Devil in Christianity
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In Christianity, the Devil is named Satan, sometimes Lucifer. He is a fallen angel who rebelled against God, and is now roaming the Earth. He is identified by Christians with the serpent in the Garden of Eden, whose lies led to original sin and the need for Jesus Christ's redemption. He is also identified as the Accuser of Job, the tempter of the Gospels, and the dragon in the Book of Revelation. Traditionally, Christians have understood the Devil to be the author of lies and promoter of evil. Many liberal Christians view the devil metaphorically[1]. It should be noted, however, that much of this history is not biblical; instead, it is a post-medieval Christian reading of the scriptures influenced by medieval and pre-medieval Christian popular mythology.
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[edit] Characteristics of the Devil
Teachings about the Devil vary, depending on the local folklore. Still, the characteristics present in the Bible are present in each depiction.
[edit] The Devil as rebel
Satan is portrayed as having been defeated and cast out of heaven after he and the angels loyal to him tried and failed to usurp God's authority.
The devil, according to the Bible, was first an angel of light. Therefore, he would not be a foul dragon as portrayed by the church in the middle ages. He is called "the deceiver." Because deceiving would include fooling somebody, and a dragon or monster would stand no chance into fooling a person into thinking that they were doing right, it could be logically concluded that the devil masquerades himself as an angel of light and convinces people to follow him in that way.
[edit] The Devil and Jesus Christ
According to the gospels of Matthew (chapter 4) and Luke (chapter 4), the Devil tempted Jesus at the beginning of his ministry. After Jesus fasted forty days in the wilderness, the Devil approached Jesus with offers of stones turned to bread, rulership over the kingdoms of the Earth (but with subservience to the Devil himself), and spectacular protection from physical harm. Satan uses the Scripture of the Old Testament to solidify his arguments. This would indicate Satan's full knowledge of all of Scripture, and a use of that knowledge to tempt and deceive man[citation needed]. Jesus refused all three temptations, rebuking Satan with His own knowledge of Scripture.
Christianity holds several different views on Christ's role in defeating Satan. Some emphasize Christ's death and resurrection as sealing Satan's fate, so that the Devil is already defeated though not banished. Others emphasize the Devil's final judgment when Christ returns, at which time the terror and deceit of Satan will have no more effect on the world. This is because mankind will face final judgment, and the earth will be purged or cleansed with fire. Satan will be bound to the lake of fire (Rev 20) with the Beast, the false prophet, and all those whose names are not in the Book of Life. There will no longer be any way for Satan to have an impact on mankind.
[edit] Devil as lord of demons
The Devil is said to rule a host of fallen angels (demons). In the New Testament, these unclean spirits cause physical and mental afflictions, and Jesus often cures people by driving out demons. In the Christian tradition, these demons are the source of non-Christian supernatural power. In a polytheistic culture, people accepted that the magic or miracles that other people performed were done by the power of the others' gods. In monotheistic Christianity, the only source of supernatural power other than God is the Devil. Tertullian (c. AD 200), for example, referred to the Pythian oracle (which proclaimed Socrates the wisest mortal) as demonic [2].
[edit] The Devil ruling the non-Christian world
The Devil is said to rule either the whole world or most of it. Governments, religions, sciences, and academic pursuits that are not in accord with Christianity are said to be influenced or even run by Satan. He is called the 'ruler of the kingdom of the air' in Ephesians 2 v2 signifying his thorough corruption of the earth.
[edit] The Devil possessing mortals
The Devil, as well as his demons, are portrayed as able to possess and control humans. The Roman Catholic Church occasionally performs exorcisms, and some evangelicals do so regularly.
[edit] The Devil and black magic
Since the Middle Ages, the Devil has been described as granting spells and magic powers to sorcerers and witches. The Bible refers to the Devil and to sorcerers but never depicts them as related.
[edit] History of the Devil in Christianity
[edit] The Christian Devil in the Christian Old Testament
In the Christian view, the Devil's most dramatic appearance in the Old Testament is as the serpent in the Garden of Eden. He also appears in the heavenly court to challenge Job. The references to Lucifer are traditionally identified as referring to the Devil by name.
