Satan, Lucifer, and the Devil

Satan, Lucifer and The Devil.

We begin earlier in the Bible with references to 'devils' which essentially becomes synonymous with 'false gods'.

Leviticus 17:7

Deuteronomy 32:17

This continues throughout the Old Testament. This was to keep the Jews away from anyone else's gods, and only worship the Hebrew god. (Since every town, village, tribe had its own gods, some even having several back in those days.)

It is not until we reach the New Testament that 'The Devil' is referred to in the singular. It does not happen in the Old Testament. Which means that the concept of one 'Devil' is strictly a New Testament concept.

(It should be kept in mind that the New Testament was written by disparate writers of various backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures, heritages, etc. And was collected after the fact, written many years after the fact and collected and compiled even after that. In addition, the books that were selected were not put together and codified until the Council at Nicea in 325, some 300 years after the events took place.

The Old Testament was kept, written, recorded and passed on by a single group. The Jews. Therefore I think that we can rely on the Old Testament for more stability and less variation.)

Satan

Satan is referenced throughout the book of Job.

He is given free reign to enter and leave Heaven at his discretion. He speaks with God, who essentially asks him where he's been, or where he came from. Satan replying 'From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.' (Job 1:7)

The rest of the story of Job is Satan working as the prosecuting angel to prove that Job is not blameless, perfect, etc.

Previous to Job, Satan only appears in 1 Chronicles 1:1 - 'And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.'

So Satan provokes King David to take a census of the tribes of Israel. So we can blame Satan for having censuses now. This would later trickle down into codified taxation, statistics and other great evils.

He appears again later in Psalm 109:6 - 'Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.'

This is part of a prayer by King David for God to punish his enemies. Satan would serve as the prosecuting angel in this as well, making his enemies miserable by setting obstacles against them and pointing out their many faults to God.

Now, the last time Satan appears in the Old Testament is in Zechariah.

3:1 - And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.

3:2 - And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?

Yet again, Satan stands in 3:1 in his prosecuting attorney seat.

3:2 is God stating to Satan that Joshua has passed the test. He is a 'brand plucked out of the fire.' Because remember, Joshua succeeded where even Moses did not. Joshua was allowed to lead Israel into the promised land.

Lucifer is of particular note, because his name only appears in Isaiah.

Isaiah 14:12 - How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

This is in the midst of a diatribe directed toward the King of Babylon, whom God will lay low for his greed and arrogance. Isaiah is prophesying the downfall of the king of Babylon. So the king is being compared to Lucifer, the Son of the Morning. This verse not refer specifically to Lucifer.

Lucifer is essentially a word meaning 'day star.' This was referring to the pomp and ceremony, or the sheer arrogance of the king of Babylon. (Similar poetic license is taken in Ezekial 28:16 and 31:2-9. Some take Ezekial 28:16 to also refer to Satan as Lucifer. This is unlikely as I don't think angels were cast out of Heaven for their 'corrupt trade' practices. (I'll leave the euphemisms to you here.)

Lucifer first began to be associated with Satan in the Christian Cosmology during the early Patristic Era by Tertullian. (160-220 CE) And was just adopted by later authors and became an assumed fact.

Now, in the New Testament, things get a lot more confused. But keep in mind, this is a completely different time period with books being written by Greeks and Romans, who may be using paraphrasing, or misunderstandings of Hebrew cosmology. So for now I've kept this within the context of the Old Testament.