Satan

Satan is the name or title used in Scripture for the adversarial spiritual being who opposes God and humanity and is identified with the devil. The biblical text presents him as a personal adversary who is “called the devil and Satan,” the deceiver of the whole world (Revelation 12:9), and as “your adversary, the devil,” who walks around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8).

The text says that people can be “oppressed by the devil” (Acts 10:38) and can turn “from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18). It calls him “the god of this world” who “blinded the minds of the unbelieving” (2 Corinthians 4:4), “the prince of the power of the air” who works “in the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2), and the one who had “the power of death” until Christ through death brought him “to nothing” (Hebrews 2:14). Revelation describes him as “the great dragon,” “the old serpent,” thrown down to earth with his angels (Revelation 12:9), and as one who can throw believers into prison “that you may be tested” (Revelation 2:10); believers are told to put on “the whole armor of God” to withstand in the evil day (Ephesians 6:13) and are said to overcome him “because of the Lamb’s blood, and because of the word of their testimony” (Revelation 12:11). The same letters insist that if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves (1 John 1:8), and that “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

Linguistically, the Hebrew word satan means “adversary” or “accuser,” and the Greek diabolos, translated “devil,” carries the sense of accuser or slanderer; this is why the same figure is called both the devil and Satan (Revelation 12:9). Historically, the biblical writings consistently speak of this figure as an acting personal power, not merely as a human attitude or a generic idea.

Christian traditions differ in emphasis. Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant dogmatic traditions have generally affirmed Satan as a personal evil being, while differing over how central demonology and spiritual warfare should be; Reformed theology often stresses God’s sovereignty over evil, Orthodox and Catholic piety often frame the conflict around Christ’s victory and the sacramental life, and Pentecostal and charismatic traditions often emphasize deliverance and direct spiritual combat. Some modern theological and academic readings treat Satan more as a symbol of systemic or personal evil, while others read the texts as describing a literal adversary active in temptation and oppression.

AI-generated reference entry, grounded in the passages where this term appears — history and Scripture stated as such, interpretation labeled as interpretation. Not a substitute for the text itself.