Are Satan and the Devil the same entity?

[dms1972]

Are we talking about one entity, or more than one? An actual being/s or symbols?

 

[dzheremi]

From the always-interesting Etymology Online website, here is a snippet of the results for "devil":

Old English deofol "a devil, a subordinate evil spirit afflicting humans;" also, in Christian theology, "the Devil, a powerful spirit of evil otherwise known as Satan," from Late Latin diabolus (also the source of Italian diavolo, French diable, Spanish diablo; German Teufel is Old High German tiufal, from Latin via Gothic diabaulus).

The Late Latin word is from Ecclesiastical Greek diabolos, which in Jewish and Christian use was "the Devil, Satan," and which in general use meant "accuser, slanderer" (thus it was a scriptural loan-translation of Hebrew satan; see Satan). It is an agent noun from Greek diaballein "to slander, attack," literally "to throw across," from dia "across, through" (see dia-) + ballein "to throw" (from PIE root *gwele- "to throw, reach").

Jerome re-introduced Satan in Latin bibles, and English translators have used both words in different measures. In Vulgate, as in Greek, diabolus and dæmon (see demon) were distinct, but they have merged in English and other Germanic languages.

 

[Quentin]

Greetings dms 1972. The word Satan means Slanderer. And Devil means liar. In the Bible the spirit entity known as Satan the Devil is only named "Satan" a couple of places. Genesis 3 never names the spirit behind the snake as Satan. But Revelation 12:9 does reveal this:

"So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him. "-Revelation 12:9.

So Revelation reveals the "original serpent" in the garden of Eden as the one called "Devil and Satan." So yes Satan the Devil is one individual.

Jesus Christ revealed who he was when he told the Jewish religious leaders:

"You are from your father the Devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father. That one was a murderer when he began, and he did not stand fast in the truth, because truth is not in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks according to his own disposition, because he is a liar and the father of the lie."-John 8:44.

 

[timothyu]

According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica...

Diabolos (devil)... false accuser.

Satan' is a Hebrew word meaning 'adversary. Peter was called a satan because his will was contrary to the will of God and what must happen to Jesus. We all at some point in time in our lives have been adversarial to the will of God hence satans.

'Demon' was the name given by the Greeks to semi-gods who were supposed to be messengers between their gods and men.

Tempter... created by God for the purpose of tempting us with evil in order for us to grow in strength and wisdom against not following the will of God, or to choose failure and our own demise. Jesus met with the Tempter in the desert.

Lucifer, the fallen morning star was a cherub.

God's domain is/was full of spiritual beings called elohim. Some fell, some remain loyal. As far as the Bible goes, it is as much about the battle of God with the fallen elohim as it is about us, and it tells the story of God's battle with the fallen elohim from the time of the Garden to before the flood to afterwards where He choses His own people while the fallen elohim control all the rest. The people's that God wiped out (even when the Hebrews came to the promised land) were of the elohim and not of God. God's final triumph was when the fallen elohim failed to realize killing Jesus would be their eventual demise and loss of power over mankind, or they never would have allowed it. Jesus' resurrection showed His power over the worst the elohim had to offer (death, which was their power over mankind). As a result all under the territorial control of the elohim were now free to chose to follow God and reject the world the elohim had formed, what we call the world of mankind, in favour of the Kingdom to come. The Hebrew people were no longer the only chosen people but those of the elohim were free to safely mutiny in favour of God.

So there are many entities at play, all with purposes that in the end serve the will of God.

People and even Christians often use the devil to blame for our own indiscretions and the evil in this world, but in the end in this world of man we are the true adversaries of God and must take responsibility ourselves for what we do in putting our will before the will of God. It is our adversarial spirit we are told to repent of, at present 8 billion little satans running around doing as we will rather than caring for all as commanded.

 

[Quentin]

According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica...

Diabolos (devil)... false accuser.

Satan' is a Hebrew word meaning 'adversary. Peter was called a satan because his will was contrary to the will of God and what must happen to Jesus. We all at some point in time in our lives have been adversarial to the will of God hence satans.

'Demon' was the name given by the Greeks to semi-gods who were supposed to be messengers between their gods and men.

Tempter... created by God for the purpose of tempting us with evil in order for us to grow in strength and wisdom against not following the will of God, or to choose failure and our own demise. Jesus met with the Tempter in the desert.

Lucifer, the fallen morning star was a cherub.

God's domain is/was full of spiritual beings called elohim. Some fell, some remain loyal. As far as the Bible goes it tells the story of God's battle with the fallen elohim from the time of the Garden to before the flood to afterwards where He choses His own people while the fallen elohim control all the rest. The people's God wiped out were of the elohim and not of God. God's final triumph was when the fallen elohim failed to realize killing Jesus would be their eventual demise and loss of power over mankind, or they never would have allowed it. Jesus' resurrection showed His power over the worst the elohim had to offer (death, which was their power over mankind). As a result all under the territorial control of the elohim were now free to chose to follow God and reject the world the elohim had formed, what we call the world of mankind, in favour of the Kingdom to come. The Hebrew people were no longer the only chosen people but those of the elohim were free to safely mutiny in favour of God.

So there are many entities at play, all with purposes that in the end serve the will of God.

People and even Christians often use the devil to blame for our own indiscretions and the evil in this world, but in the end in this world of man we are the true adversaries of God and must take responsibility ourselves for what we do in putting our will before the will of God. It is our adversarial spirit we are told to repent of, at present 8 billion little satans running around doing as we will rather than caring for all as commanded.

You are correct about the name of Satan. I mixed them up. Satan means Accuser, Devil means Liar or Slanderer.

