SATAN

in Judaism and Christianity, the prince of evil spirits and adversary of God. The word Satan is the English transliteration of a Hebrew word for adversary in the Old Testament. With the definite article the Hebrew word denotes the adversary par excellence, mainly in the Book of Job, where the adversary comes to the heavenly court with the sons of God. His task is to roam through the earth (like a contemporaneous Persian official) seeking out acts or persons to be reported adversely (to the king); his function thus is the opposite of that of the eyes of the Lord, which roam through the earth strengthening all that is good. Satan is cynical about disinterested human goodness and is permitted to test it under God's authority and control and within the limits that God sets. In the New Testament the Greek transliteration Satanas is used, and this usually appears as Satan in English translations. He is spoken of as the prince of evil spirits, the inveterate enemy of God and of Christ, who takes the guise of an angel of light. He can enter a man and act through him; hence, a man can be called Satan because of his acts or attitude. Through his subordinate demons Satan can take possession of men's bodies, afflicting them or making them diseased. To him sinners are delivered for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved. After the preaching of the 70 disciples, during which devils were subjected to them, Jesus saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven (Luke 10:18). According to the visions in the Book of Revelation, when the risen Christ returns from heaven to reign on earth, Satan will be bound with a great chain for a thousand years, then be released, but almost immediately face final defeat and be cast into eternal punishment. His name, Beelzebul, used in the Gospels mainly in reference to demoniac possession, comes from the name of the god of Ekron, Baalzebub (II Kings 1). He is also identified with the devil (diabolos), and this term occurs more frequently in the New Testament than Satan. In the Qur'an the proper name Shaitan (Satan) is used. Among early Christian writers, the figure of Satan played a larger part in the discussion of the nature of evil, the meaning of salvation, and the purpose and efficacy of the atoning work of Christ. Early and medieval church writers discussed at length problems raised by belief in the existence of a spiritual being such as Satan in a universe created and sustained by an all-powerful, all-wise, and all-loving God. Under the influence of the 18th-century revolt against belief in the supernatural, liberal Christian theology tended to treat the biblical language about Satan as picture thinking not to be taken literallyas a mythological attempt to express the reality and extent of evil in the universe, existing outside and apart from man but profoundly influencing the human sphere.