Names Paradise Lost, depicting the "Fall of Lucifer" The most common English synonym for "Satan" is "
devil", which descends from
Middle English devel, from
Old English dēofol, that in turn represents an early
Germanic borrowing of
Latin diabolus (also the source of "diabolical"). This in turn was borrowed from
Greek diabolos "
slanderer", from
diaballein "to slander":
dia- "across, through" +
ballein "to hurl". In the New Testament, the words
Satan and
diabolos are used interchangeably as synonyms.
Beelzebub, meaning "Lord of Flies", is the contemptuous name given in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament to a
Philistine god whose original name has been reconstructed as most probably "Ba'al Zabul", meaning "
Baal the Prince". The
Synoptic Gospels identify Satan and Beelzebub as the same. The name
Abaddon (meaning "place of destruction") is used six times in the Old Testament, mainly as a name for one of the regions of
Sheol. describes Abaddon, whose name is translated into Greek as
Apollyon, meaning "the destroyer", as an angel who rules the
Abyss. In modern usage, Abaddon is sometimes equated with Satan.
New Testament Gospels, Acts, and epistles , 1854 The three Synoptic Gospels all describe the
temptation of Christ by Satan in the desert (, , and ). Satan first shows Jesus a stone and tells him to turn it into bread. He also takes him to the pinnacle of the
Temple in Jerusalem and commands Jesus to throw himself down so that the angels will catch him. Satan takes Jesus to the top of a tall mountain as well; there, he shows him the kingdoms of the earth and promises to give them all to him if he will bow down and worship him. Each time Jesus rebukes Satan and, after the third temptation, he is administered by the angels. Satan's promise in and to give Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth implies that all those kingdoms belong to him. The fact that Jesus does not dispute Satan's promise indicates that the authors of those gospels believed this to be true. Satan plays a role in some of the
parables of Jesus, namely the
Parable of the Sower, the
Parable of the Weeds,
Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, and the
Parable of the Strong Man. According to the Parable of the Sower, Satan "profoundly influences" those who fail to understand the gospel. The latter two parables say that Satan's followers will be punished on
Judgement Day, with the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats stating that the Devil, his angels, and the people who follow him will be consigned to "eternal fire". When the
Pharisees accused Jesus of exorcising demons through the power of Beelzebub, Jesus responded by telling the Parable of the Strong Man, saying: "how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house" (). The strong man in this parable represents Satan. The Synoptic Gospels identify Satan and his demons as the causes of illness, including
fever (),
leprosy (), and
arthritis (), while the
Epistle to the Hebrews describes the Devil as "him who holds the power of death" (). The author of
Luke-Acts attributes more power to Satan than either Matthew and Mark. In , Jesus grants Satan the authority to test
Peter and the other
apostles. states that
Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus because "Satan entered" him and, in , Peter describes Satan as "filling"
Ananias's heart and causing him to sin. The
Gospel of John only uses the name
Satan three times. In , Jesus says that his Jewish or Judean enemies are the children of the Devil rather than the children of Abraham. The same verse describes the Devil as "a man-killer from the beginning" and "a liar and the father of lying." describes the Devil as inspiring Judas to betray Jesus and identifies Satan as "prince of this world", who is destined to be overthrown through Jesus's death and resurrection. promises that the
Holy Spirit will "accuse the World concerning sin, justice, and judgement", a role resembling that of the Satan in the Old Testament. refers to a dispute between
Michael the Archangel and the Devil over the body of
Moses. The classical theologian
Origen attributes this reference to the non-canonical
Assumption of Moses. According to
James H. Charlesworth, there is no evidence the surviving book of this name ever contained any such content. Others believe it to be in the lost ending of the book. The second chapter of the pseudepigraphical
Second Epistle of Peter copies much of the content of the Epistle of Jude, but omits the specifics of the example regarding Michael and Satan, with instead mentioning only an ambiguous dispute between "Angels" and "Glories". Throughout the New Testament, Satan is referred to as a "tempter" (), "the ruler of the demons" (), "the God of this Age" (), "the evil one" (), and "a roaring lion" ().
