Q.
Is it true that the word “Satan” is never used in the Bible?
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Craig Detweiler
A.
The Hebrew word ha-satan is translated as “the adversary” or “the
prosecutor.” God could send an adversary, like the angel who
blocks the path of Balaam in Numbers 22. So how did the concept
of an adversary come to be associated exclusively with evil? We see such
adversarial behavior in the book of Job, where Satan suggests that Job is not
as faithful as he may appear. Ha-satan offers a series of tests to Job, putting his
faith on trial.
Consider the temptations put forth to humanity by a serpent in Genesis 3.
The serpent undercuts the directives of God, asking Eve to reconsider the rules
imposed within the Garden of Eden. Such “fast talk” convinces her to bite into
arenas that were considered off-limits.
The Bible concludes with references to a dragon, an “old serpent” being
locked up in the Revelation of John, chapter 20, verse 2.
Jesus faces an accuser in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 4. This prosecu-
tor unspools a series of temptations—to seize power, to offer easy answers, to
rule with a scepter rather than a servant’s heart.
Biblical interpreters have traced a line from the Garden of Eden to the
consummation of history, with an adversary presiding over all manner of dis-
traction. All these strange and mysterious episodes have been associated with
a singular, cunning fi gure commonly called “Satan.” Oblique language refers
to “the ruler of this world” in John 12:31 and 14:30, “the prince of the power of
the air” in Ephesians 2:2, and “the god of this world” in 2 Corinthians 4:4.
It is easy to equate such subversive activity with a satanic fi gure. While
the biblical writers are content to leave the descriptions poetic and open-
ended, artists like John Milton have provided even more fanciful detail and
backstory in classics such as Paradise Lost. After all the fi ery imagery in Dante’s
Inferno, the satanic fi gure who rules at the top (or bottom) of hell is encased in
frigid surroundings.Marcia Ford
Who is...
?
Marcia Ford
If I told you the really interesting things, I’d have to kill you.A.
Some translations, including the New International Version and the
New American Standard Bible, do use the word Satan to refer to
the ultimate evil spirit, the one-time angel who fell from grace and