SATAN (Hebr. *sātān*). An invisible personal agent, the enemy of man who leads him to perdition by turning him away from God.
The term (from the verb *sātān* “to oppose, persecute,” especially by accusation: Ps. [Hebr.] 38:21; 71:13; 109:4; 20:20; Zach. 3:1 [Septuagint *antikeisthai*], “to obstruct” the way: Num. 22:22, 32; cf. the abstract *sātān* “hostility”) occurs nine times in the Hebrew Bible as a common noun: “adversary” in war (1 Sam. 29:4; 1 Kings 5:18; 11:14, 23, 25) or in a court of law (Ps. 108:6) or one who blocks the path (2 Sam. 19:23; cf. Matt. 16:23 and Mark 8:33: Jesus rejects Peter who obstructs His way to the cross; 1 Macc. 1:36 the Akra fortress is built *saddan*, as a “barrier”). In three passages (Job 1–2; Zach. 3:1–2; 1 Chron. 21:1) it designates the being who accuses man before God or induces him to sin; it is “the adversary” par excellence, yet only in 1 Chron. 21:1 is it used without the article as a proper name. Like the Septuagint, the New Testament employs the Greek term *diabolos* (q.V. DEVIL), which is its literal translation, but thirty-six times it has *ha-satan* (Aramaic ending).
The idea of Satan is linked with that of God’s “judgment.” Satan is the public accuser who “stands against” (*‘amad ‘al*: Zach. 3:1; 1 Chron. 21:1; cf. Ps. 108 [109]:6); he resembles the *mazzîr* (“he reminds of guilt” with a view to punishment, death) of Ezek. 21:28 sq.; 20:16 (cf. Gen. 41:9; 1 Kings 17:18). And since, in the prophetic theology of history, the fortunes of a people correspond to God’s judgment upon it, the two *satanim* (the Edomite Hadad and the Aramean Rezon) whom Yahweh raises up against Solomon (1 Kings 11:14–25) ultimately rise against his sins. Besides Micah’s vision (1 Kings 22:19–23; Yahweh sends a “spirit of falsehood” to destroy Ahab), two symbolic scenes present Satan in the divine court. In the prologue of Job (Job 1:6–2:7), Satan appears before Yahweh together with the angels (“the sons of God”); he has wide competence and power: he traverses the earth and spies on men, assailing the virtue of the just by tempting them; Yahweh authorizes Satan to proceed against Job after entrusting to him the hostile forces of life (diseases, natural calamities, human crimes), so that he is “the hand of Yahweh” that strikes Job (1:11; 2:4). Similar is the fourth night vision of Zechariah (3:1–2), where *satan* justly accuses the high priest Joshua who is guilty; but God is angry with Satan and the angel (q.v.) of Yahweh prevails, the mediator of grace (yet in Num. 22:22 the angel of Yahweh acts as *satan*). A third passage mentioning Satan, an instrument of the divine “judgment,” is 1 Chron. 21:1, where Satan (proper name!) replaces Yahweh, who in the more ancient text of 2 Sam. 24:1 had directly tempted David: a change due to dogmatic motives, as later Jubilees 48:25 will transform Ex. 4:24. For Tobit, father and son, and for Sara, the infestation by Asmodeus brings many sorrows, yet “the trial of temptation is necessary,” and Raphael comes to free them from the demon (Tob. 12:13–14). Originally Satan is not a perverse angel; through later contamination the angels executing God’s scourges were identified with demons, beings evil by nature (J. Bonsirven, p. 239).
In the Old Testament *satan* represents the threatening ruin suspended over man; he is the one who disturbs the relationship between God and men, and especially between God and Israel, by bringing human sins to God’s attention and obstructing the divine plan of salvation. He is conceived either as the accuser who exploits and eagerly spies out moral guilt, or as a destructive demonic force connected with the providential plan for individuals and peoples; in either case he is subject to God, from whom he seeks to wrest man (cf. Dante, *Inf.*, XXVII, 112–29; *Purg.*, V, 100–29; Guido and Buonconte of Montefeltro). The essentially perverse being was ‘Azazel, conceived as the desert demon upon whom every guilt of Israel was laid in the annual rite of the scapegoat (Lev. 16:8–22). The biblical Satan is an entity without parallel in other religions. Wrongly W. Bousset and H. Gressmann affirm his Persian origin. He cannot derive from Iran because metaphysical dualism is entirely absent from the Old Testament; still less from the Babylonians, whose *bel dabbabi* is always a man (J. von Rad).
