Satan #26

Satan is the chief adversary of God and of God’s people in the Bible. The Hebrew word satan means “adversary” or “accuser,” and in the Old Testament it often carries a definite article, “the satan,” which suggests a role or title before it becomes a personal name. By the New Testament, Satan is a well-known figure, also called the devil, the tempter, and the evil one.

Biblical Significance

In the Old Testament, Satan appears only a few times. In Job, “the satan” is among the heavenly beings who present themselves before the LORD, and he challenges Job’s sincerity, receiving limited permission to test him (Job 1:6-12). In Zechariah, he stands at the right hand of the high priest Joshua to accuse him, and the LORD rebukes him (Zechariah 3:1-2). In 1 Chronicles, an adversary incites David to take a census (1 Chronicles 21:1). In each case, Satan acts only within limits God sets.

The Gospels bring him into the foreground. After his baptism, Jesus is led into the wilderness, where the devil tempts him three times, and Jesus answers each time with words from Deuteronomy (Matthew 4:1-11). Jesus also speaks of seeing Satan fall “as lightning fall from heaven” as his disciples proclaim the kingdom (Luke 10:17-18), and calls the devil “a murderer from the beginning” and “the father of it” (John 8:44). Peter warns believers that their adversary “as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,” and urges them to resist him, “stedfast in the faith” (1 Peter 5:8-9).

The Serpent and the Final Judgment

Genesis 3 never names Satan, but the serpent who tempts Eve has long been read as him, and Revelation explicitly speaks of “that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world” (Revelation 12:9). In Revelation, a war in heaven ends with Satan thrown down, and later he is bound, released for a final rebellion, and cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 12:7-12; 20:7-10).

Some interpreters also connect Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:11-19 with Satan’s fall. Others hold that those passages are aimed at the kings of Babylon and Tyre and only apply to Satan by later tradition. Readers disagree, and the New Testament does not quote them for that purpose.

Legacy

Christian teaching generally holds that Satan is a created being and not an equal to God, that he is defeated in principle by the cross and resurrection of Christ, and that he awaits final judgment. Views differ widely on how literally to picture him and how much he is present in ordinary temptation and evil. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam each have their own understanding of the figure, and the biblical text is comparatively spare in its detail, focusing on his opposition to God’s purposes and on the assurance that it will not prevail.