Origin of word devil

Origin of devil

The word devil comes from the Latin diabolus (devil), which is a transliteration of the Greek diabolos (devil; diavolos; διάβολος) from the verb diaballo (to insinuate things (against sb), put sb in a bad light, slander, calumniate; from dia- “across, through” + ballo “to throw”; diavallo; διαβάλλω).

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From the same root

English: diabolic, diablerie, ballistic

French: diable, diabolique, diablerie

Italian: diavolo, dabolico, diavoleria

Spanish: diablo, dabolico, diablura

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In modern Greek:

a) diavolos: devil [διάβολος]

b) diavallo: to insinuate things (against sb), put sb in a bad light, slander, calumniate [διαβάλλω]

c) diavoli: calumny, false accusation [διαβολή]

d) diavolicos: diabolic [διαβολικός]

e) vallo: attack, hit out [βάλλω]

f) vallisticos: ballistic [βαλλιστικός]

g) voli: throw, shot [βολή]

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Η λέξη devil προέρχεται από το ελληνικό διάβολος.

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A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions.^[1] It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force.^[2] Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of the devil can be summed up as 1) a principle of evil independent from God, 2) an aspect of God, 3) a created being turning evil (a fallen angel), and 4) a symbol of human evil.^[3]: 23

Each tradition, culture, and religion with a devil in its mythos offers a different lens on manifestations of evil.^[4] The history of these perspectives intertwines with theology, mythology, psychiatry, art, and literature developing independently within each of the traditions.^[5] It occurs historically in many contexts and cultures, and is given many different names—Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, Mephistopheles, Iblis—and attributes: it is portrayed as blue, black, or red; it is portrayed as having horns on its head, and without horns, and so on.^[6][7] While depictions of the devil are usually taken seriously, there are times when it is treated less seriously; when, for example, devil figures are used in advertising and on candy wrappers.^[4][8]

Etymology

The Modern English word devil derives from the Middle English devel, from the Old English dēofol, that in turn represents an early Germanic borrowing of the Latin diabolus. This in turn was borrowed from the Greek διάβολος diábolos, «slanderer»,^[9] from διαβάλλειν diabállein, «to slander» from διά diá, «across, through» and βάλλειν bállein, «to hurl», probably akin to the Sanskrit gurate, «he lifts up».^[10]

Definitions

In his book The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity, Jeffrey Burton Russell discusses various meanings and difficulties that are encountered when using the term devil. He does not claim to define the word in a general sense, but he describes the limited use that he intends for the word in his book—limited in order to «minimize this difficulty» and «for the sake of clarity». In this book Russell uses the word devil as «the personification of evil found in a variety of cultures», as opposed to the word Satan, which he reserves specifically for the figure in the Abrahamic religions.^[11]

In the Introduction to his book Satan: A Biography, Henry Ansgar Kelly discusses various considerations and meanings that he has encountered in using terms such as devil and Satan, etc. While not offering a general definition, he describes that in his book «whenever diabolos is used as the proper name of Satan», he signals it by using «small caps».^[12]

The Oxford English Dictionary has a variety of definitions for the meaning of «devil», supported by a range of citations: «Devil» may refer to Satan, the supreme spirit of evil, or one of Satan’s emissaries or demons that populate Hell, or to one of the spirits that possess a demonic person; «devil» may refer to one of the «malignant deities» feared and worshiped by «heathen people», a demon, a malignant being of superhuman powers; figuratively «devil» may be applied to a wicked person, or playfully to a rogue or rascal, or in empathy often accompanied by the word «poor» to a person—»poor devil».^[13]

Baháʼí Faith

In the Baháʼí Faith, a malevolent, superhuman entity such as a devil or satan is not believed to exist.^[14] These terms do, however, appear in the Baháʼí writings, where they are used as metaphors for the lower nature of man. Human beings are seen to have free will, and are thus able to turn towards God and develop spiritual qualities or turn away from God and become immersed in their self-centered desires. Individuals who follow the temptations of the self and do not develop spiritual virtues are often described in the Baháʼí writings with the word satanic.^[14] The Baháʼí writings also state that the devil is a metaphor for the «insistent self» or «lower self» which is a self-serving inclination within each individual. Those who follow their lower nature are also described as followers of «the Evil One».^[15][16]

Christianity

In Christianity, evil is incarnate in the devil or Satan, a fallen angel who is the primary opponent of God.^[17][18] Some Christians also considered the Roman and Greek deities as devils.^[6][7]

Christianity describes Satan as a fallen angel who terrorizes the world through evil,^[17] is the antithesis of truth,^[19] and shall be condemned, together with the fallen angels who follow him, to eternal fire at the Last Judgment.^[17]

In mainstream Christianity, the devil is usually referred to as Satan. This is because Christian beliefs in Satan are inspired directly by the dominant view of Second Temple Judaism (recorded in the Enochian books), as expressed/practiced by Jesus, and with some minor variations. Some modern Christians^[who?] consider the devil to be an angel who, along with one-third of the angelic host (the demons), rebelled against God and has consequently been condemned to the Lake of Fire. He is described^{[attribution needed]} as hating all humanity (or more accurately creation), opposing God, spreading lies and wreaking havoc on their souls.

Satan is traditionally identified as the serpent who convinced Eve to eat the forbidden fruit; thus, Satan has often been depicted as a serpent.

In the Bible, the devil is identified with «the dragon» and «the old serpent» seen in the Book of Revelation,^[21] as has «the prince of this world» in the Gospel of John;^[22] and «the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience» in the Epistle to the Ephesians;^[23] and «the god of this world» in 2 Corinthians 4:4.^[24] He is also identified as the dragon in the Book of Revelation^[25] and the tempter of the Gospels.^[26]

The devil is sometimes called Lucifer, particularly when describing him as an angel before his fall, although the use of Lucifer (Latin lúcifer or «bringer of light», Hebrew hêlēl), the «son of the dawn» (ben šāḥar), in Isaiah 14:12 is a reference to a Babylonian king.^[27]

Beelzebub is originally the name of a Philistine god (more specifically a certain type of Baal, from Ba‘al Zebûb, lit. «Lord of Flies») but is also used in the New Testament as a synonym for the devil. A corrupted version, «Belzeboub», appears in The Divine Comedy (Inferno XXXIV).

In other, non-mainstream, Christian beliefs (e.g. the beliefs of the Christadelphians) the word «satan» in the Bible is not regarded as referring to a supernatural, personal being but to any ‘adversary’ and figuratively refers to human sin and temptation.^[28]

Apocrypha/Deuterocanon

In the Book of Wisdom, the devil is represented as the one who brought death into the world.^[29] The Second Book of Enoch contains references to a Watcher called Satanael,^[30] describing him as the prince of the Grigori who was cast out of heaven^[31] and an evil spirit who knew the difference between what was «righteous» and «sinful».^[32]

In the Book of Jubilees, Satan rules over a host of angels.^[33] Mastema, who induced God to test Abraham through the sacrifice of Isaac, is identical with Satan in both name and nature.^[34] The Book of Enoch contains references to Sathariel, thought also^{[by whom?]} to be Sataniel and Satan’el. The similar spellings mirror that of his angelic brethren Michael, Raphael, Uriel, and Gabriel, previous to his expulsion from Heaven.^{[citation needed]}

Gnostic religions

Gnostic and Gnostic-influenced religions postulate the idea that the material world is inherently evil. The One true God is remote, beyond the material universe, therefore this universe must be governed by an inferior imposter deity. This deity was identified with the deity of the Old Testament by some sects, such as the Sethians and the Marcions. Tertullian accuses Marcion of Sinope, that he

[held that] the Old Testament was a scandal to the faithful … and … accounted for it by postulating [that Jehovah was] a secondary deity, a demiurgus, who was god, in a sense, but not the supreme God; he was just, rigidly just, he had his good qualities, but he was not the good god, who was Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ.^[35]

John Arendzen (1909) in the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) mentions that Eusebius accused Apelles, the 2nd-century AD Gnostic, of considering the Inspirer of Old Testament prophecies to be not a god, but an evil angel.^[36] These writings commonly refer to the Creator of the material world as «a demiurgus»^[35] to distinguish him from the One true God. Some texts, such as the Apocryphon of John and On the Origin of the World, not only demonized the Creator God but also called him by the name of the devil in some Jewish writings, Samael.^[37]

Catharism

In the 12th century in Europe the Cathars, who were rooted in Gnosticism, dealt with the problem of evil, and developed ideas of dualism and demonology. The Cathars were seen as a serious potential challenge to the Catholic church of the time. The Cathars split into two camps. The first is absolute dualism, which held that evil was completely separate from the good God, and that God and the devil each had power. The second camp is mitigated dualism, which considers Lucifer to be a son of God, and a brother to Christ. To explain this they used the parable of the prodigal son, with Christ as the good son, and Lucifer as the son that strayed into evilness. The Catholic Church responded to dualism in AD 1215 in the Fourth Lateran Council, saying that God created everything from nothing, and the devil was good when he was created, but he made himself bad by his own free will.^[38][39] In the Gospel of the Secret Supper, Lucifer, just as in prior Gnostic systems, appears as a demiurge, who created the material world.^[40]

Islam

In Islam, the principle of evil is expressed by two terms referring to the same entity:^[41][42][43] Shaitan (meaning astray, distant or devil) and Iblis. Iblis is the proper name of the devil representing the characteristics of evil.^[44] Iblis is mentioned in the Quranic narrative about the creation of humanity. When God created Adam, he ordered the angels to prostrate themselves before him. All did, but Iblis refused and claimed to be superior to Adam out of pride. ^{[Quran 7:12]} Therefore, pride but also envy became a sign of «unbelief» in Islam.^[44] Thereafter Iblis was condemned to Hell, but God granted him a request to lead humanity astray,^[45] knowing the righteous would resist Iblis’ attempts to misguide them. In Islam, both good and evil are ultimately created by God. But since God’s will is good, the evil in the world must be part of God’s plan.^[46] Actually, God allowed the devil to seduce humanity. Evil and suffering are regarded as a test or a chance to proof confidence in God.^[46] Some philosophers and mystics emphasized Iblis himself as a role model of confidence in God, because God ordered the angels to prostrate themselves, Iblis was forced to choose between God’s command and God’s will (not to praise someone else than God). He successfully passed the test, yet his disobedience caused his punishment and therefore suffering. However, he stays patient and is rewarded in the end.^[47]

