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129-558: In Genesis 3, Eve is tempted by a serpent to disobey God's orders and eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil . When confronted by God, she blames the serpent for her actions. God therefore curses the serpent to crawl on its belly and eat dust, and adds: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; they shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise their heel. There are several different ways of translating this verse. The Latin Vulgate , which

258-577: A group of fallen angels , or their offspring , to tempt humans to sin and punish them. Although the Book of Genesis does not mention him, Christians often identify the serpent in the Garden of Eden as Satan. In the Synoptic Gospels , Satan tempts Jesus in the desert and is identified as the cause of illness and temptation. In the Book of Revelation , Satan appears as a Great Red Dragon , who

387-462: 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

516-477: A zeugma is employed to give the word a different meaning when applied to the injury inflicted on the heel. Many modern translations, such as the New American Standard (2020), English Standard Version , New English Translation , New International Version , New Living Translation and New Revised Standard Version have "offspring" instead of the more literal "seed". In rabbinical Judaism ,

645-581: 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. Mormonism developed its own views on Satan. According to

774-418: A 'physical' entity is strengthened by numerous other rabbinical anecdotes: one tale describes two separate incidents where Satan appeared as a woman in order to tempt Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Akiva into sin, while another describes Satan taking the form of an ill-mannered, diseased beggar in order to tempt the sage Peleimu into breaking the mitzvah of hospitality. Another passage relates that Satan once kissed

903-775: 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

1032-458: A Christological interpretation of the verse, the bruising of the serpent's head is taken to refer primarily to the final defeat of Satan , while the bruising of the heel of the seed of the woman is taken to refer to the crucifixion of Christ. Louis Berkhof , for example, wrote: "The death of Christ, who is in a preeminent sense the seed of the woman, will mean the defeat of Satan." A tradition found in some old eastern Christian sources (including

1161-509: A derivative of the Greek word diabolos . Muslims do not regard Satan as the cause of evil, but as a tempter, who takes advantage of humans' inclinations toward self-centeredness. Seven chapters in the Quran describe how God ordered all the angels and Iblis to bow before the newly created human, Adam . All the angels bowed, but Iblis refused, claiming to be superior to Adam because he

1290-485: A general meaning, so that the phrase "good and evil" would simply imply "everything". This is seen in the Egyptian expression "evil-good", which is normally employed to mean "everything". However, if "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" is to be understood to mean a tree whose fruit imparts knowledge of everything, this phrase does not necessarily denote a moral concept. This view is held by several scholars. Given

1419-402: A group of evil jinn. According to a hadith from Ibn Abbas , Iblis was actually an angel whom God created out of fire. Ibn Abbas asserts that the word jinn could be applied to earthly jinn, but also to "fiery angels" like Satan. Hasan of Basra , an eminent Muslim theologian who lived in the seventh century AD, was quoted as saying: "Iblis was not an angel even for the time of an eye wink. He

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1548-471: A narration, the sound of the shofar , which is primarily intended to remind Jews of the importance of teshuva , is also intended symbolically to "confuse the accuser" (Satan) and prevent him from rendering any litigation to God against the Jews. Kabbalah presents Satan as an agent of God whose function is to tempt humans into sinning so that he may accuse them in the heavenly court. The Hasidic Jews of

1677-561: 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")

1806-668: A symbol of virtuous characteristics and liberty. Satan's appearance is never described in the Bible, but, since the ninth century, he has often been shown in Christian art with horns, cloven hooves, unusually hairy legs, and a tail, often naked and holding a pitchfork. These are an amalgam of traits derived from various pagan deities, including Pan , Poseidon , and Bes . Satan appears frequently in Christian literature , most notably in Dante Alighieri 's Inferno , all variants of

1935-530: A test and can be punished. Accordingly, Satan became a devil ( shaiṭān ) or jinn after he refused to obey. The Tarikh Khamis narrates that Satan was a jinn who was admitted into Paradise as a reward for his righteousness and, unlike the angels, was given the choice to obey or disobey God. When he was expelled from Paradise, Satan blamed humanity for his punishment. Concerning the fiery origin of Iblis, Zakariya al-Qazwini and Muhammad ibn Ahmad Ibshihi state that all supernatural creatures originated from fire but

2064-513: 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

2193-624: 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 Revelation 20:1–3 , Satan is bound with a chain and hurled into the Abyss , where he is imprisoned for one thousand years . In Revelation 20:7–10 , he is set free and gathers his armies along with Gog and Magog to wage war against

2322-500: A woman, Eve , after this command is given. In Genesis 3, a serpent persuades Eve to eat from its forbidden fruit and she also lets Adam taste it. Consequently, God expels them from the garden . The phrase in Hebrew, טוֹב וָרָע ( tov wa-raʿ ) literally translates as "good and evil". This may be an example of the type of figure of speech known as merism , a literary device that pairs opposite terms together in order to create

