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Home , Belial, Devil, Hebrew name, New Testament, Satan

CHAPTER ONE

TERMINOLOGY CENTERED AROUND AND THE

The terminology designating an personage in the early of the is widely varied, but there are two dominant terms which pervade all the selected literature. The term "Satan," predominantly used in the more than in any other early Christian , is a Hebrew derived from the root satan which means "to oppose" or "to act as an adversary."l The term "Devil," which comes from the Greek word diabolos used in the Septuagmt (LXX) to translate the Hebrew satan,2 is a more frequently used term in the writings of the Apostolic and early Greek Fathers. Both terms Satan and Devil, however, are to be found in the New Testament as well as in the later writings. The New Testament writers Mark and Paul show a preference for the term Satanas,3 whereas Matthew more frequently uses the other designation diabolos, but all three authors use both terms. And whereas ]ustin , and most frequently speak of (diabolos), each writer provides us with his own version of the etymological derivation and meaning of Satan (ho Satanas).4 In short, the two terms are treated as synonyms through• out the early tradition.5

1 BAG, "crrL't"IXV," p. 752; TDNT, "aLIX~OAOC;," Vol. n, pp. 72ff. 2 Exceptions to this rendering of "adversary" as ((,)aLIX~OAOC; in favor of (, l:rL't"rLviiC; and l:rL't"IXV occur in Cod. A lex. Cf. Gokey, Terminology, p. 4. ~LIX~OAOC; is etymologically connected with the verb aLIX~rLn€LV, "to throw across" (aLIX = across; ~IXAA€LV = to throw, cast), which in Greek usage came to mean "to against," "attack," "accuse," "reproach," "slander," and "deceive," cf. Liddell & Scott, Greek-English Lexicon (1961), pp. 389-90. 3 V. Taylor, The According to St. Mark (London: Macmillan, 1952), p. 164. 4 's etymology, e.g.: "For 'Sata' in the Jewish and Syrian means apostate; and 'Nas' is the word from which is called by interpretation the , i.e., according to interpretation of the Hebrew term, from both of which there arises the single word Satanas." (]D, CHI [ANCL, 229-23oJ). Cf. also Irenaeus, IAH, V, XXI, 2 (ANCL, n, II3), and Origen, OAC, VI, XLIV (ANCL, n, 385) who give the term the meaning "apostate" and "adversary." 5 W. Foerster, TDNT, "lILIX~oAoc;," Vol. n, p. 79, states: "As concerns the alternation between crrL't"rLviiC; and aLIX~OAOC; in the NT, no material distinction 14 SATAN-THE EARLY GREEK CHRISTIAN TRADITION

The relation of these two words to the variety of other terms used to designate evil is a more complex problem. In noting some of the and associated with Satan and the Devil in the literature being investigated, reference must be made to a number of back• ground sources in the context of which the early was written. Such background references will clarify the relation of these varied names for evil to the terms Satan and the Devil. In the New Testament reference is occasionally made to "the evil one", as when teaches His followers to pray "deliver us from the evil one" (apo tou ponerou), literally, "of or from the evil" (Mt. 6 :13). It is generally agreed upon that the allusion here is to Satan and to evil in the abstract,6 and this is also the case in a number of other references throuhgout the early tradition.7 The term poneros (evil) means in the physical sense "sick," "painful," "spoiled," or "in poor condition," and in the ethical sense "base," "vicious," "degenerate."8 11 Cor. 6 :15 refers to Beliar () and is reminiscent of apo• calyptic literature references, e.g., the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, where Beliar is used interchangeably with Satan or the Devil. 9 Mk. 3 :22 refers to Beelzeboul, which was a name in the given to a chief of evil spirits and in the may be asserted." Passages in the New Testament which equate the Devil and Satan are the clearest evidence to support this assertion (e.g., Rev. 20:2). The same conclusion, says G. J. Bartelink, Lexicologisch-Semantische Studie over de Taal van de Apostolische Vaders (1952), p. 98, is valid for the even though Q"()('t"()(uiil; is seldom found. Interchangeable references to Satan and the Devil, such as the following written by J ustin and Origen, are common to the Greek Fathers' usage of these terms. Justin: "The devil came to Him-i.e., that power which is called the serpent and Satan" (JD, CXXV [ANCL, 258J). Origen: "The name, then, of Devil, and Satan, and Wicked One, who is also described as Enemy of , is mentioned in many passages of scripture" (ODP, I, V, 2 [ANCL, I, 45J). 6 For a discussion of the NT use of 6 rrov1)p61;, see Gokey, Terminology, pp. I 13ff., n. 10; cL also Langton, Satan, p. 29, and Part III below. 7 Mt. 5:37; I In. 2:13, 3:II, 5:18; nTh. 3:3; Eph. 6:16. Among the Apostolic Fathers the use of rrov1)p61; is common: EB, XXI, 3 (AF, I, 409); EB, IV, 13 (AF, I, 353); and also MP, XVII, I (AF, n, 335). CL , EB, n, 10 (AF, I, 347), where the phrase is definitely "the evil one," 6 rrov1)p6i;. 8 BAG, "rrOV1)p61;," pp. 697-698. 9 Cf. The and Pseudipigrapha of the (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913), n; BAG, "~€Al&p," p. 138: "worthlessness." Belial also appears in the Qumran texts, cf. e.g., A. R. C. Leaney, The Rule of Qumran and Its Meaning (London: SCM Press, Ltd .. 1966), p. 126; The Manual of Discipline, trans. by P. Wernberg-Moller (Grand Rapids: Eercl• mans, 1957), pp. 22fL