Sometimes, it seems, I hear more questions about satan than about Jesus. Who is satan? Where did he come from? And other questions sometimes involving the term “Lucifer” have been asked by many. I’d much rather hear the same people asking instead, who is Jesus? Where did Jesus come from? Now those are questions that I long for!

For reasons unknown to me, men have assigned names to the devil, such as “Satan” or “Lucifer”. In the scriptures, God does not give a proper name for the devil, he is either labeled as “the devil” (the word for accuser) or “the satan” (the word for opponent). It is important to recognize that, in the original Greek, the definite article always appears before each of these labels. Unfortunately, in the English translations, we don’t see the English definite article (“the”) before the word “satan”, as we do for the word “devil”; likewise, the word “devil” is usually uncapitalized while “satan” is always capitalized (as if it’s a proper name) in the major translations. This is not good. The presence of the definite article in the Greek before the word “satan” reveal that the scriptures do not use the word as a proper name, but as a description: “the satan”, i.e. the opponent. We are simply never given a name for the opponent. And it’s a good thing, too, for even though man has never heard the name of the opponent, that has not stopped them for glorifying him with proper names. The word “satan” is a good example of that, but perhaps a better example is the name “Lucifer”. Now, I wrote an article a while back that was dedicated to the term “Lucifer”, so I won’t spend a great deal of time on it here. But I should quickly go over Lucifer, particularly because this is an article about the origin of the devil, and many view the account of Lucifer’s fall as the origin story of the devil. As discussed in the past, Lucifer is not the devil, and we know this beyond a shadow of a doubt. Christians must be careful to not continue the use of words such as “Lucifer”, for it perpetuates misunderstandings and the next generation will be left with erroneous conceptions about the devil. Lucifer is also not a proper name, and the newer English translations do not use the word Lucifer anymore. The word refers to the morning star in the sky, and the reference is found in Isaiah 14:12, “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!” (ESV). Now, everything in the context before and after this statement is a “taunt against the king of Babylon” (verse 4), and once we reread the chapter again (also check out the previous chapter!), it all makes much better sense that the fallen star was indeed the great king of Babylon, just as God said. So, Isaiah 14 has nothing to do with the devil and how he came to be. Where do we turn to now?

The next place that people often go in search for the origin of the devil is the new testament, where there’s a certain statement from Jesus: “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18). Now, at first glance it appears that we’ve just heard definitive proof of the origin of the devil, but a closer look proves otherwise. In context, the seventy-two disciples have returned to the Lord after he sent them out with power. The disciples return with joyous news for Jesus, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” Of course, this wasn’t news to Jesus, for he gave them the power to do so. Jesus’ response is how he saw the opponent fall. He does not say that he saw the devil fall from heaven, but that, like lightning falls from heaven, he saw the opponent fall by the work of the disciples. In Matthew’s account, Jesus said, “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house” (Matthew 12:28-29). So, the fall of the devil that Jesus is referring to has nothing to do with his origin, nor of his past background, but his fall to the overwhelming power of the kingdom of God coming in the first century and plundering his house.

Some still won’t give up; they think they still have one last place that addresses the origin of the opponent. In Revelation 12:7-9 says, “Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, (8)  but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.  (9)  And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” The first problem I have with this text as the origin story of the devil is that the timing of the story happens after Jesus came to the earth in the first century, was sacrificed for us, then raised, and ascended into heaven (verse 5). So then, this text has nothing to do with the origin of the devil. Nonetheless, let’s go ahead and examine the point of the text. After the ascension of Jesus, we are told a symbolic story of Michael, a chief angel (Jude 1:9, Daniel 10:13, 21, 12:1), and his army of angels fighting against the devil and his angels. It is important to recognize that the devil is not seen as chasing the Lord up to heaven at his ascension to fight with him; this is what some have understood from their imaginations but that is not what John saw. It was Michael, by the order of God, who started this war against the devil, and while the devil fought back, “he was defeated… And there was no longer any place for them in heaven.” As a reminder, this is still a symbolic illustration which represents spiritual realities; so, if it says, “now war arose in heaven”, then we know that didn’t literally occur, but it gives us a figure of the truth. The truth, as it comes out later in verse 10, is that the devil can no longer accuse the faithful before God because of the gracious work of Christ. Remember how he accused Job before God (Job 1:9-11)? Yeah, that can’t happen anymore. This concept is also envisioned in Zechariah 3. The accuser is done, his work is destroyed (1 John 3:8), and there is “no longer any place” for him to accuse the faithful, for they are guiltless in Christ.

In all honest consideration of scripture, it is evident that we truly have no origin story of the devil. And why would we? The bible is not about the devil, it is about God, our creator and our savior! We learn about God so we can glorify him for who he is. Unfortunately, some attempt to misuse the bible in order to glorify the devil and focus their attention on the evil one and demons. We must keep our minds far from this worldly desire, and remember what the biblical message is all about, which is also what life must also be about.

Article by Tanner Campbell