The creation story found in the book of Genesis reports that a serpent tempted Adam and Eve to partake of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The identification of the snake with Satan is found in the Christian version of the translation of the Torah, in Genesis 3:15 of the 'Old Testament', where God says that the offspring of the woman, will crush the serpent's head. (The Hebrew original text of Genesis 3:15 says:"I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your offsprings and hers; They shall strike at your head, And you shall strike at their heel.") This interpretation is then understood by Christianity to be 'confirmed' by the New Testament as Romans 16:20 says, "And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly". In Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Satan is one of humanity's three enemies, along with sin and death (in some other forms of Christianity the other two enemies of mankind are "the world" [3], and self (or the flesh), which is to be taken as man's natural tendency to sin); [4].
[edit] The Devil In the New Testament
The Devil figures much more prominently in the New Testament and in Christian theology generally. The overarching goal of the Devil is to destroy the work of God, condemning the souls of mankind to hell for eternity (1 Peter 5:8). The New Testament records numerous accounts of the Devil working against God and his plan.
One major means the Devil uses is through demon possession. The Devil is neither omniscient nor omnipotent; thus he must utilize a force of demons who share his cause. The Devil is seen as the commander of the army of darkness. The Devil presumably directs these evil angels to do his bidding. The demons in turn seek to torment humans by inhabiting their bodies. Numerous occurrences of this phenomenon occur in the New Testament. Jesus encounters those who are possessed and exorcises (or casts out) the evil spirit(s). The work of possession, though not explained in depth by the New Testament, is illustrated to have levels of severity. A person may have one demon or multiple demons inhabiting their body. Jesus encountered a man filled with numerous demons in Mark 5:1-20. Addressing the demons, Jesus asked for their name. They replied "Legion, for we are many." Mary Magdalene is recorded to have been delivered from seven demons which tormented her. (Mark 16:9)
Demon possession causes a variety of symptoms. Often these bear similarities to physical or emotional diseases. The New Testament records seizures, an inability to speak, self mutilation, ability to foresee the future, and loud wailings or other noises as evidence of an evil presence. A distinction is drawn between physical infirmities and demon possession. Not everyone who was sick was under demonic influence. Likewise, not everyone who was possessed by a demon showed these symptoms.
The widespread acceptance of the work of demons in the ancient Near East is shown by the Jewish teachers of the law. They saw the miraculous workings of Jesus Christ and accused him of doing these signs and wonders by the power of Beelzebub (Mark 3:22). They made no attempt to discredit the miracles of Jesus; rather, they equated them with the Devil and his power. This gives evidence to the common belief of that day that Satan did in fact send demons to possess human beings.
Another weapon the Devil uses to attack people is temptation. In the New Testament, Satan appears as a tempter for Jesus, for example. (Mark 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13) This has been the universal tool that Satan has attacked mankind with since the Garden of Eden. Satan himself or one of his allegiant demons offers a thought to the mind of a person (Luke 4:1-13). The thought is contrary to what God has deemed right and true. Thus, the person is urged to disobey and violate the commands of God. Temptation in itself is not sin. Yielding to temptation and acting on the thought, violating any command or statue of God, is sin.
[edit] The Devil in the Christian tradition
In John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost, the theme is further developed — Satan is believed to have been an archangel who turned against God before the creation of man. Prophecies in Isaiah 14[5] and Ezekiel 28 are thought by some to be referring metaphorically to Satan, rather than to the king of Babylon. Babylon in Revelation is a symbol for an evil world, one of which Satan would be head in the Tribulational period of the end times.[citation needed] According to this view, Satan waged war against God, his Creator, and was banished from Heaven because of this.
According to most Christian eschatology, Satan will wage a final war against Jesus, before being cast into Hell for "aeonios." [6] The Unification Church, a sect that deviates from mainstream Christianity, teaches that Satan will be restored in the last days and become a good angel again [7]. A few early Church Fathers are known to have prayed for Satan's eventual repentance[citation needed]; it was not generally believed that this would happen. On the other hand, Dispensationalists teach that Jesus returns to earth before the Tribulational period to reclaim the righteous, dead and living, to meet Him in the air (known as the Rapture [8]. Many Fundamentalists believe that immediately following this, the Tribulational period will occur as prophesied in the book of Daniel, while others (especially Seventh-day Adventists) believe that immediately following Jesus' Second Coming, Satan will be bound on this Earth for a thousand years, after which he will be “loosed for a little season” [9]—this is when the battle of Armageddon (the final confrontation between good and evil) will be waged—and Satan and his followers will be destroyed once and for all, the Earth will be cleansed of all evil and there will be “a new Heaven and a new Earth” where sin will reign no more.[10]
In the New Testament, Letter of Jude (Jude 1:9) the Archangel Michael is described arguing with the Devil over the body of Moses. This dispute is shown in the painting by Guido Reni called "St. Michael the Archangel" showing Satan being crushed underfoot.