Satan, as “tempter” who brings ruin to man, first appears in the serpent that tempts Eve and ruins man (Gen. 3:1–15), which symbolizes “evil” (Gen. 4:7); he is connected with the dragon (q.v.), whom God controls and defeats. He is akin, though in the Old Testament he appears distinct, to the “evil spirit” (opposed to the “spirit of Yahweh” that abandons Saul when it rushes upon him: 1 Sam. 16:14–16; 18:10–12; 19:9; 26:19; 28:15–16), referred to divine causality by absolute theism; the “evil spirit” acts as a spirit of discord (Judg. 9:23). He is a “spirit of falsehood” that drives men to transgress the divine will (1 Kings 22:19–23). To such spirits many Jews and Christians later attributed the moral corruption of humanity, holding that the “sons of God” who descended (fell) from the heavenly court and had commerce with “the daughters of men” were the fathers of the wicked *nephilim* (Gen. 6:2–4).
In the Old Testament writings Satan appears rarely. Apocalyptic (q.v.) midrash amply fills the gap. In late post-exilic Judaism, from the 3rd or 2nd century B.C., Satan has become the antagonist of God, the cause of all evil, the head of the kingdom opposed to the Kingdom of God. Contributing to this evolution, besides the intent to exculpate the justice and providence of God from Israel’s disasters, were both the dualistic tendency due in part to growing hatred for the nations and the coalescence, as the figure of Satan expands, of the most ancient traditions of the Eden serpent, the fall and the angels’ union, the angel of death, and the struggle with dragons. Satan absorbs the moral concept of the evil inclination (*yēser hā-rā’*) by which he ruins man (Num. rabbā 20; Babā Bathrā 15a), and that of the “angel of death,” with which he is sometimes identified (Babā Bathrā 16a); increasingly he is the tempter and seducer, the “enemy” who inflicts every physical and moral evil upon man (Enoch 69:4, 9). The biblical demons, such as Asmodeus, Lilith (q.v.), those that inhabit the desert in the form of unclean animals, the *sē’irim* (“hairy ones,” “goats”), the *sēdîm* (*sēd*, “to destroy”; cf. Akkad. *sēdu*, a good or evil theriomorphic genius), the *lilîn*, *rûhin* and *rûhôt*, who harm man in soul and body, are distinct from Satan: in Enoch 53:3 Satan and the “angels of punishment” differ from the fallen angels and demons. Satan multiplies, becomes a generalization: the category of many satans is formed (Satan in the plural: *Aligar* 3:38, 49; Enoch 40:8–10; etc.), subject to the one Satan, who is subject to the “Lord of spirits” (Enoch 65:6); in time the *satanim* will be confused with demons. Satan is the serpent that tempted Eve (Life of Adam 12; Apocalypse of Abraham 13; Apocalypse of Moses 16; Apocalypse of Sedrach 5), out of envy (Wis. 2:24; Sanhedrin 59), according to Sotah 9 and Gen. rabbah 18 out of lust; Gen. rabbah 24 and 42 attributes Cain and many demons to Satan’s intercourse with Eve. Satan is “the serpent of origins” (*nāhāš haqqadmôn*), whose disciples are the *gēhinnom* (Siphrē 138b). The Targums often introduce Satan into biblical narratives, e.g., Targ. Jon. on Ex. 32:19.
The devil’s chief in 1 Enoch (10:4, 8; 13:1; 54:4; 55:4) is ‘Aza’zel (or Semjaza: ibid. 6:7), whose hosts were subjected to the Lord (1 Enoch 54:6); in Apocalypse of Abraham ‘Aza’zel is the chief, in Testament of Solomon 7:7 he is the archangel whom the demons obey. Gadreel is the satan who deceived Eve (1 Enoch 69:6). Satan is often equated with Belial (q.v.), and especially with Samael, the chief of the demons in Ascension of Isaiah, Greek Baruch (4:8: he tempted Eve); after the 11th century Samael takes the place of Satan in the Midrashim (Gen. Rabbah 29) and in the Talmud: “The angel Samael, the wicked one, is the chief of all the satans” (1 Enoch 40:7; Deuteronomy Rabbah on 33:1); Samael, identified with the angel with whom Jacob wrestled (Gen 32:25–32), is restrained by Michael or Phanuel; he is the angel of death and the tempter of Eve (Targum Yerushalmi on Gen 3:6). The chief of the kingdom of evil is Mastema (= Satan) in Jubilees, the “Manual” of the Qumran Community of the New Covenant. Satan was an archangel named Satanael before he rebelled against God with his angels (2 Enoch 29:4; 31:3–6; Life of Adam 12–16). Armies of demons are under Satan’s command (1 Enoch, Jubilees, Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs). At the end of the world Satan, with his demons, will be rendered powerless or annihilated (Jubilees 23:30; Testament of Dan 5; Testament of Simeon 6:6), which excludes a dualistic conception.