Muslims hold that the pre-Islamic jinn, tutelary deities, became subject under Islam to the judgment of God, and that those who did not submit to the law of God are devils.^[48]

Although Iblis is often compared to the devil in Christian theology, Islam rejects the idea that Satan is an opponent of God and the implied struggle between God and the devil.^{[clarification needed]} Iblis might either be regarded as the most monotheistic or the greatest sinner, but remains only a creature of God. Iblis did not become an unbeliever due to his disobedience, but because of attributing injustice to God; that is, by asserting that the command to prostrate himself before Adam was inappropriate.^[49] There is no sign of angelic revolt in the Quran and no mention of Iblis trying to take God’s throne^[50][51] and Iblis’s sin could be forgiven at anytime by God.^[52] According to the Quran, Iblis’s disobedience was due to his disdain for humanity, a narrative already occurring in early New Testament apocrypha.^[53]

As in Christianity, Iblis was once a pious creature of God but later cast out of Heaven due to his pride. However, to maintain God’s absolute sovereignty,^[54] Islam matches the line taken by Irenaeus instead of the later Christian consensus that the devil did not rebel against God but against humanity.^[55][42] Further, although Iblis is generally regarded as a real bodily entity,^[56] he plays a less significant role as the personification of evil than in Christianity. Iblis is merely a tempter, notable for inciting humans into sin by whispering into humans minds (waswās), akin to the Jewish idea of the devil as yetzer hara.^[57][58]

On the other hand, Shaitan refers unilaterally to forces of evil, including the devil Iblis, then he causes mischief.^[59] Shaitan is also linked to humans psychological nature, appearing in dreams, causing anger or interrupting the mental preparation for prayer.^[56] Furthermore, the term Shaitan also refers to beings, who follow the evil suggestions of Iblis. Furthermore, the principle of shaitan is in many ways a symbol of spiritual impurity, representing humans’ own deficits, in contrast to a «true Muslim», who is free from anger, lust and other devilish desires.^[60]

In Muslim culture, devils are believed to be hermaphrodite creatures created from hell-fire, with one male and one female thigh. By that, they procreate without another mate. It is generally believed that devils can harm the souls of humans through their whisperings. While whisperings tempt humans to sin, the devils might enter the hearth (qalb) of an individual. If the devils take over the soul of a person, this would render them aggressive or insane.^[61] In extreme cases, the alterings of the soul are believed to have effect on the body, matching its spiritual qualities.^[62]

In Sufism and mysticism

In contrast to Occidental philosophy, the Sufi idea of seeing «Many as One», and considering the creation in its essence as the Absolute, leads to the idea of the dissolution of any dualism between the ego substance and the «external» substantial objects. The rebellion against God, mentioned in the Quran, takes place on the level of the psyche, that must be trained and disciplined for its union with the spirit that is pure. Since psyche drives the body, flesh is not the obstacle to humans but rather an unawareness that allows the impulsive forces to cause rebellion against God on the level of the psyche. Yet it is not a dualism between body, psyche and spirit, since the spirit embraces both psyche and corporeal aspects of humanity.^[63] Since the world is held to be the mirror in which God’s attributes are reflected, participation in worldly affairs is not necessarily seen as opposed to God.^[57] The devil activates the selfish desires of the psyche, leading the human astray from the Divine.^[64] Thus it is the I that is regarded as evil, and both Iblis and Pharao are present as symbols for uttering «I» in ones own behavior. Therefore it is recommended to use the term I as little as possible. It is only God who has the right to say «I», since it is only God who is self-subsistent. Uttering «I» is therefore a way to compare oneself to God, regarded as shirk.^[65]

In Salafism

Salafi strands of Islam commonly emphasize a dualistic worldview contrasting believers and unbelievers,^[66] and featuring the devil as the enemy of the faithful who tries to lead them astray from God’s path. Even though the devil will eventually be defeated by God, he remains a serious and dangerous opponent of humans.^[67] While in classical hadiths, the demons (Shayateen) and the jinn are responsible for impurity and capable of endangering human souls, in Salafi thought, it is the devil himself, who lies in wait for believers,^[68] always striving to lure them away from God. The devil is regarded as an omnipresent entity, permanently inciting humans into sin, but can be pushed away by remembering the name God.^[69] The devil is regarded as an external entity, threatening the everyday life of the believer, even in social aspects of life.^[70] Thus for example, it is the devil who is responsible for Western emancipation.^[71]

Judaism

Yahweh, the god in pre-exilic Judaism, created both good and evil, as stated in Isaiah 45:7: «I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.» The devil does not exist in Jewish scriptures. However, the influence of Zoroastrianism during the Achaemenid Empire introduced evil as a separate principle into the Jewish belief system, which gradually externalized the opposition until the Hebrew term satan developed into a specific type of supernatural entity, changing the monistic view of Judaism into a dualistic one.^[72] Later, Rabbinic Judaism rejected^[when?] the Enochian books (written during the Second Temple period under Persian influence), which depicted the devil as an independent force of evil besides God.^[73] After the apocalyptic period, references to Satan in the Tanakh are thought^{[by whom?]} to be allegorical.^[74]

Mandaeism

In Mandaean mythology, Ruha fell apart from the World of Light and became the queen of the World of Darkness, also referred to as Sheol.^[75][76][77] She is considered evil and a liar, sorcerer and seductress.^[78]: 541She gives birth to Ur, also referred to as Leviathan. He is portrayed as a large, ferocious dragon or snake and is considered the king of the World of Darkness.^[76] Together they rule the underworld and create the seven planets and twelve zodiac constellations.^[76] Also found in the underworld is Krun, the greatest of the five Mandaean Lords of the underworld. He dwells in the lowest depths of creation and his epithet is the ‘mountain of flesh’.^[79]: 251 Prominent infernal beings found in the World of Darkness include lilith, nalai (vampire), niuli (hobgoblin), latabi (devil), gadalta (ghost), satani (Satan) and various other demons and evil spirits.^[76][75]

Manichaeism

In Manichaeism, God and the devil are two unrelated principles. God created good and inhabits the realm of light, while the devil (also called the prince of darkness^[80][81]) created evil and inhabits the kingdom of darkness. The contemporary world came into existence, when the kingdom of darkness assaulted the kingdom of light and mingled with the spiritual world.^[82] At the end, the devil and his followers will be sealed forever and the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness will continue to co-exist eternally, never to commingle again.^[83]

Hegemonius (4th century CE) accuses that the Persian prophet Mani, founder of the Manichaean sect in the 3rd century CE, identified Jehovah as «the devil god which created the world»^[84] and said that «he who spoke with Moses, the Jews, and the priests … is the [Prince] of Darkness, … not the god of truth.»^[80][81]

Tengrism

Among the Tengristic myths of central Asia, Erlik refers to a devil-like figure as the ruler of Tamag (Hell), who was also the first human. According to one narrative, Erlik and God swam together over the primordial waters. When God was about to create the Earth, he sent Erlik to dive into the waters and collect some mud. Erlik hid some inside his mouth to later create his own world. But when God commanded the Earth to expand, Erlik got troubled by the mud in his mouth. God aided Erlik to spit it out. The mud carried by Erlik gave place to the unpleasant areas of the world. Because of his sin, he was assigned to evil. In another variant, the creator-god is identified with Ulgen. Again, Erlik appears to be the first human. He desired to create a human just as Ulgen did, thereupon Ulgen reacted by punishing Erlik, casting him into the Underworld where he becomes its ruler.^[85][86]

According to Tengrism, there is no death, meaning that, when life comes to an end, it is merely a transition into the invisible world. As the ruler of Hell, Erlik enslaves the souls, who are damned to Hell. Further, he lurks on the souls of those humans living on Earth by causing death, disease and illnesses. At the time of birth, Erlik sends a Kormos to seize the soul of the newborn, following him for the rest of his life in an attempt to seize his soul by hampering, misguiding, and injuring him. When Erlik succeeds in destroying a human’s body, the Kormos sent by Erlik will try take him down into the Underworld. However a good soul will be brought to Paradise by a Yayutshi sent by Ulgen.^[87] Some shamans also made sacrifices to Erlik, for gaining a higher rank in the Underworld, if they should be damned to Hell.

Yazidism

According to Yazidism there is no entity that represents evil in opposition to God; such dualism is rejected by Yazidis,^[88] and evil is regarded as nonexistent.^[89] Yazidis adhere to strict monism and are prohibited from uttering the word «devil» and from speaking of anything related to Hell.^[90]

Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrianism probably introduced the first idea of the devil; a principle of evil independently existing apart from God.^[91] In Zoroastrianism, good and evil derive from two ultimately opposed forces.^[92] The force of good is called Ahura Mazda and the «destructive spirit» in the Avestan language is called Angra Mainyu. The Middle Persian equivalent is Ahriman. They are in eternal struggle and neither is all-powerful, especially Angra Mainyu is limited to space and time: in the end of time, he will be finally defeated. While Ahura Mazda creates what is good, Angra Mainyu is responsible for every evil and suffering in the world, such as toads and scorpions.^[91]
Iranian Zoroastrians also considered the Daeva as devil creature, because of this in the Shahnameh, it is mentioned as both Ahriman Div (Persian: اهریمن دیو, romanized: Ahriman Div) as a devil.

Devil in moral philosophy

Spinoza

A non-published manuscript of Spinoza’s Ethics contained a chapter (Chapter XXI) on the devil, where Spinoza examined whether the devil may exist or not. He defines the devil as an entity which is contrary to God.^{[93]: 46 [94]: 150} However, if the devil is the opposite of God, the devil would consist of Nothingness, which does not exist.^[93]: 145

In a paper called On Devils, he writes that we can a priori find out that such a thing cannot exist. Because the duration of a thing results in its degree of perfection, and the more essence a thing possess the more lasting it is, and since the devil has no perfection at all, it is impossible for the devil to be an existing thing.^[95]: 72 Evil or immoral behaviour in humans, such as anger, hate, envy, and all things for which the devil is blamed for could be explained without the proposal of a devil.^[93]: 145 Thus, the devil doesn’t have any explanatory power and should be dismissed (Occam’s razor).

