesis was called the devil and Satan, who deceiveth the whole world (Revelation 12:9; 20:23).

Throughout the whole period of the patriarchal and Jewish dispensations, this vague and imperfect revelation of the source of evil alone was given. The Source of all Good is set forth in all his supreme and unapproachable majesty; evil is known negatively as the falling away from him; and the vanity of idols, rather than any positive evil influence, is represented as the opposite to his reality and goodness. The law gives the knowledge of sin in the soul, without referring to any external influence of evil to foster it; it denounces idolatry, without even hinting, what the New Test. declares plainly, that such evil implied a power of Satan.

The book of Job stands, in any case, alone (whether we refer it to an early or a later period) on the basis of natural religion, apart from the gradual and orderly evolutions of the Mosaic revelation. In it, for the first time, we find a distinct mention of Satan, the adversary of Job. But it is important to remark the emphatic stress laid on his subordinate position, on the absence of all but delegated power, of all terror, and all grandeur in his character. He comes among the sons of God to present himself before the Lord; his malice and envy are permitted to have scope, in accusation or in action, only for God’s own purposes; and its is especially remarkable that no power of spiritual influence, but only a power over outward circumstances, is attributed to him. All this is widely different from the clear and terrible revelations of the New Test.

The captivity brought the Israelites face to face with the great dualism of the Persian mythology, the conflict of Ormuzd with Ahriman, the coordinate spirit of evil. In the books written after the captivity we have again the name of Satan twice mentioned; but it is confessed by all that the Satan of Scripture bears no resemblance to the Persian Ahriman. His subordination and inferiority are as strongly marked as ever. In 1Ch 21:1, where the name occurs without the article ( an adversary, not the adversary), the comparison with 2Sa 24:1 shows distinctly that, in the temptation of David, Satans malice was overruled to work out the anger of the Lord against Israel. In Zec 3:1-2, Satan is (as in 1Pe 5:8), the accuser of Joshua before the throne of God, rebuked and put to silence by him (comp. Psa 109:6). In the case, as of the good angels, so also of the evil one, the presence of fable and idolatry gave cause to the manifestation of the truth. SEE ANGEL. It would have been impossible to guard the Israelites more distinctly from the fascination of the great dualistic theory of their conquerors.

It is perhaps not difficult to conjecture that the reason of this reserve as to the disclosure of the existence and nature of Satan is to be found in the inveterate tendency of the Israelites to idolatry an idolatry based, as usual, in great degree, on the supposed power of their false gods to inflict evil. The existence of evil spirits is suggested to them in the stern prohibition and punishment of witchcraft (Exo 22:18; Deu 18:10), and in the narrative of the possession of men by an evil or lying spirit from the Lord (1Sa 16:14; 1Ki 22:22); the tendency to seek their aid is shown by the rebukes of the prophets (Isa 8:19, etc.). But this tendency would have been increased tenfold by the revelation of the existence of the great enemy concentrating round himself all the powers of evil and enmity against God. Therefore, it would seem, the revelation of the strong man armed was withheld until the stronger than he should be made manifest. In the New Test. this reserve suddenly vanishes. In the interval between the Old and New Test. the Jewish mind had pondered on the scanty revelations already given of evil spiritual influence. But the Apocryphal books (as, for example, Tobit and Judith), while dwelling on daemons (), have no notice of Satan. The same may be observed of Josephus. The only instance to the contrary is the reference already made to Wisd. 2, 24. It is to be noticed also that the Targums often introduce the name of Satan into the descriptions of sin and temptation found in the Old Test., as, for example, in Exo 32:19, in connection with the worship of the golden calf (comp. the tradition as to the body of Moses, Deu 34:5-6; Jud 1:9). SEE MICHAEL. But, while a mass of fable and superstition grew up on the general subject of evil spiritual influence, still the existence and nature of Satan remained in the background, felt, but not understood.

The New Test. first brings it plainly forward. From the beginning of the Gospel, when he appears as the personal tempter of our Lord, through all the Gospels, Epistles, and Apocalypse, it is asserted or implied, again and again, as a familiar and important truth. To refer this to mere accommodation of the language of the Lord and his apostles to the ordinary Jewish belief is to contradict facts and evade the meaning of words. The subject is not one on which error could be tolerated as unimportant, but one important, practical, and even awful. The language used respecting it is either truth or falsehood; and unless we impute error or deceit to the writers of the New Test., we must receive the doctrine of the existence of Satan as a certain doctrine of revelation. Without dwelling on other passages, the plain, solemn, and unmetaphorical words of Joh 8:44, must be sufficient: Ye are of your father the devil. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abides () not in the truth…. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. SEE DEMONIAC.

III. Natural History.

1. Of the original nature and state of Satan, little is revealed in Scripture. Most of the common notions on the subject are drawn from mere tradition, popularized in England by Milton, but without even a vestige of Scriptural authority. He is spoken of as a spirit in Eph 2:2; as the prince or ruler of the daemons () in Mat 12:24-26; and as having angels subject to him in Mat 25:41; Rev 12:7; Rev 12:9. The whole description of his power implies spiritual nature and spiritual influence. We conclude, therefore, that he was of angelic nature, a rational and spiritual creature, superhuman in power, wisdom, and energy; and not only so, but an archangel, one of the princes of heaven. SEE ARCHANGEL.

The class of beings to which Satan originally belonged, and which constituted a celestial hierarchy, is very numerous: Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him (Dan 7:10). They were created and dependent (Joh 1:3). Analogy leads to the conclusion that there are different grades among the angels as among other races of beings. The Scriptures warrant the same. Michael is described as one of the chief princes (Dan 10:13); as chief captain of the host of Jehovah (Jos 5:14). Similar distinctions exist among the fallen angels (Col 2:15; Eph 6:12). It is also reasonable to suppose that they were created susceptible of improvement in all respects except moral purity, as they certainly were capable of apostasy.

2. As to the time when they were brought into being, the Bible is silent; and where it is silent, we should be silent, or speak with modesty. Some suppose that they were called into existence after the creation of the world; among whom is Dr. John Dick. Others have supposed that they were created just anterior to the creation of man, and for purposes of a merciful ministration to him. It is more probable, however, that as they were the highest in rank among the creatures of God, so they were the first in the order of time; and that they may have continued for ages in obedience to their Maker, before the creation of man, or the fall of the apostate angels.

We cannot, of course, conceive that anything essentially and originally evil was created by God. We find by experience that the will of a free and rational creature can, by his permission, oppose his will; that the very conception of freedom implies capacity of temptation; and that every sin, unless arrested by Gods fresh gift of grace, strengthens the hold of evil on the spirit till it may fall into the hopeless state of reprobation. We can only conjecture, therefore, that Satan is a fallen angel, who once had a time of probation, but whose condemnation is now irrevocably fixed.

3. The Scriptures are explicit as to the apostasy of some, of whom Satan was the chief and leader. But of the time, cause, and manner of his fall, Scripture tells us scarcely anything. It limits its disclosures, as always, to that which we need to know. The passage on which all the fabric of tradition and poetry has been raised is Rev 12:7; Rev 12:9, which speaks of Michael and his angels as fighting against the dragon and his angels, till the great dragon, called the devil and Satan, was cast out into the earth, and his angels cast out with him. Whatever be the meaning of this passage, it is certain that it cannot refer to the original fall of Satan. The only other passage which refers to the fall of the angels is 2Pe 2:4, God spared not the angels, when they had sinned, but having cast them into hell, delivered them to chains of darkness ( ), reserved unto judgment, with the parallel passage in Jud 1:6, Angels, who kept not their first estate ( ), but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. In these mysterious passages, however, there is some difficulty in considering Satan as one of the rest, for they are in chains and guarded () till the great day; he is permitted still to go about as the tempter and the adversary, until his appointed time be come. This distinction, nevertheless, may be due to Satans eminence among his fellows. Those who adhered to Satan in his apostasy are described as belonging to him. The company is called the devil and his angels (Mat 25:41). The relation marked here denotes the instrumentality which the devil may have exerted in inducing those called his angels to rebel against Jehovah and join themselves to his interests. Aside from these passages. we have still to consider the declaration of our Lord in Luk 10:18, I beheld () Satan, as lightning, fall from heaven. This may refer to the fact of his original fall (although the use of the imperfect tense and the force of the context rather refer it figuratively to the triumph of the disciples over the evil spirits); but, in any case, it tells nothing of its cause or method. There is also the passage already quoted (Joh 8:44), in which our Lord declares of him, that he was a murderer from the beginning, that he stands not () in the truth, because there is no truth in him, that he is a liar, and the father of it. But here it seems likely the words refer to the beginning of his action upon man; perhaps the allusion is to his temptation of Cain to be the first murderer an allusion explicitly made in a similar passage in 1Jn 3:9-12. The word (wrongly rendered abode’ in the A.V.) and the rest of the verse refer to present time. The passage therefore throws little or no light on the cause and method of his fall. Perhaps the only one which has any value is 1Ti 3:6, lest being lifted up by pride he fall into the condemnation () of the devil. It is concluded from this that pride was the cause of the devils condemnation. The inference is a probable one; it is strengthened by the only analogy within our reach, that of the fall of man, in which the spiritual temptation of pride, the desire; to be as gods, was the subtlest and most deadly temptation. Still it is but an inference; it cannot be regarded as a matter of certain revelation.

How Satan and his followers, being created so high in excellence and holiness, became sinful and fell is a question upon which theologians have differed, but which they have not settled. The difficulty has seemed so great to Schleiermacher and others that they have denied the fact of such an apostasy. They have untied the knot by cutting it. Still the difficulty remains. The denial of mystery is not the removal of it. Even philosophy teaches us to believe sometimes where we cannot understand. It is here that the grave question of the introduction of evil first meets us. If we admit the fact of apostasy among the angels, as by a fair interpretation of Scripture we are constrained to do, the admission of such a fact in the case of human beings will follow more easily, they being the lower order of creatures, in whom defection would be less surprising.

4. In his physical nature, Satan is among those that are termed spiritual beings; not as excluding necessarily all idea of matter, but as opposed rather to the animal nature. The good angels are all ministering spirits, (Heb 1:14). Satan is one of the angels that kept not their first principality. The fall produced no change in his physical or metaphysical nature. Paul, in warning the Ephesians against the wiles of the devil, tells them (Eph 6:12) that they contended not against flesh and blood, mere human enemies, but against principalities and powers; against the rulers of the darkness of this world; against spiritual wickedness in high places, in which the contrast is between human and superhuman foes, the latter being spiritual natures, or spirits, in opposition to flesh and blood (Rosenmller, ad loc.). Satan is immortal, but not eternal; neither omniscient nor omnipresent, but raised high above the human race in knowledge and power. The Persian mythology in its early stage, and subsequently the Gnostics and Manichaeans, ranked the evil principle as coeval and coordinate, or nearly so, with God, or the good principle. The doctrine of the Jewish Church always made him a dependent creature, subject to the control of the Almighty. By the modifications which Zoroaster subsequently introduced, the Persian angelology came more nearly to resemble that of the Jews. Some have ascribed to Satan the power of working miracles, contending that there are two series of antagonistical miracles running through the Bible. To the miracles of Moses were opposed those of the Egyptian magicians; and to those of Christ and his apostles, the signs and wonders of false prophets and Antichrists the divine and the satanic. Olshausen maintains this view, as do some of the older commentators (Biblischen Commentar. 1, 242). The evidence in support of such a belief has not been sufficient to procure for it general acceptance (see Rosenmller and Calvin on Mat 24:24; 2Th 2:9; Hengstenberg, Egypt and the Books of Moses, ch. 3; also Rosenmller and Bush on Exodus 7). With a substantial presence in only one place at one time, yet, as the head of a spiritual kingdom, he is virtually present wherever his angels or servants are executing his will.

5. Scripture describes to us distinctly the moral character of the Evil One. This is no matter of barren speculation to those who, by yielding to evil, may become the children of Satan instead of children of God. The ideal of goodness is made up of the three great moral attributes of God love, truth, and purity, or holiness combined with that spirit which is the natural temper of a finite and dependent creature, the spirit of faith. We find, accordingly, that the opposites to these qualities are dwelt upon as the characteristics of the devil. In Joh 8:44, compared with 1Jn 3:10-15, we have hatred and falsehood; in the constant mention of the unclean spirits, of which he is the chief, we find impurity; from 1Ti 3:6, and the narrative of the temptation, we trace the spirit of pride. These are especially the sins of the devil; in them we trace the essence of moral evil and the features of, the reprobate mind. Add to this a spirit of restless activity, a power of craft, and an intense desire to spread corruption, and with it eternal death, and we have the portraiture of the spirit of evil as Scripture has drawn it plainly before our eyes.

More particularly, Satan’s character is denoted by his titles, Satan, Adversary, Diabolos, False Accuser, Tempter, etc. All the representations of him in Scripture show him to have unmixed and confirmed evil as the basis of his character, exhibiting itself in respect to God in assuming to be his equal, and in wishing to transfer the homage and service which belong only to God to himself; and, in respect to men, in efforts to draw them away from God and attach them to his kingdom. The evil develops itself in all possible ways and by all possible means of opposition to God, and to those who are striving to establish and extend his dominion. The immutability of his evil character precludes the idea of repentance, and, therefore, the possibility of recovering grace. He possesses an understanding which misapprehends exactly that which is most worthy to be known, to which the key fails without which nothing can be understood in its true relations an understanding darkened, however deep it may penetrate, however wide it may reach. He is thereby necessarily unblessed; torn away from the center of life, yet without ever finding it in himself; from the sense of inward emptiness, continually driven to the exterior world, and yet with it, as with himself, in eternal contradiction; forever fleeing from God, yet never escaping him; constantly laboring to frustrate his designs, yet always conscious of being obliged to promote them; instead of enjoyment in the contemplation of his excellence, the never satisfied desire after an object which it cannot attain; instead of hope, a perpetual wavering between doubt and despair; instead of love, a powerless hatred against God, against his fellow beings, against himself (Twesten).

IV. Satan’s Power and Action. Both these points, being intimately connected with our own life and salvation, are treated with a distinctness and fullness remarkably contrasted with the obscurity of the previous subjects.

The agency of Satan extends to all that he does or causes to be done. To this agency the following restrictions have generally been supposed to exist: It is limited, first, by the direct power of God; he cannot transcend the power on which he is dependent for existence; secondly, by the finiteness of his own created faculties; thirdly, by the established connection of cause and effect, or the laws of nature. The miracles, which he has been supposed to have the power of working, are denominated lying signs and wonders (2Th 2:9). With these restrictions, the devil goes about like a roaring lion.

