Did you know that the Devil is not mentioned anywhere in the Old Testament? Sure, there's a fellow called "Satan" in the book of Job, but he's far from being the Prince of Darkness and arch-Enemy of Jehovah. Instead, the "Satan" in that story is just a heavenly prosecutor who tests Job's faith, at Jehovah's command. No, the idea of the Devil doesn't show up in the Bible until the New Testament.
But did you know that there is not a SINGLE verse in the entire New Testament which refers to the Devil as an angel? It says that He "masquerades as an angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14), but that's quite different from actually BEING an angel of light. It also indicates, in passages like Matthew 25:41, that He has angels in His service. But nowhere in the entire book does it actually say that HE is an angel!
The New Testament uses a number of titles to describe the Devil - perhaps the most prominent being "the prince of this world" (John 12:31) - but the only part where it actually describes what the Devil IS, in and of Himself, is Revelation 12:9:
"The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray."
That's right, folks. The Biblical Devil is not an angel or a satyr, but a DRAGON. And the writers of the Bible were not the first ones in history to talk about a "great dragon," either.
2007-07-21
20:12:48
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15 answers
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Anonymous
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Religion & Spirituality