Regarding evil through free-choice, Spinoza asks how it can be that Adam would have chosen sin over his own well-being. Theology traditionally responds to this by asserting it is the devil who tempts humans into sin, but who would have tempted the devil? According to Spinoza, a rational being, such as the devil must have been, could not choose his own damnation.^[96] The devil must have known his sin would lead to doom, thus the devil was not knowing, or the devil didn’t know his sin will lead to doom, thus the devil would not have been a rational being. Spinoza deducts a strict determinism in which moral agency as a free choice, cannot exist.^[93]: 150

Kant

In Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone, Immanuel Kant uses the devil as the personification of maximum moral reprehensibility. Deviating from the common Christian idea, Kant does not locate the morally reprehensible in sensual urges. Since evil has to be intelligible, only when the sensual is consciously placed above the moral obligation can something be regarded as morally evil. Thus, to be evil, the devil must be able to comprehend morality but consciously reject it, and, as a spiritual being (Geistwesen), having no relation to any form of sensual pleasure. It is necessarily required for the devil to be a spiritual being, because if the devil were also a sensual^{[clarification needed]}, it would be possible that the devil does evil to satisfy lower sensual desires, and doesn’t act from the mind alone. The devil acts against morals, not to satisfy a sensual lust, but solely for the sake of evil. As such, the devil is unselfish, for he does not benefit from his evil deeds.

However, Kant denies that a human being could ever be completely devilish. Kant admits that there are devilish vices (ingratitude, envy, and malicious joy), i.e., vices that do not bring any personal advantage, but a person can never be completely a devil. In his Lecture on Moral Philosophy (1774/75) Kant gives an example of a tulip seller who was in possession of a rare tulip, but when he learned that another seller had the same tulip, he bought it from him and then destroyed it instead to keeping it for himself. If he had acted according to his sensual^{[clarification needed]} in according to his urges, the seller would have kept the tulip for himself to make profit, but not have destroyed it. Nevertheless, the destruction of the tulip cannot be completely absolved from sensual impulses, since a sensual joy or relief still accompanies the destruction of the tulip and therefore cannot be thought of solely as a violation of morality.^{[97]: 156-173}

Kant further argues that a (spiritual) devil would be a contradiction. If the devil would be defined by doing evil, the devil had no free-choice in the first place. But if the devil had no free-choice, the devil could not have been held accountable for his actions, since he had no free-will but was only following his nature.^[98]

Titles

Honorifics or styles of address used to indicate devil-figures.

See also

• Deal with the Devil
• Devil in popular culture
• Hades, Underworld
• Krampus,^[101][102] in the Tyrolean area also Tuifl^[103][104]
• Non-physical entity
• Theistic Satanism

References

External links

• Entry from the Catholic Encyclopedia
• Can you sell your soul to the Devil? A Jewish view on the Devil

• Afrikaans: duiwel
• Albanian: dreq (sq) m, djall (sq) m, shejtan (sq) m
• Amharic: ዲያቦሎስ (diyabolos), ሳይጣን (sayṭan), ኢብሊስ (ʾiblis)
• Arabic: شَيْطَان‎ (ar) m (šayṭān), إِبْلِيس‎ m (ʔiblīs)
• Armenian: դև (hy) (dew), սատանա (hy) (satana)
• Aromanian: dracu
• Assamese: চৈতান (soitan)
• Asturian: diablu m
• Azerbaijani: şeytan (az), iblis (az)
• Bashkir: шайтан (şaytan), иблис (iblis)
• Belarusian: чорт m (čort), д’я́бал m (dʺjábal), бес m (bjes), сатана́ m (sataná)
• Bengali: শয়তান (bn) (śoẏotan), ইবলিশ (iboliś), রাক্ষস (bn) (rakkhoś)
• Bulgarian: дя́вол (bg) m (djávol), гя́вол m (gjávol) (alternative, archaic), сатана́ (bg) m (sataná), шейта́н (bg) m (šejtán) (Muslim)
• Burmese: ငရဲမင်း (my) (nga.rai:mang:), နတ်ဆိုး (my) (nathcui:), ငရဲသား (my) (nga.rai:sa:), ယမမင်း (my) (ya.ma.mang:)
• Catalan: dimoni (ca) m, diable (ca) m
• Chechen: шайтӏа (šajtʼa), йилбаз (jilbaz), лилбаз (lilbaz)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 惡魔／恶魔 (ok³ mo¹), 魔鬼 (mo¹ gwai²)

  Dungan: шэтани (šetani), йиблисы (yiblisɨ)

  Mandarin: 惡魔／恶魔 (zh) (èmó), 魔鬼 (zh) (móguǐ), 邪魔 (zh) (xiémó), 惡鬼／恶鬼 (zh) (èguǐ)

  Min Nan: 惡魔／恶魔 (zh-min-nan) (ok-mô͘), 魔鬼 (zh-min-nan) (mô͘-kúi)

• Chuvash: явӑл m (javăl)
• Cornish: dyowl m
• Crimean Tatar: şaytan
• Czech: ďábel (cs) m, čert (cs) m
• Dalmatian: diaul m
• Danish: djævel c
• Dutch: duivel (nl) m
• Esperanto: diablo
• Estonian: kurat (et), saatan
• Faroese: djevul m, devul m, fani m, fjandi m, níðingur m, púki m
• Finnish: paholainen (fi), piru (fi), perkele (fi), sielunvihollinen (fi), demoni (fi) sg
• French: diable (fr) m
• Friulian: diaul m, cudiç m
• Galician: demo (gl) m
• Georgian: ეშმაკი (ešmaḳi)
• German: Teufel (de) m
• Gothic: 𐌳𐌹𐌰𐌱𐌰𐌿𐌻𐌿𐍃 m (diabaulus), 𐌿𐌽𐌷𐌿𐌻𐌸𐌰 m (unhulþa), 𐌿𐌽𐌷𐌿𐌻𐌸𐍉 m (unhulþō)
• Greek: διάβολος (el) m (diávolos)

  Ancient: διάβολος m (diábolos)

• Greenlandic: diaavulu, tiaavulu
• Gujarati: શયતાન m (śayatān)
• Haitian Creole: dyab
• Hausa: shaidan
• Hebrew: שֵׁד‎ (he) m (shed), שָׂטָן‎ (he) m (satán)
• Hindi: शैतान (hi) m (śaitān), दानव (hi) m (dānav), राक्षस (hi) m (rākṣas), देव (hi) m (dev), इबलीस (hi) m (iblīs)
• Hungarian: ördög (hu)
• Hunsrik: Deivel m
• Icelandic: djöfull (is) m, fjandi (is) m, skratti m, ári m, fjári (is) m
• Ido: diablo (io)
• Indonesian: iblis (id), syaitan (id), setan (id)
• Interlingua: diabolo
• Irish: diabhal m
• Istriot: giavo m, djavo m
• Italian: diavolo (it) m
• Japanese: 悪魔 (ja) (あくま, akuma), 鬼 (ja) (おに, oni), 悪鬼 (ja) (あっき, akki)
• Kannada: ದೆವ್ವದ (devvada)
• Kapampangan: mamayuyut, mikimarok, dimoniyu, diyablu
• Kazakh: жын (kk) (jyn), сайтан (saitan), шайтан (şaitan), әбілет (äbılet), ібіліс (ıbılıs)
• Khakas: айна (ayna)
• Khmer: បិសាច (km) (bəysaac), សាតាំង (km) (saatang), យម (yum)
• Kikuyu: caitaani
• Korean: 악마(惡魔) (ko) (angma), 악귀(惡鬼) (ko) (akgwi)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: şeytan (ku) m, îblîs (ku) m

• Kven: perkelet
• Kyrgyz: шайтан (ky) (şaytan), азезил (ky) (azezil), жин (ky) (jin)
• Laboya: moritana
• Lao: ປີສາດ (pī sāt)
• Latgalian: valns, lyga
• Latin: diabolus (la) m, larva f
• Latvian: velns m
• Lithuanian: velnias m
• Low German:

  German Low German: Düvel (nds) m

• Luxembourgish: Däiwel m
• Macedonian: ѓавол m (ǵavol), враг m (vrag), шејтан m (šejtan) (Muslim)
• Malagasy: devoly (mg)
• Malay: iblis, syaitan
• Malayalam: ചെകുത്താൻ (ml) (cekuttāṉ)
• Maltese: xitan m, xitana f
• Maore Comorian: shetwani class 9
• Maori: rēwera
• Marathi: सैतान m (saitān)
• Megleno-Romanian: drac
• Middle English: devel
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: буг (mn) (bug), чөтгөр (mn) (čötgör)

• Nepali: शैतान (śaitān)
• North Frisian: (Mooring, Föhr-Amrum) düüwel m
• Northern Altai: буг (bug), шедгер (šedger)
• Northern Ohlone: ‘uténmak
• Northern Sami: biro, vuoras, oinnolaš
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: djevel m

  Nynorsk: djevel m

• Occitan: diable (oc) m
• Ojibwe: maji-manidoo
• Old Church Slavonic:

  Cyrillic: бѣсъ m (běsŭ), дїаволъ m (diavolŭ), диꙗволъ m (dijavolŭ)

• Old East Slavic: чортъ m (čortŭ), бѣсъ m (běsŭ), диꙗволъ m (dijavolŭ)
• Old English: deofol n
• Old Norse: djǫfull m
• Old Persian: 𐎭𐎡𐎺 (daiva)
• Oriya: ଶୟତାନ (śôyôtanô)
• Ossetian: хӕйрӕг (xæjræg)
• Ottoman Turkish: شیطان‎ (şeytan)
• Pashto: شيطان‎ (ps) m (šaytān), ابليس‎ (ps) m (eblis)
• Persian: دیو‎ (fa) (div), ابلیس‎ (fa) (eblis), شیطان‎ (fa) (šeytân)
• Polish: diabeł (pl) m, bies (pl) m, czart (pl) m, czort (pl) m, ciort m, kaduk m (archaic), licho (pl) n, kusy (pl) m
• Portuguese: diabo (pt) m
• Punjabi: ਸ਼ੈਤਾਨ (pa) (śaitān)
• Quechua: supay (qu)
• Romani: beng m
• Romanian: drac (ro) m, diavol (ro) m, satană (ro) f, demon (ro) m, michiduță (ro) m
• Romansch: diavel m
• Russian: чёрт (ru) m (čort), дья́вол (ru) m (dʹjávol), бес (ru) m (bes), сатана́ (ru) m (sataná) (Satan), шайта́н (ru) m (šajtán) (Muslim)
• Sanskrit: पाप्मन् (sa) m (pāpman), पापीयस् (sa) m (pāpīyas), राक्षस (sa) m (rākṣasa), दानव (sa) m (dānava)
• Sardinian: diàbulu m, diàulu m, diàvulu m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: вра̑г m, ђа̏во̄ m, ђа̏вао m, ше́јта̄н m (Muslim)