In the New Testament the preternatural person of Satan is the centre and synthesis of the deadly empire of evil (Heb 2:14). New Testament demonology is entirely in the service of soteriology (B. Noack). Satan interposes himself between God and men to prevent their salvation; Christ, instead, interposes as the life-giving mediator. A characteristic of the New Testament, especially the Johannine and Pauline writings, is the idea of Satan’s universal kingdom through sin and death, and the absolute antithesis between Satan and Christ and between their kingdoms (flesh and spirit, darkness and light). The entire “world” (in a pejorative sense: John 1:10; 7:7; 15:18; 16:20; 17:9–16; 1 John 2:16; 5:19; Matt 18:7; Gal 6:14) is subjected to Satan through the extreme asceticism of the ontological-ethical dilemma (God or nothingness, life or death, holiness or iniquity) tending toward unity that excludes every dualism.
The biblical concept of Satan, stripped of midrashic extravagances, is found in Beelzebub ([q.v.] E. Riehm connects it with the Aramaic bē’el dēbhabhā’ “enemy”), “the chief of the demons,” in the devil (q.v.), a translation of ha-Satan, also called “the evil one” (Matt 13:19, 38; 2 Thess 3:3; perhaps Matt 6:13b), “the ancient serpent” (Rev 12:9; 20:2), “the enemy” (Matt 13:39), “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; cf. Luke 4:6), “the god of this age” (2 Cor 4:4), “the ruler of the power of the air” (so Beliar is called in Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, Levi 3), “the spirit that now works in the rebellious” (Eph 2:2). His countless host includes “the rulers” (archai), the authorities (exousiai), the world-rulers of this present darkness, the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph 6:12; cf. Rom 8:38; 1 Cor 15:24), who govern those who do not belong to God (John 15:19; 17:14; 1 John 4:4–5). As ruler of this world, Satan has nothing in Jesus, who is not of this world (John 8:23; 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 17:14–16); Satan cannot harm the children of God (1 John 5:18). Satan confesses that his power is derived (Luke 4:6). He is a tempter who can even exploit Scripture (Matt 4:6) to seduce the Messiah; Judas is his victim (Luke 22:3; John 13:27); Peter and the Apostles are his tools (Luke 22:31). His power is superhuman (2 Thess 2:9), and it opposes evangelization (1 Thess 2:18). The kingdom of Satan contrasts with the Kingdom of God (Matt 12:26; Mark 3:24). Yet Satan and his demons acknowledge the power of Jesus, the Messiah sent by God to destroy the works of Satan and his followers (Mark 1:24, 34; 3:11–15; 23–27; 6:7; 1 John 3:8; cf. Acts 16:16–18), to free his disciples from Satan’s world and introduce them into the Kingdom of God (John 15:19; 17:12, 14). Salvation consists in being freed from Satan’s dominion (Acts 26:18). For every physical and moral evil is under Satan’s control. The woman who “had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years was bound by Satan” (Luke 13:11–16). When the Apostles cast out demons, Satan falls (Luke 10:18; q.V. LUCIFER).
Satan, who sinned from the beginning (1 John 3:8), is the agent of sin (Rom 6:12–14; John 8:34), by which he enslaves man (John 8:34) and assimilates him to himself (John 6:70; Jude). This slavery is maintained and strengthened through the flesh, which is man’s organic connection to the world (Rom 7:17–8:13). Satan sows tares among the seed of the divine word in man’s heart, substituting weeds for good grain (Mark 4:15; Matt 13:19, 39); his aim is to blind the minds of the unbelievers, lest they be illuminated by the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Cor 4:4), through the specious “wisdom of this world” (1 Cor 2:6) and the “deep things of Satan” (Rev 2:24). “The tempter” (ὁ πειράζων: 1 Thess 3:5; 1 Cor 7:5; cf. Matt 4:1–3) induces men to lie to God (Acts 5:3); his method is falsehood (John 8:44), and to seduce he “disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Cor 11:14). Against his seductions (2 Cor 2:11) and violence, against the “synagogues” of his followers (Rev 2:9, 13; 3:9), against apostates who return to Satan (1 Tim 5:15), the Christian must resist, fighting with the weapons of the spirit (1 Pet 5:9; James 4:7; Eph 6:10–17). Christ has defeated him on the cross and will annihilate him (Col 2:15; 2 Cor 10:5). God will crush the “ancient serpent” (Gen 3:15) under the feet of the faithful (Rom 16:20). The world is defeated for his friends, but Jesus will overcome and conquer the world (John 16:33; 17:21, 23). “The ruler of this world” is already now condemned and cast out through the Crucifixion (John 12:31; 16:11; 17:14–16).