His agency is moral and physical. First, moral. He beguiled our first parents, and thus brought sin and death upon them and their posterity (Genesis 3). He moved David to number the people (1Ch 21:1). He resisted Joshua the high priest (Zec 3:1). He tempted Jesus (Matthew 4); entered into Judas, to induce him to betray his master (Luk 22:3); instigated Ananias and Sapphira to lie to the Holy Ghost (Act 5:3); and hindered Paul and Barnabas on their way to the Thessalonians (1Th 2:18). He is the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience (Eph 2:2); and he deceiveth the whole world (Rev 12:9).

The means which he uses are variously called wiles, darts, depths, snares, all deceivableness of unrighteousness. He darkens the understandings of men, to keep them in ignorance. He perverts their judgments, that he may lead them into error. He insinuates evil thoughts, and thereby awakens in them unholy desires. He excites them to pride, anger, and revenge; to discontent, repinings, and rebellion. He labors to prop up false systems of religion, and to corrupt and overturn the true one. He came into most direct and determined conflict with the Savior in the temptation, hoping to draw him from his allegiance to God, and procure homage for himself; but he failed in his purpose. Next, he instigated the Jews to put him to death, thinking thus to thwart his designs and frustrate his plans. Here, too, he failed, and was made to subserve the very ends which he most wished to prevent. Into a similar conflict does he come with all the saints, and with like ultimate ill success. God uses his temptations as the means of trial to his people, and of strength by trial; and points them out as a motive to watchfulness and prayer. Such are the nature and mode of his moral influence and agency.

But his efforts are directed against the bodies of men, as well as against their souls. That the agency of Satan was concerned in producing physical diseases the Scriptures plainly teach (Job 2:7; Luk 13:16). Peter says of Christ that he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil (Act 10:38). Hymenaeus and Alexander were delivered to Satan, that they might learn not to blaspheme (1Ti 1:20), where physical suffering by the agency of Satan, as a divine chastisement, is manifestly intended.

The power of Satan over the soul is represented as exercised either directly or by his instruments. His direct influence over the soul is simply that of a powerful and evil nature on those in whom lurks the germ of the same evil, differing from the influence exercised by a wicked man in degree rather than in kind; but it has the power of acting by suggestion of thoughts, without the medium of actions or words a power which is only in a very slight degree exercised by men upon each other. This influence is spoken of in Scripture in the strongest terms as a real external influence, correlative to, but not to be confounded with, the existence of evil within. In the parable of the sower (Mat 13:19), it is represented as a negative influence, taking away the action of the Word of God for good; in that of the wheat and the tares (Mat 13:39), as a positive influence for evil, introducing wickedness into the world. Paul does not hesitate to represent it as a power permitted to dispute the world with the power of God; for he declares to Agrippa that his mission was to turn men from darkness to light, and from the power () of Satan unto God,’ and represents the excommunication, which cuts men off from the grace of Christ in his Church, as a deliverance of them unto Satan (1Co 5:5; 1Ti 1:20). The same truth is conveyed, though in a bolder and more startling form, in the epistles to the churches of the Apocalypse, where the body of the unbelieving Jews is called a synagogue of Satan (Rev 2:9; Rev 3:9), where the secrets of false doctrine are called the depths of Satan (Rev 2:24), and the throne and habitation of Satan are said to be set up in opposition to the Church of Christ. Another and even more remarkable expression of the same idea is found in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where the death of Christ is spoken of as intended to baffle () him that hath the power ( ) of death, that is, the devil;’ for death is evidently regarded as the wages of sin,’ and the power of death as inseparable from the power of corruption. Nor is this truth only expressed directly and formally; it meets us again and again in passages simply practical, taken for granted as already familiar (see Rom 16:20; 2Co 2:11; 1Th 2:18; 2Th 2:9; 1Ti 5:15). The Bible does not shrink from putting the fact of satanic influence over the soul before us in plain and terrible certainty.

Yet, at the same time, it is to be observed that its language is very far from countenancing, even for a moment, the horrors of the Manichean theory. The influence of Satan is always spoken of as temporary and limited, subordinated to the divine counsel, and broken by the incarnate Son of God. It is brought out visibly, in the form of possession, in the earthly life of our Lord, only in order that it may give the opportunity of his triumph. As for himself, so for his redeemed ones, it is true that God shall bruise Satan under their feet shortly (Rom 16:20; comp. Gen 3:15). Nor is this all, for the history of the book of Job shows plainly, what is elsewhere constantly implied, that satanic influence is permitted in order to be overruled to good, to teach humility, and therefore faith. The mystery of the existence of evil is left unexplained; but its present subordination and future extinction are familiar truths. So accordingly, on the other hand, his power is spoken of as capable of being resisted by the will of man, when aided by the grace of God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you is the constant language of Scripture (Jam 4:7). It is indeed a power to which place or opportunity is given only by the consent of man’s will (Eph 4:27). It is probably to be traced most distinctly in the power of evil habit a power real, but not irresistible, created by previous sin, and by every successive act of sin riveted more closely upon the soul. It is a power which cannot act directly and openly, but needs craft and dissimulation in order to get advantage over man by entangling the will. The wiles (Eph 6:11), the devices (2Co 2:11), the snare (1Ti 3:7; 1Ti 6:9; 2Ti 2:26) of the devil are expressions which indicate the indirect and unnatural character of the power of evil. It is therefore urged as a reason for soberness and vigilance (1Pe 5:8), for the careful use of the whole armor of God (Eph 6:10-17); but it is never allowed to obscure the supremacy of God’s grace, or to disturb the inner peace of the Christian. He that is born of God keepeth himself, and the wicked one toucheth him not (1 John 5).

Besides his own direct influence, the Scriptures disclose to us the fact that Satan is the leader of a host of evil spirits, or angels, who share his evil work, and for whom the everlasting fire is prepared (Mat 25:41). Of their origin and fall we know no more than of his, for they cannot be the same as the fallen and imprisoned angels of 2 Peter 2 and Jud 1:6; but one passage (Mat 12:24-26) identifies them distinctly with the (A.V. devils) who had power to possess the souls of men. The Jews there speak of a Beelzebub (), a prince of the daemons, whom they identify with, or symbolize by, the idol of Ekron, the god of flies, SEE BEELZEBUB, and by whose power they accuse our Lord of casting out daemons. His answer is, How can Satan cast out Satan? The inference is clear that Satan is Beelzebub, and therefore the demons are the angels of the devil; and this inference is strengthened by Act 10:38, in which Peter describes, the possessed as ; and by Luk 10:18, in which the mastery over the daemons is connected by our Lord with the fall of Satan from heaven, and their power included by him in the power of the enemy ( ; comp. Mat 13:39). For their nature, SEE DAMON.

They are mostly spoken of in Scripture in reference to possession; but in Eph 6:12 they are described in various lights, as principalities (), powers (), rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual powers of wickedness in heavenly places (or things) ( ); and in all as wrestling against the soul of man. The same reference is made less explicitly in Rom 8:38 and Col 2:15. In Rev 12:7-9 they are spoken of as fighting with the dragon, the old serpent called the devil and Satan, against Michael and his angels, and as cast out of heaven with their chiefs. Taking all these passages together, we find them sharing the enmity to God and man implied in the name and nature of Satan; but their power and action are but little dwelt upon in comparison with his. That there is against us a power of spiritual wickedness is a truth which we need to know, and a mystery which only revelation can disclose; but whether it is exercised by few or by many is a matter of comparative indifference.

But the evil one is not only the prince of the daemons, but also he is called the prince of this world ( ) in Joh 12:31; Joh 14:30; Joh 16:11, and even the god of this world ( ) in 2Co 4:4; the two expressions being united in the words , used in Eph 6:12. (The word , properly referring to the system of the universe, and so used in John 1, is generally applied in Scripture to human society as alienated from God, with a reference to the pomp and vanity which make it an idol [see, e.g., 1 John 2]; refers to its transitory character, and is evidently used above to qualify the startling application of the word , a god of an age being of course no true God at all. It is used with in Eph 2:2.) This power he claimed for himself as a delegated authority in the temptation of our Lord (Luk 4:6), and the temptation would have been unreal had he spoken altogether falsely. It implies another kind of indirect influence exercised through earthly instruments. There are some indications in Scripture of the exercise of this power through inanimate instruments, of an influence over the powers of nature, and what men call the chances of life. Such a power is distinctly asserted in the case of Job, and probably implied in the case of the woman with a spirit of infirmity (in Luk 13:16), and of Paul’s thorn in the flesh (2Co 12:7). It is only consistent with the attribution of such action to the angels of God (as in Exo 12:23; 2Sa 24:16; 2Ki 19:35; Act 12:23), and, in our ignorance of the method of connection of the second causes of nature with the supreme will of God, we cannot even say whether it has in it any antecedent improbability; but it is little dwelt upon in Scripture in comparison with the other exercise of this power through the hands of wicked men, who become children of the devil, and accordingly do the lusts of their father. (See Joh 8:44; Act 13:10; 1Jn 3:8-10; and comp. Joh 6:70.) In this sense the Scripture regards all sins as the works of the devil, and traces to him, through his ministers, all spiritual evil and error (2Co 11:14-15), and all the persecution and hindrances which oppose the Gospel (Rev 2:10; 1Th 2:18). Most of all is this indirect action of Satan manifested in those who deliberately mislead and tempt men, and who at last, independent of any interest of their own, come to take an unnatural pleasure in the sight of evil doing in others (Rom 1:32).

The method of his action is best discerned by an examination of the title by which he is designated in Scripture. He is called emphatically , the devil. The derivation of the word in itself implies only the endeavor to break the bonds between others and set them at variance (see, e.g., Plato, Symp. p. 222 c, ); but common usage adds to this general sense the special idea of setting at variance by slander. In the New Test. the word is used three times as an epithet (1Ti 3:11; 2Ti 3:3; Tit 2:3), and in each case with something like the special meaning. In the application of the title to Satan both the general and special senses should be kept in view. His general object is to break the bonds of communion between God and man, and the bonds of truth and love which bind men to each other to set each soul at variance both with men and God, and so reduce it to that state of self will and selfishness which is the seed plot of sin. One special means by which he seeks to do this is slander of God to man and of man to God.

The slander of God to man is seen best in the words of Gen 3:4-5 : Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day that ye eat thereof your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. These words contain the germ of the false notions which keep men from God, or reduce their service to him to a hard and compulsory slavery, and which the heathen so often adopted in all their hideousness, when they represented their gods as either careless of human weal and woe or envious of human excellence and happiness. They attribute selfishness and jealousy to the giver of all good. This is enough (even without the imputation of falsehood which is added) to pervert man’s natural love of freedom till it rebels against that which is made to appear as a hard and arbitrary tyranny, and seeks to set up, as it thinks, a freer and nobler standard of its own. Such is the slander of God to man, by which Satan and his agents still strive against his reuniting grace.

The slander of man to God is illustrated by the book of Job (Job 1:9-11; Job 2:4-5). In reference to it. Satan is called the adversary () of man in 1Pe 5:8, and represented in that character in Zec 3:1-2; and more plainly still designated in Rev 12:10 as the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night. It is difficult for us to understand what can be the need of accusation, or the power of slander, under the all-searching eye of God. The mention of it is clearly an accommodation of God’s judgment to the analog of our human experience; but we understand by it a practical and awful truth, that every sin of life, and even the admixture of lower and evil motives which taints the best actions of man, will rise up against us at the judgment to claim the soul as their own, and fix forever that separation from God to which, through them, we have yielded ourselves. In that accusation Satan shall in some way bear a leading part, pleading against man, with that worst of slander which is based on perverted or isolated facts; and shall be overcome, not by any counterclaim of human merit, but by the blood of the lamb received in true and steadfast faith.

But these points, important as they are, are of less moment than the disclosure of the method of Satanic action upon the heart itself. It may be summed up in two words temptation and possession.

The subject of temptation is illustrated, not only by abstract statements, but also by the record of the temptations of Adam and of our Lord. It is expressly laid down (as in Jam 1:2-4) that temptation, properly so called, i.e. trial (), is essential to man, and is accordingly ordained for him and sent to him by God (as in Gen 22:1). Man’s nature is progressive; his faculties, which exist at first only in capacity (), must be brought out to exist in actual efficiency () by free exercise. His appetites and passions tend to their objects, simply and unreservedly, without respect to the rightness or wrongness of their obtaining them; they need to be checked by the reason and conscience, and this need constitutes a trial in which, if the conscience prevail, the spirit receives strength and growth; if it be overcome, the lower nature tends to predominate, and the man has fallen away. Besides this, the will itself delights in independence of action. Such independence of physical compulsion is its high privilege; but there is over it the moral power of God’s law, which, by the very fact of its truth and goodness, acknowledged as they are by the reason and the conscience, should regulate the human will. The need of giving up the individual will, freely and by conviction, so as to be in harmony with the will of God, is a still severer trial, with the reward of still greater spiritual progress if we sustain it, with the punishment of a subtler and more dangerous fall if we succumb. In its struggle the spirit of man can only gain and sustain its authority by that constant grace of God, given through communion of the Holy Spirit, which is the breath of spiritual life.

It is this tentability of man, even in his original nature, which is represented in Scripture as giving scope to the evil action of Satan. He is called the tempter (as in Mat 4:3; 1Th 3:5). He has power (as the record of Genesis 3 shows clearly), first, to present to the appetites or passions their objects in vivid and captivating forms, so as to induce man to seek these objects against the law of God written in the heart; and next, to act upon the false desire of the will for independence, the desire to be as gods, knowing (that is, practically, judging and determining) good and evil. It is a power which can be resisted, because it is under the control and overruling power of God, as is emphatically laid down in 1Co 10:13; Jam 4:7, etc.; but it can be so resisted only by yielding to the grace of God, and by a struggle (sometimes an agony) in reliance on its strength.

It is exercised both negatively and positively. Its negative exercise is referred to in the parable of the sower, as taking away the word, the engrafted word (Jam 1:21) of grace, i.e. as interposing itself, by consent of man, between him and the channels of God’s grace. Its positive exercise is set forth in the parable of the wheat and the tares, represented as sowing actual seed of evil in the individual heart or the world generally; and it is to be noticed that the consideration of the true nature of the tares () leads to the conclusion, which is declared plainly in 2Co 11:14, viz. that evil is introduced into the heart mostly as the counterfeit of good.

This exercise of the tempter’s power is possible, even against a sinless nature. We see this in the temptation of our Lord. The temptations presented to him appeal, first, to the natural desire and need of food; next, to the desire of power, to be used for good, which is inherent in the noblest minds; and, lastly, to the desire of testing and realizing God’s special protection, which is the inevitable tendency of human weakness, under a real but imperfect faith. The objects contemplated involved in no case positive sinfulness; the temptation was to seek them by presumptuous or by unholy means; the answer to them (given by the Lord as the Son of Man, and therefore as one like ourselves in all the weakness and finiteness of our nature) lay in simple faith, resting upon God, and on his word, keeping to his way, and refusing to contemplate the issues of action, which belong to him alone. Such faith is a renunciation of all self confidence, and a simple dependence on the will and on the grace of God.