 

[timothyu]

You are correct about the name of Satan. I mixed them up. Satan means Accuser, Devil means Liar or Slanderer.

Satan means adversary.. as in being adversarial to the will of God. (like the example of Peter)

 

[Diamond72]

Are we talking about one entity, or more than one? An actual being/s or symbols?

Reveletion 12 9 "The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him."

There is a lot packed into this passage. I wonder why does God allow the devil to lead the world astray?

 

[The Liturgist]

From the always-interesting Etymology Online website, here is a snippet of the results for "devil":

Old English deofol "a devil, a subordinate evil spirit afflicting humans;" also, in Christian theology, "the Devil, a powerful spirit of evil otherwise known as Satan," from Late Latin diabolus (also the source of Italian diavolo, French diable, Spanish diablo; German Teufel is Old High German tiufal, from Latin via Gothic diabaulus).

The Late Latin word is from Ecclesiastical Greek diabolos, which in Jewish and Christian use was "the Devil, Satan," and which in general use meant "accuser, slanderer" (thus it was a scriptural loan-translation of Hebrew satan; see Satan). It is an agent noun from Greek diaballein "to slander, attack," literally "to throw across," from dia "across, through" (see dia-) + ballein "to throw" (from PIE root *gwele- "to throw, reach").

Jerome re-introduced Satan in Latin bibles, and English translators have used both words in different measures. In Vulgate, as in Greek, diabolus and dæmon (see demon) were distinct, but they have merged in English and other Germanic languages.

Indeed so.

 

[The Liturgist]

Are we talking about one entity, or more than one? An actual being/s or symbols?

They are one and the same, but the word devils in the plural sense is synonymous with demons, and likewise devilish is synonymous with diabolical.

 

[The Liturgist]

Greetings dms 1972. The word Satan means Slanderer. And Devil means liar. In the Bible the spirit entity known as Satan the Devil is only named "Satan" a couple of places. Genesis 3 never names the spirit behind the snake as Satan. But Revelation 12:9 does reveal this:

"So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him. "-Revelation 12:9.

So Revelation reveals the "original serpent" in the garden of Eden as the one called "Devil and Satan." So yes Satan the Devil is one individual.

Jesus Christ revealed who he was when he told the Jewish religious leaders:

"You are from your father the Devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father. That one was a murderer when he began, and he did not stand fast in the truth, because truth is not in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks according to his own disposition, because he is a liar and the father of the lie."-John 8:44.

Indeed. The Karaite Jews, who reject the Talmud, Mishnah and the institution of Rabbis, and could be thought of as neo-Sadducees in some respects, but their doctrine, arrived at via analyzing the Tanakh using a rational process called the Kalaam, came to the erroneous but amusing conclusion that the serpent which deceived Eve was not the devil, there being no devil according to the Karaites, but was rather merely a particularly intelligent and cunning snake.


As a slight excursus, which I find is obligatory whenever I mention the Karaites, the Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews), the Samaritans or other forms of the Hebrew religion that are not well-known or well-understood in their beliefs:

I have to confess that while I find the Karaite exegesis of Genesis ch. 2 terribly amusing, I positively do not want to make fun of the Karaites, because persecution in Egypt and Syria forced the approximately 50,000 remaining Karaites to emigrate, with most winding up in Israel, and a small number in Daly City, California, just south of San Francisco, in San Mateo county. The Karaite Jews who immigrated to Israel (I don’t know if Karaites call this making Aliyah or if that ie a strictly Rabinnical term) have endured harassment from the Chief Rabinnate, who will not, for example, allow Karaite butchers who are Kosher according to Karaitism to call themselves Kosher, because of differences between the Karaite and Rabinnical interpretations of Jewish law. This seems to me to be unreasonable, in that Karaite butchers ought to be able to call themselves Kosher according to Karaite Judaism, and Rabinnical butchers likewise should disclose what branch of Rabinnical Judaism they follow, as there are minor variations in interpretation and strictness, so that, for instance, an Orthodox Bukhara Jew from Uzbekistan and a Reform Jew of Ashkenazi heritage from upstate New York are likely to have slightly different opinions, even if in theory they agree on the basics of Jewish dietary laws.

 

[timothyu]

Interesting but when has there been a time when Jews weren't arguing with each other over religious matters. .

 

[ViaCrucis]

Satan, from ha-shaytan, "the accuser"; devil, from diabolos, meaning "accuser" or "slanderer". "Devil" is, essentially, the Greek translation of ha-shaytan.

As @The Liturgist pointed out, in the plural "devils" it is synonymous with "demon(s)". The devil and the demons are not different kinds of things, they are the same "species". But we refer to the "chief demon" as "The Devil" or "Satan". In that sense every demon is a devil, and Satan is still a demon.

This, to borrow N.T. Wright's language, sub-personal creature, is given no actual name. Though the title "Lucifer" has been attached to it/him based on the Latin translation found in the Vulgate of the Hebrew word which means "shining" used as an epithet by the Prophet Isaiah against Nebuchadnezzar, "Lucifer" isn't the devil's name. The devil has no name. It is known in Scripture as nothing more than a lying, cheating, stealing, accusing, slandering, sub-personal thing, a malevolent entity, and most likely a fallen angel; with the same true of its renegade followers, the devils/demons. The Scriptures do give other "names" or descriptors. E.g. it is called Belial and Beezelbub based on semantic corruptions of the Canaanite ba'als, for example. But, again, the devil remains fundamentally nameless; it is a malignant, malevolent, cheating, stealing creature that has been defeated by the Lord Christ and who has lost whatever power it thought it had over us (Hebrews 2:14, Mark 3:27).

-CryptoLutheran