  Roman: vrȃg (sh) m, đȁvō (sh) m, đȁvao (sh) m, šéjtān (sh) m (Muslim)

• Shor: айна
• Sicilian: diàvulu (scn) m
• Sinhalese: යක්ෂයා (yakṣayā)
• Slovak: diabol m, čert (sk) m
• Slovene: vrag (sl) m, hudič (sl) m
• Slovincian: čǻrnï bȯ́u̯g m, djɵ̏·u̯bĕl m
• Somali: sheydaan
• Southern Altai: шайтан (šaytan)
• Spanish: diablo (es) m
• Sundanese: sétan
• Swahili: ibilisi (sw), shetani (sw)
• Swedish: djävul (sv) c, jävel (sv) c
• Tajik: иблис (iblis), шайтон (tg) (šayton)
• Tamil: பேய் (ta) (pēy)
• Tatar: шайтан (tt) (şaytan), иблис (tt) (iblis)
• Telugu: సైతాను (te) (saitānu)
• Thai: ซาตาน (saa-dtaan), ปีศาจ (th) (bpii-sàat), มาร (th) (maan)
• Tibetan: བདུད (bdud)
• Tigrinya: ሰይጣን (säyṭan)
• Turkish: İblis, şeytan (tr)
• Turkmen: şeýtan, iblis
• Udmurt: шайтан (šajtan), пери (peri)
• Ukrainian: чорт m (čort), біс (uk) m (bis), дия́вол (uk) m (dyjávol), ді́дько m (dídʹko), сатана́ m (sataná)
• Urdu: شیطان‎ m (śaitān), ابلیس‎ (ur) m (iblīs)
• Uyghur: شەيتان‎ (sheytan), ئىبلىس‎ (iblis)
• Uzbek: shayton (uz), iblis (uz)
• Venetian: diavoło, diol, diauło, diaolo, diaoło, diaol, dial
• Vietnamese: ma (vi) (魔), quỷ (vi) (鬼 (vi))
• Volapük: (♂♀) diab (vo), (♂) hidiab, (♀) jidiab (vo), (obsolete) devel
• Walloon: diåle (wa) m
• Welsh: diafol m
• West Frisian: duvel
• Yiddish: טײַוול‎ m (tayvl), שׂטן‎ m (sotn), שד‎ m (shed), רוח‎ m (ruekh), נישט־גוטער‎ m (nisht-guter)

Asked by: Rebecca Breitenberg

Score: 4.2/5
(21 votes)

Etymology. The Modern English word devil derives from the Middle English devel, from the Old English dēofol, that in turn represents an early Germanic borrowing of the Latin diabolus.

What does devil literally mean?

1 often capitalized : the most powerful spirit of evil. 2 : an evil spirit : demon, fiend. 3 : a wicked or cruel person. 4 : an attractive, mischievous, or unfortunate person a handsome devil poor devils.

What does the Greek word diabolos mean?

Diabolos (διάβολος), a Greek word often translated as Devil, may refer to: Diabolos (Gackt album), 2005. «Diabolos», a song by Balzac from Terrifying!

Who are the seven fallen angels?

The fallen angels are named after entities from both Christian and Pagan mythology, such as Moloch, Chemosh, Dagon, Belial, Beelzebub and Satan himself. Following the canonical Christian narrative, Satan convinces other angels to live free from the laws of God, thereupon they are cast out of heaven.

Who is Lucifer’s wife?

Lilith appears in Hazbin Hotel. She is the ex-wife (first wife) of Adam, the first human, wife of Lucifer, queen of hell, and mother of Charlie.

32 related questions found

English is a quirky language because it’s primarily a mix of two separate linguistic families — those languages that come from the Latin, particularly Old French, and those languages that come from the Germanic, particularly Anglo-Saxon. Sometimes two words from each of these branches look and sound very similar, but stem from completely different roots.

Such is the case with evil and devil. As you say, devil comes from the Old English deofol, from the Latin diabolus, which in turn derives from the Greek diabolos. Because of its use in the Church, it’s a word that has permeated many European languages, in much the same form, Portuguese: diabo, German: Teufel, Danish: djævel, Dutch: duivel, and so on.

Evil however is from the Old English yfel derived from the Proto-Germanic ubilaz. This is why the languages that derive from the same source have similar words: Dutch: onheil, German: übel, Danish/Norwegian/Swedish: ond/ont, and so on.

Meanwhile the languages in the Latin branch all have words for evil that derive from malus: Spanish/French/Portuguese: mal, Italian: male, and so on, as well as those English words that come from that branch: maleficent, malevolent, malediction, malignant,, and so on.

Long answer short: it’s a coincidence. But a fun one, nevertheless.

A Devil is an evil spirit in Abrahamic religion. In Judaism and Christianity the term devil is synonymous with both demon and fiend.^[1][2][3] In Christianity, when the word devil is capitalized it can be used as a title for Satan.^[1][3][4] In Islam the word devil used for shaitan,^[5] which are described as unbelieving jinn.^[6] Devil can also be a title for Satan in Islam.^[5][6]

Etymology

The word devil began as a title or term for Satan by Greek speaking Christians and Jews.^[7] The term satan in Hebrew means «the accuser,^[8]» so Greek speaking Jews and Christians would use the word διαβάλλω (diabállō), derived from the word διαβάλλειν (diaballein), meaning «to slander, to attack, or to throw across, to scatter,» to describe Satan.^[7]

In early Christian bibles the term διαβάλλω (diabállō) was specifically used to describe Satan while, δαίμων (daimōn) was used to describe demons.^[7][9] In English and German bibles the terms were merged, creating the meaning most commonly used today.^[7]

Modern Depictions

• In DnD and Pathfinder, devils are lawful evil,^[10] but demons are chaotic evil.^[11]
• The football club Manchester United is nicknamed as Red Devils.
• In Dragon Ball demon is the generic term for all infernal species alongside bad youkai, oni, and majin, but devils are just evil incarnations.

List of individuals who bear Devil title

• Aeshma
• Ahriman
• Asmodeus
• Astaroth
• Azazel
• Baphomet
• Beelzebub
• Belial
• Choronzon
• Al-Ḥāriṯ
• Krampus
• Lilith
• Lucifer
• Mara
• Marra
• Mastema
• Mephistopheles
• Samael
• Satan

References

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Devil Definition & Meaning — Merriam-Webster
2. ↑ https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/devil
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/devil
4. ↑ https://www.dictionary.com/browse/devil
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} https://www.lexico.com/definition/shaitan
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} shaitan | Islamic mythology | Britannica
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3} https://www.etymonline.com/word/devil
8. ↑ https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Satan
9. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/diabolo
10. ↑ https://online.anyflip.com/duex/ixpz/mobile/index.html#p=66
11. ↑ https://online.anyflip.com/duex/ixpz/mobile/index.html#p=51

External links

• Devil — Britannica

By Anatoly Liberman

The Devil is uppermost in people’s thoughts, and his names are many. One of them is Old Nick. Its origin is obscure. The word nicker “water sprite,” explained as an old participle “(a) washed one,” is unrelated to it. Then there is nickel. The term was easy to coin, but copper could not be obtained from the nickel ore, and Axel F. von Cronstedt, a Swedish mineralogist despite von before Cronstedt, called the copper-colored metal copper nickel (German Kupfernickel), later shortened to nickel, after the name of a perfidious mountain demon (wolfram and especially cobalt have a similar history). Nickel was a bogyman or a dwarf, so that von Cronstedt hit on a term of abuse while thinking what to call the deceptive-looking ore. It is less clear why the creature was called Nickel. Later, figures resembling Nickel, disguised and frightening, were used on the eve of St. Nicholas’s day, which led to the confusion of Nickel and Nicholas; hence probably Old Nick.

The connection of the Devil with the name Robert, which has left a trace in the human imagination and art (Meyerbeer’s opera Robert le Diable enjoyed great popularity in his day), is even more puzzling. Robert is, naturally, Rob, and since initial r– often alternates with h-, we have hob “sprite,” as an independent word and as the first element in hobgoblin and, by devious ways, if my etymology is correct, in hobbledehoy. Robin Goodfellow is another fiend. Good in his name owes its existence to taboo: propitiate an enemy, appease him, call him good, and he may leave you in peace. All kinds of flibbertigibbets and Rumpelstilzchens are evil but gullible. It is not fortuitous that Robin Hood, a folklore figure without a historical prototype, though not exactly a forest demon, and Robin Goodfellow are namesakes. We again have the big question unanswered: Why Robin/Robert? Proper names have given rise to hundreds of familiar words, and we can seldom explain the motivation behind the choice. Why john “lavatory,” jenny “skeleton key,” sloppy joe, and slippery jack (the latter is a tasty mushroom)? What did Richard do that dick has acquired an opprobrious meaning? By the way, Dick did not escape the snares of the Devil either. Along with Robert, Richard was among his names. The pet forms of Richard are, among others, Rick and Dick. From Dick we have Dickon, Dicken, and Dickens (-s is a typical suffix lending words a familiar flavor). Dickens is “devil,” but in this case we witness an ultimate triumph of human genius over the forces of evil. Charles Dickens has made the wiles of his “prototype” perfectly harmless. (The existence of such family names, though disturbing, is commonplace: compare German Teufel “devil” and Waldteufel “forest devil”; Emil Waldteufel, 1837-1915, was a popular composer of waltzes). Thus, we have a family consisting of Nick, Dick, and Hob. Old Harry, or Lord Harry, is also worthy of mention.

The supernatural creatures inhabiting mountains, forests, rivers, and so forth could strike awe in people when they made a lot of noise. The names of most giants known from Scandinavian oral tradition mean “screamer” and “howler.” Drolen, one of the Norwegian names of the Devil, is probably akin to troll, a sound-imitative word, like so many others beginning with dr- and tr-. The first part of Rumpelstilzchen is related to Engl. rumble, even though that mischievous imp neither rumbled nor thundered. But this should not cause surprise: people tend to forget the original meaning of words, and this is why we need etymological dictionaries. The –stilzchen element is a cognate of Engl. stilt (-chen is a diminutive suffix, as in Gretchen), so that the whole means something like “little rumble-wooden-leg.” Later, the name, in disregard of its inner form, was applied to a demon who hunted human babies.