2451-596: 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

2580-541: 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",

2709-413: Is a righteous man favored by Yahweh. Job 1:6–8 describes the " sons of God " ( bənê hāʼĕlōhîm ) presenting themselves before Yahweh. Yahweh asks one of them, "the satan", where he has been, to which he replies that he has been roaming around the earth. Yahweh asks, "Have you considered My servant Job?" The satan replies by urging Yahweh to let him torture Job, promising that Job will abandon his faith at

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2838-576: Is blasphemy... to say that the greatest God... has an adversary who constrains his capacity to do good" and said that Christians "impiously divide the kingdom of God, creating a rebellion in it, as if there were opposing factions within the divine, including one that is hostile to God". 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

2967-539: Is called the "seed of David" at Romans 1:3, and the whole nation of Israel is referred to as the "seed of Jacob" at Jeremiah 33:26. For Jesus to be called the "seed of the woman", therefore, is interpreted to mean that he will have no earthly father. The phrase "seed of the woman" is sometimes counted as referring to Jesus. Identification of the "seed of the woman" with Jesus goes back at least as far as Irenaeus (180 AD), who (along with several other Church Fathers ) regarded this verse as "the first messianic prophecy in

3096-590: Is cut off, causing the evil to disappear. This is accomplished through observance of the 613 commandments in the Torah, which deal primarily with physical objects wherein good and evil are mixed together. The sin of the Tree caused God's presence ( Shechinah ) to depart from earth; in kabbalah, the task of beirurim rectifies the sin of the Tree and causes the Shechinah to return. In Christian tradition, consuming

3225-661: Is defeated by Michael the Archangel and cast down from Heaven. He is later bound for one thousand years , but is briefly set free before being ultimately defeated and cast into the Lake of Fire . In the Middle Ages, Satan played a minimal role in Christian theology and was used as a comic relief figure in mystery plays . During the early modern period , Satan's significance greatly increased as beliefs such as demonic possession and witchcraft became more prevalent. During

3354-520: Is destined to be overthrown through Jesus's death and resurrection. John 16:7–8 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. Jude 9 refers to a dispute between Michael the Archangel and the Devil over the body of Moses . Some interpreters understand this reference to be an allusion to

3483-705: Is generally used as a source text for Catholic bibles, has feminine rather than masculine pronouns in the latter half of the verse. Additionally, the second occurrence of the Hebrew shuph ( שׁוּף ), "bruise", is translated in the Vulgate as insidiaberis , "lie in wait". Consequently, Catholic bibles often give a reading such as that found in the Douay–Rheims Bible : "... she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel". The first shuph may also be translated as "crush" ("he shall crush thy head"). Authors such as H. C. Leupold have argued that

3612-568: Is implied that the satan is shamed in his defeat. Zechariah 3:1–7 contains a description of a vision dated to the middle of February of 519 BC, in which an angel shows Zechariah a scene of Joshua the High Priest dressed in filthy rags, representing the nation of Judah and its sins, on trial with Yahweh as the judge and the satan standing as the prosecutor . Yahweh rebukes the satan and orders for Joshua to be given clean clothes, representing Yahweh's forgiveness of Judah's sins. During

3741-512: Is mentioned explicitly in some daily prayers, including during Shacharit and certain post-meal benedictions, as described in the Talmud and the Jewish Code of Law . In Reform Judaism , Satan is generally seen in his Talmudic role as a metaphor for the yetzer hara and the symbolic representation of innate human qualities such as selfishness. The most common English synonym for "Satan"

3870-406: Is referred to as the "seed" of his father, exclusively. In fact, there are other passages when the Hebrew for seed ( זרע / זרעך ) is used for a woman. In Genesis 16:10 an angel says to Hagar, a woman, "I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude." Hagar was not a virgin, therefore one cannot conclude that the seed of a woman must refer to a virgin birth. Jesus

3999-625: Is sent from the Pleroma by the aeons to save humanity and reveal gnosis . This savior does so by telling Adam and Eve that eating the fruit is the way into salvation. Examples of the narrative can be found within the Gnostic manuscripts On the Origin of the World and the Secret Book of John . Manichaeism , which has been considered a Gnostic sect, echoes these notions as well, presenting

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4128-568: 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 . Revelation 9:11 describes Abaddon, whose name

4257-455: Is the origin of Jinn as Adam is of Mankind." The medieval Persian scholar Abu al-Zamakhshari states that the words angels and jinn are synonyms. Another Persian scholar, al-Baydawi , instead argues that Satan hoped to be an angel, but that his actions made him a jinn. Abu Mansur al-Maturidi who is reverred as the founder of Maturidiyyah Sunni orthodoxy ( kalam ) argued that since angels can be blessed by God, they are also put to

