410
SATAN
SATAN
but this is doubted by Weiss {Bib. Tlienl. of NT, i. p. 103, footnote). He is usually called 6id;3oXos (a literal rendering of the Hebrew name) ; some- times 6 Toi'Tipis, Mt 13"- ^, 2 Th 3', and perhaps in the Lord's Prayer ; 6<pis apxaio;. Rev 12' 20- ; i ixBpds, Mt 13'^ ; 6 toC Kbuiiov flpx"". Jn '-l™ etc. ; [6] dpx***** ^wt* 5cLiiiovltt3V, Mt 12^ ; 6 dpxw*' t^s i^ovtriai ToD aipo^, Eph 2-.
(a) TAe Synoptic tradition. — Jesus felt Himself in the presence of demons belonging to a king- dom of evil ruled over by a supreme \>er- sonality, Satan or Beelzebub. These personal agencies work every form of physical and moral calamity. They recognize, however, the might of Jesus the ^lessiah gifted with the power of God to destroy the works of Satan and all his personal subordinates (Mk l"- '^ 3"- '-• '»• =*■" 6', Lk lO''-^" 11"-'" 13^=). Jesus on H=» side fully recognizes the existence and power of the kingdom of Satan, which resists the establishment of the kingdom of God (Mt 12=«, Mk S--"). In the narrative of the Temptation tlie world is regarded as ruled by Satan (cf. Jn \V) ; but in the Luke tradition (4« C"' «i»"»)), Satan, on the other hand, confesses that his authority is not original and fundamental, but is derived (ip-ol TapaSiSorai) ; and this power he is willing to transfer to Jesus upon condition of His allegiance. The narrative illus- trates the character of cunning that belongs to Satan as the tempter of mankind (Gn 3'), for he quotes Ps 91"- '^ for his own purposes (Mt 4"), and applies the words to the Messiah. Against this subtle deceit Jesus warns His disciples. Satan is eager to sift Simon as wheat (Lk 22^'), and enters, like a demon, into Judas (v.^).
The prevailing belief that physical maladies were due to the direct agency of evil spirits (see Demon) was recognized by Christ. This demonic power that works physical havoc is under the su- preme control of Satan, and is ascribed to him in the case of the afflicted woman (Lk 13'^). In the expulsion of demons by His disciples Christ sees the overthrow of Satan's power (Lk 10^*, in which utterance our Lord recurs to the well-known passage in Is 14'-'-). Accordingly the dualistic tendency, to which we have before adverted, is detinitely limited by the absolute nature of God's righteous rule, whereby a definite term is set to Satan's sway. Meanwhile the anarchy which prevails works its baleful effects in the rival king- dom which Satan sets up as a qunsi-god of this world (cf. 2 Co 4"). This evil is intellectual and moral as well as physical. The devil takes the seed of the Bivine word out of the heart of man (Mk 4", Mt 13"*-3») and plants the spurious wheat (darnel, fifdna). In other words, to borrow Pauline phraseology, he shows his craft by beclouding the understanding, ' blinding the thoughts of the unbelieving, so that they are unable to behold the gospel light of Christ's glory ' (2 Co 4*).
{h) Pauline tear/iing. — This stands in perfect continuity with that of Jesus reflected in the Synoptic tradition. We are still in the presence of many of the ideas that prevailed in contemporary Judaism, viz. of the Book of Enoch in the more remote past ; of the Book of Wisdom, the Testa- ments of the XII Patriarchs, and of the Book of Jubilees in the age that immediately preceded the time when St. Paul wrote ; of the Assumption of Moses coeval with the time of his literary activity and of the Apocalypse of Bartich, which immedi- ately followed it. The apostle's conceptions re- specting angelology and denionology have been
others, e.g. B&b el Maodel (for Mandeb). — The theory supported jy Riehm is t^rtainly worthy of consideration, that Beelzebub ■o the time of Christ was understood aa H^^"^ hy^ * lord of .nmity' — 3j«j3«Am ; see Brockelmann's Lex, Syr. tub voce, and •A. Awyr. Mi doMM. Of. art. Baalzkbub.
carefully examined by Everling in a s\iecia] treatise, and abundantly illustrated from the litera tuie just mentioned.
In the writings of St. Paul we are confronted by an array of supernatural agencies which are not all definitely evil or good, but some of which stand in relative opposition to God (Ritschl, Bcchtfert. u. Vers.^ ii. p. 251, quoted by Everling). In Ro 8^, 1 Co 15-* we find them designated by the names apxai, 4^ovjlai, and owdjufis. Here the dpxai are perhaps to be identified with the ipxa'Tci Tov diuipoi rovTov oi 1 Co 2^.* Tliegodsof the heathen are not absolutely non-existent (see Demon), but have a subordinate potency in heathen sacra as deal Kal Kvpioi (1 Co S*"", cf. 12'-). These super- natural ' rulers of this world ' have a certain wisdom of their own (1 Co 2°- *), to which the eternal wisdom revealed by God's Spirit to siniple- ininded faith appears to be folly. Such wisdom will be brought to nought (cf. 2 Co 10'). To the Kuptoi Kai Oeoi correspond the aroix^la tov K6(Tfjiov, which may be considered to be an abstraction t standing in place of the personal concrete names (cf. dpxo.1, iiovaiai, Spoyoi, and KvpiirrjTet), or, a» SpittaJ would interpret the phrase, the aroixfta represent the sphere of their personal activity. These are the KO(T/j.oKpdTop(s of the dark spiritual world against which the Christian is to arm him- self (Eph 6'-) ; over which Jesus triumphed in the Cross (Col 2=», see Lightfoot).