A title before it was a name
The word satan is an ordinary Hebrew noun. It comes from a verb meaning “to oppose” or “to accuse,” and it describes anyone who stands against someone else. In the opening chapters of Job and in Zechariah 3, the word carries the definite article: ha-satan, “the satan.” Hebrew does not put the article on personal names; nobody says “the David.” The article tells us that ha-satan is a job description, much as a courtroom speaks of “the prosecution” without naming the lawyer. In Job 1–2 he comes with the “sons of God” before the LORD’s throne and argues that Job fears God only because God has made him rich. In Zechariah 3:1 he stands at the right hand of Joshua the high priest “to accuse him,” while Joshua stands in filthy garments. The LORD rebukes the accuser and clothes Joshua in clean robes.
The title becomes a name
1 Chronicles 21:1 is the first place a superhuman satan appears without the article: “Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel.” The parallel account in 2 Samuel 24:1 says that the LORD, in his anger, incited David. The accounts agree: Samuel names the Judge who permitted the test, and Chronicles names the instrument who executed it. By this point the title has become a proper name.
The ordinary use of the word never disappears. When Balaam set out to curse Israel, the Angel of the LORD himself stood in the road “as an adversary” (le-satan) against him (Numbers 22:22). God raised up Hadad the Edomite as a satan against Solomon (1 Kings 11:14). Only the context tells the reader when the word means the devil.
| Name | Literal meaning | Where | How it is used |
|---|---|---|---|
| ha-satan | “the adversary,” “the accuser” (a title) | Job 1–2; Zechariah 3:1–2 | Heavenly prosecutor who accuses God’s servants |
| Satan (no article) | “Satan” (a proper name) | 1 Chronicles 21:1 | The personal enemy who incites David’s proud census |
| satan (ordinary noun) | “an opponent” | Numbers 22:22; 1 Samuel 29:4; 1 Kings 11:14 | Any adversary, human or angelic, even the Angel of the LORD |
| nachash | “serpent” | Genesis 3:1–15 | The deceiver in Eden, whose head the woman’s Seed will crush |
| Helel ben Shachar (“Lucifer”) | “shining one, son of the dawn” | Isaiah 14:12–15 | Taunt against Babylon’s king, whose pride mirrors Satan’s fall |
| keruv (the king of Tyre) | “anointed guardian cherub” | Ezekiel 28:11–19 | Lament over a king set in Eden and cast down for pride |
| Liwyatan, Rahab, tannin | “twisting one,” “proud one,” “dragon” | Job 41; Psalm 74:13–14; Isaiah 27:1; 51:9 | The sea monster only God can slay; Revelation’s dragon |
| Azazel | likely a name for the desert demon | Leviticus 16:8, 10, 26 | The goat bearing Israel’s sins is sent “to Azazel” |
Pictures of the enemy
The serpent (nachash) of Genesis 3 is never called Satan in Genesis, but Revelation 12:9 settles the question: “that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan.” The first promise of the Gospel is spoken to him: the woman’s Seed will crush his head (Genesis 3:15).
Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 are addressed to real kings of Babylon and of Tyre, yet the language outruns any earthly monarch. The king of Babylon says, “I will ascend to heaven... I will make myself like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:13–14). The king of Tyre was “in Eden, the garden of God,” an “anointed guardian cherub,” blameless “from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you” (Ezekiel 28:13–15). Horace Hummel’s Concordia Commentary on Ezekiel reads both kings as embodiments of Satan within history; their fall through pride retraces his. The name “Lucifer” (“light-bearer”) comes from the Latin Vulgate’s translation of Isaiah 14:12. It was never a Hebrew name for the devil.
Leviathan is the sea monster of Job 41, “king over all the sons of pride,” whom no man can tame. Psalm 74:14 says God crushed his heads, and Isaiah 27:1 promises that “in that day” the LORD will slay “Leviathan the twisting serpent.” Luther took Job 41:33 into “A Mighty Fortress”: “on earth is not his equal.”
On the Day of Atonement the high priest placed two tags on two goats, one marked “for the LORD” and the other “for Azazel” (Leviticus 16:8). The first goat was sacrificed. Over the second the high priest laid both hands, confessed all the sins of Israel, and sent it into the wilderness. Older English Bibles read the word as “scapegoat,” the goat that goes away. John Kleinig’s Concordia Commentary on Leviticus notes that the parallel with “for the LORD” points to a personal name, the demon of the desert. Israel’s sin was sent back to its source.
From Hebrew into Greek
When Jewish scholars translated the Old Testament into Greek (the Septuagint), they rendered ha-satan as ho diabolos. The word joins dia, “across,” with ballō, “to throw.” A diabolos throws accusations; he is a slanderer. Latin borrowed the word as diabolus, and English made it “devil.” Every time we say “devil,” we are saying “slanderer.”
