DEVIL

The supreme evil spirit. The term devil is derived from the Greek word διάβολος, which etymologically means an accuser, a slanderer. In classical Greek the word διάβολος was applied, as a noun or an adjective ("slanderous"), only to men, and in this way it is used also in 1 Tm 3.11; 2 Tm 3.3; Ti 2.3. The Septuagint, however, used the term ὁ διάβολος to translate the Hebrew term haśśāṭān (the accuser, the adversary), and so also in the New Testament ὁ διάβολος (the devil) is a common synonym for the somewhat less frequently used term ὁ σατάν or ὁ σαταν[symbol omitted]ς (Satan). Other New Testament synonyms for the devil are beelzebul, Belial, the Evil One (ὁ πονηρός: Mt 13.19, 38; Jn 17.15; Eph 6.16; etc., and most likely Mt 5.37; 6.13), the Accuser (ὁ κατήγωρ: Rv 12.10), the Tempter (Mt 4.3), the Great Dragon and the Ancient Serpent (Rv 12.9), the Prince of This World (Jn 12.31; 14.30; 16.11), and the God of This World (2 Cor4.4). The only New Testament occurrence of the term "a devil" (without the definite article in Greek) is in Jn 6.70, where Jesus speaks of Judas Iscariot as a devil, no doubt because Judas was already in the power of the devil (Jn 13.2, 27). Although strictly speaking there is only one devil, just as there is only one Satan, the term is often used broadly in the plural (devils) as a synonym for demons (though never thus in the Bible). see demon (in the bible). For the teaching of the Bible on the devil and for the treatment of the devil in Christian art, see satan.

Bibliography: Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Bible, translated and adapted by l. hartman (New York, 1963) 564–565. f. horst, Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 7 v. (3d ed. Tübingen 1957–65) 6:705–707. e. krebs, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. m. buchberger, 10 v. (Freiburg 1930–38) 10:10–17.

[l. f. hartman]