The spirits of nature give mighty blows to human beings. Their pugnacity may supply a clue to the word deuce. What the deuce is a synonym of what the dickens. A homonym of deuce “devil” is deuce “two at dice or cards.” Deuce “two” goes back to Old French deus (Modern French deux), from Latin duos, the accusative of duo. Deuce “devil” is of Northern German origin, in which wat de duus..! has been recorded (in High German the phrase is was der Daus..!). English dictionaries suggest that deuce “devil” and deuce “two” are the same word. Allegedly, wat de duus was the exclamation by dicers on making the lowest throw (two), hardly a convincing etymology. There must have been a word duus “devil.” In the August gleanings, I discussed a possible origin of bulldoze(r) and traced, however tentatively, –doze to a verb meaning “strike” (Northern German dusen “beat, strike,” etc.), one of whose congeners is Engl. douse ~ dowse “strike (sail); immerse in water.” There may be a tie between duus and those verbs. Or perhaps duus is related to the words denoting stultification and weakness, such as Engl. dizzy and doze and Dutch dwaas “foolish.” This conjecture presupposes an earlier form *dwuus (there is a convention of putting an asterisk before hypothetical forms). Sometimes we discover only the root of the name we investigate. Such is rag(g)-, known in Swedish, Lithuanian, English (the first element of ragamuffin; its second element, -muff-in, also means “devil,” from the French word for “ugly”), and possibly Italian, if ragazzo “boy” formerly meant “imp” (this ragg– is not related to rag “a piece of cloth”) It would be strange if devils revealed their secrets without a good fight. They guard their names (remember Rumpelstilzchen?), lead people astray (remember Puck?), and parade as bogymen, boggarts and bugs. They also hide behind homonyms, but, although sometimes invisible, they are not invincible.

---

Anatoly Liberman is the author of Word Origins…And How We Know Them. His column on word origins, The Oxford Etymologist, appears here each Wednesday. Send your etymology question to [email protected]; he’ll do his best to avoid responding with “origin unknown.”

Detailed word origin of devil

Dictionary entry	Language	Definition
diabolus	Latin (lat)	Devil.
dēoful	Old English (ca. 450-1100) (ang)
deovel	Middle English (1100-1500) (enm)
devil	English (eng)	To annoy or bother; to bedevil.. To finely grind cooked ham or other meat with spices and condiments.. To grill with cayenne pepper; to season highly in cooking, as with pepper.. To make like a devil; to invest with the character of a devil.. To prepare a sidedish of shelled halved boiled eggs to whose extracted yolks are added condiments and spices, which mixture then is placed into the […]

The devil is an independent and supernatural being in various religions . He plays a special role in Christianity and Islam as the personification of evil . In Christian art he is often depicted as a black-winged angel or as a “junker” with a horse’s foot, in Islam a black figure symbolizes his corrupted nature. Mara or Devadatta takes the place of a «devilish» demon being in Buddhism .

Depending on the religion, cultural epoch and place, the devil is given different names.

Word origin

The word «devil» comes from the ancient Greek Διάβολος Diábolos, literally ‘jumble’ in the sense of ‘confounder, twisting facts, slanderer’ from διά dia ‘ throwing apart’ and βάλλειν bállein ‘throwing’, put together to διαβάλλειν disguises ; Latin diabolus .

The devil in different religions

Judaism

In the translation of the Hebrew texts of Job 1  EU and Zechariah 3  EU into Greek , the Jewish ha-Satan became diabolos (‘devil’) of the Septuagint . The conceptions of Satan in Judaism are clearly different from the conceptions and the use of the term Satan in Christianity and Islam. Due to the interpretation and interpretation of the Tanach by the respective scholars, there are significant differences.

In the Tanakh, Satan is primarily the title of accuser at the divine court of justice (the Hebrew term Satan (
שטן, Sin — Teth — Nun ) means something like «accuser»). The term can also be used for people, the Hebrew word is then generally used without the definite article ( 1 Samuel 29.4  EU ; 1 Kings 5.18  EU ; 11.14.23.25 EU ; Psalm 109.6 EU ; as verbs in the sense of “enemy” or “hostility” in the Psalms: Ps 38,21  EU ; 71,13 EU ; 109 EU ). Usually the title Satan is bestowed on different angels and can then be indicative on its own.

In Judaism, Satan is not seen as something personified or even as evil personified. In Judaism, both good and bad are seen as two sides of a togetherness that both z. B. are based in God, the eternal being. Good and bad are of this world, which is transcendent to God, the eternal being. Satan, when the title is given to an angel in a context or in a story, does not always act on his own authority and not according to his own will, but on behalf of God and is fully under the control and will of God. The title of Satan is given to various angels and people in the Tanakh and other sacred writings of Judaism.

The most detailed account of an angel with the title Satan working on God’s behalf can be found in the book of Job . The narrative begins with the scene at the heavenly court of justice where God and an angel are present. Because of the objection of the angel in this divine court, who acts as the accuser, i.e. as Satan , a reproach is made against God. The pious and prosperous Job is only faithful to God because God does not allow any misfortune around him. Then God allows Satan to test Job’s trust in God. Despite the misfortunes and in spite of the painful illness that overtook the unsuspecting Job on behalf of God, Job accepted his sad fate and did not curse his God . However, he criticizes him and insists that he has done nothing wrong. Job’s friends are convinced that he must have done wrong, because God does not allow an innocent man to suffer so much misfortune. This refutes the angel’s objection that there is no human being who remains loyal to God in every situation or who does not apostate from God as soon as he is doing badly from a human point of view. In two other cases, a Satan appears as a tempter ( 1. Chronicles 21.1  EU ) or accuser ( Zechariah 3.1  EU ) of sinful man before God. In Num 22,22-32  EU the angel (Satan) who stands in the way is ultimately not acting negatively, but is sent by God to prevent worse for Balaam .

In the extra-biblical popular Jewish stories of the European Middle Ages, the title Satan is sometimes given to an angel who is cast out by God because he wanted to make himself equal to God. The stories in which this happens are told juxtaposed in full awareness and knowledge of the teachings of Judaism, which always rejected such ideas. He is considered to be the bearer of the principle of evil. Here alludes to old terms of the Persian culture, in which the dual principle of the fight between good and evil plays a major role, and the ideas of the surrounding Christian culture. They are therefore rather fantastic stories or horror stories and not biblical Jewish teachings or didactic Jewish tales of tradition. It is possible that the ideas of Christianity will only be retold by way of illustration in order to present the positions of Christians that contradict those of Judaism.

The Qliphoth of the Kabbalistic cosmology are metaphorically understood as veiling bowls of the “spark of divine emanation” and fulfill similar functions as the devil figures in other religious systems. In Judaism, divinity is understood with the revelation of the only reality of God, which, however, is veiled by the Qliphoth. Qliphoth are therefore associated with idolatry, impurity, evil spiritual forces such as Samael and the accusing satans , and sources of spiritual, religious impurity.

Christianity

In Christianity , the devil is the epitome of evil. He is also called (deviating from the Old Testament meaning of these names) Satan or Lucifer . The devil is seen as a fallen angel who rebelled against God .

The Christian tradition also often relates the serpent in the creation story to the devil. This equation can already be found in the Revelation of John . Traditionally, the devil is seen as the author of the lies and evil in the world. Revelation calls him the «great dragon, the old serpent called the devil or Satan and who deceives the whole world» ( Revelation 12.9 EU ). The letter to the Ephesians describes his work as «the rule of that spirit that rules in the air and is now still active in the disobedient». The devil is mentioned in detail in the apocryphal Ethiopian Book of Enoch as Azazel as one of those sons of God who with the daughters of man fathered the Nephilim , the «giants of ancient times».

Also in the New Testament, Satan is referred to as an angel who pretends to be the angel of light ( 2 Cor 11:14  EU ) and is presented as a personified spirit being who always acts as the devil. So it says: “He who commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sins from the beginning. But the Son of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil ”( 1 Jn 3 : 8  EU ).

In the book of Isaiah there is a song of mockery of the king of Babylon , a passage of which was later referred to by Christian tradition as Satan, but originally an allusion to the figure of Helel from the Babylonian religion , the counterpart to the Greek god Helios . The reference to the king is made clear at the beginning:

The church fathers saw in this a parallel to the fall of Satan described in Lk 10.18  EU («He said to them: I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning»). A theological justification for the equation is that the city of Babylon in Revelation will be destroyed by God together with the devil on the last day. Others object that an assumed simultaneous annihilation does not mean identity.

In a similar way, parts of Ez 28  EU were also related to the fall of Satan. There the prophet speaks of the end of the king of Tire, who, because of his pride, considers himself a god and is therefore accused. In verses 14–15 it is said to the king: “You were a perfectly formed seal, full of wisdom and perfect beauty. You have been in the garden of God, in Eden. All sorts of precious stones surrounded you […] Everything that was exalted and deepened in you was made of gold, all these ornaments were attached when you were created. I joined you with a fellow with outspread, protective wings. You were on the holy mountain of the gods. You walked between the fiery stones. »

In the Gospels , Jesus refers to the devil in various parables, for example in the parable of the weeds under the wheat:

Before the millennial kingdom , according to the revelation of John, there is a fight between the archangel Michael and his angels and Satan, which ends with the devil and his followers being thrown to earth (fall from hell). For the duration of the thousand-year empire, however, he was tied up, only to be briefly released afterwards. He then seduces people for a certain time before he is thrown into a lake of fire ( Rev. 20 : 1–11  EU ).

A few Christian communities, such as the Christadelphians , the Church of the Blessed Hope or Christian Science , reject the idea of ​​the existence of a devil or Satan as a real evil spirit.

