In the New Testament it is said that Mary, the mother of Jesus, shortly after the birth of her son, came to the temple in Jerusalem “to present him to the Lord … and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord” (Luke 2:22-24). The “sons of God” in Job, then, who came to “present themselves before the Lord”, had come together to worship God in the appointed place, and, of course, in the presence of the appointed priest at that time. This is a scene of worship upon the earth, not in heaven.

But what of “Satan” who came among them? Here the English translators have not really played fair with us, for all the Hebrew says is “the adversary”. The capital S in Satan is the translators’ own invention, for Hebrew makes no distinction between capital letters and others. Even in the margin the Authorised and Revised Version translators have printed “the Adversary”, suggesting by their capital A (for which they have no evidence) that this is that special Adversary, Satan. All that the Hebrew justifies us in saying is “the adversary came among them”.

God is all-powerful

But who could this adversary be? If this was a group come together to worship, he would be one of them; in other words he was a man; and he was an enemy to Job, because he was jealous of him and wished him harm. But how then could there follow a conversation between the Lord and the adversary? Again the Bible itself supplies the answer, for in Old Testament times men often received messages from God through the appointed priest at the time. David, for instance, more than once consulted the priest when he wanted to know what God’s will for him was, and the priest spoke to him on behalf of God. So this jealous enemy of Job – perhaps one who posed as his friend – said to God through the priest, “Job only serves you for what he can get; just try bringing some trouble on him and then you will see”. And God, because He had a great purpose with Job and desired to see him perfected, allowed the adversary to carry out his envious desire upon Job. But as the book clearly tells us, the power was God’s and not the adversary’s (Job 2:4-6).

So there is in this episode no need for a supernatural satan and no proof of one. All the expressions are commonly used of men. The Old Testament word satan means an adversary; but as the example of Job shows us, there develops a natural tendency to use it of an evil adversary.

Peter – a Satan!

With this valuable background understanding we now look at an example of the use of “satan” in the New Testament. Peter had just made his great declaration of belief in Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God” and Jesus had pronounced a blessing upon him as a result. But Jesus then went on to speak of his own fate; he would have to go to Jerusalem and there the leaders of the Jews would seize him and he would be killed, but he would rise again the third day (Matthew 16:21). Peter could neither understand nor accept this and began to rebuke Jesus: “God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” In other words, “You must not think of such a thing”. But Jesus said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan: you are a hindrance to me”.

Why was Peter a “satan”? [2] Because he was being “an adversary” to Jesus; he was trying to persuade the Lord not to do what he knew had to be done in his obedience to the will of God. If Peter had had his way, Jesus would have rejected his Father’s will and his great sacrifice for sin upon the cross would never have taken place. So Jesus had to tell this “adversary” (satan) to “get behind me”. And then he adds a comment which is most important for our understanding: You are an adversary and a stumbling block to me, says Jesus in effect to Peter, for your mind is not on the “things of God, but the things of men” (verse 23, RV).

So this most important New Testament example teaches us some valuable lessons. First, this “satan” was a man; second, he rejected the will of God; third, what marked him out was that he desired to do the will of man instead – a most important clue, as we shall see later.

Let us remind ourselves what we have learned so far: a “satan” is an adversary, and nearly always an evil adversary. In the examples we have looked at, “satan” was:

With this general understanding of the meaning of “satan”, we should find a lot of Bible passages much clearer.

And now the Devil

This is a Greek term, not a Hebrew one, and so it is found only in the New Testament. [3] Again we must try to discover what the term really means. We can easily do this, for there are passages where the translators themselves have shown us. Writing to Timothy, the Apostle Paul says that “in the last days there will come times of stress”; in these times “men will be lovers of self, lovers of money … slanderers, etc. …” (2 Timothy 3:1-3). The word translated “slanderers” is the plural of the one usually rendered “devil” and is related to our English “diabolical”.

Again, giving instructions on how believers are to behave as they meet to worship, he comes to the women members:

“Women likewise must be serious, no slanderers, but temperate, faithful in all things.” (1 Timothy 3:11)

Again the word is the one usually translated “devil” though here it is plural. The translators in these two passages have given us the basic sense of the word. Notice once more: these “devils” are people.

But the great test passage for understanding “the devil” in the New Testament is in Hebrews chapter 2. As we read the early verses of this chapter, it is clear that the apostle is writing about Jesus and his followers; and he calls the followers “children”. Now, in verse 14, he comes to his great statement about “the devil”. We set it out here in full first, and then we shall go over it, phrase by phrase, to make sure of understanding it:

“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature, that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil …”

The first phrase says quite clearly that the followers of Jesus are “flesh and blood”, that is, they are ordinary men and women. No problem there.

Human nature

The second phrase says that Jesus shared the same nature, “flesh and blood”. The apostle must have been very anxious indeed that his readers should clearly understand that the nature of Jesus really was the same as that of his followers – human nature – for he emphasises the point: “he himself likewise took part of the same”. There was no need for the apostle to write in this emphatic way unless he had felt that it was particularly important for his readers to understand this vital truth: that Jesus was a man, in every respect.

The third sentence contains three declarations:

  1. that Jesus destroyed the devil;
  2. that he did it “through death”, and that can only mean through his own death, by dying himself; and
  3. that the devil has “the power of death”.

Before we go any further, we must clear up one cause of misunderstanding. The English reader, seeing a phrase like “him who has the power of death”, is naturally led to assume that the devil must be a person, or a being. But this is not necessarily so.

[2] The Greek manuscripts of the New Testament show no difference between words beginning with capital letters and those that do not - the letters are all capitals.
[3] The word "devils" in "casting out devils" etc. is a different word, which really means "demons" (see, for example, Mark 1:32 in the RSV).