The Enemy Unmasked
The New Testament names, and the One who answers every one of them
Satan and the devil
By the time of Jesus both words were names. Satanas, the Greek spelling of the Aramaic satana, appears 36 times in the New Testament, eight of them in Revelation; diabolos appears more than thirty times. Both still keep their ordinary meaning at the edges. When Peter tried to talk Jesus out of the cross, Jesus answered, “Get behind me, Satan!” (Mark 8:33). Peter was not possessed. He was doing the adversary’s work, offering Jesus the same crossless glory the devil had offered in the wilderness. Jesus said of Judas, “One of you is a devil” (John 6:70), and Satan later entered him (John 13:27). Paul even uses the plural diaboloi of human gossips: the women of 1 Timothy 3:11 and the older women of Titus 2:3 are not to be “slanderers,” literally “devils.”
| English title | Greek | Literal meaning | Key passages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Satan | Satanas | adversary | Mark 8:33; Luke 10:18; Romans 16:20 |
| the devil | ho diabolos | slanderer, false accuser | Matthew 4:1; John 6:70; Ephesians 6:11 |
| the evil one | ho ponēros | the wicked one | Matthew 6:13; 13:19; 1 John 5:19 |
| the tempter | ho peirazōn | the one who tempts | Matthew 4:3; 1 Thessalonians 3:5 |
| Beelzebul | Beelzeboul | “prince Baal” or “lord of the dwelling” | Mark 3:22; Matthew 10:25; 12:24 |
| Beliar | Beliar | worthlessness | 2 Corinthians 6:15 |
| the ruler of this world | ho archōn tou kosmou toutou | the prince over the fallen world | John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11 |
| the god of this age | ho theos tou aiōnos toutou | the false god of the present era | 2 Corinthians 4:4 |
| the prince of the power of the air | ho archōn tēs exousias tou aeros | ruler of the unseen realm above the earth | Ephesians 2:2 |
| an angel of light | angelos phōtos | a disguise, not a name | 2 Corinthians 11:14 |
| your adversary | ho antidikos | opponent in a lawsuit | 1 Peter 5:8 |
| murderer, father of lies | anthrōpoktonos; pseustēs | man-killer; liar | John 8:44 |
| the accuser of our brothers | ho katēgōr | prosecutor | Revelation 12:10 |
| the deceiver of the whole world | ho planōn | the one who leads astray | Revelation 12:9 |
| the great dragon, the ancient serpent | ho drakōn; ho ophis ho archaios | dragon; the original serpent of Eden | Revelation 12:9; 20:2 |
| Abaddon, Apollyon | Abaddōn; Apollyōn | destruction; destroyer | Revelation 9:11 |
| the strong man | ho ischyros | the strong one | Mark 3:27; Luke 11:21–22 |
What the names reveal
Many of the names come from the courtroom. Diabolos (slanderer), antidikos (the opposing party in a lawsuit), and katēgōr (prosecutor) carry the scene of Job and Zechariah into the New Testament. Peter’s “roaring lion” is also “your adversary” at law (1 Peter 5:8). The devil’s chief work is to bring charges: to tell God that his people are guilty, and to tell God’s people that they are beyond forgiveness.
Other names describe a rule that is real but borrowed. He is “the ruler of this world” and “the god of this age” only in the sense that fallen people give him their allegiance. Beelzebul probably meant “prince Baal” or “lord of the dwelling”; the Old Testament mocked the Philistine god as Baal-zebub, “lord of flies” (2 Kings 1:2). Jesus plays on the name when he calls himself “the master of the house” whom his enemies have called Beelzebul (Matthew 10:25), and again when he describes the strong man guarding his house (Mark 3:27). The one who seems to own the house is only a squatter.
In the Lord’s Prayer, “deliver us from evil” can also be read “deliver us from the evil one” (apo tou ponērou). Luther notes in the Large Catechism that the Greek petition appears to speak of the devil, who is the sum of all evil; the prayer asks God to rescue us from him and from everything he brings.
Every name has an answer
None of these names is the last word. The accuser of Zechariah 3 has been “thrown down” (Revelation 12:10), and Paul asks, “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies” (Romans 8:33). The ruler of this world was “cast out” at the cross (John 12:31); the night before he died, Jesus said, “He has no claim on me” (John 14:30). The strong man has been bound by the Stronger One whom John the Baptist announced (Mark 1:7; 3:27). The false morning star of Isaiah 14 fell, and Jesus calls himself “the bright morning star” (Revelation 22:16). On Good Friday the serpent struck the heel of the woman’s Seed, and his own head was crushed; Paul promises that God “will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Romans 16:20). Hebrews 2:14 says it plainly: through death Christ destroyed “the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.” A Christian does not need to know every name of the enemy. He or she needs to know the one Name that answers them all.