Book of Revelation '' (1518) by
Raphael, depicting Satan being cast out of heaven by
Michael the Archangel, as described in The
Book of Revelation represents Satan as the supernatural ruler of the
Roman Empire and the ultimate cause of all evil in the world. In , as part of the letter to the church at
Smyrna,
John of Patmos refers to the Jews of Smyrna as "a
synagogue of Satan" and warns that "the Devil is about to cast some of you into prison as a test [
peirasmos], and for ten days you will have affliction." In , in the letter to the church of
Pergamum, John warns that Satan lives among the members of the congregation and declares that "Satan's throne" is in their midst. Pergamum was the capital of the
Roman Province of Asia and "Satan's throne" may be referring to the monumental
Pergamon Altar in the city, which was dedicated to the Greek god
Zeus, or to a temple dedicated to the Roman emperor
Augustus. describes a vision of a
Great Red Dragon with seven heads, ten horns, seven crowns, and a massive tail, an image which is likely inspired by the vision of the
four beasts from the sea in the
Book of Daniel and the
Leviathan described in various Old Testament passages. The Great Red Dragon knocks "a third of the sun... a third of the moon, and a third of the stars" out the sky and pursues the
Woman of the Apocalypse. declares: "
And war broke out in Heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the Dragon. The Dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in Heaven. Dragon the Great was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called Devil and Satan, the one deceiving the whole inhabited World – he was thrown down to earth, and his angels were thrown down with him." Then a voice booms down from Heaven heralding the defeat of "the Accuser" (
ho Kantegor), identifying the Satan of Revelation with the satan of the Old Testament. In , Satan is bound with a chain and hurled into the
Abyss, where he is imprisoned for
one thousand years. In , he is set free and gathers his armies along with
Gog and Magog to wage war against the righteous, but is defeated with fire from Heaven, and cast into the
lake of fire. Some Christians associate Satan with the number
666, which describes as the
Number of the Beast. However,
the beast mentioned in Revelation 13 is not Satan, and the use of 666 in the Book of Revelation has been interpreted as a reference to the Roman Emperor
Nero, as 666 is the numeric value of his name in Hebrew. '' (1890) by
Franz Stuck. Because of Patristic interpretations of and
Jerome's Latin
Vulgate translation, the name "
Lucifer" is sometimes used in reference to Satan. The name
Heylel, meaning "morning star" (or, in Latin,
Lucifer), was a name for
Attar, the god of the planet
Venus in
Canaanite mythology, who attempted to scale the walls of the heavenly city, but was vanquished by the
god of the sun. The name is used in in metaphorical reference to the king of Babylon. uses a description of a
cherub in Eden as a polemic against
Ithobaal II, the king of Tyre. The
Church Father Origen of Alexandria ( 184 – 253), who was only aware of the actual text of these passages and not the original myths to which they refer, concluded in his treatise
On the First Principles, which is preserved in a Latin translation by
Tyrannius Rufinus, that neither of these verses could literally refer to a human being. He concluded that Isaiah 14:12 is an allegory for Satan and that Ezekiel 28:12–15 is an allusion to "a certain Angel who had received the office of governing the nation of the Tyrians", but was hurled down to Earth after he was found to be corrupt. In his apologetic treatise
Contra Celsum, however, Origen interprets both Isaiah 14:12 and Ezekiel 28:12–15 as referring to Satan. According to Henry Ansgar Kelly, Origen seems to have adopted this new interpretation to refute unnamed persons who, perhaps under the influence of Zoroastrian radical dualism, believed "that Satan's original nature was Darkness." The later Church Father
Jerome ( 347 – 420), translator of the Latin
Vulgate, accepted Origen's theory of Satan as a fallen angel and wrote about it in his commentary on the Book of Isaiah. In Christian tradition ever since, both Isaiah 14:12 and Ezekiel 28:12–15 have been understood as allegorically referring to Satan. For most Christians, Satan has been regarded as an angel who rebelled against
God. According to the
ransom theory of atonement, which was popular among early Christian theologians, Satan gained power over humanity through
Adam and Eve's sin, and
Christ's death on the cross was a ransom to Satan in exchange for humanity's liberation. This theory holds that Satan was tricked by God because Christ was not only free of sin, but also the incarnate Deity, whom Satan lacked the ability to enslave.