4386-514: Is the wisdom for wielding ultimate power. Jewish sources suggest different possible identities for the tree: a fig tree (as fig leaves were used to clothe Adam and Eve after the sin), a grape vine (as "nothing brings wailing to the world like wine"), a stalk of wheat (as "a child does not know how to say Father and Mother until he tastes grain"), an etrog (as the description in Genesis 3:6 matches

4515-463: Is translated as 'Satan': The word does not occur in the Book of Genesis , which mentions only a talking serpent and does not identify the serpent with any supernatural entity. The first occurrence of the word "satan" in the Hebrew Bible in reference to a supernatural figure comes from Numbers 22:22, which describes the Angel of Yahweh confronting Balaam on his donkey: "Balaam's departure aroused

4644-414: 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. The three Synoptic Gospels all describe the temptation of Christ by Satan in the desert ( Matthew 4:1–11 , Mark 1:12–13 , and Luke 4:1–13 ). Satan first shows Jesus a stone and tells him to turn it into bread. He also takes him to the pinnacle of

4773-475: Is written: "Do not add to His Words" ( Proverbs 30:6 ). However, In Legends of the Jews , it was Adam who had devoutly forbidden Eve to touch the tree even though God had only mentioned the eating of the fruit. According to one source, Eve also fed the fruit to the animals, leading to their mortality as well. In the Kabbalah , the sin of the Tree of Knowledge (called Cheit Eitz HaDa'at ) brought about

4902-563: The Encyclopædia Britannica , liberal Christianity tends to view Satan "as a [figurative] mythological attempt to express the reality and extent of evil in the universe, existing outside and apart from humanity but profoundly influencing the human sphere". Bernard McGinn describes multiple traditions detailing the relationship between the Antichrist and Satan. In the dualist approach, Satan will become incarnate in

5031-502: The Age of Enlightenment , belief in the existence of Satan was harshly criticized by thinkers such as Voltaire . Nonetheless, belief in Satan has persisted, particularly in the Americas . Although Satan is generally viewed as evil, some groups have very different beliefs. In theistic Satanism , Satan is considered a deity who is either worshipped or revered. In LaVeyan Satanism , Satan is

5160-461: 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

5289-570: 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

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5418-661: The Epistle to the Hebrews describes the Devil as "him who holds the power of death" ( Hebrews 2:14 ). The author of Luke-Acts attributes more power to Satan than either Matthew and Mark. In Luke 22:31 , Jesus grants Satan the authority to test Peter and the other apostles . Luke 22:3–6 states that Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus because "Satan entered" him and, in Acts 5:3 , Peter describes Satan as "filling" Ananias 's heart and causing him to sin. The Gospel of John only uses

5547-570: The Host of Heaven . Yahweh asks the Host which of them will lead Ahab astray. A "spirit", whose name is not specified, but who is analogous to the satan, volunteers to be "a Lying Spirit in the mouth of all his Prophets". The satan appears in the Book of Job , a poetic dialogue set within a prose framework, which may have been written around the time of the Babylonian captivity . In the text, Job

5676-728: The Kitab al-Magall and the Cave of Treasures ) holds that the serpent's head was crushed at Golgotha , described as a skull-shaped hill at the centre of the Earth, where Shem and Melchizedek had placed the body of Adam. In Romans 16:20, there is perhaps the clearest reference to the Protoevangelium in the New Testament, "And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen." Here,

5805-759: The Masoretic Text , in two books of the Hebrew Bible: Job ch. 1–2 (14×) and Zechariah 3:1–2 (3×). It is translated in English bibles mostly as 'Satan'. The word without the definite article is used in ten instances, of which two are translated diabolos in the Septuagint. It is generally translated in English Bibles as 'an accuser' (1x) or 'an adversary' (9x as in Book of Numbers , 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 Kings ). In some cases, it

5934-826: The Second Temple Period , when Jews were living in the Achaemenid Empire , Judaism was heavily influenced by Zoroastrianism , the religion of the Achaemenids. Jewish conceptions of Satan were impacted by Angra Mainyu , the Zoroastrian spirit of evil, darkness, and ignorance. In the Septuagint , the Hebrew ha-Satan in Job and Zechariah is translated by the Greek word diabolos (slanderer),

6063-461: The Second Temple period has been suggested by some Christian scholars, no evidence of such an interpretation has yet come to light. In Christianity, Genesis 3:15 is known as the protevangelium . This is a compound of two Greek words, protos meaning "first" and evangelion meaning "good news" or " gospel ". Thus, the verse is commonly referred to as the first mention in the Bible of