“Yet a little while!” (Rev 12:12). The Apocalypse depicts the immense conflict between the two superhuman powers of God and Satan with their hosts. After the definitive defeat of the Beast and the kings of the earth (Rev 19), Satan “the great dragon, the ancient serpent, the deceiver of the whole world” (Rev 12:9) is imprisoned in the bottomless pit for a thousand years (Rev 20:2); then he is released and deceives the nations, but in the end he is thrown into the lake of fire (Rev 20:10; cf. 1 Enoch 5:5–6; 2 Pet 2:4).
In 1 Cor 5:4–5 and 1 Tim 1:20 the guilty party is handed over to Satan, who will destroy his flesh so that the sinner may be converted and his spirit saved at the judgment. “A murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44), Satan kills those over whom he has power (cf. 2 Cor 2:11); this deadly function, annulled by the Crucified (Heb 2:14), may be connected with that of the destroying angel (Exod 12:23; 2 Sam 24:16; 2 Kings 19:35; Wis 18:25; 1 Cor 10:10). Sickness or persecution, “a thorn in the flesh,” is “a messenger of Satan” (2 Cor 12:7); in this too Satan is an unwitting instrument of divine grace (ibid. 9), as happens in the Crucifixion of Christ (1 Cor 2:8).
The Bible does not present the belief, current among Babylonians and Arabs, that demons and their chief dwell in subterranean regions. Satan and his spirits reside in the aerial regions (Eph 2:2; 6:12), while holy angels are in the higher spheres of heaven. Satan “and his angels” were cast down from heaven to earth (Rev 12:7–9). After passing through the other six heavens, Jesus descends to the firmament where “the ruler of this world” dwells (Ascension of Isaiah 10:29; cf. 7:9; 11:23).
Among the Fathers, Satan is the "adversary" (ἀντιστάμενος: Clement, Ad Cor. 51, 1; Ps. Barnabas, 2), "the evil one" (πονηρός, ibid., 4); to the path of good are set the angels of God, to the path of evil the angels of Satan (ibid., 18). Christians must flee the snares of Satan, the prince of this age (Ps.-Barnabas, 18 or ἀρχῶν καρποῦ τῆς ἀνομίας; Ignatius, Ad Eph. 19, 3; Ad Trall. 8, 1; Ad Smyrn. 9, 1); the Eucharistic assembly destroys the powers of Satan (ibid., Ad Eph. 13). On temptations and how to overcome them: Hermas, Pastor, II, Mand. 4, 3; 12, 4-5; etc. The baptismal liturgy involved a renunciation of Satan (Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech. 19, mystag. 1; PG 33, 1065-76; Augustine, De Symb. ad catechum.: PL 40, 627-28, 637-38, 651-53, 659-61; John Chrysostom: PG 49, 241-76). Satan does not govern the world; Gregory of Nyssa: PG 46, 417-30; Apostolic Constitutions, VII, 41; F. X. Funk, I, Paderborn 1905, pp. 444-49). On Satan and the fall of the angels, see Justin (Apol., I, 5; II, 5; C. Tryph., 69 and 124) and Irenaeus (Adv. Haer., I, 10, 3; III, 23, 3; "the head of apostasy"). Christ "bound the Strong One," defeating Satan in his domain, hell (Origen: PG 14, 1052); cf. W. Bieder. Many present the Redemption as a ransom that Christ paid to Satan as a "debt" of justice, especially Augustine (cf. I. Rivière). The idea of the accusing angels remains (Epiphanius, In laud. S. M. Deiparae: PG 43, 501). Satan is often identified with death. Irenaeus, Adv. Haer., V, 21, 3, and 22-24 (PG 7, 118-88) affirms Satan’s dominion over the world. This dominion belonged to Satan by right: Leo the Great, Sermo de Nativ., 22, 3 (PL 54, 196); St. Bernard deduces (from 2 Tim. 2, 26; John 14, 30; Matt. 12, 29; Luke 11, 21; 22, 53) against Abelard that "the devil had not only power but also just title over men" (PL 182, 1065), from which only Jesus redeems. Cf. Council of Trent, Session V (Denz-U, 788), and the treatments of Thomas Aquinas (In IV Sent., II, dist. 3-7; Sum. Theol., 1ª, qq. 63-64).
The postexilic Semitic lexicon adopted the name Satan from the Bible: Arabic ἁγίᾳ, Syriac σάπαι, Ethiopic σαγέται. In the Qur’an, Σαγίᾳ ἐλιθίς (= δαίδαλος) are synonyms; Satan is sometimes the (single) fallen angel who refused to worship Adam (Sura 2, 32), other times one of the jinn (18, 48); he caused Adam to sin and deceives his descendants, except believers, whom he drives away by stoning (2, 32-34; 15, 28-42); he is the enemy of man (35, 6); those tempted by Satan turn to Allah (7, 199-201; 23, 90).