[edit] Other views
[edit] Gnostics
In various Gnostic sects, Satan was praised as the giver of knowledge, sometimes with references to Lucifer, “the light-bringer.” Some claimed that the being imagined as God by Christians and Jews was in fact Satan, as a world as imperfect as ours could not be created by a perfect God. Non-Gnostic Christians typically explain the world's imperfection as the result of the Fall.
[edit] Middle Ages
Particularly in the medieval period, Satan was often depicted as having horns and a goat's hindquarters. He has also been depicted as carrying a pitchfork, and with a forked tail. None of these images seem to be based on Biblical materials, as Satan's physical appearance is never described in the bible, Qur'an or any other religious text. Rather, this image is apparently based on pagan horned gods, such as Pan and Dionysus, common to many mythologies [11]. Pan in particular looks very much like the images of the medieval Satan. Some images are based on Baphomet, which is portrayed in Eliphas Lévi's 1854 Dogme et rituel de la haute magie (English translation Transcendental Magic, its Doctrine and Ritual)Levi. Even some Satanists use Baphomet as the image of Satan in Satanic worship. Neo-pagans and others allege that this image was chosen specifically to discredit the Horned God of ancient paganism to convert people to the Christian faith.
The medieval Cathars identified the devil with the demiurge of older gnostic and Neoplatonic tradition. Earlier sects believed the Old Testament Yahweh was, in fact, the devil, based partially on ethical interpretations of the Bible and partially on the beliefs of earlier gnostic sects (such as the Valentinians) who regarded the god of the Old Testament as evil or as an imperfect Demiurge. Early Gnostics called the Demiurge Yao, the Aramaic cognate to the Tetragrammaton, YHWH (Yahweh). Moreover, modern research into Ugaritic texts revealed that the names of the Jewish god were the same as earlier gods worshipped in the same region; Yahweh is cognate to Ugaritic Yaw who was the Semitic deity of chaos, evil, and world domination.
[edit] Latter Day Saints
Latter Day Saints believe that the Devil is a bodiless spirit son of God, whereas Jesus Christ is the Firstborn spirit son and the Only Begotten Son in the flesh.[2]
[edit] Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Satan is a real person. Satan was created a perfect spirit creature, but he became "Satan the Devil" when he acted on his desire to turn Adam and Eve away from worship of Jehovah to himself. They do not regard "Lucifer" as his original name, but as descriptive designation applied to the "king of Babylon." [12]. The rendering Lucifer is derived from the Latin Vulgate.
By use of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, Satan seduced Eve by implying that God's rulership was selfish and unjust. "Is it really so that God said you must not eat from every tree of the garden?" Eve's reply was that only one tree had been prohibited from their use on penalty of death. Satan challenged this: "You positively will not die. For God knows that in the very day of your eating from it your eyes are bound to be opened and you are bound to be like God, knowing good and bad". [13] So, Satan's approach was a dual deception: First, that God was withholding good from them and second that he was lying in the process.
Eve succumbed to this deception along with Adam, who allowed himself to become complicit in the matter. Jehovah cast them out of paradise where they did indeed begin their descent into death and imperfection. The Bible shows that the majority of their offspring followed them in this course.
Now humanity is caught between Satan and God falling to either side to prove which is right; whether mankind will fall to self-worship—thus falling under Satan's influence—or remain true to their Creator.
Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Satan is still the god of this world, citing references at 2 Cor. 4:4; 1 John 5:19; Mt 4:8-11.[14]
[edit] As a sympathetic character
In Paradise Lost, Satan acts much like a protagonist of the first half of the story, who styles himself as an ambitious underdog rebelling against Heaven. He becomes less sympathetic in the second half as the snake that tempts Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The epic poem by John Milton, Paradise Lost, has a stylized depiction of the devil that influenced C. S. Lewis (The Screwtape Letters and Space Trilogy), and the J. R. R. Tolkien characters Melkor and Sauron.