But in the temptation of a fallen nature Satan has a greater power. Every sin committed makes a man the servant of sin for the future (Joh 8:34; Rom 6:16); it therefore creates in the spirit of man a positive tendency to evil, which sympathizes with, and aids the temptation of the evil one. This is a fact recognized by experience; the doctrine of Scripture, inscrutably mysterious, but unmistakably declared, is that, since the fall, this evil tendency is born in man in capacity, prior to all actual sins, and capable of being brought out into active existence by such actual sins committed. It is this which Paul calls a law, i.e. (according to his universal use of the word) an external power of sin over man, bringing the inner man (the ) into captivity (Rom 7:14-24). Its power is broken by the atonement and the gift of the Spirit, but yet not completely cast out; it still lusts against the spirit so that men cannot do the things which they would (Gal 5:17). It is to this spiritual power of evil, the tendency to falsehood, cruelty, pride, and unbelief, independently of any benefits to be derived from them, that Satan is said to appeal in tempting us. If his temptations be yielded to without repentance, it becomes the reprobate () mind, which delights in evil for its own sake (Rom 1:28; Rom 1:32), and makes men emphatically children of the devil (Joh 8:44; Act 13:10; 1Jn 3:8; 1Jn 3:10) and accursed (Mat 25:41), fit for the fire prepared for the devil and his angels. If they be resisted, as by God’s grace they may be resisted, then the evil power (the flesh or the old man) is gradually crucified or mortified until the soul is prepared for that heaven where no evil can enter.

This twofold power of temptation is frequently referred to in Scripture as exercised chiefly by the suggestion of evil thoughts, but occasionally by the delegated power of Satan over outward circumstances. To this latter power is to be traced (as has been said) the trial of Job by temporal loss and bodily suffering (Job 1, 2), the remarkable expression used by our Lord as to the woman with a spirit of infirmity (Luk 13:16), the thorn in the flesh. which Paul calls the messenger of Satan to buffet him (2Co 12:7). Its language is plain, incapable of being explained as metaphor or poetical personification of an abstract principle. Its general statements are illustrated by examples of temptation. (See, besides those already mentioned, Luk 22:5, John 23:27 [Judas]; Luk 22:31 [Peter]; Act 5:3 [Ananias and Sapphira]; 1Co 7:5; 2Co 2:11; 1Th 3:5.) The subject itself is the most startling form of the mystery of evil; it is one on which, from our ignorance of the connection of the first cause with second causes in nature, and of the process of origination of human thought, experience can hardly be held to be competent either to confirm or to oppose the testimony of Scripture.

It is of no avail that there are difficulties connected with the agency ascribed to Satan. Objections are of little weight when brought against well-authenticated facts. Any objections raised against the agency of Satan are equally valid against his existence. If he exists, he must act; and if he is evil, his agency must be evil. The fact of such an agency being revealed as it is, is every way as consonant with reason and religious consciousness as are the existence and agency of good angels. Neither reason nor consciousness could by itself establish such a fact; but all the testimony they are capable of adducing is in agreement with the Scripture representation on the subject.

On the subject of demonical possession (q.v.) it is sufficient here to remark that although widely different in form, yet it is of the same intrinsic character as the other power of Satan, including both that external and internal influence to which reference has been made above. It is disclosed to us only in connection with the revelation of that redemption from sin which destroys it a revelation begun in the first promise in Eden, and manifested in itself at the atonement in its effects at the great day. Its end is seen in the Apocalypse, where Satan is first bound for a thousand years, then set free for a time for the last conflict, and finally cast into the lake of fire and brimstone … for ever and ever (20:2, 7-10).

V. Traditions. According to the Mohammedans, who have derived their account from Jewish traditions, Satan, or, as they sometimes call him, Eblis, was an archangel whom God employed to destroy the Jinns or Genii, a race intermediate between men and angels, who tenanted the earth before the creation of Adam. In riches, power, and magnificence, the pre-Adamite sultans of the Jinns far surpassed any height to which monarchs of the human race have attained; but the pride with which such glories inspired them filled them with impiety, and their monstrous crimes at length provoked the wrath of the Omnipotent. Satan was then commissioned to destroy them; he exterminated the greater part of the perfidious race, and compelled the rest to seek refuge in the caves beneath the mighty Kaf, or mountain framework which supports the universe. This victory filled Satan with pride; and when God, after the creation of Adam, required all the celestial intelligences to worship the new being, Satan and his adherents peremptorily refused, upon which he was driven from heaven, and the faithful angels threw great stones at him to accelerate his flight. Hence the common Mohammedan saving, God preserve us from Satan who was stoned! In revenge for this misfortune, Satan resolved to procure the expulsion of our first parents from paradise; but when he presented himself at the gate of the garden, he was refused admittance by the guard. On this he begged each of the animals, one after another, to carry him in, that he might speak to Adam and his wife; but they all refused him except the serpent, who took him between two of his teeth and thus carried him in. See D’Herlelot, Biblioth. Orientate, s.v. SEE SUPERSTITION.

VI. Literature. Lists of works on this subject are given by Danz, Theol. Wrterbuch, s. vv. Satan, Teufel; Darling, Cyclop. Bibliogr. Colossians 1384. 1680 sq.; and Malcom, Theolog. Index, s.v. See also Tweedie, Satan as revealed in Scripture (Edinb. 1862); Snope, Satanic Influence (Lond. 1854); Cowan, idem (ibid. 1861); and the monographs referred to under SEE DAEMON; SEE DEVIL; SEE POSSESSED.

Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

Satan

adversary; accuser. When used as a proper name, the Hebrew word so rendered has the article “the adversary” (Job 1:6-12; 2:1-7). In the New Testament it is used as interchangeable with Diabolos, or the devil, and is so used more than thirty times.

He is also called “the dragon,” “the old serpent” (Rev. 12:9; 20:2); “the prince of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30); “the prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2); “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4); “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). The distinct personality of Satan and his activity among men are thus obviously recognized. He tempted our Lord in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-11). He is “Beelzebub, the prince of the devils” (12:24). He is “the constant enemy of God, of Christ, of the divine kingdom, of the followers of Christ, and of all truth; full of falsehood and all malice, and exciting and seducing to evil in every possible way.” His power is very great in the world. He is a “roaring lion, See king whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). Men are said to be “taken captive by him” (2 Tim. 2:26). Christians are warned against his “devices” (2 Cor. 2:11), and called on to “resist” him (James 4:7). Christ redeems his people from “him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14). Satan has the “power of death,” not as lord, but simply as executioner.

Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary

Satan

(“adversary”.) Four times in Old Testament as a proper name (Job 1:6; Job 1:12; Job 2:1; Zec 3:1, with ha-, the article); without it in 1Ch 21:1; 1Ch 21:25 times in New Testament; the Devil also 25 times; “the prince of this world” three times, for Satan had some mysterious connection with this earth and its animals before man’s appearance. (See DEVIL.) Death already had affected the pre-Adamic animal kingdom, as geology shows. Satan had already fallen, and his fall perhaps affected this earth and its creatures, over which he may originally in innocence have been God’s vicegerent, hence his envy of man his successor in the vicegerency (Gen 1:26; Gen 3:1-14). “The winked one” six times; “the tempter” twice. “The old serpent, the devil, and Satan, who deceiveth the whole world” (Rev 12:9; Rev 20:23). In Job his power is only over outward circumstances, by God’s permission. Instead of being a rival power to good and God, as in the Persian belief as to Ormuzd and Ahriman, he is subordinate; his malicious temptation of David was overruled to work out Jehovah’s anger against Israel (2Sa 24:1; 1Ch 21:1).

As the judicial adversary of God’s people he accuses them before God, but is silenced by Jehovah their Advocate (Zec 3:1-2; 1Pe 5:8; Psa 109:6; Psa 109:31; 1Jo 2:1-2). The full revelation of “the strong man armed” was only when “the stronger” was revealed (Luk 11:21-23). He appears as personal tempter of Jesus Christ. (See JESUS CHRIST.) The Zendavesta has an account of the temptation in Eden nearest that of Genesis, doubtless derived from the primitive tradition. Christ’s words of Satan are (Joh 8:44), cf6 “ye are of your father the devil; he was a murderer (compare as to his instigating Cain 1Jo 3:9-12) from the beginning and abode not in the truth. When he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it.” He is a “spirit,” “prince of the powers of the air,” and “working in the children of disobedience” (Eph 2:2). “Prince of the demons” (Greek), at the head of an organized “kingdom” (Mat 12:24-26), with “his (subject) angels.”

They “kept not their first estate but left their own habitation”; so God “hath reserved them in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day” (Jud 1:6). Again “God spared not the angels, but cast them into hell (Tartarus, the bottomless pit: Luk 8:31; Rev 9:11), and delivered them to chains of darkness” (2Pe 2:4). Their final doom is Tartarus; meanwhile they roam in “the darkness of this world”; step by step they and Satan are being given up to Tartarus, until wholly bound there at last (Revelation 20). “The darkness of this world” (Eph 6:12) is their chain. They are free now to tempt and hurt only to the length of their chain; Rev 12:7-9 describes not their original expulsion, but a further step in their fall, owing to Christ’s ascension, namely, exclusion from access to accuse the saints before God (Job 1:11; Zechariah 3). Christ’s ascension as our advocate took away the accuser’s standing ground in heaven (compare Luk 10:18; Isa 14:12-15).

Pride was his “condemnation,” and to it he tempts others, especially Christian professors (Gen 3:5; 1Ti 3:6). As love, truth, and holiness characterize God, so malice or hatred (the spring of murder), lying, and uncleanness characterize Satan (Joh 8:44; 1Jo 3:10-12). Disbelief of God is what first Satan tempts men to (Genesis 3); “IF Thou be the Son of God” was the dart he aimed at Christ in the wilderness temptation, and through human emissaries on the cross. Also pride and presumption (Mat 4:6). Restless energy, going to and fro as the “roaring lion”; subtle instilling of venom, gliding steadily on his victim, as the “serpent” or “dragon”; shameless lust (Job 1:7; Mat 12:43); so his victims (Isa 57:20). He steals away the good seed from the careless hearer (Mat 13:19), introduces “the children of the wicked one” into the church itself, the tares among and closely resembling outwardly the wheat (Mat 13:38-39).

His “power” is that of darkness, from which Christ delivers His saints; cutting off members from Christ’s church is “delivering them to Satan” (1Co 5:5; 1Ti 1:20; Act 26:18; Col 1:13). The Jews might have been “the church of God,” but by unbelief became “the synagogue of Satan.” His “throne” opposes Christ’s heavenly throne (Rev 4:2; Rev 2:9-10; Rev 2:13). He has his “principalities and powers” in his organized kingdom, in mimicry of the heavenly (Rom 8:38; 1Co 15:24; Col 2:15; Eph 6:12). He instigates persecution, and is the real persecutor. He has “depths of Satan” in opposition to knowledge of “the deep things of God” (Rev 2:24); men pruriently desire to know those depths, as Eve did. It is God’s sole prerogative thoroughly to know evil without being polluted by it. Satan has “the power of death,” because “the sting of death is sin” (1Co 15:56); Satan being author of sin is author of its consequence, death. God’s law (Gen 2:17; Rom 6:23) makes death the executioner of sin, and man Satan’s “lawful captive.”

Jesus by His death gave death its deathblow and took the prey from the mighty; as David cut off Goliath’s head with his own sword (Mat 12:29; Luk 10:19; Isa 49:24; 2Ti 1:10; Psa 8:2; Heb 2:14). “Christ … through death … destroy (katargeesee, “render powerless”) him that had the power of death.” Satan seeks to “get an advantage of” believers (2Co 2:11); he has “devices” (noeemata) and “wiles” (methodeias, “methodical stratagems”) (Eph 6:11), and “snares” (1Ti 3:7), “transforming himself (Greek) into an angel of light,” though “prince of darkness” (2Co 11:14; Luk 22:53; Eph 6:12). “Satan hinders” good undertakings by evil men (Act 13:10; Act 17:13-14; Act 3:8-10), or even by “messengers of Satan,” sicknesses, etc. (2Co 11:14; 2Co 12:7; 1Th 2:18; Luk 13:16). Satan works or energizes in and through antichrist (2Th 2:9; Rev 13:2) in opposition to the Holy Spirit energizing in the church (Eph 1:19). The wanton turn aside from Christ the spouse after Satan the seducer (1Ti 5:11-15).

The believer’s victory by “the God of peace bruising Satan” is foretold from the first (Gen 3:15; Rom 16:20). The opposition of Satan in spite of himself will be overruled to the believer’s good, the latter thereby learning patience, submission, faith, and so his end being blessed, as in Job’s case. Man can in God’s strength “resist Satan” (Jam 4:7); by withholding consent of the will, man gives Satan no “place,” room or scope (Eph 4:27). “The wicked one toucheth not” the saint, as he could not touch Christ (1Jo 5:18; Joh 14:30). Self restraint and watchfulness are our safeguards (1Pe 5:8).

Translate 2Ti 2:26 “that they may awake (ananeepsosin) … being taken as saved captives by him (“the servant of the Lord”, 2Ti 2:24; autou) so as to follow the will of Him” (ekeinou; God, 2Ti 2:25): ezogreemenoi, taken to be saved alive, instead of Satan’s thrall unto death, brought to the willing “captivity of obedience” to Christ (2Co 10:5). So Jesus said to Peter (Luk 5:10), cf6 “henceforth thou shalt catch [unto “life” (zogron)] men.” Satan in tempting Christ asserts his delegated rule over the kingdoms of this world, and Christ does not deny but admits it (Luk 4:6), “the prince of this world” (Joh 12:31; Joh 14:30; Joh 16:11; 2Co 4:4; Eph 6:12). Satan slanders God to man (Gen 3:1-5), as envious of man’s happiness and unreasonably restraining his enjoyments; and man to God (Job 1:9-11; Job 2:4-5).

Satan tempts, but cannot force, man’s will; grace can enable man to overcome (Jam 1:2-4; 1Co 10:13; Jam 4:7, etc.). Satan steals the good seed from the careless hearer (Jam 1:21) and implants tares (Mat 13:4; Mat 13:19; Mat 13:25; Mat 13:38). Satan thrusts into the mind impure thoughts amidst holy exercises; 1Co 7:5, “come together that Satan tempt you not because of your incontinency,” i.e., Satan takes advantage of men’s inability to restrain natural propensities. Satan tempted Judas (Luk 22:5; Joh 23:27), Peter (Luk 22:31), Ananias and Sapphire (Acts 5). Augustine’s (De Civit. Dei, 22:1) opinion was that the redeemed were elected by God to fill up the lapsed places in the heavenly hierarchy, occasioned by the fall of Satan and his demons.

Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary

SATAN

Among the angelic spirits of the unseen world there are those that are evil, though the Bible nowhere records how they fell into such a condition. The chief of these evil angelic spirits is one known as the adversary the adversary of God, his people, and all that is good. The Hebrew word for adversary is satan, which later became the name used in the Bible for this leader of evil (Job 1:6). He is also called the devil (Mat 4:1-12; 1Jn 3:8; Rev 12:9), the prince of demons (Mat 9:34; Mat 12:24; see also BEELZEBUL), the prince of this world (Joh 12:31; Joh 14:30; Joh 16:11), the god of this world (2Co 4:4), the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2), the evil one (Mat 13:19; Eph 6:16; 1Jn 2:13; 1Jn 3:12) and the accuser of the brethren (Rev 12:10; cf. Job 1:6-12; Zec 3:1).

Gods rebellious servant

We should not think that Satan is in some way the equal of God, one being a good God and the other an evil God. God alone is God (Isa 44:6). Satan is no more than an angelic being created by God. There are good angels and evil angels, Satan being chief of the evil ones (Mat 25:31; Mat 25:41; Eph 6:12; Jud 1:9; Rev 12:7-9; see ANGELS; DEMONS). God, however, is above all and over all.

Also there are not, as it were, two kingdoms, a kingdom of good where God is absolute ruler and a kingdom of evil where Satan is absolute ruler. Satan is not a sovereign ruler but a rebel. Like all created beings, he is under the rule and authority of God and he can do his evil work only within the limits God allows (Job 1:12; Job 2:6; cf. Rev 20:2-3; Rev 20:7-8). He is still the servant of God, even though a rebellious one (Job 1:6-7; Job 2:1-2; Zec 3:1-2). In spite of the evil he loves to do, he is still fulfilling Gods purposes, even though unwillingly (Job 1:9-12; 1Ki 22:19-23; cf. Joh 13:2; Joh 13:27; Act 2:23; 1Co 5:5; 2Co 12:7; 1Ti 1:20).

This does not mean that God tempts people to do evil. It is Satan, not God, who is the tempter (Gen 3:1-6; 1Ch 21:1; Mat 4:1-11; 1Co 7:5; Jam 1:13). God desires rather to save people from evil (Mat 6:13; 1Co 10:13). Yet God allows them to suffer the troubles and temptations that Satan brings in life, for through such things he tests and strengthens their faith (Jam 1:2-3; Jam 1:12; cf. Heb 2:18; Heb 5:8-9; see TEMPTATION; TESTING).

Satan is hostile to God and fights against Gods purposes (Mat 4:1-12; Mar 8:31-33). But in the long run Satan cannot be successful, because Jesus Christ, by his life, death and resurrection, has conquered him and delivered believers from his power (Mat 12:28-29; Luk 10:18; Joh 12:31; Joh 16:11; Act 26:18; Col 2:15; Heb 2:14-15; 1Jn 3:8). (Concerning Jesus Christs conquest of Satan see KINGDOM OF GOD.)

Enemy of the human race

Although Jesus has conquered Satan, the world at present sees neither Jesus conquest nor Satans defeat. God allows evil angels to continue to exist just as he allows evil people. He has condemned them but not yet destroyed them. The world will see Jesus conquest and Satans defeat in the great events at the end of the age, when Christ returns in power and glory (Rev 20:10).

In the meantime Satan continues to operate (Mat 13:24-26; Mat 13:37-39). He opposes all that is good and encourages all that is evil. At times he works with brutality and ferocity (1Pe 5:8; Rev 2:10), at other times with cunning and deceit (2Co 2:11; 2Co 11:14; 1Ti 3:7). He works not only through people who are obviously evil (Act 13:8-10; Eph 2:1-3; 1Jn 3:10; 1Jn 3:12; Rev 2:13), but also through those who appear to be good (Mar 8:33; Joh 8:44; Act 5:3; Rev 2:9; Rev 3:9).

Satan causes people physical suffering through disease (Luk 13:16; 2Co 12:7; see DISEASE), and evil spirits (Mar 3:20-27; Mar 7:25; Act 10:38; see MAGIC; UNCLEAN SPIRITS). He brings mental and spiritual suffering through the cunning of his deceit and temptations (1Co 7:5; 2Th 2:9-10 : 2Ti 2:24-26). Above all, he wants to prevent people from understanding and believing the gospel (Mat 13:19; 2Co 4:4).

Christians, because they have declared themselves on the side of God, may at times experience Satans attacks more than others. They have a constant battle against Satan, but they do not fight entirely by their own strength. Certainly, they must make every effort to resist Satan and avoid doing those things that will give Satan an opportunity to tempt them (Eph 4:27; Jam 4:7), but God gives Christians the necessary armour to withstand Satans attacks (Eph 6:11-13).

Just as Satan opposed Jesus in his ministry, so he will oppose Jesus followers in their ministry (Joh 8:42-44; Act 13:10; 1Th 2:18). But through the victory of Jesus, they too can have victory (Luk 10:17-18; Luk 22:31-32; Rev 12:10-11).

Fuente: Bridgeway Bible Dictionary

Satan

SATAN.1. The word Satan (, ), which in the NT is invariably used as a proper name denoting the arch-enemy of God and man, occurs in the Hebrew of the OT originally as a synonym of the common words for adversary, as the verb is used simply in the sense of withstanding, taking the opposite side. In this sense it is used in Num 22:22 even of the angel of the Lord, who is said to go forth to be a Satan to Balaam. In other passages it is applied, with no sinister meaning, to David, who, as the Philistines feared, might desert Achish and turn against them in battle (1Sa 29:4); to Abishai when he opposed Davids purpose of clemency towards Shimei (2Sa 19:22); and again to a foreign enemy in general (1Ki 5:4); and to Hadad and Rezon in connexion with their revolt against Solomon (1Ki 11:14; 1Ki 11:23; 1Ki 11:25). Elsewhere, as in the Book of Ps. (109:6), in the first two chapters of the Book of Job and in Zechariah 3 it is used in a technical or legal sense as the equivalent of , an opponent in law, an advocate, whose function it is to plead for the condemnation of an accused person. In Job 2:3 Jehovah taxes the Satan with over-officious zeal in his efforts to test the motives of the righteous man whom he is permitted to accuse; and again in Zec 3:2 He distinctly rebukes him for pressing his charge against Joshua. But notwithstanding such suggestions that an evil spirit, a malicious accuser, is described (like the Satan, the accuser of the brethren, , of the NT), there is no explicit indication that this is the case. The being thus described as the Satan or the Adversary appears in Zechariah as an official accuser, and in the Book of Job he takes his place among the sons of God in the court of heaven as one having a right to be there, and that in connexion with the function attributed to him of going to and fro upon the earth, and considering and reporting upon the conduct of the sons of men. He is recognized as a minister of the Divine justice, although God does tax him with overdoing his part. All that appears to be indicated there is the thought that there is in the Court of God one whose office it is to plead for the condemnation of sinners. Of a malignant enemy of God and His cause, a personal spirit of evil called Satan, there is no express mention in the OT. The temptation of our first parents is ascribed in Genesis to the serpent, and no interpretation is offered of the symbolism of the story. Again, though in one passage in Chronicles (1Ch 21:1) we read that Satan tempted David to number the peoplea presumptuous offence for which the king was severely punishedthe parallel passage (2Sa 24:1), much the older narrative, attributes Davids conduct to trial at the hands of God, not to the temptation of the Evil One. Similarly the deception of the lying spirit who lured Ahab to his destruction (1Ki 22:19-23) is said to have had the express sanction of God. Altogether it is one of the most noteworthy features of the theology of the OT, that so little reference is made to Satan as the great adversary of God and His people, or as the malignant tempter and accuser of man. The Satan of the Book of Job and of the prophecies of Zechariah is described in language very different from that in which the arch-enemy is spoken of in the NT.

This fact, together with the circumstance that references to Satan as an accuser of mankind occur only in those books of the OT which belong to a comparatively late period, has been taken as a proof of the theory that the Jewish belief in Satanic agency was introduced into the Hebrew theology from a foreign source. Traces appear elsewhere of early beliefs current among the Hebrews in the existence of demons, satyrs, liliths, and the like, as in the use of the name Azazel, a mysterious being mentioned in the Pentateuch in connexion with the ordinance of the scapegoat (Leviticus 16). It has been supposed that upon those popular beliefs of early Semitie religion there was grafted, from Persian sources, the conception of a Prince of Darkness whose agency is similar to that which, in the religion of Zoroaster, is ascribed to the demon-god Ahriman, and that the belief in Satan and his angels as fallen spirits was thus introduced into Hebrew theology. But, as a matter of fact, the connexion between Satan and the Zoroastrian Ahriman is more apparent than real. A simpler explanation of the history of the doctrine of the personality and agency of Satan is that it has been the subject of development under the influence of a progressive revelation. The complete revelation of such a being as the malignant author of evil was reserved for the time when, with the advent of Christs Kingdom, the minds of Gods people were prepared, without risk of idolatry, or of the mischievous dualism of such a religion as that of Zoroaster, to recognize in the serpent of Eden and in the Satan who appeared as the adversary of Job and of Joshua, the great Adversary of God and man, whose power is to be feared and his temptations resolutely resisted, but from whose dark dominion the Son of God had come to deliver mankind.

2. If the OT is remarkable for its reticence on this subject, we find in the NT the doctrine of Satanic agency very fully developed. It meets us on the threshold. It is one of the most conspicuous elements of NT teaching. Jesus and His disciples distinctly assume the reality of Satan and his kingdom as a mighty power for evil, opposed to the Kingdom of God in the world and in the hearts of men. This is nowhere more noticeable than in the Gospels, and there in the direct teaching of our Lord. At the outset of the Gospel narrative Satan appears as the antagonist of Christ. The story of the Temptation, which must have been communicated to the disciples from the lips of Jesus Himself, is related by the three Synoptists. St. Mark (Mar 1:13) informs us that Jesus was forty days tempted of Satan, using that word or title as a proper name. St. Matthew (ch. 4) and St. Luke (ch. 4), who relate the incident with clear circumstantiality of detail, note three distinct temptations, in which they quote the arguments used by the Tempter and the answers returned by Jesus. They describe the Tempter as , the devil, using the recognized word for betrayer or malicious accuser. According to St. Matthews account, Jesus addresses him as Satan. St. Luke concludes the narrative with the significant words, When the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season, as if to indicate that the conflict with Satan was renewed and continued throughout our Lords ministry. St. Matthew tells us that when the devil left Him, angels came and ministered unto Him. Thus the Synoptic Gospels distinctly describe the source of the temptation as the direct suggestions of a person, and that one who is variously called Satan and the devil.

Again, these same Gospels, as also the Acts of the Apostles, take notice of Christs works of healing, and especially of those wrought upon persons possessed with demons, as illustrating the nature of His mission, which was to heal all that were oppressed of the devil (Act 10:38). St. Luke (Luk 22:3) no less clearly than St. John (Joh 13:2) informs us that Satan entered the heart of Judas and prompted him to betray his Lord.

In the recorded utterances of Jesus, in His express teaching, allusions are clearly made to the power and activity of Satan as a personal being, and the great Adversary of God and man. He attributes the trouble of the woman who had the spirit of infirmity to the malign power of Satan to afflict even the bodies of men (Luk 13:16). Thus, so far from discouraging the popular belief which ascribed to Satan and his angels power over soul and body, Jesus distinctly acknowledged it. Accused by the Pharisees, representatives of those to whose speculations in angelology and demonology that popular belief has been traced, of casting out demons through Beelzebub the prince of demons, Jesus, so far from controverting or throwing doubt upon the current opinions of the time, repels the charge by the argument that if Satan should cast out Satan, he would only be defeating his own ends and destroying his own work. Then He proceeds to say, But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you (Mat 12:28, cf. Luk 11:20), illustrating His argument by the similitude of the strong man and the Stronger than he, implying that Satan is the strong man who would enslave mankind, but that Jesus Himself is the Stronger than he, who has appeared for the deliverance of the victims of Satanic power. That Jesus should thus have argued in controversy with the Pharisees has its own significance. We cannot explain it away on the principle of accommodation. Jesus could and did rebuke the spirit of Pharisaic traditionalism which led them to introduce all manner of mischievous subtleties, making void the Law by their unauthorized traditions, but never once did He even cast suspicion upon this part of the doctrine of the Pharisees. He accepted it without question.

Again, when the Seventy expressed their joy at the success of their mission, and exclaimed, Lord, even the demons are subject unto us, Jesus replied, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven, and went on to say, Behold, I give you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy (Luk 10:17-19). Passing over such passages as those in the Sermon on the Mount, Whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil or the evil one (Mat 5:37); Deliver us from evil or the evil one (Mat 6:13), which have been explained, and even, as in the Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 , translated as referring to the personal Author of Evil, we find Jesus in His discourses and in warnings addressed to His disciples making distinct allusion to Satan as the great adversary whom they have cause to fear. In the parables of the Sower and the Tares, the Evil One, variously termed the devil, Satan, the enemy, the wicked one, is described as seeking to frustrate the work of Christ by catching away the good seed sown in the heart (Mat 13:19, Mar 4:15, Luk 8:12); or by sowing tares among the wheat (Mat 13:38-39), the tares denoting the children of the wicked one as the enemy that sowed them is the devil. Here we see clearly illustrated the New Testament doctrine of the irreconcilable antagonism between the Kingdom of Christ and that of Satan.

Again, Jesus warns Peter on one occasion that Satan has asked and obtained the Divine permission to sift the disciples as wheat; and indicates that their only hope lies in the intercession of Christ Himself, who has prayed for Simon that his faith fail not (Luk 22:31).

Once more, in Christs discourse on the Last Judgment, it is expressly stated that the everlasting punishment to which the unfaithful are condemned was prepared for the devil and his angels (Mat 25:41), a passage which well illustrates the manner in which, in the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus is consistently represented as alluding to Satan and his power and kingdom. That is, that the doctrine is not so much set forth by way of dogmatic statement as assumed, taken for granted. Jesus does not enlarge upon it, but quictly accepts it, presupposes it as a matter about which there is no dispute. The belief is there, and Jesus sets upon it the seal of His authority.

To these examples from the Synoptic Gospels must be added the very emphatic testimony of the discourses of Christ according to the Fourth Gospel. The darkness under whose dominion, according to the introductory verses, the world is held, the dead weight, the vis inertiae of human insensibility to the Divine light, is no negative thing, but itself a power, a kingdom in deadly opposition to the Kingdom of Christ, and under the rule of Satan. Jesus directly attributes the opposition of His antagonists to the malice of the devil. So He says to the Jews, Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do (Joh 8:44). The false accusations of Scribe and Pharisee, and the untiring malignity of their persecuting zeal, show the spirit and are the work of him who was a liar and a murderer from the beginning. Again, He speaks of Satan as the Prince of this world, and represents as the aim and the certain result of His own work, the judgment and the easting out of Satan and his kingdom (Joh 12:31; cf. Joh 14:30, Joh 16:11).