6192-612: 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 Matthew 4:8–9 and Luke 4:6–7 to give Jesus all

6321-470: The nation of Judah in the heavenly court and tests the loyalty of Yahweh's followers. During the intertestamental period , possibly due to influence from the Zoroastrian figure of Angra Mainyu , the satan developed into a malevolent entity with abhorrent qualities in dualistic opposition to God. In the apocryphal Book of Jubilees , Yahweh grants the satan (referred to as Mastema ) authority over

6450-443: 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

6579-404: The "good news" of salvation. Old Testament scholar Derek Kidner describes the Protoevangelium as "the first glimmer of the gospel", and Victor P. Hamilton emphasises the importance of the redemptive promise included in the curse. The reference to the "seed of the woman" is believed by Christians to be a prophecy of the virgin birth of Jesus . They believe that elsewhere in the Bible, a child

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6708-741: The 1430s, the Catholic Church began to regard witchcraft as part of a vast conspiracy led by Satan himself. 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

6837-621: 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

6966-424: The 1912 Catholic Encyclopedia . Having interpreted the seed of the serpent as a reference to the followers of Satan, Maas also writes: One may be tempted to understand the seed of the woman in a similar collective sense, embracing all who are born of God. But seed not only may denote a particular person, but has such a meaning usually, if the context allows it. St. Paul (Galatians 3:16) gives this explanation of

7095-563: 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

7224-586: 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. The Arabic equivalent of

7353-673: The Apocalypse . Revelation 12:7–9 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

7482-405: The Bible, there is nothing to show the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was necessarily an apple. Uniquely, the Gnostic religion held that the tree was entirely positive or even sacred. Per this saga, it was the archons who told Adam and Eve not to eat from its fruit, before lying to them by claiming they would die after tasting it. Later in the story, an instructor

7611-421: The Devil ( cf. a devil ), is an entity in Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin (or falsehood). In Judaism , Satan is seen as an agent subservient to God , typically regarded as a metaphor for the yetzer hara , or 'evil inclination'. In Christianity and Islam , he is usually seen as a fallen angel or jinn who has rebelled against God , who nevertheless allows him temporary power over

7740-447: The Devil did not suffer from hallucinations or other "spectacular symptoms", but "complained of anxiety, religious fears, and evil thoughts". 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

7869-412: The Latin Church. Modern Catholic bibles often refrain from using feminine pronouns in this verse. The revised Latin version, Nova Vulgata , authorised by the Vatican, has the masculine ipsum instead of ipsa ; the New Jerusalem Bible has "it [the seed] will bruise your head"; and the New American Bible has "they", explaining in a footnote that "offspring" is a collective noun, referring to "all

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7998-458: The Old Testament". Serapion , the Bishop of Thmuis, wrote the following: The woman does not have seed, only man does. How then was that (Gen 3:15) said of the Woman? Is it not evident that there is here question of Christ, whom the holy Virgin brought forth without seed? As a matter of fact, the singular is used, "of the seed", and not the plural, "of the seeds". The seed of the woman is referred to again in Revelation 12:17. Among those who follow

8127-447: 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 responds by telling

8256-431: 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" ( Matthew 12:29 ). The strong man in this parable represents Satan. The Synoptic Gospels identify Satan and his demons as the causes of illness, including fever ( Luke 4:39 ), leprosy ( Luke 5:13 ), and arthritis ( Luke 13:11–16 ), while

8385-407: The Quranic retelling of the story of Job , Job knows that Satan is the one tormenting him. In the Quran, Satan is apparently an angel, while, in 18:50 , he is described as "from the jinns". This, combined with the fact that he describes himself as having been made from fire, posed a major problem for Muslim exegetes of the Quran , who disagree on whether Satan is a fallen angel or the leader of

8514-417: The Second Temple Period, particularly in the apocalypses . The Book of Enoch , which the Dead Sea Scrolls have revealed to have been nearly as popular as the Torah, describes a group of 200 angels known as the " Watchers ", who are assigned to supervise the earth, but instead abandon their duties and have sexual intercourse with human women. The leader of the Watchers is Semjâzâ and another member of

8643-415: The Slavonic Book of Enoch, contains references to a Watcher called Satanael. It is a pseudepigraphic text of an uncertain date and unknown authorship. The text describes Satanael as being the prince of the Grigori who was cast out of heaven and an evil spirit who knew the difference between what was "righteous" and "sinful". In the Book of Wisdom , the devil is taken to be the being who brought death into

8772-430: 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

8901-416: The Virgin is found obedient, saying: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to your word.” Luke 1:38 But Eve was disobedient, for she did not obey when as yet she was a virgin. ... having become disobedient, was made the cause of death, both to herself and to the entire human race; so also did Mary, having a man betrothed [to her], and being nevertheless a virgin, by yielding obedience, become