Roman Catholic Church

The denial of evil ( Abrenuntiatio diaboli ) belongs in the Roman Catholic Church to the rite of baptism and to the renewal of baptismal promises in the celebration of Easter vigil . In the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 391–394 it says about Satan:

The Catholic literary scholar and anthropologist René Girard interprets the Christian understanding of Satan in his analysis of the New Testament texts as one of the main motifs of Christian revelation. In the context of the mimetic theory formulated by him, the depiction of the devil in the Gospels is a paradigm of the mimetic cycle: The devil is the tempter and the founder of desire and » scandal » (skándalon), his work is the self-driving mimetic (=  imitative ) Violence, and he is the «murderer from the beginning» who brings about the mythical religious system, the church myth of Christ, that is the becoming and worship of the Jewish traveling preacher, rabbi and messiah Jesus of Nazareth and the separation from Judaism. In the exposure of human (mimetic) violence through the Passion and in the subsequent end of the salvific sacrificial cult of the archaic world, the meaning of the triumph of the cross over the «powers and powers» of the Epistle to the Colossians ( Col 2: 14-15  EU ) and that To see the deception of the “rulers of this world” in 1 Corinthians ( 1 Cor 2, 6–8  EU ) ( Pauline theology and the “principle of evil” ), if one equates these and similar terms with Satan, as the church fathers did . Girard’s view was received by some theological circles, but his ideas are unusual in Christian dogmatics and hardly known by the church public. However, he refers to Origen and his thesis of Satan deceived by the cross as the bearer of “an (r) important intuition”, which in the Western Church “came under suspicion of being ‘magical thinking’”.

Iconography and popular beliefs

Iconographic attributes of the devil go back in part to pagan gods, for example with the Greek god Pan . The devil is usually depicted as black and hairy, with one or two goat or horse feet , ram horns and a tail. When he disappears, he also leaves a bad stench.

Islam

Even if Islam rejects the idea of ​​absolute evil as an opponent of God, Islam knows a variety of personifications of evil. Among them the Dajal , the embodiment of the false prophet in the Islamic end times, the biblical Pharaoh, to whom the sin of being equal to God, is attributed, the gods of the pre-Islamic Arabs (Taghut), Cain, who is charged with murder in the To have brought the world, Iblis , the fallen angel and Satan , a power leading to evil. But every rational being, that is, the people and the jinn who are held responsible by God for their deeds, can be called devils (Shaitan, Arabic الشيطان, Plural شياطينShayāṭīn, identical in meaning and origin with Hebrew שטן= Satan) apply and are referred to as Satans of the al-Ins or «al-Jinn». The devils cause suffering, make life difficult for others, cause doubts in God and lead to evil.

Iblis, who is considered to be the seducer of men and jinn, did not rebel against God, but against the command to submit to man. So Iblis asked permission to mislead people. While Iblis himself does not represent a thoroughly evil figure, the term Satan only refers to evil forces, including Iblis, but only when he acts as a seducer. Under the influence of modern Salafist theology , the devil is increasingly replacing the former role of satans and jinn . In addition, the devil rises to be a permanent threat affecting both social and political affairs and acting to the detriment of Puritan Muslims, while the unbelievers are in constant danger of being under the influence of the devil.

The Sufism go against emphasizes a monistic conception of the world in which evil has not its own reality has, but is represented by one’s ego. Here, too, figures such as Iblis and Pharaoh play an important role; they are both considered a symbol of human sins, such as pride (Pharaoh) and envy (Iblis). Satan also plays a role as a force that stimulates the evil inclinations of man ( nafs ).

Yezidism

The form of evil does not exist in Yezidism . The Yazidi idea is that God is omnipotent and that no other power can exist next to God. The Yazidis do not utter the word of evil because the utterance of this word alone is a question of the uniqueness of God. According to Yazidi belief, God would be weak if he allowed a second force to exist alongside him. This idea would not be compatible with the omnipotence of God.

Zoroastrianism

The religion of Zarathustra, Zoroastrianism , has a dualistic character: “And in the beginning there were these two spirits, the twins, who, according to their own words, are called good and bad in thinking, speaking and doing. The good traders made the right choice between them. «

Gérald Messadié sees Satan’s change from the accuser in God’s counsel to God’s adversary as the takeover of Ahriman from Zoroastrianism; there the evil creator of the world and the good god Ahura Mazda are indeed antagonists.

In Zoroastrianism (also known as Zoroastrianism), souls cross the Činvat Bridge after death . This is where judgment is held: for the righteous person the bridge is wide as a path, for the other it is narrow as a knife point. The good get into the blissful realms of the paradise Garodemäna (later Garotman ), the «place of praise»; but the soul of the evil one comes to the «worst place», d. H. in hell. The demons of Zoroastrianism are called Daevas , Drudsch and Pairikas (Peri) and are sometimes thought of as fiends who are in fleshly intercourse with bad people and seek to seduce the good, and sometimes as treacherous demons who experience drought, bad harvests, epidemics and other plagues impose on the world.

The creation story of Zoroastrianism says that in the first 3000 years Ahura Mazda (God) first created the egg-shaped sky and then the earth and the plants through a long ruling breeze. In the second cycle of 3000 years the primeval animals and then primitive man emerged. This was followed by the break-in of the Anramainyu (the «devil»), who killed primitive man and the primitive animal and opened a period of struggle that only ended with the birth of Zarathustra. This event coincided with the 31st year of King Vistaspa’s reign . And from then on, 3000 years will pass again until the savior Saoschjant is born, who will destroy the evil spirits and bring about a new, immortal world; the dead will also rise from the dead.

Instead of the one Messiah , three are mentioned in other passages, which means that this teaching differs from the corresponding one in the Old Testament. On the other hand, the doctrine of the resurrection even agrees in details with the Christian doctrine, so that the assumption that the latter is borrowed from the religion of the Zoroastrians who are close to the Hebrews has a certain probability in itself. In particular, the terms heaven and hell were not known in ancient Judaism.

Manichaeism

The Manichaeism , an already extinct religion that originated in the third century, taught a strong dualism between the forces of light and darkness. According to the Manichaean concept, God and the devil are completely different. Eons ago both principles of good and bad existed separately, but merged when the beings of darkness attacked the world of light. Manichaeism thus rejects the equation of the devil with the fallen angel, Satan; In Manichaeism, evil has no origin in the creative act or the heavenly world of God, but comes from his own kingdom, the world of darkness. The devil consists of five different shapes: a fish, an eagle, a lion, a dragon and a demon. Manichaeism calls the devil the «prince of darkness», but also calls him Satanas , Ahriman, al-ayṭān or Iblis al Qadim, depending on the audience . As an antithesis to the creative and good God, the devil can only reproduce through sexual intercourse, but not himself create beings from nothing. The children of the devil also include Saklas and Nebroel, two evil spirits in Gnostic literature. The deity with whom Moses spoke according to the Bible would have been, not God, but the prince of darkness.

Lucifer

The term Lucifer, which is also often used, is of non-Jewish origin: In ancient times , Lucifer was the name for the planet Venus ; in ancient Babylon, Venus was called the “day star”, “son of dawn” or “morning star” or “evening star”. The Roman mythology knows Lucifer, the son of Aurora , the goddess of the dawn. In Greek mythology , the goddess Eos is the counterpart to the Roman aurora. And here, too, this goddess had a son, whose name was Phosphoros or Eosphóros (Greek for ‘light bearer’). This corresponds to the Roman Lucifer (Latin for ‘light bearer’ or ‘light bringer’). Since in Isaiah 14:12 an angel falling down from the heavens [actually cherub , s. u.] of the dawn «is mentioned, the» shining star «of Isaiah 14:12 was reproduced in the Vulgate as» lucifer «.

Designations

Devil names

The names listed below partly denote the devil, partly one of several devils or a manifestation of the devil. See the respective explanation and the linked articles.

Abrahamic Religions

Names from the field of Judaism, Islam and Christianity (languages: Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Latin, German):

• Asmodaeus , demon in the Talmud and name of the ruler of the Schedim
• Asazel (Hebrew), a devil figure at the time of the Second Jerusalem Temple who stole the secrets of heaven and taught people the art of making weapons. At that time this figure may have been a demonization of Prometheus , a titan who brought fire from heaven to man. That fire gave the Hellenistic culture the opportunity to manufacture weapons and a military advantage over the Jews, which is why, from a Jewish perspective, he was given the role of a diabolical fallen angel. It has its origin in the Bible, however, and represents a desert demon, which itself does not represent any danger, but corresponds to the ancient Egyptian deity of chaos, Seth , from whom this figure is likely to have been adopted.
• Azazil (Arabic); the name occurs in Arabic literature and Koran exegesis, but not in the Koran itself; often as the name of Iblis before his exile
• Baphomet
• Beelzebub (Hebrew-Latin, from Ba’al Sebul, «Prince Ba’al»)
• Belial (Hebrew, Latin) or Beliar (Greek); a demon in the Jewish Tanach or in the Old Testament
• Chutriel; he is destined to scourge the damned in hell
• Diabolos (Greek) or Diabolus (Latin); derived from this the adjective diabolic («devilish»)
• Iblis , a devil figure in the Koran. The name has not yet been found in pre-Islamic literature, but in the Christian «Kitab al Maghal», where it also denotes a name of Satan.
• Legion , name of a demon in the New Testament
• Lucifer (German) or Lucifer (Latin, literally «light bearer», «light bringer»), name of the fallen angel
• Mastema, a devil in the jubilee book
• Mephistopheles , in short: Mephisto, literary figure in Goethe’s drama Faust
• Phosphoros (Greek, literally «light bearer», «light bringer», cf. Lucifer),
• Samael (Hebrew), also Sammael or Samiel; Israel’s main accuser in the Jewish tradition and a false god in Gnosis
• Satan or Satanas (Hebrew), opponents
• Schaitan or Scheitan (Arabic), name for the supreme tempter and his successors in Islam
• Urian , Mr. Urian
• Voland ( Middle High German  vâlant ), old name of the devil, also in medieval northern France

Other religions and languages

• Angat ( Madagascar )
• Bies [spoken bjes ] (in Polish and some other Slavic languages)
• Czort (in Polish and some other Slavic languages)
• Čert (in Czech )
• Kölski ( Iceland )
• Milcom, ammonite devil
• Ördög (in Hungarian )
• Pii Saart ( Thailand )
• Yerlik or Erlik denotes a diabolical figure in the ( Old Turkish ) language. The shamanistic world views are diverse, and so are the myths about Erlik’s origin. According to a creation myth, God and his first creature, identified with Erlik, swam in the eternal ocean. Then when God wanted to create the world, he sent Erlik to the bottom of the ocean to collect earth from which creation would arise. But Erlik hid part of the collected earth in his mouth to create his own realm. When Erlik almost choked on it, God helped him spit out the hidden earth, which then became all unpleasant places in the world. God angrily punished Erlik by granting him his own kingdom, but assigning it to the underworld, whereupon Erlik became the deity of the underworld. According to the mythology collected by Vasily Verbitsky from Turks in the Altai region, Erlik was cast out by the heavenly beings along with spirits who followed him. In the practical living out of faith, Erlik are sometimes sacrificed to appease him. So-called “shadow shamans” trace their teachings back to Erlik himself and believe that after her death with Erlik they will enjoy a higher rank in the underworld. In addition to elementals cast out by heaven, Erlik is in command of other demons such as Körmös and Hortlak .