3. The other portions of the NT confirm but do not materially add to the testimony of the Gospels on the subject of the personality and the power of the Evil One. Thus St. James (Jam 4:7) merely counsels his readers to resist the devil, assuring them that he will flee from them; while in another passage (Jam 2:19) he speaks of the demons ( ), evidently meaning by the term the subordinate agents of Satanic power, as believing that there is one Goda belief which fills them with terror. St. Peter assures us that Satan, whom he describes as (adversary, a technical or official word), and compares to a roaring lion, may be successfully resisted by the power of steadfast faith (1Pe 5:8-9). St. John in his First Epistle repeats the teaching of his Gospel, and in the Apocalypse identifies Satan with the serpent of Eden, and seemingly also with the accuser of Job and of Joshua (Rev 12:9-10), and foretells his coming doom. St. Paul accepts the current doctrine; but though in his Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians he seems to add to the teaching of Christ in the Gospels other elements from the demonology of the Pharisaic schools and from other sources (Eph 2:2; Eph 6:11, Col 2:15), and in his Epistles to the Corinthians and to Timothy (1Co 5:5, 1Ti 1:20) ascribes to Satan a certain power of discipline as a minister of Divine judgment, really contributes to this branch of Christian doctrine no essential element additional to that which is furnished in the Gospels. See, further, articles Accommodation and Demon.

Literature.Cremer, Bibl.-Theol. Lexicon, s.v.; Commentaries of Meyer, Alford, etc.; Cheyne, The Origin of the Psalter, pp. 159, 270 ff., 281; A. B. Davidson, The Book of Job (Cambridge Bible), pp. 713, alao Theol. of OT, p. 300 ff.; Schmid, Bibl. Theol. of NT, p. 187; Beyschlag, NT Theol. 7 p. 93; Reuss, Christian Theol. of the Apostolic Age, i. pp. 162, 420; Wernle, The Beginnings of Christianity, p. 47; Gfrrer, Das Jahrhundert des Heils, p. 368; Wright, Zechariah and his Prophecies, p. 46 ff.; art. Satan in Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible (Whitehouse), and in the Encyc. Bibl. (G. B. Gray and J. Massie); art. Teufel in PRE [Note: RE Real-Encyklopdie fur protest. Theologic und Kirche.] 3 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] (A. Wnsche); H. J. Holtzmann, Lehrb. d. neutest. Theol. i. pp. 53, 226.

H. H. Currie.

Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels

Satan

SATAN

1. In the OT.The term Satan is Hebrew and means adversary. In the earlier usage of the language it is employed in the general sense of adversary, personal or national: (cf. e.g. Num 22:22, 2Sa 19:22, 1Ki 5:4; 1Ki 11:25 etc.). In such passages no trace of a distinct being designated Satan is to be seen. Such a being meets us for the first time in the OT in the prologue (chs. 1 and 2) of the Bk. of Job, in the person of one of the sons of God who bears the title of the Satan. Here Satan appears as a member of the celestial council of angelic beings who have access to the presence of God. His special function is to watch over human affairs and beings with the object of searching out mens sins and accusing them in the celestial court. He is thus invested with a certain malevolent and malignant character; but it is to be observed that he has no power to act without the Divine permission being first obtained, and cannot, therefore, be regarded as the embodiment of the power that opposes the Deity. In Zec 3:2 essentially the same view of the Satan is presented. But in 1Ch 21:1 (And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel) the personality of this being is more distinct: he appears now as Satan (a proper name without the article), the tempter who is able to provoke David to number Israel. This is the Chroniclers (4th or 3rd cent. b.c.) reading of the incident which in the earlier narrative (2Sa 24:1) is ascribed to the direct action of God Himself. Here (in Chron.) the work of Satan is apparently conceived of as more or less independent of, and opposed to, the Divine action.

2. In the extra-canonical literature of the OT.In the later (apocryphal) literature of pre-Christian Judaism the dualistic tendency becomes more pronounceda tendency powerfully affected by Persian influence, it would seem, which is also apparent in the development of an elaborate Jewish angelology and demonology. This is most clearly visible in the apocalyptic literature. In the oldest part of the Bk. of Enoch (chs. 136), dating, perhaps, from about b.c. 180, the origin of the demons is traced to the fall of the angelic watchers, the sons of God who corrupted themselves with the daughters of men (Gen 6:1 f.). It was from the offspring of these sinful unionsthe giants or nephlmthat the demons were sprung. Of these demons the Asmodus of the Bk. of Tobit (Tob 3:8; Tob 3:17) seems to have been regarded as the king (Bab. [Note: Babylonian.] Pes. 110a). The name Asmodus (or in Heb. Ashmedai) has plausibly been connected with the ancient Persian Aeshma daeva, i.e. the covetous or lustful demon; in its Hebrew form it suggests the meaning destroyer or bringer of destruction, and this demon may be intended by the destroyer of Wis 18:25 and by the Apollyon (= Destroyer) of Rev 9:11. In the latest part of the Bk. of Enoch, however, the so-called Similitudes (chs. xxxviilxxi), which perhaps dates from about b.c. 64, the fallen watchers (and their descendants) are carefully distinguished from the Satans, who apparently belong to a counter kingdom of evil which existed before the fall of the watchers recorded in Gen 6:1, the latter, in consequence of their fall, becoming subject to the former. Apparently these Satans are ruled by a single chief, who is styled Satan in one passage (Enoch 54.6). Their functions were threefold: they tempted to evil (69.4, 6); they accused the dwellers upon earth (40.7); they punished the condemned. In this last character they are technically called angels of punishment (53.3, 56.1, 62.11, 63.1) (Charles).

In the Bk. of Wisdom (Wis 2:24 : by the envy of the devil death entered into the world) we already meet with the identification of the Serpent of Gen 3:1-24 with Satan, which afterwards became a fixed element in belief, and an allusion to the same idea may be detected in the Psalms of Solomon 4:11, where the prosperous wicked man is said to be like a serpent, to pervert wisdom, speaking with the words of transgressors. The same identification also meets us in the Book of the Secrets of Enoch (? 1st cent. a.d.), where, moreover, satanology shows a rich development (the pride, revolt, and fall of Satan are dwelt upon). Cf. art. Fall.

The secondary Jewish (Rabbinical) Literature which is connected with the text of the OT (esp. the Targums and the Midrashim) naturally reflects beliefs that were current at a later time. But they are obviously connected closely with those that have already been mentioned. The Serpent of Gen 3:1-24 becomes the old serpent who seduced Adam and Eve. The chief of the Satans is Sammael, who is often referred to as the angel of death: and in the Secrets of Enoch he is prince of the demons and a magician. It is interesting to note that in the later Midrash one of the works of Messiah ben-Joseph is the slaying of Sammael, who is the Satan, the prime mover of all evil. In the earlier literature his great opponent is the archangel Michael. The Rabbinic doctrine of the evil impulse (yetser ra), which works within man like a leaven (Berak. 17a), looks like a theological refinement, which has sometimes been combined with the popular view of Satan (Satan works his evil purpose by the instrumentality of the evil impulse).

3. In the NT.In the NT, Satan and his kingdom are frequently referred to. Sometimes the Hebrew name Satan is used (e.g. Mar 3:26; Mar 4:15 etc.), sometimes its Greek equivalent (diabolos: cf. our word diabolical), which is translated devil, and which means accuser or calumniator. In Mat 12:26-27 (cf. Mat 10:25) Satan is apparently identified with Beelzebub (or Beelzebul), and is occasionally designated the evil one (Mat 13:19; Mat 13:38 etc.; so, perhaps, also in the Lords Prayer: deliver us from the evil one). Some scholars are of opinion that the name Beelzebub means not fly-god but enemy (i.e. the enemy of God). He is called the prince of the devils (or demons) in Mat 12:24, just as Sammael, the great prince in heaven, is designated the chief of Satans in the Midrash.

The demonology that confronts us in the NT has striking points of contact with that which is developed in the Enochic literature. The main features of the latter, in fact, reappear. The angels which kept not their first estate (Jud 1:6, 2Pe 2:4) are the angelic watchers whose fall through lust is described in Enoch 616. Their punishment is to be kept imprisoned in perpetual darkness. In Enoch the demons, who are represented as the evil spirits which went forth from the souls of the giant offspring of the fallen watchers, exercise an evil activity, working moral ruin on the earth till the final judgment. In exactly the same way the demons are described in the NT as disembodied spirits (Mat 12:43-45, Luk 11:24-26). The time of their punishment is to be the final judgment (cf. Mat 8:29 : Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?). They belong to and are subject to Satan. As in the Book of Enoch, Satan is represented in the NT as the ruler of a counter-kingdom of evil (cf. Mat 12:26, Luk 11:13 if Satan cast out Satan, how shall his kingdom stand?); he led astray angels (Rev 12:4) and men (2Co 11:3); his functions are to tempt (Mat 4:1-12, Luk 22:31), to accuse (Rev 12:10), and to punish (1Co 5:5 : impenitent sinners delivered over to Satan for destruction of the flesh). It should be added that in the Fourth Gospel and Johannine Epp. the lesser demonic agencies disappear. Opposition is concentrated in the persons of Christ and the devil. The latter is the ruler of this world (Joh 16:11), and enslaves men to himself through sin. The Son of God is manifested for the express purpose of destroying the devils works (1Jn 3:8).

Both in St. Paul (cf. Rom 16:20, 2Co 11:2-3) and in the Apocalypse Satan is identified with the Serpent of Gen 3:1-24. It is also noteworthy that St. Paul shared the contemporary belief that angelic beings inhabited the higher (heavenly) regions, and that Satan also with his retinue dwelt not beneath the earth, but in the lower atmospheric region; cf. Eph 2:2, where the prince of the power of the air = Satan (cf. also Eph 6:12 and Luk 10:13 I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven). For Satans rle in the Apocalypse see art. Eschatology. Cf. also art. Devil.

4. The attitude of our Lord towards the Satan-belief.Our Lord, as is clearly apparent in the Synoptic tradition, recognized the existence and power of a kingdom of evil, with organized demonic agencies under the control of a supreme personality, Satan or Beelzebub. These demonic agencies are the source of every variety of physical and moral evil. One principal function of the Messiah is to destroy the works of Satan and his subordinates (Mar 1:24; Mar 1:34; Mar 3:11-12; Mar 3:15 etc.). Maladies traced to demonic possession play a large part in the Synoptic narratives (see Devil, Possession). In the expulsion of demons by His disciples, Jesus sees the overthrow of Satans power (Luk 10:13). The evil effected by Satanic agency is intellectual and moral as well as physical (Mar 4:15, Mat 13:19; Mat 13:33; cf. 2Co 4:4). That our Lord accepted the reality of such personal agencies of evil cannot seriously be questioned; nor is it necessary to endeavour to explain this fact away. The problem is to some extent a psychological one. Under certain conditions and in certain localities the sense of the presence and potency of evil personalities has been painfully and oppressively felt by more than one modern European, who was not prone to superstition. It is also literally true that the light of the gospel and the power of Christ operate still in such cases to destroy the works of darkness and expel the demons.

G. H. Box.

Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible

Satan

One of the names of the devil; and as all the names of this apostate spirit have special signification beside that of identifying his person, we may consider this of Satan as implying that horrid part of his character, the adversary and accuser of the brethren. Thus he is particularly called Satan as the accuser, Job 1:1-22. and Zec 3:1, etc.

It would form subject sufficient for a volume more than a Concordance to enter into the particulars the Holy Bible hath given us concerning this old serpent, the devil, and Satan which deceiveth the whole world. Nevertheless, in a work of this kind, I cannot prevail upon myself to pass it wholly by, without offering a few brief observations concerning the Scripture account which is given us of one, to whose infernal malice we owe all the miseries, sorrows, and evils of the present life.

Now the Scriptures of God relate to us that the devil, under the appearance of a serpent, beguiled our first parents in the garden of Eden, prompted them to break the divine commands, and by so doing introduced death into the circumstrances of them and all their posterity.

The Scriptures farther teach concerning Satan, that having thus by the introduction of sin brought in all the consequent effects of sorrow and misery, he hath set up a kingdom in the hearts of men and is “the ruler of the darkness of this world,” and carries on a despotic government over all men, yea even the Lord’s own children while remaining in their unregenerate and unawakened state. Hence he enticeth them to sin, as he did Ahab, when he became a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. (1Ki 22:22) And the same in the instance of Ananias and Sapphira, when he filled their hearts to lie unto the Holy Ghost. (Act 5:3, etc.) So in the ease of Hannah while going childless, he is said to have made her fret. (1Sa 1:6) In like manner the traitor Judas, concerning whom it is expressly said, “Satan, entered into him.” (Joh 13:27)

Hence, therefore, when the Lord Jesus Christ is spoken of in the holy Scriptures as coming for the redemption of his people, this great feature of character is intimately linked with it; “for this purpose was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. (1Jn 3:8) So again the apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, was commissioned to tell the church that forasmuch”as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he, that is, Christ, also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage. (Heb 2:14-15)

I stay not to remark, what hath not indeed in so many plain words Scripture authority, positively saying so, but what hath been the received opinion of learned and studious minds in all ages pondering over the word of God on this subject, that the devil’s enmity began not with our nature, but with the Son of God for assuming our nature. Personally first with Christ, and then with all mankind in Christ, that so he might persecute and render miserable the seed of Christ. I must not go so far into the subject as to bring in all that the Scripture seems to intimate of the quarrel of the devil being first levelled against Christ for becoming the Head of his body the church. This would lead too far. The war, said to be in heaven between Michael and his angels, and the Dragon and his angels, (Rev 12:7) hath been thought by some very able and learned divines to say as much. But I do not speak decidedly on the subject, though I had not even mentioned it, if I had not inclined to the same opinion. But be this as it may, very certain it is, that among the grand purposes for which the Son of God became incarnate this was eminently one, that he should conquer the devil and all the powers of hell, and “root out of his kingdom all things that offend.” This formed as great a part in the plan of JEHOVAH for the glory of Christ, as the salvation of men for his glory.

In this view of the subject, if we take a comprehensive survey of what the Scriptures have said on the matter, we shall find that the kingdom Satan hath attempted to set up in the earth is personally directed against the kingdom of God and of his Christ: hence our Lord, speaking of Satan, calleth his empire a kingdom. Thus, when the Jews charged the Lord Jesus with casting out devils through Beelzebub, the prince of the devils, Christ made this answer, “If Satan cast out Satan he is divided against himself: how shall then his kingdom stand?” (Mat 12:26) So that the struggle of life and glory, hath been from first to last directed against Christ’s kingdom, and to establish the kingdom of Satan through the earth.