Irenaeus of Lyons described a
prototypical form of the ransom theory, but Origen was the first to propose it in its fully developed form. The theory was later expanded by theologians such as
Gregory of Nyssa and
Rufinus of Aquileia. In the eleventh century,
Anselm of Canterbury criticized the ransom theory, along with the associated
Christus Victor theory, resulting in the theory's decline in western Europe. The theory has nonetheless retained some of its popularity in the
Eastern Orthodox Church. Most
early Christians firmly believed that Satan and his demons had the power to possess humans, and
exorcisms were widely practiced by Jews, Christians, and pagans alike. Belief in
demonic possession continued through the
Middle Ages into the
early modern period. Exorcisms were seen as a display of God's power over Satan. The vast majority of people who thought they were possessed by the Devil did not suffer from hallucinations or other "spectacular symptoms", but "complained of anxiety, religious fears, and evil thoughts".
Middle Ages Satan had minimal role in
medieval Christian theology, but he frequently appeared as a recurring comedic
stock character in late medieval
mystery plays, in which he was portrayed as a
comic relief figure who "frolicked, fell, and farted in the background".
Jeffrey Burton Russell describes the medieval conception of Satan as "more pathetic and repulsive than terrifying" and he was seen as little more than a nuisance to God's overarching plan. The
Golden Legend, a collection of saints' lives compiled in around 1260 by the Dominican Friar
Jacobus de Voragine, contains numerous stories about encounters between saints and Satan, in which Satan is constantly duped by the saints' cleverness and by the power of God. Henry Ansgar Kelly remarks that Satan "comes across as the opposite of fearsome". The
Golden Legend was the most popular book during the High and Late Middle Ages and more manuscripts of it have survived from the period than of any other book, including even the Bible itself. The
Canon Episcopi, written in the eleventh century AD, condemns belief in
witchcraft as heretical, but also documents that many people at the time apparently believed in it. Witches were believed to
fly through the air on broomsticks, consort with demons, perform in "
lurid sexual rituals" in the forests, murder human infants and eat them as part of Satanic rites, and engage in
conjugal relations with demons. In 1326,
Pope John XXII issued the
papal bull Super illius Specula, which condemned folk divination practices as consultation with Satan. By the 1430s, the Catholic Church began to regard witchcraft as part of a
vast conspiracy led by Satan himself.
Early modern period During the
Early Modern Period, Christians gradually began to regard Satan as increasingly powerful and the fear of Satan's power became a dominant aspect of the worldview of Christians across Europe. During the
Protestant Reformation,
Martin Luther taught that, rather than trying to argue with Satan, Christians should avoid temptation altogether by seeking out pleasant company; Luther especially recommended music as a safeguard against temptation, since the Devil "cannot endure
gaiety".