9030-412: The angels from its light and the jinn from its blaze, thus fire denotes a disembodiment origin of all spiritual entities. Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi argued that only the angels of mercy are created from light, but angels of punishment have been created from fire. The Muslim historian Al-Tabari , who died in around 923 AD, writes that, before Adam was created, earthly jinn made of smokeless fire roamed

9159-409: The cause of salvation, both to herself and the whole human race. Tree of the knowledge of good and evil In Judaism and Christianity , the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ( Tiberian Hebrew : עֵץ הַדַּעַת טוֹב וָרָע , romanized :  ʿêṣ had-daʿaṯ ṭōḇ wā-rāʿ , [ʕesˤ hadaʕaθ tˤov wɔrɔʕ] ; Latin : Lignum scientiae boni et mali ) is one of two specific trees in

9288-439: The classic Faust story, John Milton 's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained , and the poems of William Blake . He continues to appear in film, television, and music. The Hebrew term śāṭān ( Hebrew : שָׂטָן ) is a generic noun meaning "accuser" or "adversary", and is derived from a verb meaning primarily "to obstruct, oppose". In the earlier biblical books, e.g. 1 Samuel 29:4, it refers to human adversaries, but in

9417-556: The content of the Epistle of Jude, but omits the specifics of the example regarding Michael and Satan, with 2 Peter 2:10–11 instead mentioning only an ambiguous dispute between "Angels" and "Glories". Throughout the New Testament, Satan is referred to as a "tempter" ( Matthew 4:3 ), "the ruler of the demons" ( Matthew 12:24 ), "the God of this Age" ( 2 Corinthians 4:4 ), "the evil one" ( 1 John 5:18 ), and "a roaring lion" ( 1 Peter 5:8 ). The Book of Revelation represents Satan as

9546-504: The context of disobedience to God, other interpretations of the implications of this phrase also demand consideration. Robert Alter emphasizes the point that when God forbids the man to eat from that particular tree, he says that if he does so, he is "doomed to die." The Hebrew behind this is in a form regularly used in the Hebrew Bible for issuing death sentences. However, there are myriad modern scholarly interpretations regarding

9675-437: The contrasting groups of "seed of the woman" and "seed of the serpent" are generally taken as plural, with the promise "he will bruise your head" applied to Adam and humankind bruising the serpent's head. There is a Jewish tradition where a messiah is said to be a remedy to the bruising of the heel of the "seed of the woman". Although a possible Jewish messianic interpretation of Genesis 3:15 in some schools of Judaism during

9804-651: The descendants of the woman". Many scholars connect Jesus’ usage of the word “woman” to call Mary instead of calling her "mother" as a confirmation of Mary being the "Woman" described in Genesis 3:15. Mary was often seen as the " New Eve ," who crushed the serpent's head at the Annunciation by obeying the Angel Gabriel when he said she would bear the Messiah (Luke 1:38). In accordance with this design, Mary

9933-558: The earth and spread corruption. He further relates that Iblis was originally an angel named Azazil or Al-Harith , from a group of angels, created from the fires of simoom , sent by God to confront the earthly jinn. Azazil defeated the jinn in battle and drove them into the mountains, but he became convinced that he was superior to humans and all the other angels, leading to his downfall. In this account, Azazil's group of angels were called jinn because they guarded Jannah (Paradise). In another tradition recorded by Al-Tabari, Satan

10062-524: The eighteenth century associated ha-Satan with Baal Davar . Each modern sect of Judaism has its own interpretation of Satan's identity. Conservative Judaism generally rejects the Talmudic interpretation of Satan as a metaphor for the yetzer hara , and regards him as a literal agent of God. Orthodox Judaism , on the other hand, outwardly embraces Talmudic teachings on Satan, and involves Satan in religious life far more inclusively than other sects. Satan

10191-436: The etrog fruit's beautiful appearance, or else the etrog tree's allegedly tasty bark ), or a nut tree. In Jewish tradition, the Tree of Knowledge and the eating of its fruit represents the beginning of the mixture of good and evil together. Before that time, the two were separate, and evil had only a nebulous existence in potential. While free choice did exist before eating the fruit, evil existed as an entity separate from

10320-476: The events described in Zechariah 3:1–2 . 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

10449-487: The fallen world and a host of demons . In the Quran , Iblis is an evil entity ( shaitan ) made of fire who was cast out of Heaven because he refused to bow before the newly created Adam and incites humans to sin by infecting their minds with waswās ('evil suggestions'). A figure known as ha-satan ("the satan") first appears in the Hebrew Bible as a heavenly prosecutor , subordinate to Yahweh (God), who prosecutes

