SATAN

The Hebrew term satan referred to an accuser in the court of law, but most often in the Bible it is used in a metaphorical sense to refer to an adversary of one kind or another. In the Old Testament it appears except in one case (1 Chr 21.1) with a definite article, thus "the satan." The Septuagint translation of the Old Testament term is often diabolus (the basis of the English "devil" and "diabolic"), "accuser" or "slanderer," and in the New Testament the Greek words satanas, satan, and diabolos are used indifferently.

Judeo-Christian concepts about the devil had a long evolution, the stages of which are outlined in the Old Testament, in the writings and tradition of the intertestamental period, in the New Testament, and in Christian tradition and art.

In the Old Testament. The Hebrew verb śāṭan (to oppose, harass someone, especially by accusing him) is the root whence comes the substantive śāṭān, used of the angel who hindered balaam (Nm 22.22) and, in a legal sense, of any accuser or prosecutor [Ps 108 (109).6; Zec3.1–2]. Among the sons of god in Jb 1.6–12, haśśaṭan, the accuser or adversary, apparently had the task of testing and accusing men as a function on behalf of God. His tempting of Job failed, and his prediction of Job's unfaithfulness (Jb 2.4–5) proved incorrect. In 1 Chr 21.1 Satan was much more than the overseer patrolling the earth, charged with reporting man's sins to God; he was the tempter and allurer of man into sin and the adversary of Israel and God. No mention of such a role is found in the more ancient account of this episode in 2 Samuel ch.24. Satan's evil function in 1 Chr 21.1, then, shows that the Chronicler was aware of a personal principle of evil that warred against God and enticed man to rebel against Him. One may safely assume that the lying spirit of 1 Kgs 22.19–23 would have been identified with Satan by a Jew of the Chronicler's period, whereas in the text itself the lying spirit was a personification of the prophetic spirit that Yahweh used to deceive Ahab, or an angel carrying out Yahweh's intentions to punish Ahab. The serpent in Genesis ch. 3 who deceived Eve was eventually identified with the devil through whose envy death entered the world (Wis 2.24). The text of Sir 21.27 (Greek) seems to warn against blaming one's evil tendencies on Satan as if he were the cause of all evil, although the adversary here might have meant simply any enemy of the godless man. It was only very late, then, that Hebrew thought began to identify Satan with an evil force, personal and superhuman, who opposed God by enticing man to sin, although the idea was as ancient as the Yahwistic account of man's primitive rebellion against God (Gn ch. 3).

In the Intertestamental Period. In the traditions handed down by the Jewish rabbis and in the Jewish apocrypha, Satan was described as the arch opponent of Israel and was given such evil-sounding names as Belial (worthlessness) and Sammael (perhaps, God's poison). As the avenger, the tempter, and the troublemaker, he disturbed Israel's covenant relationship with God by tempting man to sin and by trying to frustrate God's benevolent providence. As in Wis 2.24, he was identified with the serpent of Genesis in both the Targums and the midrashic literature. Contact with Persian demonology probably influenced Judaism to solidify its concept of Satan; human life and history with their conflicts became the battleground between good and evil, between God and Satan. A transcendental dualism was thereby introduced into Judaism for the first time.

In the New Testament. The earliest Christian writers almost always transliterated Satan into Greek with the definite article, thereby signifying the adversary of God in a very special sense. The Greek translation of Satan, ὁ διάβολος, whence came the word devil, had the connotation of a slanderous accuser. The devil was called also beelzebul (Mt 5.37) and Beliar, or Belial (2 Cor 6.15). Other characteristic appellations were the evil one (Mt5.37), the accuser (Rv 12.10), the adversary (1 Pt 5.8), and the enemy (Mt 13.39). In Lk 10.18 he is characterized as the leader of the devils who were subject to Christ and His Disciples. He was the tempter of Christ, a murderer, a liar, and the father of murderers and liars (Jn 8.39–44). He was the strong man whom Christ was defeating (Mt 12.29), the prince of the world to be cast out by Jesus' sacrifice (Jn 12.31; 14.30; 16.11), and the instigator of Judas Iscariot (Jn 13.2, 27). He and his evil spirits were doomed to everlasting fire (Mt 25.41). The dragon of Revelation ch. 12, the devil, had two beasts in his service, the symbols of the pagans who persecuted the Church (Revelation ch. 13). His final defeat, already determined in heaven (Rv 12.10–12), would be accomplished by Christ at His return from heaven, His parousia (2 Thes2.1–12). The idea of a personal, superhuman power of evil was, therefore, a constant and integral part of NT thought. Christ's use of the term satan for Peter, who was opposing the divine plan of the Cross, was a return to the more ancient concept of a satan as a hindrance or obstacle (Nm 22.22).

In Christian Tradition and Art. The Fathers echoed the New Testament in calling Satan the adversary, the accuser, and the evil one. The catechumen had to renounce him in the traditional liturgy of Baptism. His power was destroyed by the celebration of the Eucharist, for, in Christian theology, Christ had redeemed men from his power by paying a just ransom.

The devil was first depicted in Christian art in the 6th century, appearing as an angelic figure in miniatures and frescoes. The art of the Middle Ages, however, portrayed him as an ugly and horrifying monster.

In morality plays he was presented as the deceiver of men and adversary of Christ; he could always be recognized, despite his disguise, by the limp (a result of his fall from heaven) that his portrayer affected.

See Also: demon (in the bible).

Bibliography: j. guillet, Themes of the Bible, tr. a. j. lamothe (Notre Dame, IN 1960) 137–170. Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Bible, translated and adapted by l. hartman (New York, 1963) 2134–37. w. foerster and g. von rad, g. kittel, Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament (Stuttgart 1935) 2:69–80. h. l. strack and p. billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament, 4v. (Munich 1922–23) 1:136–149. h. vorgrimler, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 9:34l.

[w. f. barnett/eds.]