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Define: Satan
Satan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses, see Satan (disambiguation).
Satan (שָׂטָן Standard Hebrew Satan, Latin Sátanas, Tiberian Hebrew Śāṭān; Aramaic שִׂטְנָא Śiṭnâ: both words mean "Adversary; accuser") is an angel, demon, or minor god in many religions. Satan plays various roles in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocrypha and the New Testament. In the Hebrew Bible, Satan is an angel that God uses to test man for various reasons usually dealing with his level of piety (i.e. the test in the Book of Job). In the Apocrypha and New Testament, Satan is portrayed as an evil, rebellious demon who is the enemy of God and mankind. These two ideals are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
In modern Abrahamic religions and other various mythology, Satan is generally viewed as a preternatural entity who is the central embodiment of evil. Satan is also commonly known as the Devil (Latin Diábolus, Diaboli, from Greek Diabolos), the "Prince of Darkness," Beelzebub (direct translation is Lord of the Flies), Belial, Mephistopheles, or Lucifer. In the Talmud and some works of Kabbalah Satan is sometimes called Samael; however most Jewish literature is of the opinion that Samael is a separate angel. In the fields of angelology and demonology these different names sometimes refer to a number of different angels and demons, and there is significant disagreement as to whether any of these entities is actually evil.
In Islam, the role of the primary demon who seduces Adam and Eve is laid upon Iblis, on whose origin the Quran does not elaborate. By refusing to prostrate himself before Adam as Allah commanded him to do, he was cast from the grace of Allah and was sent to earth along with Adam and Eve, where he vowed to lure as much as possible of their offspring into sin and hence make them worthy of accompanying him to Hell, where he was destined after doomsday, in order to prove that Man was not better than he was.
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