Paragraphs and covering designations

Some people assume that mentioning the devil’s name could lead to his being called. There are therefore a multitude of disguising names and descriptions for the devil. Another reason for using a paraphrase may be to emphasize an aspect of one’s being. Examples:

• Incarnate
• Gottseibeiuns (popular)
• Daus (popular, outdated), contained in the phrase «ei der Daus»
• Adversary
• Seducer
• Lord of hell
• Cuckoo («Get the cuckoo»)
• Höllenwart (derived from the old devil names «Hellewart», «Hellewirt» or «Hellehirt»)
• Prince of this world
• Son of damnation
• fallen morning star
• Lord of the Flies (literal translation from Hebrew Beelzebub )
• Thousand artist ( latin milleartifex )
• (Old) Nick, English nickname for the devil (used for example in the film The Cabinet of Dr. Parnassus )
• Old Scratch or Mr. Scratch, English nickname for the devil (used for example in the story A Christmas Carol )

Deities identified with the devil

There are deities from other religions and mythologies who have been identified with the devil within Christianity.

• Ahriman , Ahryman (Middle Persian ‘evil spirit’, Zoroastrian origin)
• Lucifer
• Pan
• Baal

The devil in psychoanalysis

In 1922, the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud dealt with the Christian folk belief in the devil. In the essay published in 1923, A Devil’s Neurosis in the Seventeenth Century (XIII, pp. 317-353), he rated church pastoral care as not helpful in dealing with sick people. The diagnosis of the clinical picture of the Bavarian Catholic Christian, painter and Teufelsbündler Christoph Haitzmann , who in 1669 had committed himself to the devil with his own blood, was: «Depression that has not been dealt with as a result of the loss of a loved one». The legend has passed down the following events: On September 8, 1677 on the day of the birth of Mary , during an exorcistic practice at midnight in the pilgrimage church of Mariazell, the devil appeared as a winged dragon to Christoph Haitzmann in the presence of monks.

According to the psychoanalyst Slavoj Žižek , not only does the devil «function as diabolos (from diaballein: separate, pull one into two) and Jesus Christ as his opposite, as a symbol (to symbolize: collect and unite)». Rather, according to Lk 14.26  EU , Jesus Christ himself is the separator (diabolos) and both the devil and Judas Iscariot are merely his supporters.

Cultural and historical significance

The devil in a fairy tale

Numerous fairy tales tell — mostly contrary to Christian dogmatics — of a devil who often has comical traits. These include B. KHM 29 The devil with the three golden hairs , KHM 100 The devil’s sooty brother, KHM 125 The devil and his grandmother or KHM 189 The farmer and the devil.

The devil in film and television

Many actors have embodied the devil over the course of time, with a wide variety of approaches, from very humorous to extremely serious and nasty:

• John Gottowt — 1913 in The Student of Prague
• Reinhold Schünzel — 1919 in Uncanny Stories
• Benjamin Christensen — in 1922 in Häxan
• Emil Jannings — 1926 in Faust — a German folk tale
• Werner Krauss — 1926 in The Student of Prague
• Theodor Loos — 1935 in The Student of Prague
• Walter Huston — 1941 in The Devil and Daniel Webster
• Laird Cregar — 1943 in A Heavenly Sinner
• Vincent Price — 1957 in The Story of Mankind
• Gustaf Gründgens — 1960 in Faust
• Julie Newmar — 1963 in Twilight Zone (Of Late I Think of Cliffordville)
• Eddie Powell — 1967 in The Devil’s Bride
• Burgess Meredith — 1967 in The Torture Garden of Dr. Diabolo
• 
  Christiane Schröder — 1971 in The Devil in Love
  
• Christopher Lee — 1971 in Poor Devil
• Dieter Franke — 1977 in Who will tear away from the devil
• Patrick Macnee — 1978 in Battlestar Galactica (TV Series)
• Horst Frank — 1979 in Timm Thaler (TV series)
• Danny Elfman — 1980 in Forbidden Zone
• David Warner — 1981 in Time Bandits
• Tim Curry — 1985 in Legend
• Jack Nicholson — 1987 in The Witches of Eastwick
• Robert De Niro — 1987 in Angel Heart
• Roberto Benigni — 1988 in A Heavenly Devil
• Jeff Goldblum — 1990 in The Devil Mr. Frost
• Max von Sydow — 1993 in In a small town
• Viggo Mortensen — 1995 in God’s Army — The Last Battle
• Al Pacino — 1997 in On behalf of the devil
• Robert Englund — 1997 in A Terribly Nice Family
• Gabriel Byrne — 1999 in End of Days
• Harvey Keitel — 2000 in Little Nicky — Satan Junior
• Elizabeth Hurley — 2000 in Devilish
• Armin Rohde — 2002 in 666 — Don’t trust anyone you sleep with!
• Rosalinda Celentano — 2004 in The Passion of the Christ
• Peter Stormare — 2005 in Constantine
• John Light — 2005 in The Prophecy: Uprising
• Peter Fonda — 2007 in Ghost Rider
• Dave Grohl — 2007 in Kings of Rock — Tenacious D
• Christoph M. Ohrt — 2007 in A devil for the Engel family
• Ray Wise — 2007 to 2009 in Reaper (TV series)
• Bryan Cranston — 2008 Fallen Angels 3
• Mark Pellegrino — 2009 in Supernatural (TV Series)
• Tom Waits — 2010 in The Cabinet of Dr. Parnassus
• Nicholas Ofczarek — 2012 in Jesus Loves Me
• Philip Davis — 2013 in Being Human (TV Series)
• Tom Ellis — 2016 in Lucifer (TV Series)
• Justus von Dohnányi — 2017 in Timm Thaler or The Laughter Sold (film)

Many other films deal with the devil:

• Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
• The Exorcist (1973)
• The Omen (1976)
• Exorcist II — The Heretic (1977)
• Halloween the night of horror (1978)
• The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
• The Nine Gates (1999)
• Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)
• The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
• Requiem (2006)
• The Omen (2006)
• The Reaping: The Messengers of the Apocalypse (2007)
• Gonger — Evil Never Forgets (2008)
• Gonger 2 — Evil Returns (2010)
• Devil (2010)

The devil in music and literature (selection)

The tritone , frowned upon in the Middle Ages, was also referred to as the diabolus in musica (Latin: ‘devil in music’) or the devil’s interval . Since the song Black Sabbath by the band of the same name , which is based on the tritone, this has been a trademark of their «evil» sound. The title of the album Diabolus in Musica by the metal band Slayer also alludes to the tritone.

The devil’s violin is a simple rhythm and noise instrument.

The devil is the theme of the following pieces of music (selection)

• Giuseppe Tartini : Devil’s Trill Sonata for the violin (18th century)
• The Rolling Stones : Sympathy for the Devil (1968)
• AC / DC : Highway to Hell (1979)
• Marilyn Manson : You and Me and the Devil Makes 3 (2007)

The story The Devil on Christmas Eve by Charles Lewinsky offers a cheerful view of the devil . In the text, the devil visits the Pope to seduce him. He does.

In the work The Master and Margarita by the Russian writer Michail Bulgakov , the magician Voland embodies the devil and is assisted by characters named Behemoth , Asasselo and Abaddon .

Wanders German Proverbs Lexicon offers 1700 proverbs with the word devil .

The devil in the theater

In the play Kasper saves a tree, staged by Martin Morgner (first performance 1986), the Baron Lefuet represents the devil.

The devil in the puppet show

In traditional puppet theater , the devil appears as the incarnation of evil. He contrasts figures that embody the principle of the good, such as puppets , fairies or angels . In the classic puppet show by Dr. Faustus plays the role of the devil as Mephistopheles in the role of the counterpart and companion of the main character Faust. In the modern traffic junk game, the devil acts as a seducer who wants to tempt people to behave in a way that is illegal, accident-prone and anti-cooperation. In this role he reflects the destructive tendencies in people, which are determined by self-interest, gainfulness, striving for power and other vices and are already found in child behavior. The characters in the puppet theater have experienced different interpretations in the course of their long theater history. In the pedagogically oriented modern traffic theater, the rigid typology and the fixation on the eternal evil is partly abandoned and with the help of the audience itself the devil is given the chance of an ultimate conversion to the good and useful.

Depending on the type of puppet theater, the figure of the devil can be found in the form of a hand puppet , stick puppet or marionette .

Survey

According to a survey of 1003 people in Germany in March 2019, 26 percent believe in the existence of a devil. The situation in the USA in 1997 was comparable.