John Calvin repeated a maxim from
Saint Augustine that "Man is like a horse, with either God or the devil as rider." In the late fifteenth century, a series of witchcraft panics erupted in France and Germany. The German
Inquisitors
Heinrich Kramer and
Jacob Sprenger argued in their book
Malleus Maleficarum, published in 1487, that all
maleficia ("sorcery") was rooted in the work of Satan. In the mid-sixteenth century, the panic spread to England and Switzerland. Both Protestants and Catholics alike firmly believed in witchcraft as a real phenomenon and supported its prosecution. In the late 1500s, the Dutch demonologist
Johann Weyer argued in his treatise
De praestigiis daemonum that witchcraft did not exist, but that Satan promoted belief in it to lead Christians astray. The panic over witchcraft intensified in the 1620s and continued until the end of the 1600s. Brian Levack estimates that around 60,000 people were executed for witchcraft during the entire span of the witchcraft hysteria. The early English settlers of North America, especially the
Puritans of
New England, believed that Satan "visibly and palpably" reigned in the
New World.
John Winthrop claimed that the Devil made rebellious Puritan women give birth to
stillborn monsters with claws, sharp horns, and "on each foot three claws, like a young fowl".
Cotton Mather wrote that devils swarmed around Puritan settlements "like the
frogs of Egypt". The Puritans believed that the
Native Americans were worshippers of Satan and described them as "children of the Devil". Some settlers claimed to have seen Satan himself appear in the flesh at native ceremonies. During the
First Great Awakening, the "
new light" preachers portrayed their "old light" critics as ministers of Satan. By the time of the
Second Great Awakening, Satan's primary role in
American evangelicalism was as the opponent of the evangelical movement itself, who spent most of his time trying to hinder the ministries of evangelical preachers, a role he has largely retained among present-day
American fundamentalists. By the early 1600s, skeptics in Europe, including the English author
Reginald Scot and the Anglican bishop
John Bancroft, had begun to criticize the belief that demons still had the power to possess people. This skepticism was bolstered by the belief that
miracles only occurred during the
Apostolic Age, which had long since ended. Later,
Enlightenment thinkers, such as
David Hume,
Denis Diderot, and
Voltaire, attacked the notion of Satan's existence altogether. Voltaire labelled
John Milton's
Paradise Lost a "disgusting fantasy" and declared that belief in
Hell and Satan were among the many lies propagated by the Catholic Church to keep humanity enslaved. By the eighteenth century, trials for witchcraft had ceased in most western countries, with the notable exceptions of
Poland and
Hungary, where they continued. Belief in the power of Satan, however, remained strong among traditional Christians.
Modern era '' (1848) by
Guillaume Geefs Mormonism developed its own views on Satan. According to the
Book of Moses, the Devil offered to be the redeemer of mankind for the sake of his own glory. Conversely, Jesus offered to be the redeemer of mankind so that his father's will would be done. After his offer was rejected, Satan became rebellious and was subsequently cast out of heaven. In the Book of Moses,
Cain is said to have "loved Satan more than God" and conspired with Satan to kill
Abel. It was through this pact that Cain became a
Master Mahan. The Book of Moses also says that
Moses was tempted by Satan before calling upon the name of the "
Only Begotten", which caused Satan to depart.
Douglas Davies asserts that this text "reflects" the temptation of Jesus in the Bible. Belief in Satan and demonic possession remains strong among Christians in the United States and
Latin America. According to a 2013 poll conducted by
YouGov, fifty-seven percent of people in the United States believe in a literal Devil, compared to eighteen percent of people in Britain. Fifty-one percent of Americans believe that Satan has the power to possess people. W. Scott Poole, author of
Satan in America: The Devil We Know, has opined that "In the United States over the last forty to fifty years, a composite image of Satan has emerged that borrows from both popular culture and theological sources" and that most American Christians do not "separate what they know [about Satan] from the movies from what they know from various ecclesiastical and theological traditions".
Bernard McGinn describes multiple traditions detailing the relationship between the
Antichrist and Satan. In the dualist approach, Satan will become incarnate in the Antichrist, just as
God became incarnate in Jesus. However, in
Orthodox Christian thought, this view is problematic because it is too similar to Christ's incarnation. Instead, the "indwelling" view has become more accepted, which stipulates that the Antichrist is a human figure inhabited by Satan, since the latter's power is not to be seen as equivalent to God's. ==Islam==