10578-555: The feet of Aha bar Jacob for having taught his students that his objectionable actions are done only to serve the intents of God. Rabbinical scholarship on the Book of Job generally follows the Talmud and Maimonides in identifying "the satan" from the prologue as a metaphor for the yetzer hara and not an actual entity. Satan is rarely mentioned in Tannaitic literature, but is found in Babylonian aggadah . According to

10707-450: The first tribulation. Yahweh consents: the satan destroys Job's servants and flocks, yet Job refuses to condemn Yahweh. The first scene repeats itself, with the satan presenting himself to Yahweh alongside the other "sons of God". Yahweh points out Job's continued faithfulness, to which the satan insists that more testing is necessary; Yahweh once again gives him permission to test Job. In the end, Job remains faithful and righteous, and it

10836-523: The forbidden fruit is considered wheat or barley, not an apple as within Western Christian tradition. In Quran Al-A'raf 27, God states: [O] Children of Adam! Let not Satan tempt you as he brought your parents out of the Garden, stripping them of their garments to show them their shameful parts. Surely he [Satan] sees you, he and his tribe, from where you see them not. We have made the Satans

10965-511: The friends of those who do not believe. A cylinder seal , known as the Adam and Eve cylinder seal , from post- Akkadian periods in Mesopotamia ( c.  23rd – 22nd century BCE) has been linked to the Adam and Eve story. Assyriologist George Smith (1840–1876) described the seal as having two facing figures (male and female) seated on each side of a tree, holding out their hands to

11094-486: The fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was the original sin committed by Adam and Eve that led to the fall of man in Genesis 3. Augustine of Hippo taught that the "tree" should be understood both symbolically and as a real tree – similarly to Jerusalem being both a real city and a figure of Heavenly Jerusalem . Augustine underlined that the fruits of that tree were not evil by themselves, because everything that God created "was good" ( Genesis 1:12 ). It

11223-403: The fruit, while between their backs is a serpent, giving evidence that the fall of man account was known in early times of Babylonia . The British Museum disputes this interpretation, and holds that it is a common image from the period depicting a male deity being worshipped by a woman, with no reason to connect the scene with the Book of Genesis. Satan Satan , also known as

11352-467: The great task of beirurim , sifting through the mixture of good and evil in the world to extract and liberate the sparks of holiness trapped therein. Since evil no longer had independent existence, it henceforth depended on holiness to draw down the Divine life-force, on whose "leftovers" it then feeds and derives existence. Once evil is separated from holiness through beirurim , its source of life

11481-854: The group, known as Azazel , spreads sin and corruption among humankind. The Watchers are ultimately sequestered in isolated caves across the earth and are condemned to face judgement at the end of time. The Book of Jubilees , written in around 150 BC, retells the story of the Watchers' defeat, but, in deviation from the Book of Enoch, Mastema , the "Chief of Spirits", intervenes before all of their demon offspring are sealed away, requesting for Yahweh to let him keep some of them to become his workers. Yahweh acquiesces to this request and Mastema uses them to tempt humans into committing more sins, so that he may punish them for their wickedness. Later, Mastema induces Yahweh to test Abraham by ordering him to sacrifice Isaac . The Second Book of Enoch , also called

11610-412: The human psyche, and it was not in human nature to desire it. Eating and internalizing the forbidden fruit changed this, and thus was born the yetzer hara , the evil inclination. According to Rashi , the sin came about because Eve added an additional clause to the divine command: "Neither shall you touch it." By saying this, Eve added to YHWH's command, and thereby came to detract from it, as it

11739-727: 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

11868-416: The later books, especially Job 1–2 and Zechariah 3, to a supernatural entity. When used without the definite article (simply satan ), it can refer to any accuser, but when it is used with the definite article ( ha-satan ), it usually refers specifically to the heavenly accuser, literally, the satan. The word with the definite article Ha-Satan ( Hebrew : הַשָּׂטָן hasSāṭān ) occurs 17 times in

11997-555: 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 . Revelation 12:3 describes

12126-520: The lot of Satan remains in question, those who followed him will be thrown into the fires of Jahannam. After his banishment from Paradise, Iblis, who thereafter became known as Al-Shaitan ("the Demon"), lured Adam and Eve into eating the forbidden fruit . The primary characteristic of Satan, aside from his hubris and despair , is his ability to cast evil suggestions ( waswās ) into men and women. 15:45 states that Satan has no influence over

12255-495: 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

12384-428: The movies from what they know from various ecclesiastical and theological traditions". The Catholic Church generally played down Satan and exorcism during late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, but Pope Francis brought renewed focus on the Devil in the early 2010s, stating, among many other pronouncements, that "The devil is intelligent, he knows more theology than all the theologians together." According to

