A Developing Picture of Evil

It isn’t easy to get a clear idea of who Satan is from the Bible. The information on his character is sparse and scattered throughout the two testaments and the apocryphal books written between the testaments. Much of what we think we know about Satan comes from various sources written long after the Bible, including fiction. In this article, we’ll look at what was revealed about him through the centuries, beginning with the Old Testament, continuing through the Apocrypha, and finishing with the New Testament.

Before we begin, we should acknowledge two things about Satan. First, if we accept the truth of the words of Jesus in scripture, we have to accept that Satan is real. Perhaps not everything the Bible says (or seems to say) about Satan is true, but Jesus talks about a real being by that name, and so we must take his words seriously. Second, we should learn what we can about Satan, but we should not feel threatened by him. The New Testament reveals that Satan is now a defeated enemy, and that he has no power over a person who has faith in God.

In Hebrew, Satan means “the accuser”, or “the adversary.” Satan first appears as a member of the heavenly court in the book of Job, where he is a prosecutor of humankind who questions and tests Job’s faith by inflicting loss and pain upon him (Job 1-2). Satan only acts with God’s permission, and after Job passes the tests, Satan can do no more. Besides accusing Job of having a weak faith, Satan opposes Joshua the high priest (Zechariah 3:1-2) and tempts King David to take a military census against God’s wishes (1 Chronicles 21:1). Those three passages are all the appearances of Satan in the Old Testament. We cannot understand much about Satan from them, and they hardly describe the devil we picture today. The original Old Testament version of Satan can tempt people to sin and turn against God, but is powerless to force them to do evil. He acts on God’s behalf, to test our faith. He is essentially God’s prosecuting attorney.

After the last books of the Hebrew Bible were written, the Jewish people developed a different picture of Satan; he was described in subsequent writings as a powerful supernatural being whose power was behind the evil and suffering in the world. Satan became humankind’s greatest enemy. There are a few possible reasons for this. After the Babylonian exile (God’s punishment for Judah’s idolatry) was over, the Jews continued to be dominated and occupied by foreign powers, including the Persians, the Greeks, the Egyptians, and finally the Romans. If their punishment was over, then why did their troubles go on and on? The Jews began to believe in an active power of evil that dominated this world and worked against God’s purposes. Satan became the chief symbol of that power and the explanation for evil.

Another reason for the change may have been the influence of the Persian religion. The Persians believed in a dualistic universe with a god of good and an equal and opposite god of evil, with the two gods and their armies eternally at war. Under Persian rule, the Jews were exposed to these ideas, and new religious writings about Satan and demons began to proliferate. However, the Jews were monotheistic and could never believe in an evil that was equal to God. They were sure that God had created Satan and was greater than Satan; even Satan’s evil deeds were ultimately part of God’s plan.

Jews and Christians eventually began to revisit and reinterpret parts of the Hebrew Bible as being about Satan, although the passages previously hadn’t been seen that way. For example, Isaiah 14:3-21 is really a prophecy condemning the king of Babylon who will be utterly defeated in the future (“you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon”). But the passage came to be seen as a description of Satan as a fallen angel, cast out of Heaven for a sin of ambition: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God…” (Isaiah 14:12-13) Another example is Ezekiel 28:11-19, which is really a prophecy condemning the king of Tyre. It too came to be seen as a description of Satan as a fallen angel. And of course the serpent from the Garden of Eden came to be seen as having been Satan, although Genesis 3 identifies it as just a wild animal. Is Satan really a fallen angel who seduced Eve in Eden? The validity of reading Satan into old unrelated passages is questionable, but in any case, it was done long ago, and it gave us part of our picture of Satan today.

In the Apocrypha (the books, written during the 400 years between the Old and New Testaments, which were not considered worthy of inclusion in the final Bible), there was new information about Satan and his fall from Heaven. But the apocryphal stories contradict other traditions about Satan, and in them, he has various other names and characteristics. For example, in the book of Enoch, the chief evil one was called Azazyel. He was the leader of a group of angels who all seduced human women and had giant children with them (see also Genesis 6:1-4). They taught mankind about many forms of violence and sin, and for their crimes, they were cast down into eternal punishment. It’s a similar story, but was it the same Satan? Another example is the evil one Asmodeus in the book of Tobit. Was he Satan too? The Apocrypha contains information on the names of many fallen angels, demons, and the various powers organized against God. There was an explosion of interest in the demons and angels that populated the unseen world. This literature is not considered to be divinely inspired scripture, but it gives insight into how the picture of Satan and his followers developed until the time of the New Testament. Without the Apocrypha, one cannot understand why there are suddenly so many demons in the gospels when they were not found in the Old Testament. One cannot bridge the apparent gap between the Satan of the book of Job (God’s servant but man’s adversary) and the Satan of the book of Revelation (adversary of both God and man).

In the New Testament, Satan is also known as the “Devil”. In Greek, devil (diabolos) means “slanderer.” But mainly the Devil is a tempter, as shown by the temptation of Jesus (Mat 4:1-11), although Satan failed to seduce Jesus with worldly power. Satan was believed to be the ruler of this world, thus he could offer Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. As the letter of John says, “We know that…the whole world lies under the power of the evil one.” (1 John 5:19) Perhaps Satan sensed the threat inherent in what God was doing through Jesus, but he could not understand what God’s plan was; he hoped that he could divert Jesus’ unknown mission through temptation. The New Testament states that Satan has the power to tempt, but the faithful have the power to resist him. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7) “Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith.” (1 Pet 5:8-9)

Jesus said that Satan worked against the spread of the gospel. “The sower sows the word. These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them.” (Mar 4:14-15) Jesus appeared in the world to destroy Satan’s works. “The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” (1 John 3:8) Jesus and his followers achieved victory over the demonic forces in the world. “The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you.” (Luke 10:17-19)

Jesus’ death and resurrection were the beginning of the end for Satan. Even if Satan had no power to force people to sin, he could still use the fear of death against them. But Jesus took that fear away. “Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.” (Heb 2:14-15). In that way, Jesus triumphed over the Devil through his death on the cross. Ironically, Satan somehow influenced Judas to betray Jesus to his death (John 13:27), the death that would ultimately defeat Satan’s works.

In the present, Satan is still free to continue to tempt and deceive people. But the New Testament concludes with a vision of the future. In the book of Revelation, Satan is destroyed once and for all. “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and locked and sealed it over him, so that he would deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were ended… And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” (Rev 20:1-10) Jesus also spoke of the “eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mat 25:41).

For Christians, Satan is a defeated enemy. In faith, his power is broken. Whatever he can do, a Christian can resist it. Here is the advice of Paul for resisting Satan’s power (Ephesians 6:10-17). “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil…Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”