Both Faust and The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus feature the demon known as Mephistopheles, (also spelled Mephistophilius), who is summoned by Faust to sell his soul for a limited number of years of pleasure. Mephistopheles often shows regret and remorse for rebelling against God. In one famous scene from Faustus, Mephistopheles tells Faust that he cannot leave Hell. When Faust tells him that he seems to be free of Hell at that moment, the devil responds with "Why this is hell, nor am I out of it./ Think’st thou that I, who saw the face of God,/And tasted the eternal joys of heaven,/ Am not tormented with ten thousand hells/ In being deprived of everlasting bliss?" Rather than glorifying the Devil, he is shown as a sad figure.
"But here steps in Satan, the eternal rebel, the first free-thinker and emancipator of worlds. He makes man ashamed of his bestial ignorance and obedience; he emancipates him, stamps upon his brow the seal of liberty and humanity, in urging him to disobey and eat of the fruit of knowledge." - Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876)
[edit] Secular Outlook
Scholars who analyze the Bible and Christian tradition from a historical perspective regard current Christian views of the Devil as combining beliefs from various times and places. They generally see the serpent in the Garden of Eden, Lucifer, and Satan as unrelated entities, the serpent merely a snake, Lucifer a mortal king, and Satan an angel in Yahweh's court. According to this perspective, Jews adopted the idea of a "prince of darkness" from Zoroastrianism while in captivity in Babylon. This concept was then read into Old Testament texts. The Devil as an evil being on a cosmic scale doesn't appear in the Bible until the New Testament. This concept then continued to develop as Christianity itself grew and developed.
[edit] Names of the Devil in Christianity
[edit] Old and New Testament names
Originally, only the epithet of "the satan" ("the adversary") was used to denote the character in the Hebrew deity's court that later became known as "the Devil." (The term "satan" was also used to designate human enemies of the Hebrews that Yahweh raised against them.) The article was lost and this title became a proper name: Satan. There is no unambiguous reference to the Devil in the Torah, the Prophets, or the Writings.
Zechariah 3:1--"And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and ha-satan standing at his right hand to resist him." This reading has since been erroneously interpreted by some to mean Satan, "the Devil", but such is not the case. The Hebrew Bible views ha-satan as an angel ministering to the desires of God, acting as Chief Prosecutor.
- Azazel: Leviticus 16:8 "And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the LORD and the other lot for Azazel." Also, Leviticus 16:10 Leviticus 16:26
- Satan: Luke 10:18 "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven." See also Matthew 4:10 Matthew 12:26 Mark 4:15 Luke 22:31 Acts 26:18 1Corinthians 5:5 2Corinthians 11:14 1Thessalonians 2:18 1Timothy 5:15 Revelation 3:9 Revelation 20:2
- The Tempter: Matthew 4:3--"And when the tempter came to him." Also, 1Thessalonians 3:5
- In Matthew 10:25, Matthew 12:24, Mark 3:22, and openly in Luke 11:18-19 there is an implied connection between Satan and Beelzebub (originally a Semitic deity called Baal, and referred to as Baal-zebul, meaning lord of princes) Beelzebub (lit. Lord of the Flies) has now come to be analogous to Satan.
- The Wicked One: Matthew 13:19--"Then cometh the wicked one." Matthew 6:13, 1 John 5:19. This title suggests that Satan is one who is wicked himself. Abrahamic religions generally regarded sin as a physical manifestation of opposition to God, and therefore evil; dissent only comes from the topic of 'where does sin come from?'
- In John 12:31 and John 14:30 Satan is called Prince of this World (Rex Mundi); this became a nickname for him.
- In 2 Corinthians 6:15 the Devil is referred as Belial. "What agreement does Christ have with Belial?" Also, in the Old Testament, rebellious people and nonbelievers are sometimes called 'sons of Belial'. See also Deuteronomy 13:13 Judges 20:13 1Samuel 2:12 2Samuel 23:6 1Kings 21:10 2Chronicles 13:7
- In 2 Corinthians 4:4 the Devil is called "the god of this world"
- Peter 5:8--"Your Adversary the devil." By adversary is meant one who takes a stand against another. In the Christian worldview, Satan is the adversary of both God and the believers.
- The Devil, diabolos: This name is ascribed to Satan at least 33 times in the Christian scriptures and indicates that Satan is an accuser or slanderer (Rev. 12:9).
- The Dragon or The Old Serpent: These epithets are used extensively in the Book of Revelation.
There are some who erroneously claim that the word 'devil' is from 'd'evil' -'of evil.' Some also believe that because the word 'evil' itself is 'live' spelt backward, the word originated through the nature of evil being "against living things," or the antithesis of life itself. Both claims are false, as the words are etymologically derived from pre-existing languages.