12513-467: The name Satan three times. In John 8:44 , 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." John 13:2 describes the Devil as inspiring Judas to betray Jesus and John 12:31–32 identifies Satan as "the Archon of this Cosmos", who

12642-400: The only reason God forbade them to eat from the tree was that they would become angels or immortal. When they ate from this tree, their nakedness appeared to them, and they began to sew together leaves from the Garden for their covering. The Quran mentions the sin as being a 'slip'. Consequently, they repented to God and asked for his forgiveness, and were forgiven. In Islamic tradition,

12771-521: 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

12900-500: 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 for 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

13029-422: The primordial aspect of Jesus as the instructor. The Quran never refers to the tree as the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" but rather typically refers to it as "the tree" or (in the words of Iblis ) as the "tree of immortality." Muslims believe that when God created Adam and Eve, he told them that they could enjoy everything in the Garden except this tree and so Satan appeared to them, telling them

13158-711: 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 Revelation 13:18 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. Christians have traditionally interpreted

13287-408: The righteous, but that those who fall in error are under his power. 7:156 implies that those who obey God's laws are immune to the temptations of Satan. 56:79 warns that Satan tries to keep Muslims from reading the Quran and 16:98–100 recommends reciting the Quran as an antidote against Satan. 35:6 refers to Satan as the enemy of humanity and 36:60 forbids humans from worshipping him. In

13416-420: The sages' teachings, he is generally identified as an entity with divine agency. For instance, the sages considered Satan to be an angel of death (later given the name " Samael "), as God prohibiting Satan from killing Job would imply he would otherwise be able to do so, yet despite this syncretization with a known heavenly body, Satan is identified as the yetzer hara in the very same passage. Satan's status as

13545-670: The same word in the Greek New Testament from which the English word " devil " is derived. Where satan is used to refer to human enemies in the Hebrew Bible, such as Hadad the Edomite and Rezon the Syrian , the word is left untranslated but transliterated in the Greek as satan , a neologism in Greek. The idea of Satan as an opponent of God and a purely evil figure seems to have taken root in Jewish pseudepigrapha during

13674-433: The satan, without using the word itself. 1 Samuel 2:12 describes the sons of Eli as "sons of Belial "; the later usage of this word makes it clearly a synonym for "satan". In 1 Samuel 16:14–2, Yahweh sends a "troubling spirit" to torment King Saul as a mechanism to ingratiate David with the king. In 1 Kings 22:19–25, the prophet Micaiah describes to King Ahab a vision of Yahweh sitting on his throne surrounded by

13803-523: The seed of the woman is identified as "the God of peace", and yet the Church is identified as the feet that will bruise Satan's head. Martin Luther , in his Lectures on Romans , also identifies the seed of the woman with "the word of God in the church". Catholics often understand the "woman" of Genesis 3:15 to refer to the Virgin Mary as well as Eve. The text in Genesis is also seen as connecting to

13932-554: The sign the Lord gives to King Achaz through Isaiah 7:14 , "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." The English Douay–Rheims Bible 1609 onwards has "she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel". This reading was supported in the Bull Ineffabilis Deus of December 1854 and is defended by Anthony Maas in

14061-455: The story of the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2–3, along with the tree of life . Alternatively, some scholars have argued that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is just another name for the tree of life. Genesis 2 narrates that God places the man, Adam , in a garden with trees whose fruits he may eat, but forbids him to eat from "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil". God forms

14190-467: The supernatural ruler of the Roman Empire and the ultimate cause of all evil in the world. In Revelation 2:9–10 , 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 Revelation 2:13–14 , in

14319-408: The term הדעת טוב ורע ( Hada'at tov wa-ra "the knowledge of good and evil") in Genesis 2–3, such as wisdom, omniscience, sexual knowledge, moral discrimination, maturity, and other qualities. According to scholar Nathan French, the term likely means "the knowledge for administering reward and punishment," suggesting that the knowledge forbidden by Yahweh and yet acquired by the humans in Genesis 2–3

14448-746: The third day of the Hajj , Muslim pilgrims to Mecca throw seven stones at a pillar known as the Jamrah al-’Aqabah , symbolizing the stoning of the Devil . This ritual is based on the Islamic tradition that, when God ordered Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael , Satan tempted him three times not to do it, and, each time, Abraham responded by throwing seven stones at him. The hadith teach that newborn babies cry because Satan touches them while they are being born, and that this touch causes people to have an aptitude for sin. This doctrine bears some similarities to

14577-435: 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

14706-584: 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

14835-467: The traditional story known as the Satanic Verses as true. According to this narrative, Muhammad was told by Satan to add words to the Quran which would allow Muslims to pray for the intercession of pagan goddesses. He mistook the words of Satan for divine inspiration . Modern Muslims almost universally reject this story as heretical, as it calls the integrity of the Quran into question. On