When therefore we behold the Lord Jesus going forth for the salvation of his people, we behold him, as he is represented through all the Scriptures, as first conquering Saran in his own person and then destroying his dominion in the hearts of his people. The first he did when through death, as the Scripture speaks, he destroyed him that had the power of death; and the second conquest was, and is, in every individual instance of his people, when by his regenerating grace in the sinner’s heart he converts him from sin to salvation, and the sinner is translated out of “the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son.” (Col 1:13)

And there is another and a open display of victory: which the Lord Jesus Christ will obtain over Satan, before a whole congregated world, when he will set up a visible kingdom upon earth before the final judgment, during which period the Scriptures tell us Satan will be shut up, and his power restrained from tempting any of Christ’s church, as he now is permitted to do, neither will he during that period be allowed to deceive the world and make the ungodly harrass and afflict Christ’s people any more. The beloved apostle John, in one of the chapters of the Revelations, hath most sublimely stated those great truths, (Rev 20:1, etc.) “And I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand; and he laid hold of the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled; and after that he must be loosed a little season.” To this account succeeds the relation of Christ’s kingdom upon the earth. “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”

To this succeeds the accounts of the final and everlasting triumph, of the Lord Jesus Christ over Satan, when bringing this infernal spirit to open trial before the whole world of angels and of men at the last day, the day of judgment. At the close of which follows the everlasting and eternal, destraction of the devil and his angels in hell forever.

I must not farther enlarge. Let what hath been said suffice to comfort every, child of God under all the exercises he is called to go through, from the subtilty of Satan still working upon, and with the remains of indwelling corruption in our poor fallen nature. Blessed be our triumphant Jesus, his devices are but for a season, for Christ hath conquered him for us, and he will conquer him in us; the victory is not doubtful, for it is already won, and, “the God of peace will bruise Satan under our feet shortly.” (Rom 16:20) In the meantime let us join that song of heaven, for we truly bear a part in it-“Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death.” (Rev 12:10-11)

Fuente: The Poor Mans Concordance and Dictionary to the Sacred Scriptures

Satan

satan (, satan), adversary, from the verb , satan, to lie in wait (as adversary); , Satan, , Satanas, adversary, , diabolos, Devil, adversary or accuser, , kategor (altogether unclassical and unGreek) (used once in Rev 12:10), accuser):

I.DEFINITION

II.SCRIPTURAL FACTS CONCERNING SATAN

1.Names of Satan

2.Character of Satan

3.Works of Satan

4.History of Satan

III.GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

1.Scripture Doctrine of Satan Not Systematized

2.Satan and God

3.Satan Essentially Limited

4.Conclusions

LITERATURE

I. Definition.

A created but superhuman, personal, evil, world-power, represented in Scripture as the adversary both of God and men.

II. Scriptural Facts Concerning Satan.

1. Names of Satan:

The most important of these are the Hebrew and Greek equivalents noticed above. These words are used in the general sense justified by their etymological significance. It is applied even to Yahweh Himself (Num 22:22, Num 22:32; compare 1Sa 29:4; 2Sa 19:22; Psa 109:6, etc.). The word Satan is used 24 times in the Old Testament. In Job (Job 1:6 f) and Zec (Job 3:1 f) it has the prefixed definite article. In all cases but one when the article is omitted it is used in a general sense. This one exception is 1Ch 21:1 (compare 2Sa 24:1), where the word is generally conceded to be used as a proper name. This meaning is fixed in New Testament times. We are thus enabled to note in the term Satan (and Devil) the growth of a word from a general term to an appellation and later to a proper name. All the other names of Satan save only these two are descriptive titles. In addition to these two principal names a number of others deserve specific enumeration. Tempter (Mat 4:5; 1Th 3:5); Beelzebub (Mat 12:24); Enemy (Mat 13:39); Evil One (Mat 13:19, Mat 13:38; 1Jo 2:13, 1Jo 2:14; 1Jo 3:12, and particularly 1Jo 5:18); Belial (2Co 6:15); Adversary (, antdikos), (1Pe 5:8); Deceiver (literally the one who deceives) (Rev 12:9); Dragon (Great) (Rev 12:3); Father of Lies (Joh 8:44); Murderer (Joh 8:44); Sinner (1Jo 3:8) – these are isolated references occurring from 1 to 3 times each. In the vast majority of passages (70 out of 83) either Satan or Devil is used.

2. Character of Satan:

Satan is consistently represented in the New Testament as the enemy both of God and man. The popular notion is that Satan is the enemy of man and active in misleading and cursing humanity because of his intense hatred and opposition to God. Mat 13:39 would seem to point in this direction, but if one were to venture an opinion in a region where there are not enough facts to warrant a conviction, it would be that the general tenor of Scripture indicates quite the contrary, namely, that Satan’s jealousy and hatred of men has led him into antagonism to God and, consequently, to goodness. The fundamental moral description of Satan is given by our Lord when He describes Satan as the evil one (Mat 13:19, Mat 13:38; compare Isaiah’s description of Yahweh as the Holy One, Isa 1:4 and often); that is, the one whose nature and will are given to evil. Moral evil is his controlling attribute. It is evident that this description could not be applied to Satan as originally created. Ethical evil cannot be concreated. It is the creation of each free will for itself. We are not told in definite terms how Satan became the evil one, but certainly it could be by no other process than a fall, whereby, in the mystery of free personality, an evil will takes the place of a good one.

3. Works of Satan:

The world-wide and age-long works of Satan are to be traced to one predominant motive. He hates both God and man and does all that in him lies to defeat God’s plan of grace and to establish and maintain a kingdom of evil, in the seduction and ruin of mankind. The balance and sanity of the Bible is nowhere more strikingly exhibited than in its treatment of the work of Satan. Not only is the Bible entirely free from the extravagances of popular Satanology, which is full of absurd stories concerning the appearances, tricks, and transformations of Satan among men, but it exhibits a dependable accuracy and consistency, of statement which is most reassuring. Almost nothing is said concerning Satanic agency other than wicked men who mislead other men. In the controversy with His opponents concerning exorcism (Mar 3:22 f and parallel’s) our Lord rebuts their slanderous assertion that He is in league with Satan by the simple proposition that Satan does not work against himself. But in so saying He does far more than refute this slander. He definitely aligns the Bible against the popular idea that a man may make a definite and conscious personal alliance with Satan for any purpose whatever. The agent of Satan is always a victim. Also the hint contained in this discussion that Satan has a kingdom, together with a few other not very definite allusions, are all that we have to go upon in this direction. Nor are we taught anywhere that Satan is able to any extent to introduce disorder into the physical universe or directly operate in the lives of men. It is true that in Luk 13:16 our Lord speaks of the woman who was bowed over as one whom Satan has bound, lo, these eighteen years, and that in 2Co 12:7 Paul speaks of his infirmity as a messenger of Satan sent to buffet him. Paul also speaks (1Th 2:18) of Satan’s hindering him from visiting the church at Thessalonica. A careful study of these related passages (together with the prologue of Job) will reveal the fact that Satan’s direct agency in the physical world is very limited. Satan may be said to be implicated in all the disasters and woes of human life, in so far as they are more or less directly contingent upon sin (see particularly Heb 2:14) On the contrary, it is perfectly evident that Satan’s power consists principally in his ability to deceive. It is interesting and characteristic that according to the Bible Satan is fundamentally a liar and his kingdom is a kingdom founded upon lies and deceit. The doctrine of Satan therefore corresponds in every important particular to the general Biblical emphasis upon truth. The truth shall make you free (Joh 8:32) – this is the way of deliverance from the power of Satan.

Now it would seem that to make Satan pre-eminently the deceiver would make man an innocent victim and thus relax the moral issue. But according to the Bible man is particeps criminis in the process of his own deception. He is deceived only because he ceases to love the truth and comes first to love and then to believe a lie (2Co 1:10). This really goes to the very bottom of the problem of temptation. Men are not tempted by evil, per se, but by a good which can be obtained only at the cost of doing wrong. The whole power of sin, at least in its beginnings, consists in the sway of the fundamental falsehood that any good is really attainable by wrongdoing. Since temptation consists in this attack upon the moral sense, man is constitutionally guarded against deceit, and is morally culpable in allowing himself to be deceived. The temptation of our Lord Himself throws the clearest possible light upon the methods ascribed to Satan and The temptation was addressed to Christ’s consciousness of divine sonship; it was a deceitful attack emphasizing the good, minimizing or covering up the evil; indeed, twisting evil into good. It was a deliberate, malignant attempt to obscure the truth and induce to evil through the acceptance of falsehood. The attack broke against a loyalty to truth which made self-deceit, and consequently deceit from without, impossible. The lie was punctured by the truth and the temptation lost its power (see TEMPTATION OF CHRIST). This incident reveals one of the methods of Satan – by immediate suggestion as in the case of Judas (Luk 22:3; Joh 13:2, Joh 13:27). Sometimes, however, and, perhaps, most frequently, Satan’s devices (2Co 2:11) include human agents. Those who are given over to evil and who persuade others to evil are children and servants of Satan (See Mat 16:23; Mar 8:33; Luk 4:8; Joh 6:70; Joh 8:44; Act 13:10; 1Jo 3:8). Satan also works through persons and institutions supposed to be on the side of right but really evil. Here the same ever-present and active falseness and deceit are exhibited. When he is called the god of this world (2Co 4:4) it would seem to be intimated that he has the power to clothe himself in apparently divine attributes. He also makes himself an angel of light by presenting advocates of falsehood in the guise of apostles of truth (2Co 11:13, 2Co 11:15; 1Jo 4:1; 2Th 2:9; Rev 12:9; Rev 19:20). In the combination of passages here brought together, it is clearly indicated that Satan is the instigator and fomenter of that spirit of lawlessness which exhibits itself as hatred both of truth and right, and which has operated so widely and so disastrously in human life.

4. History of Satan:

The history of Satan, including that phase of it which remains to be realized, can be set forth only along the most general lines. He belongs to the angelic order of beings. He is by nature one of the sons of Elohm (Job 1:6). He has fallen, and by virtue of his personal forcefulness has become the leader of the anarchic forces of wickedness. As a free being he has merged his life in evil and has become altogether and hopelessly evil. As a being of high intelligence he has gained great power and has exercised a wide sway over other beings. As a created being the utmost range of his power lies within the compass of that which is permitted. It is, therefore, hedged in by the providential government of God and essentially limited. The Biblical emphasis upon the element of falsehood in the career of Satan might be taken to imply that his kingdom may be less in extent than appears. At any rate, it is confined to the cosmic sphere and to a limited portion of time. It is also doomed. In the closely related passages 2Pe 2:4 and Jud 1:6 it is affirmed that God cast the angels, when they sinned, down to Tartarus and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment. This both refers to the constant divine control of these insurgent forces and also points to their final and utter destruction. The putting of Satan in bonds is evidently both constant and progressive. The essential limitation of the empire of evil and its ultimate overthrow are foreshadowed in the Book of Job (chapters 38 through 41), where Yahweh’s power extends even to the symbolized spirit of evil.

According to synoptic tradition, our Lord in the crisis of temptation immediately following the baptism (Mt 4 and parallel) met and for the time conquered Satan as His own personal adversary. This preliminary contest did not close the matter, but was the earnest of a complete victory. According to Luke (Luk 10:18), when the Seventy returned from their mission flushed with victory over the powers of evil, Jesus said: ‘I saw Satan fall (not fallen; see Plummer, Luke, ICC, in the place cited.) as lightning from heaven.’ In every triumph over the powers of evil Christ beheld in vision the downfall of Satan. In connection with the coming of the Hellenists who wished to see Him, Jesus asserted (Joh 12:31), Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. In view of His approaching passion He says again (Joh 14:30), The prince of the world cometh: and he hath nothing in me. Once again in connection with the promised advent of the Spirit, Jesus asserted (Joh 16:11) that the Spirit would convict the world of judgment, because the prince of this world hath been judged. In Hebrews (Heb 2:14, Heb 2:15) it is said that Christ took upon Himself human nature in order that through death he might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil. In 1Jo 3:8 it is said, To this end was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the Devil. In Rev 12:9 it is asserted, in connection with Christ’s ascension, that Satan was cast down to the earth and his angels with him. According to the passage immediately following (Rev 12:10-12), this casting down was not complete or final in the sense of extinguishing his activities altogether, but it involves the potential and certain triumph of God and His saints and the equally certain defeat of Satan. In 1Jo 2:13 the young men are addressed as those who have overcome the evil one. In Rev 20:1-15 the field of the future is covered in the assertion that Satan is bound a thousand years; then loosed for a little time, and then finally cast into the lake of fire.

A comparison of these passages will convince the careful student that while we cannot construct a definite chronological program for the career of Satan, we are clear in the chief points. He is limited, judged, condemned, imprisoned, reserved for judgment from the beginning. The outcome is certain though the process may be tedious and slow. The victory of Christ is the defeat of Satan; first, for Himself as Leader and Saviour of men (Joh 14:30); then, for believers (Luk 22:31; Act 26:18; Rom 16:20; Jam 4:7; 1Jo 2:13; 1Jo 5:4, 1Jo 5:18); and, finally, for the whole world (Rev 20:10). The work of Christ has already destroyed the empire of Satan.

III. General Considerations.

There are, no doubt, serious difficulties in the way of accepting the doctrine of a personal, superhuman, evil power as Satan is described to be. It is doubtful, however, whether these diffificulties may not be due, at least in part, to a misunderstanding of the doctrine and certain of its implications. In addition, it must be acknowledged, that whatever difficulties there may be in the teaching, they are exaggerated and, at the same time, not fairly met by the vague and irrational skepticism which denies without investigation. There are difficulties involved in any view of the world. To say the least, some problems are met by the view of a superhuman, evil world-power. In this section certain general considerations are urged with a view to lessening difficulties keenly felt by some minds. Necessarily, certain items gathered in the foregoing section are here emphasized again.

1. Scripture Doctrine of Satan Not Systematized:

The Scriptural doctrine of Satan is nowhere systematically developed. For materials in this field we are shut up to scattered and incidental references. These passages, which even in the aggregate are not numerous, tell us what we need to know concerning the nature, history, kingdom and works of Satan, but offer scant satisfaction to the merely speculative temper. The comparative lack of development in this field is due partly to the fact that the Biblical writers are primarily interested in God, and only secondarily in the powers of darkness; and partly to the fact that in the Bible doctrine waits upon fact. Hence, the malign and sinister figure of the Adversary is gradually outlined against the light of God’s holiness as progressively revealed in the providential world-process which centers in Christ. It is a significant fact that the statements concerning Satan become numerous and definite only in the New Testament. The daylight of the Christian revelation was necessary in order to uncover the lurking foe, dimly disclosed but by no means fully known in the earlier revelation. The disclosure of Satan is, in form at least, historical, not dogmatic.