[edit] Further development
When the Bible was translated into Latin (the Vulgate), the name Lucifer appeared as a translation of "Morning Star", or the planet Venus, in Isaiah 14:12. Isaiah 14:1-23 is a passage largely concerned with the plight of Babylon, and its king is referred to as "morning star, son of the dawn". This is because the Babylonian king was considered to be of godly status and of symbolic divine parentage (Bel and Ishtar, associated with the planet Venus).
While this information is available to scholars today via translated Babylonian cuneiform text taken from clay tablets, it was not as readily available at the time of the Latin translation of the Bible. Thus, early Christian tradition interpreted the passage as a reference to the moment Satan was thrown from Heaven. Lucifer became another name for Satan and has remained so due to Christian dogma and popular tradition.
The Hebrew Bible word which was later translated to "Lucifer" in English is הילל (transliterated HYLL). Though this word, Heilel, has come to be translated as "morning-star" from the Septuagint's translation of the Scriptures, the letter ה in Hebrew often indicates singularity, much as the English "the," in which case the translation would be ה "the" ילל "yell," or "the wailing yell."
Later, for unknown reasons, Christian demonologists appeared to designate "Satan", "Lucifer", and "Beelzebub" as different entities, each with a different rank in the hellish hierarchy. One hypothesis is that this might have been an attempt to establish a hellish trinity with the same person, akin to the Christian Trinity of Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, but most demonologists do not carry this view.
[edit] In Christian tradition
Christian tradition differs from that of Christian demonology in that Satan, Lucifer, Leviathan and Beelzebub all are names that refer to "the Devil", and Prince of this World, The Beast and Dragon (and rarely Serpent or The Old Serpent) use to be elliptic forms to refer to him. The Enemy, The Evil One and The Tempter are other elliptic forms to name the Devil. Belial is held by many to be another name for the Devil. Christian demonology, in contrast, does not have several nicknames for Satan.
It should be noted that the name Mephistopheles is used by some people to refer to the Devil, but it is a mere folkloric custom, and has nothing to do with Christian demonology and Christian tradition. Prince of Darkness and Lord of Darkness are also folkloric names, although they tend to be incorporated to Christian tradition.
[edit] Disputes
[edit] Is the Devil in Hell?
The belief that Satan is in Hell has its roots in Christian literature rather than in the Bible. The Bible states that he still roams heaven and earth. [15] It also states that Satan appeared with other angels "before the Lord," presumably in heaven. When God asked Satan where he had been, Satan replied, "From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it". 1 Peter 5:8 declares, "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour".
Passages such as these suggest that Satan is not in a physical Hell (as opposed to a state of being), and probably spends most of his time seeking to destroy the lives of human beings and to keep them separated from God.
According to the Bible, Satan was cast out of Heaven and into the Earth along with one third of the angels. He was made the Prince and Ruler of the Earth.
(source: the King James Version Bible)
Revelation 12:9: And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
John 12:31: Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
John 16:11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
[edit] How could an angel commit sin and rebel against God?
Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologiae, said:
"An angel or any other rational creature considered in his own nature, can sin; and to whatever creature it belongs not to sin, such creature has it as a gift of grace, and not from the condition of nature. The reason of this is, because sinning is nothing else than a deviation from that rectitude which an act ought to have; whether we speak of sin in nature, art, or morals. That act alone, the rule of which is the very virtue of the agent, can never fall short of rectitude. Were the craftsman's hand the rule itself engraving, he could not engrave the wood otherwise than rightly; but if the rightness of engraving be judged by another rule, then the engraving may be right or faulty."
[edit] In fiction and popular culture
[edit] References
- ^ [1]
- ^ A treatise on the soul
- ^ Jam 4:4
- ^ Rom 6:6
- ^ For example, see Jerome, "To Eustochium", Letter 22.4, To Eustochium
- ^ Aeonios, literally translated, means of or pertaining to an age, which is incorrectly translated as "all eternity."
- ^ see Lucifer, A Criminal Against Humanity
- ^ see 1 Thess 4:17
- ^ a short time, see Rev 20:1-3
- ^ Rev 21:1-4
- ^ Powell, Barry B. Classical Myth. Second ed. With new translations of ancient texts by Herbert M. Howe. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1998.
- ^ Isa. 14:4, 12
- ^ Gen 3:1, 4, 5
- ^ Who Really Rules the World?
- ^ Job 1:6-7