literature

• Daniel Arasse : Portraits of the Devil. With an essay by Georges Bataille . Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-88221-588-5 .
• Verena Bach: In the face of the devil. Its appearance and representation in film since 1980. Herbert Utz Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-8316-0636-6 .
• Klaus Berger : What is the devil there for? Gütersloher Verlagsanstalt, Gütersloh 2001, ISBN 3-579-01454-4 .
• Maria-Christina Boerner: Angelus & Diabolus. Angels, devils and demons in Christian art. Edited by Rolf Toman . Verlag H. F. Ullmann, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-8480-0771-4 .
• Anna Maria Crispino, Fabio Giovannini, Marco Zatterin (eds.): The book of the devil. History, cult, manifestations. License issue. Gondrom, Bindlach 1991, ISBN 3-8112-0909-4 .
• Alfonso M. DiNola: The devil. Essence, effect, history. Dtv, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-423-04600-7 .
• Kurt Flasch : The devil and his angels. The new biography. C. H. Beck, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-406-68412-8 ( Review. In: Die Welt. September 16, 2015).
• René Girard : I saw Satan fall from the sky like lightning. Hanser, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-446-20230-7 (original edition: Je vois Satan tomber comme l’éclair. 1999).
• Bruno Gloger, Walter Zöllner : Faith in the devil and witchcraft. Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 1983.
• Herbert Haag : Belief in the devil. Katzmann, Tübingen 1980, ISBN 3-7805-0393-X .
• Marianne Hauser: Shaping Evil. Phenomenology of its origin and approaches to its conceptual foundation. Altenberge (Oros) 1986.
• Wassilios Klein, Kirsten Nielsen u. a .: devil. In: Theological Real Encyclopedia . 33 (2002), pp. 113–147 (religious-historical, biblical, church-historical, dogmatic and iconographic aspects).
• Anton Szandor LaVey : The Satanic Bible and Rituals. SecondSight, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-935684-05-3 .
• Charles Lewinsky : The devil on Christmas night. Verlag Nagel & Kimche, Zurich 2010, ISBN 978-3-312-00465-2 .
• Jan Löhdefink: Times of the Devil. Concepts of the devil and historical time in early Reformation pamphlets (1520–1526). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2016, ISBN 978-3-16-154449-1 .
• Sylvia Mallinkrodt-Neidhardt: Satanic Games. The renaissance of Teufel and Co. A critical analysis. Neukirchener Verlagshaus, Neukirchen-Vluyn 2002, ISBN 3-7975-0049-1 .
• Peter Maslowski : The theological monster. The so-called devil and his story in Christianity. IBDK-Verlag, Berlin 1978.
• Fritz Mauthner : History of the Devil. In: Ders .: Atheism and its history in the West. 4 volumes. Volume 1: Introduction. Fear of the devil and enlightenment in the so-called Middle Ages. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart / Berlin 1920, first book. Second section, pp. 186–221 ( scan of the first edition of the French National Library in Fraktur ; scan of the complete, corrected new edition. M-presse, Heppenheim 2010 in the Google book search, ISBN 978-3-929376-66-1 ).
• Gerald Messadié : Devil, Satan, Lucifer. Universal history of evil. Komet-Verlag, Frechen 1999, ISBN 3-933366-19-4 .
• Paul Metzger: The devil (= Marix knowledge ). Marixverlag, Wiesbaden 2012, ISBN 978-3-86539-969-4 .
• Elaine Pagels : Satan’s Origin. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 1996, ISBN 3-518-39368-5 .
• Egon von Petersdorff: Daemonologie (Vol. 1: Demons in the world plan. Vol. 2: Demons at work ). Christiana publishing house, Stein a. Rhine 1995.
• Chris Redstar: Greetings from Hell. Confessions of a Satanist. BoD, Norderstedt 2004, ISBN 3-8334-2014-6 .
• Kurt Röttgers : Devils and Angels. transcript, Bielefeld 2005, ISBN 3-89942-300-3 .
• (Georg) Gustav Roskoff : History of the devil. A cultural-historical satanology from the beginnings to the 18th century. Greno, Nördlingen 1987, ISBN 3-89190-805-9 .
• Walter Simonis : Where does evil come from? … when God is good. Graz 1999, ISBN 3-222-12740-9 .
• Walter Simonis: About God and the World. God and creation doctrine. Düsseldorf 2004, ISBN 3-491-70375-1 .
• Wolfgang Wippermann : Racial madness and belief in the devil. Frank & Timme, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-86596-007-3 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Teufel  — explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

• Stefan Greif: Do you like the devil? To the devil image of Goethe’s time. In: goethezeitportal.de ( PDF ; 256 kB)
• Joseph Jacobs , Ludwig Blau :  Satan. In: Isidore Singer (Ed.): Jewish Encyclopedia . Volume 11, Funk and Wagnalls, New York 1901-1906, pp.  68-71 .
• www.infranken.de: Petra Malbrich: Pope Francis warns of the devil: does he exist? (Interview with Hans Markus Horst).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Na’ama Brosh, Rachel Milstein, Muzeʼon Yiśraʼel (Jerusalem) Biblical stories in Islamic painting. Israel Museum, 1991, p. 27 (English).
2. ^ Paul Carus : The History of the Devil and the Idea of ​​Evil. 1900, pp. 104–115 ( online ) (German: The history of the devil from the beginnings of civilization to modern times. Bohmeier Verlag, Leipzig 2004, ISBN 978-3-89094-424-1 ).
3. ↑ Satan is a Hebrew title, usually an angel , which roughly corresponds to that of an accuser. Lucifer («light bearer») is also the Latin name of the morning star .
4. ↑ Reiner Luyken : There is no more fire in hell. (No longer available online.) In: zeit.de. March 8, 1996, archived from the original on February 22, 2017 ; accessed on January 15, 2019 (source: Die Zeit , 11/1996).
5. ↑ Zeki Saritoprak The Legend of al-Dajjal (Antichrist): The Personification of Evil in the Islamic tradition 14 April 2003 Wiley Online Library
6. ^ Amira El-Zein: Islam, Arabs, and Intelligent World of the Jinn (= Contemporary issues in the Middle East ). Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, N.Y. 2009, ISBN 978-0-8156-5070-6 , p. 45 (English).
7. ↑ Michael Kiefer, Jörg Hüttermann, Bacem Dziri, Rauf Ceylan, Viktoria Roth, Fabian Srowig, Andreas Zick: «Let us make a plan in sha’a Allah». Case-based analysis of the radicalization of a WhatsApp group. Springer-Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-658-17950-2 , p. 111.
8. ↑ Thorsten Gerald Schneider’s Salafism in Germany: Origins and Dangers of an Islamic Fundamentalist Movement transcript Verlag 2014 ISBN 9783839427118 p. 39.
9. ↑ Peter J. Awn Satan’s Tragedy and Redemption: Iblis in Sufi Psychology BRILL 1983 ISBN 9789004069060 p. 93 (English).
10. ↑ Willis Barnstone, Marvin Meyer The Gnostic Bible: Revised and Expanded Edition Shambhala Publications 2009 ISBN 978-0-834-82414-0 pp. 575-577.
11. ↑ Peter J. Awn Satan’s Tragedy and Redemption: Iblis in Sufi Psychology BRILL 1983 ISBN 9789004069060 (English).
12. ^ Acta Archelai of Hegemonius, Chapter XII, c. AD 350, quoted in Translated Texts of Manicheism, compiled by Prods Oktor Skjærvø, p. 68 (English).
13. ↑ George WE Nickelsburg: Apocalyptic and Myth in 1 Enoch 6-11. In: Journal of Biblical Literature. Volume 96, No. 3.
14. ↑ Egypt and The Bible The Prehistory of Israel In the Light of Egyptian Mythology. Brill Archive.
15. ↑ Because the Baal statues were also sacrificed in summer, the sacrificial blood attracted the flies. The name is therefore polemically translated as » Lord of the Flies «. Through various readings, Baal Sebul later became Beelsebul, from which folk etymology became Beelzebub .
16. ↑ Monferrer-Sala, JP (2014). One More Time on the Arabized Nominal Form Iblīs. Studia Orientalia Electronica, 112, 55-70. Retrieved from https://journal.fi/store/article/view/9526
17. ↑ Voland is also the name of the devil in Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita .
18. ↑ Vísindavefurinn: How many words are there in Icelandic for the devil? Visindavefur.hi.is, accessed April 5, 2012 .
19. ↑ David Adams Leeming, A Dictionary of Creation Myths, Oxford University Press, 2014, ISBN 9780195102758 p. 7
20. ↑ Fuzuli Bayat Türk Mitolojik Sistemi 2: Kutsal Dişi — Mitolojik Ana, Umay Paradigmasında İlkel Mitolojik Categoriler — İyeler ve Demonoloji Ötüken Neşriyat A.Ş 2016 ISBN 9786051554075 (Turkish)
21. ↑ AB Sagandykova, Assylbekova, BS Sailan GS Bedelova and Tuleshova The Ancient Turkic Model of Death Mythology Medwell Journals, 2016 ISSN 1818-5800 p. 2278
22. ↑ According to the Duden, the connection is uncertain; see. «Daus» .
23. ↑ Cf. Meinolf Schumacher : The devil as ‘a thousand artists’. A word history contribution. In: Middle Latin Yearbook . Volume 27 (1992), pp. 65-76 ( PDF; 1.4 MB ).
24. 
    ^ «Anno 1669, Christoph Haitzmann. I dedicate myself to being Satan, I will be his serf son, and in 9 years I will belong to him with my body and soul. ”Quoted from Rolf Kaufmann: The good thing about the devil. Cape. Decay of the archaic worldview in the Occident ( Memento from April 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), para. 106. In: opus-magnum.de, accessed on October 15, 2012.
    
25. ↑ See the first edition in: Imago . Journal of the Application of Psychoanalysis to the Humanities. 9th vol., Vol. 1, pp. 1-34 on Wikisource .
26. ↑ Slavoj Žižek : STAR WARS III. About Taoist Ethics and the Spirit of Virtual Capitalism. In: Lettre International . No. 69, Summer 2005, 54, accessed on March 13, 2015.
27. ^ Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm : Children’s and house fairy tales. Collected by the Brothers Grimm. Bookshop of the Royal Secondary School in Berlin, 1812/1815.
28. ↑ Charles Lewinsky: The devil on Christmas night. Haffmans, Zurich 1997; Nagel & Kimche, Zurich 2010, ISBN 978-3-312-00465-2 .
29. ↑ Wolfgang Schneider : Masterpiece of magical realism. In: deutschlandfunkkultur.de . August 17, 2012, accessed on January 15, 2019 (review of the edition: Galiani, Berlin 2012, translated from Russian and edited by Alexander Nitzberg ).
30. ^ Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Wander : German Sprichwort Lexikon. Reprint in different versions.
31. ↑ Manfred Wegner (ed.): The games of the doll. Contributions to the art and social history of puppet theater in the 19th and 20th centuries. Cologne 1989.
32. ^ Wolfram Ellwanger, A. Grömminger: The hand puppet show in kindergarten and elementary school. Herder, Freiburg 1978.
33. ↑ Siegbert A. Warwitz : The traffic jasper is coming or what the puppet game can do. In: Ders .: Traffic education from the child. Perceive-play-think-act. 6th edition. Schneider, Baltmannsweiler 2009, pp. 252-257.
34. ^ K. Wagner: Traffic education then and now. 50 years of Verkehrskasper. Scientific state examination work (GHS), Karlsruhe 2002.
35. ↑ Dietmar Pieper: «The sky is empty» . In: Der Spiegel . No. 17 , 2015, p. 40-48 ( online — April 20, 2019 ).
36. ↑ Gustav Niebuhr: Is Satan Real? Most People Think Not.
37. ↑ A satire on the way the Catholic Church deals with the devil.