2. Satan and God:

In the second place, the relationship of Satan to God, already emphasized, must be kept constantly in mind. The doctrine of Satan merges in the general doctrine concerning angels (see ANGEL). It has often been pointed out that the personal characteristics of angels are very little insisted upon. They are known chiefly by their functions: merged, on the one hand, in their own offices, and, on the other, in the activities of God Himself.

In the Old Testament Satan is not represented as a fallen and malignant spirit, but as a servant of Yahweh, performing a divine function and having his place in the heavenly train. In the parallel accounts of David’s numbering of Israel (1Sa 24:1; 1Ch 21:1) the tempting of David is attributed both to Yahweh and Satan. The reason for this is either that ‘the temptation of men is also a part of his providence,’ or that in the interval between the documents the personality of the tempter has more clearly emerged. In this case the account in Chronicles would nearly approximate the New Testament teaching. In the Book of Job (Job 1:6), however, Satan is among the Sons of God and his assaults upon Job are divinely permitted. In Zec (Job 3:1, Job 3:2) Satan is also a servant of Yahweh. In both these passages there is the hint of opposition between Yahweh and Satan. In the former instance Satan assails unsuccessfully the character of one whom Yahweh honors; while in the latter Yahweh explicitly rebukes Satan for his attitude toward Israel (see G. A. Smith, BTP, II, 316 f). The unveiling of Satan as a rebellious world-power is reserved for the New Testament, and with this fuller teaching the symbolic treatment of temptation in Gen is to be connected. There is a sound pedagogical reason, from the viewpoint of revelation, for this earlier withholding of the whole truth concerning Satan. In the early stages of religious thinking it would seem to be difficult, if not impossible, to hold the sovereignty of God without attributing to His agency those evils in the world which are more or less directly connected with judgment and punishment (compare Isa 45:7; Amo 3:6). The Old Testament sufficiently emphasizes man’s responsibility for his own evil deeds, but super-human evil is brought upon him from above. When willful souls have to be misled, the spirit who does so, as in Ahab’s case, comes from above (G. A. Smith, op. cit., 317). The progressive revelation of God’s character and purpose, which more and more imperatively demands that the origin of moral evil, and consequently natural evil, must be traced to the created will in opposition to the divine will, leads to the ultimate declaration that Satan is a morally fallen being to whose conquest the Divine Power in history is pledged. There is, also, the distinct possibility that in the significant transition from the Satan of the Old Testament to that of the New Testament we have the outlines of a biography and an indication of the way by which the angels fell.

3. Satan Essentially Limited:

A third general consideration, based upon data given in the earlier section, should be urged in the same connection. In the New Testament delineation of Satan, his limitations are clearly set forth. He is superhuman, but not in any sense divine. His activities are cosmic, but not universal or transcendent. He is a created being. His power is definitely circumscribed. He is doomed to final destruction as a world-power. His entire career is that of a secondary and dependent being who is permitted a certain limited scope of power – a time-lease of activity (Luk 4:6).

4. Conclusions:

These three general considerations have been grouped in this way because they dispose of three objections which are current against the doctrine of Satan.

(1) The first is, that it is mythological in origin. That it is not dogmatic is a priori evidence against this hypothesis. Mythology is primitive dogma. There is no evidence of a theodicy or philosophy of evil in the Biblical treatment of Satan. Moreover, while the Scriptural doctrine is unsystematic in form, it is rigidly limited in scope and everywhere essentially consistent. Even in the Apocalypse, where naturally more scope is allowed to the imagination, the same essential ideas appear. The doctrine of Satan corresponds, item for item, to the intellectual saneness and ethical earnestness of the Biblical world-view as a whole. It is, therefore, not mythological. The restraint of chastened imagination, not the extravagance of mythological fancy, is in evidence throughout the entire Biblical treatment of the subject. Even the use of terms current in mythology (as perhaps Gen 3:1, Gen 3:13, Gen 3:14; Rev 12:7-9; compare 1Pe 5:8) does not imply more than a literary clothing of Satan in attributes commonly ascribed to malignant and disorderly forces.

(2) The second objection is that the doctrine is due to the influence of Persian dualism (see PERSIAN RELIGION; ZOROASTRIANISM). The answer to this is plain, on the basis of facts already adduced. The Biblical doctrine of Satan is not dualistic. Satan’s empire had a beginning, it will have a definite and permanent end. Satan is God’s great enemy in the cosmic sphere, but he is God’s creation, exists by divine will, and his power is relatively no more commensurate with God’s than that of men. Satan awaits his doom. Weiss says (concerning the New Testament representation of conflict between God and the powers of evil): There lies in this no Manichaean dualism,… but only the deepest experience of the work of redemption as the definite destruction of the power from which all sin in the world of men proceeds (Biblical Theology New Testament, English tanslations of the Bible, II, 272; compare G.A. Smith, op. cit., II, 318).

(3) The third objection is practically the same as the second, but addressed directly to the doctrine itself, apart from the question of its origin, namely, that it destroys the unity of God. The answer to this also is a simple negative. To some minds the reality of created wills is dualistic and therefore untenable. But a true doctrine of unity makes room for other wills than God’s – namely of those beings upon whom God has bestowed freedom. Herein stands the doctrine of sin and Satan. The doctrine of Satan no more militates against the unity of God than the idea, so necessary to morality and religion alike, of other created wills set in opposition to God’s. Just as the conception of Satan merges, in one direction, in the general doctrine of angels, so, in the other, it blends with the broad and difficult subject of evil (compare Satan, HDB, IV, 412a).

Literature.

All standard works on Biblical Theology, as well as Dictionaries, etc., treat with more or less thoroughness the doctrine of Satan. The German theologians of the more evangelical type, such as Weiss, Lange, Martensen (Danish), Dorner, while exhibiting a tendency toward excessive speculation, discern the deeper aspects of the doctrine. Of monographs known to the writer none are to be recommended without qualification. It is a subject on which the Bible is its own best interpreter.

Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

Satan

Satan (the adversary or opposer). The doctrine of Satan and of Satanic agency is to be made out from revelation, and from reflection in agreement with revelation.

Besides Satan, he is called the Devil, the Dragon, the Evil One, the Angel of the Bottomless Pit, the Prince of this World, the Prince of the Power of the Air, the God of this World, Apollyon, Abaddon, Belial, Beelzebub. Satan and Devil are the names by which he is oftener distinguished than by any other, the former being applied to him about forty times, and the latter about fifty times.

The word Satan occurs in its specific sense as a proper name in Zec 3:1-2, and in Job 1-2. See also 1Ch 21:1. When we pass from the Old to the New Testament, this doctrine of an invisible evil agent becomes more clear. With the advent of Christ and the opening of the Christian dispensation, the great opposer of that kingdom, the particular adversary and antagonist of the Savior, would naturally become more active and more known. The antagonism of Satan and his kingdom to Christ and his kingdom runs through the whole of the New Testament.

Devil is the more frequent term of designation given to Satan in the New Testament. With one or two exceptions, which go to confirm the rule, the usus loquendi of the New Testament shows this term to be a proper name, applied to an extraordinary being, whose influence upon the human race is great and mischievous (Mat 4:1-11; Luk 8:12; Joh 8:44; Act 13:10; Eph 6:11; 1Pe 5:8; 1Jn 3:8; Rev 12:9). In the original this name is given exclusively to the prince of evil spirits, never to these spirits themselves, who, in connection with demoniacal possessions, are almost always termed ‘demons’a distinction which the Authorized Version has failed to observe.

We determine the personality of Satan by the same criteria that we use in determining whether Caesar and Napoleon were real, personal beings, or the personifications of abstract ideas, viz., by the tenor of history concerning them, and the ascription of personal attributes to them. All the forms of personal agency are made use of by the sacred writers in setting forth the character and conduct of Satan. They describe him as having power and dominion, messengers and followers. He tempts and resists; he is held accountable, charged with guilt; is to be judged, and to receive final punishment. On the supposition that it was the object of the sacred writers to teach the proper personality of Satan, they could have found no more express terms than those which they have actually used. And on the supposition that they did not intend to teach such a doctrine, their use of language, incapable of communicating any other idea, is wholly inexplicable.

The class of beings to which Satan originally belonged, and which constituted a celestial hierarchy, is very numerous: ‘Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him’ (Dan 7:10). They were created and dependent (Joh 1:3). Analogy leads to the conclusion that there are different grades among the angels as among other races of beings. The Scriptures warrant the same. Michael is described as one of the chief princes (Dan 10:13); as chief captain of the host of Jehovah (Jos 5:14). Similar distinctions exist among the fallen angels (Col 2:15; Eph 6:12). It is also reasonable to suppose that they were created susceptible of improvement in all respects, except moral purity, as they certainly were capable of apostasy. As to the time when they were brought into being, the Bible is silent; and where it is silent, we should be silent, or speak with modesty. It is probable, that as they were the highest in rank among the creatures of God, so they were the first in the order of time; and that they may have continued for ages in obedience to their Maker, before the creation of man, or the fall of the apostate angels.

The Scriptures are explicit as to the apostasy of some, of whom Satan was the chief and leader (Jud 1:6; 2Pe 2:4). Those who followed him in his apostasy are described as belonging to him. The company is called the devil and his angels (Mat 25:41). The relation marked here denotes the instrumentality which the devil may have exerted in inducing those called his angels to rebel against Jehovah and join themselves to his interests. As to what constituted the first sin of Satan and his followers, there has been a diversity of opinions. Some have supposed that it was the beguiling of our first parents. Others have believed that the first sin of the angels is mentioned in Gen 6:2. The sacred writers intimate very plainly that the first transgression was pride, and that from this sprang open rebellion. Of a bishop, the apostle says (1Ti 3:6), ‘He must not be a novice, lest, being puffed up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil.’ From which it appears that pride was the sin of Satan, and that for this he was condemned. This, however, marks the quality of the sin, and not the act.

The agency of Satan extends to all that he does or causes to be done. To this agency the following restrictions have been generally supposed to exist: it is limited, first, by the direct power of God; he cannot transcend the power on which he is dependent for existencesecondly, by the finiteness of his own created facultiesthirdly, by the established connection of cause and effect, or the laws of nature. The miracles, which he has been supposed to have the power of working, are denominated lying signs and wonders (2Th 2:9). With these restrictions, the devil goes about like a roaring lion.

His agency is moral and physical. First, moral. He beguiled our first parents, and thus brought sin and death upon them and their posterity (Genesis 3). He moved David to number the people (1Ch 21:1). He resisted Joshua the high-priest (Zec 3:1). He tempted Jesus (Matthew 4); entered into Judas, to induce him to betray his master (Luk 22:3); instigated Ananias and Sapphira to lie to the Holy Ghost (Act 5:3); hindered Paul and Barnabas on their way to the Thessalonians (1Th 2:18). He is the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience (Eph 2:2); and he deceiveth the whole world (Rev 12:9).

But his efforts are directed against the bodies of men, as well as against their souls. That the agency of Satan was concerned in producing physical diseases the Scriptures plainly teach (Job 2:7; Luk 13:16). Peter says of Christ, that he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil (Act 10:38).

It is, no doubt, true that there are difficulties connected with the agency ascribed to Satan. But objections are of little weight when brought against well-authenticated facts. Any objections raised against the agency of Satan are equally valid against his existence. If he exists, he must act; and if he is evil, his agency must be evil. The influence exerted by wicked spirits no more militates against the benevolence of God, than does the agency of wicked men, or the existence of moral evil in any form. Evil agents are as really under the divine control as are good agents. And out of evil, God will cause good to come. He will make the wrath of devils as well as of men to praise him, and the remainder He will restrain.

Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature

Satan

[Sa’tan]

A name by which THE DEVIL, the great enemy of God and man, is designated. The name may be said to be the same in Hebrew, Greek, and English, and signifies ‘adversary ,’ as the word is rendered in several places where other adversaries are alluded to: cf. Num 22:22; 1Ki 11:14; 1Ki 11:23; 1Ki 11:25. It was Satan who at the outset deceived Eve, for it is clear that the dragon, the old serpent, the devil, and Satan all represent the same evil spirit. Rev 20:2. Satan was the great adversary of God’s people in O.T. times, 1Ch 21:1; the tempter of the Lord Jesus, who treated him as Satan; and is the tempter and adversary of the saints and of all mankind now. He endeavours to neutralise the effect of the gospel; catches away the good seed sown in the heart (Mat 13), and blinds the minds of the unbelieving lest the light of the gospel of Christ’s glory should shine to them. His efforts are frustrated by God or none would be saved.

Further, to counteract God’s work, Satan has raised up heretics to mingle with the saints and to corrupt them by evil doctrine, as taught in the metaphor of the tares sown among the wheat. He goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, but saints are told to resist him, and he will flee from them. The power of death, which Satan had, has been annulled by Christ in His death. Saints are warned against his devices, for he is transformed into an angel of light, a teacher of morality. God has provided complete armour for His saints in order that they may withstand him and all his wiles, and has given them the sword of the Spirit (the word of God), as a weapon of attack. Eph 6:11-18.

The origin of Satan is not definitely stated, but if Eze 28:12-19 refer to him, under the appellation of the king of Tyre (as was very early believed in the church, and may be correct), he is described as the anointed cherub that ‘covereth;’ all the precious stones and gold were also his covering, resplendent by reflected light; he had a place in Eden, the garden of God, and was upon the holy mountain of God. He was perfect in his ways from the day he was created, until iniquity was found in him. Tyre, in its worldly wisdom and beauty, is looked at morally as the creation of the prince and god of this world. He will eventually be cast out as profane and find his portion in the lake of fire.

In the Epistle of Jude, the act of Michael the archangel in reference to Satan is given as an example of restraint in speaking of dignities: he dared not bring a railing accusation against the devil, but said, “The Lord rebuke thee.” This implies that Satan had been set in dignity, which, though he had fallen, was still to be respected – as Saul’s life was sacred in David’s eyes because he was the anointed of God, though he had then fallen. That Satan had been set in dignity is confirmed by the fact of Christ having on the cross spoiled ‘principalities and authorities ‘ (), not simply ‘powers.’ Col 2:15.

The expressions “the prince of this world,” “the god of this world,” and “the prince of the power of the air,” all presumably refer to Satan. When the Lord was tempted in the wilderness, Satan, after showing Him “all the kingdoms of the world,” proposed to give to Him all the power and glory of them, if He would worship him, adding “for that is delivered unto me: and to whomsoever I will I give it.” Luk 4:5-6.