14964-850: The unnamed serpent in the Garden of Eden as Satan due to Revelation 12:7 , which calls Satan "that ancient serpent". This verse, however, is probably intended to identify Satan with the Leviathan , a monstrous sea-serpent whose destruction by Yahweh is prophesied in Isaiah 27:1 . The first recorded individual to identify Satan with the serpent from the Garden of Eden was the second-century AD Christian apologist Justin Martyr , in chapters 45 and 79 of his Dialogue with Trypho . Other early church fathers to mention this identification include Theophilus and Tertullian . The early Christian Church, however, encountered opposition from pagans such as Celsus , who claimed in his treatise The True Word that "it

15093-466: The walls of the heavenly city, but was vanquished by the god of the sun . The name is used in Isaiah 14:12 in metaphorical reference to the king of Babylon. Ezekiel 28:12–15 uses a description of a cherub in Eden as a polemic against Ithobaal II , the king of Tyre. The Church Father Origen of Alexandria ( c. 184 – c. 253), who was only aware of the actual text of these passages and not

15222-410: The word Satan is Shaitan (شيطان, from the triliteral root š-ṭ-n شطن). The word itself is an adjective (meaning "astray" or "distant", sometimes translated as "devil") that can be applied to both man ("al-ins", الإنس) and al-jinn (الجن), but it is also used in reference to Satan in particular. In the Quran , Satan's name is Iblis ( Arabic pronunciation: [ˈibliːs] ), probably

15351-550: The word satan lacking the article ha- as it is used in the Tanakh as referring strictly to human adversaries. Nonetheless, the word satan has occasionally been metaphorically applied to evil influences, such as the Jewish exegesis of the yetzer hara ("evil inclination") mentioned in Genesis 6:5. The Talmudic image of Satan is contradictory. While Satan's identification with the abstract yetzer hara remains uniform over

15480-442: The word 'seed' as it occurs in the patriarchal promises: "To Abraham were the promises made and to his Seed. He saith not, and to his seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to his Seed, which is Christ." The Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission explains the controversy: The Hebrew text of Genesis 3:15 speaks about enmity between the serpent and the woman, and between the offspring of both. The personal pronoun ( hu’ ) in

15609-524: The words addressed to the serpent, "He will strike at your head", is masculine. In the Greek translation used by the early Church (LXX), however, the personal pronoun autos (he) cannot refer to the offspring ... but must refer to a masculine individual who could then be the Messiah, born of a woman. The Vulgate translates the clause as ipsa . ... This feminine pronoun supports a reading of this passage as referring to Mary which has become traditional in

15738-564: The world, but originally the culprit was recognized as Cain. The name Samael , which is used in reference to one of the fallen angels , later became a common name for Satan in Jewish Midrash and Kabbalah . Most Jews do not believe in the existence of a supernatural omnimalevolent figure. Traditionalists and philosophers in medieval Judaism adhered to rational theology , rejecting any belief in rebel or fallen angels, and viewing evil as abstract. The rabbis usually interpreted

15867-438: The wrath of Elohim , and the Angel of Yahweh stood in the road as a satan against him." In 2 Samuel 24, Yahweh sends the "Angel of Yahweh" to inflict a plague against Israel for three days, killing 70,000 people as punishment for David having taken a census without his approval. 1 Chronicles 21:1 repeats this story, but replaces the "Angel of Yahweh" with an entity referred to as "a satan". Some passages clearly refer to

15996-518: Was Darkness." The later Church Father Jerome ( c. 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

16125-465: Was disobedience of Adam and Eve , who had been told by God not to eat off the tree ( Genesis 2:17 ), that caused disorder in the creation, thus humanity inherited sin and guilt from Adam and Eve's sin. In Western Christian art, the fruit of the tree is commonly depicted as the apple , which originated in central Asia . This depiction may have originated as a Latin pun: by eating the mālum (apple), Eve contracted malum (evil). According to

16254-424: Was made from fire, whereas Adam was made from clay ( 7:12 ). Consequently, God expelled him from Paradise and condemned him to Jahannam . Iblis thereafter became a kafir , "an ungrateful disbeliever", whose sole mission is to lead humanity astray. (Q 17:62 ) God allows Iblis to do this, because he knows that the righteous will be able to resist Iblis's attempts to misguide them. On Judgement Day , while

16383-429: Was one of the earthly jinn, who was taken captive by the angels and brought to Heaven as a prisoner. God appointed him as judge over the other jinn and he became known as Al-Hakam . He fulfilled his duty for a thousand years before growing negligent, but was rehabilitated again and resumed his position until his refusal to bow before Adam. During the first two centuries of Islam, Muslims almost unanimously accepted

16512-528: 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

16641-481: 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

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