A. T. Robertson.
DEYIL (SidjSoXcs). — In this article the conception of the Evil One in the apostolic writings and of the various names used to describe him will be considered ; for the passages in EV where ' devil ' represents dainoviov see DEMON.
1. The name SicipoXos. — (a) It is used as a common noun or as an adjecti^^e to denote 'a slanderer' or 'slanderous' (NT in Pastoral Epistles only), as in 1 Ti 3'i (women not to be slanderers), 2 Ti 3^ Tit 2^ ; and so in LXX of Haman (Est ?•* 8' ; Heb. is, ir^, Vulg. hostis and adversarius). The corresponding verb is lised of accusation, where the charge is not necessarily false, as in Lk 16^ (Ste/SXij^?;) of the unjust
steward, though probably a secret enmity is in- ferred ; and Papias [ap. Euseb. HE in. xxxix. 16) uses the verb (unless it is Eusebius' paraphrase) with reference to the • woman accused of many sins before the Lord.' It is noteworthy in this connexion that the devil's accusations against man, though undoubtedly hostUe, are not always untrue.
[b) As a proper name d'.d^oXos is constantly used in the NT, usually \nth. the article, but occasion- ally it is anarthrous (Ac 13^^ 1 P 5^, Rev 12" 202). It is explicitly identified in Rev 12^ 20- with the Heb. name Satan, and, like that name, it is not used in the NT in the plur. (except in the primary sense of 'slanderer' as above), and is not applied to Satan's angels, as we apply the word ' devils ' to them. It is curious that we never in English use ' Devil ' as a proper name without the article, while we always use 'Satan' in this way. Hence the title does net convey to our ears quite the same idea as it conveyed to the Jews. Conversely we sliould do well if we did not cdways treat ' Christ' as a proper name, but sometimes used it as a title or attribute, ' the Christ,' as occasionally in RV [e.g. Lk 2^-% In the OT ' Satan ' (from ]t^, ' to hate,' 'to be an enemy to,' the root idea being the enmity between the serpent and the seed of the woman, Gn 3^^) is generally used with the article,
■ rb-n, as denoting the adversary : in 1 K 5^ it is used without the article, as denoting any adversary (LXX iiri^ovXos, Vulg. Satan). The name ' Satan,' liowever, had not been transliterated into Greek till shortly before the Christian era, for we never find it so rendered in the LXX, but always 6 0id;3oXos. The latter is used as a proper name in the LXX of Job P^, Zee 3^ (Vulg. Sata7i), and Wis 2--* (Vulg. Diabolus) ; and so often in the NT. There we have, as frequently, 6 laravas, almost always Avith an article, but in 2 Co 12'' we have '^o.tS.v or ^arafo. without the article ; some cursives in Rev 20- have laravds anarthrous. The translitera- tion ' Satan ' is found 34 times in the NT, of which 14 cases are in the Gospels.
(c) We find in the apostolic writings some para- phrases of the name 'Satan.' 'The Evil One' (6 TTov-^pos) is used in Eph 6's, 1 Jn 2i3£- 3^- S^^'- ; this designation is also found 5 times in the Gospels, and, in addition, probably in the last clause of the Lord's Prayer. In the Apocalypse ' the dragon ' is frequently used as a synonym for Satan, 6 opaKwv probably meaning ' the sharp-seeing one,' from dipKo/jLu.* It is used in Rev 123^- 13-^^ " IB^^ 20'^ as denoting a large serpent (as in classical Greek), explicitly identified with the ' old serpent ' of Gn 3 in Rev 12" 20'-. This identification is perhaps im- plied in Ro 162", 2 Co IP (cf. Wis 2--*). Satan is also called ' the Accuser ' and ' the Destroyer ' (see below, § 2). For other names see Adversary, Ajr, Belial.
2. Apostolic doctrine about the devil of Satan. — The apostles, like their Jewish contemporaries, taught that Satan was a personal being, the prince of evil spirits or demons (Rev 12^- ", Eph 2^ ; cf. Mt 25", Mk 3", but the name ' Beelzebub ' is not found in the NT outside the Gospels), and therefore one of the 'angels which kept not their own princi- pality' (Jude^, 2 P 2*). In accordance with the conception of Wis 2^, that his malignity towards man is caused by envy (for Jewish ideas see Edersheim, LT*, 1887, i. 165), he is represented as pre-eminently the adversary of man (1 P 5^), and as accusing him to God (Rev 12i" Karrr/opos 01 Karriyup ; the reference seems to be to Job and Joshua the high priest). He has power in this world, though only for a while (Rev 12^2), and therefore is called the ' god of this world ' or ' age '
* The word &paKoiv in the LXX renders three Hebrew words : pjg, tan7Vi,n (Job 712), Bin:, nd^ash (Job 2613), j^i;i.^, livydthdn (Jo'b 4025).
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DEVIL
(ald>v) who ' hath blinded the thoughts {voi^fiaTa) of the unbelieving' (2 Co 4^; cf. Jn U^ 16" 'the prince of the [tliis] world '). This * power of Satan ' is contrasted with ' God ' as ' darkness ' with ' light ' in the heavenly vision at St. Paul's conversion (Ac 26^'*). 'The devil' has 'the power of death' (He 21'*), not that he can inflict death at will, but that death entered into the world through sin (Ro 5^2) at his instigation (Wis 2--*). As Westcott remarks (on He 2^^), death as death is no part of the Divine order, but is the devil's realm ; he makes it subservient to his end. He must, there- fore, almost certainly be identified with ' the De- stroyer' who appears as Apollyon lawoW^uv) or Abaddon (I'njx, lit. 'destruction'; see Abaddon) in Rev 9^', the king of the locusts who has power to injure men for five months — the name is akin to ' Asmodaeus ' of To 3^ ("]9y?>'. from t??*, ' to destroy '), but not with the 'Destroyer' of 1 Co 10'" (see Angels, 5 (6)).