From the Book of Job we learn that Satan has access to God in the heavens; the Christian wrestles with the spiritual powers of wickedness in the heavenlies; and a day is coming when Michael and his angels will fight against Satan and his angels, and the latter will be cast out of heaven. This seems to indicate that Satan has a place in heaven originally given to him by God. During the millennium he will be shut up in the abyss, then loosed for a little season, and finally be cast into the lake of fire, a place prepared for him and his angels.

When Jesus was born, Satan attempted to destroy Him. Mat 2:16; Rev 12:1-5. At the close of the Lord’s course Satan was the great mover in His being put to death. To accomplish this Satan entered into Judas the traitor, whereas, as far as is revealed, in other cases, possession was by a demon, and not by Satan himself. When the Lord was arrested He said to the Jews, “This is your hour and the power of darkness.” But Christ was morally the victor: in His death He annulled him that had the power of death, that is, the devil: He led captivity captive. Still Satan works, and will, when cast down to earth, be the spirit of a trinity of evil. He gives his throne and authority to the beast, that is, to the resuscitated Roman Empire, whose power is wielded by the Antichrist. Rev 13. He will also be the leader of the nations in the last battle against the camp of the saints. Rev 20:7-9.

It is remarkable that, notwithstanding the malignity of Satan, God uses him in the discipline of His saints, as in the case of Job, but allows the evil one to go only as far as He pleases. Paul used his apostolic power to commit some to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. 1Co 5:5; 1Ti 1:20. The thorn in the flesh which Paul himself had was a messenger of Satan to buffet him, lest he should be puffed up because of the marvellous revelations made to him in the third heaven. It is well to remember that Satan is morally a vanquished foe, for he is exposed; and that no Christian can be touched by him except as permitted and controlled by his God and Father in discipline for his good.

The epithet ‘Devil ‘ is from ‘to strike through,’ and hence figuratively to stab with accusation: so Satan is called “the accuser of the brethren.” Rev 12:10: cf. Zec 3:1-2. Satan and the devil being identical, there is but one devil. In the A.V. of the N.T., where ‘devils’ are spoken of, the word in the original is always ‘demons.’

Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary

Satan

H7854 G4566

Called:

– Abaddon

Rev 9:11

– Accuser of our Brethren

Rev 12:10

– Adversary

1Pe 5:8

– Angel of the Bottomless Pit

Rev 9:11

– Apollyon

Rev 9:11

– Beelzebub

Mat 12:24; Mar 3:22; Luk 11:15

– Belial

2Co 6:15

– The Devil

Mat 4:1; Luk 4:2; Luk 4:6; Rev 20:2

– Enemy

Mat 13:39

– Evil Spirit

1Sa 16:14

– Father of Lies

Joh 8:44

– Gates of Hell

Mat 16:18

– Great Red Dragon

Rev 12:3

– Liar

Joh 8:44

– Lying Spirit

1Ki 22:22

– Murderer

Joh 8:44

– Old Serpent

Rev 12:9; Rev 20:2

– Power of Darkness

Col 1:13

– Prince of this World

Joh 12:31; Joh 14:30; Joh 16:11

– Prince of Devils

Mat 12:24

Prince of the Power of the Air

Eph 2:2

– Ruler of the Darkness of this World

Eph 6:12

– Satan

1Ch 21:1; Job 1:6; Joh 13:27; Act 5:3; Act 26:18; Rom 16:20

– Serpent

Gen 3:4; Gen 3:14; 2Co 11:3

– Spirit that Worketh in the Children of Disobedience

Eph 2:2

– Tempter

Mat 4:3; 1Th 3:5

– The God of this World

2Co 4:4

– Unclean Spirit

Mat 12:43

– Wicked One

Mat 13:19; Mat 13:38

Kingdom of, to be destroyed

2Sa 23:6-7; Mat 12:29; Mat 13:30; Luk 11:21-22; 1Jn 3:8

Synagogue of

Rev 2:9; Rev 3:9

Unclassified scriptures relating to

Gen 3:1; Gen 3:4-5; Gen 3:14-15; 1Ch 21:1; Job 1:6-7; Job 1:9-12; Job 2:3-7; Job 9:24; Psa 109:6; Zec 3:1-2; Mat 4:1-11; Mar 1:13; Luk 4:1-13; Mat 13:19; Mar 4:15; Luk 8:12; Mat 13:38-39; Mat 25:41; Mar 3:22-26; Mat 9:34; Luk 11:15; Luk 11:18; Luk 10:18; Luk 13:16; Luk 22:31; Luk 22:53; Joh 8:38; Joh 8:41; Joh 8:44; Joh 12:31; Joh 13:2; Joh 13:27; Joh 14:30; Joh 16:11; Act 5:3; Act 13:10; Act 26:18; Rom 16:20; 1Co 7:5; 2Co 2:11; 2Co 4:4; 2Co 11:3; 2Co 11:14-15; 2Co 12:7; Eph 2:2; Eph 4:27; Eph 6:11-16; Col 1:13; Col 2:15; 1Th 2:18; 1Th 3:5; 2Th 2:9; 1Ti 1:20; 1Ti 3:6-7; 1Ti 5:15; 2Ti 2:26; Heb 2:14; Jas 4:7; 1Pe 5:8-9; 2Pe 2:4; 1Jn 2:13; 1Jn 3:8; 1Jn 3:10; 1Jn 3:12; 1Jn 5:18; Jud 1:6; Jud 1:9; Rev 2:9-10; Rev 3:9; Rev 2:13; Rev 2:24; Rev 9:11; Rev 12:9-12; Rev 20:1-3; Rev 20:7-8; Rev 20:10 Demons

Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible

Satan

Satan (s’tan), adversary. 1Ch 21:1. The adversary of God and man, the foe to goodness, and the tempter to evil. The proper name appears five times in the Old Testament, 1Ch 21:1; Job 1:6; Job 1:12; Job 2:1; Zec 3:1; in the New Testament 25 times; the word “devil” occurs 25 times; “the prince of this world,” three times; “the wicked one,” six times; “the tempter,” twice. In one remarkable verse several epithets are combinedthe old serpent, the devil, and Satan, who deceiveth the whole world. Rev 12:9. The most striking mention of Satan is in Job, where he appears among “the sons of God,” This is in itself sufficient to prove the subordination of the powers of evil unto God and the permissive nature of sin, and that Satan has no authority to vex save as God grants it. The existence of Satan is a perpetual menace to godliness. See Devil.

Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible

Satan

Sa’tan. The word itself, the Hebrew, satan, is simply an “adversary”, and is so used in 1Sa 29:4; 2Sa 19:22; 1Ki 6:4; 1Ki 11:14; 1Ki 11:23; 1Ki 11:25; Num 22:22-23; Psa 109:6. This original sense is still found in our Lord’s application of the name to St. Peter in Mat 16:23. It is used as a proper name or title only four times in the Old Testament, namely, (with the article), in Job 1:6; Job 1:12; Job 2:1; Zec 2:1, and without the article in 1Ch 21:1. It is with the scriptural revelation on the subject, that we are here concerned; and it is clear, from this simple enumeration of passages, that it is to be sought in the New Testament, rather than in the Old Testament.

I. The personal existence of a spirit of evil is clearly revealed in Scripture; but the revelation is made gradually, in accordance with the progressiveness of God’s method. In the first entrance of evil into the world, the temptation is referred only to the serpent. In the book of Job, we find, for the first time, a distinct mention of “Satan,” the “adversary,” of Job. But it is important to remark the emphatic stress laid on his subordinate position, on the absence of all, but delegated power, of all terror and all grandeur in his character. It is especially remarkable that no power of spiritual influence, but only a power over outward circumstances, is attributed to him.

The captivity brought the Israelites face to face with the great dualism of the Persian mythology, the conflict of Ormuzd with Ahriman, the co-ordinate spirit of evil; but it is confessed by all that the Satan of Scripture bears no resemblance to the Persian, Ahriman. His subordination and inferiority are as strongly marked as ever. The New Testament brings plainly forward the power and the influence of Satan. From the beginning of the Gospel, when he appears as the personal tempter of our Lord, through all the Gospels, Epistles, and Apocalypse, it is asserted, or implied, again and again, as a familiar and important truth.

II. Of the nature and original state of Satan, little is revealed in Scripture. He is spoken of as a “spirit” in Eph 2:2; as the prince or ruler of the “demons” in Mat 12:24-26; and as having “angels” subject to him in Mat 25:41; Rev 12:7; Rev 12:9. The whole description of his power implies spiritual nature and spiritual influence. We conclude, therefore, that he was of angelic nature, a rational and spiritual creature, superhuman in power, wisdom and energy; and not only so, but an archangel, one of the “princes” of heaven.

We cannot, of course, conceive that anything essentially and originally evil was created by God. We can only conjecture, therefore, that Satan is a fallen angel, who once had a time of probation, but whose condemnation is now irrevocably fixed. As to the time, cause, and manner of his fall, Scripture tells us scarcely anything; but it describes to us distinctly, the moral nature of the evil one. The ideal of goodness is made up of the three great moral attributes of God — love, truth, and purity or holiness; combined with that spirit, which is the natural temper of the finite and dependent, we find creature, the spirit of faith. We find, accordingly, opposites of qualities are dwelt upon as the characteristics of the devil.

III. The power of Satan over the soul is represented as exercised, either directly, or by his instruments. His direct influence over the soul is simply that of a powerful and evil nature on those, in whom lurks the germ of the same evil. Besides this direct influence, we learn from Scripture, that Satan is the leader of a host of evil spirits, or angels, who share his evil work, and for whom, the “everlasting fire is prepared.” Mat 25:41. Of their origin and fall we know no more than of his.

But one passage Mat 12:24-26 — identifies them distinctly with the “demons,” (Authorized Version, “devils”), who had power to possess the souls of men. They are mostly spoken of in Scripture in reference to possession; but in Eph 6:12, find them sharing the enmity to God and are ascribed in various lights. We find them sharing the enmity to God and man, implied in the name and nature of Satan; but their power and action are little dwelt upon in comparison with his.

But the evil one is not merely the “prince of the demons;” he is called also the “prince of this world” in Joh 12:31; Joh 14:30; Joh 16:11, and even the “god of this world,” in 2Co 4:4; the two expressions being united in Eph 6:12. This power, he claimed for himself, as the delegated authority, in the temptation of our Lord, Luk 4:6, and the temptation would have been unreal, had he spoken altogether falsely.

The indirect action of Satan is best discerned, by an examination of the title, by which he is designated in Scripture. He is called, emphatically, ho diabolos, “the devil”. The derivation of the word in itself implies only the endeavor to break the bonds between others, and “set them at variance;” but common usage adds to this general sense, the special idea of “setting at variance by slander.” In the application of the title to Satan, both the general, and special senses, should be kept in view.

His general object is to break the bonds of communion between God and man, and the bonds of truth and love, which bind men to each other. The slander of God to man is best seen in the words of Gen 3:4-5. They attribute selfishness and jealousy to the Giver of all good. The slander of man to God is illustrated by the book of Job. Job 1:9-11; Job 2:4-5.

IV. The method of satanic action upon the heart itself. It may be summed up in two words — temptation and possession. The subject of temptation is illustrated, not only by abstract statements, but also by the record of the temptations of Adam and of our Lord. It is expressly laid down, as in Jam 1:2-4 , that “temptation,” properly so called, that is, “trial,” is essential to man, and is accordingly ordained for him, and sent to him by God, as in Gen 22:1. It is this tentability of man, even in his original nature, which is represented in Scripture as giving scope to the evil action of Satan. But in the temptation of a fallen nature, Satan has a greater power. Every sin committed makes a man, the “servant of sin” for the future, Joh 8:34; Rom 6:16, it, therefore, creates in the spirit of man, a positive tendency to evil, which sympathizes with, and aids, the temptation of the evil one. On the subject of possession, see Demoniacs.

Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary

Satan

a Greek form derived from the Aramaic (Heb., Satan), “an adversary,” is used (a) of an angel of Jehovah in Num 22:22 (the first occurrence of the Word in the OT); (b) of men, e.g., 1Sa 29:4; Psa 38:20; Psa 71:13; four in Ps. 109; (c) of “Satan,” the Devil, some seventeen or eighteen times in the OT; in Zec 3:1, where the name receives its interpretation, “to be (his) adversary,” RV (see marg.; AV, “to resist him”).

In the NT the word is always used of “Satan,” the adversary (a) of God and Christ, e.g., Mat 4:10; Mat 12:26; Mar 1:13; Mar 3:23, Mar 3:26; Mar 4:15; Luk 4:8 (in some mss.); Luk 11:18; Luk 22:3; Joh 13:27; (b) of His people, e.g., Luk 22:31; Act 5:3; Rom 16:20; 1Co 5:5; 1Co 7:5; 2Co 2:11; 2Co 11:14; 2Co 12:7; 1Th 2:18; 1Ti 1:20; 1Ti 5:15; Rev 2:9, Rev 2:13 (twice), Rev 2:24; Rev 3:9; (c) of mankind, Luk 13:16; Act 26:18; 2Th 2:9; Rev 12:9; Rev 20:7. His doom, sealed at the Cross is foretold in its stages in Luk 10:18; Rev 20:2, Rev 20:10. Believers are assured of victory over him, Rom 16:20.

The appellation was given by the Lord to Peter, as a “Satan-like” man, on the occasion when he endeavored to dissuade Him from death, Mat 16:23; Mar 8:33.

“Satan” is not simply the personification of evil influences in the heart, for he tempted Christ, in whose heart no evil thought could ever have arisen (Joh 14:30, 2Co 5:21; Heb 4:15); moreover his personality is asserted in both the OT and the NT, and especially in the latter, whereas if the OT language was intended to be figurative, the NT would have made this evident. See DEVIL.

Fuente: Vine’s Dictionary of New Testament Words

Satan

signifies an adversary or enemy, and is commonly applied in the Scriptures to the devil, or the chief of the fallen angels. By collecting the passages where Satan, or the devil, is mentioned, it may be concluded, that he fell from heaven with his company; that God cast him down from thence for the punishment of his pride; that by his envy and malice, sin, death, and all other evils came into the world; that, by the permission of God, he exercises a sort of government in the world over subordinate apostate angels like himself; that God makes use of him to prove good men, and chastise bad ones; that he is a lying spirit in the mouth of false prophets and seducers; that it is he, or his agents, that torment or possess men, and inspire them with evil designs, as when he suggested to David, the numbering of the people, to Judas to betray his Lord and Master, and to Ananias and Sapphira to conceal the price of their field; that he is full of rage like a roaring lion, and of subtlety like a serpent, to tempt, to betray, to destroy, and involve us in guilt and wickedness; that his power and malice are restrained within certain limits, and controlled by the will of God; in a word, that he is an enemy to God and man, and uses his utmost endeavours to rob God of his glory, and men of their souls. See DEVIL and See DEMONIACS.

Fuente: Biblical and Theological Dictionary