Lucifer.
Satan.
Ahriman.
Darren Farley.
The devil wears many names, but just how did this being of ultimate evil come to be?
Throughout history and cultures, evil entities have always been blamed for various tragedies
that befell humanity.
In ancient Greek mythology, there were various entities which could perform or inspire evil
deeds, but the Greek gods themselves were often so cruel and evil that there was little
need for a centralized evil figure.
Hades may be the figure best representative of a traditional 'devil', but compared to
the shenanigans of the other gods, Hades often comes off as a choir boy.
Under the yoke of gods who were as capricious, petty, selfish, arrogant, and jealous as children,
the ancient Greeks could have been said to suffer under many devils.
Buddhism is one of the few non-Abrahamic religions that has a figure similar to what we most
closely associate as 'the devil' in our modern culture.
In Buddhism, the demon Mara directly opposes the Buddha's quest for enlightenment.
In one version of events, he sends his three daughters, Attraction, Aversion, and Delusion,
to strip in front of the meditating Buddah, in order to tempt him away from his studies.
Buddah however swept them away from his presence, ignoring the temptation and continuing to
pursue his personal enlightenment.
Mara is the guardian of passion, and uses his powers of lust, hesitation, and fear in
order to lead would-be Buddhists astray and off the path.
If you've ever felt yourself afraid of doing the right thing, hesitating to act when you
know you should, or cheating on a significant other with another person, then you've felt
the powerful pull of Mara in your own life.
Unlike the traditional Abrahamic devil however, Mara does eventually repent of his sins and
convert to Buddhism.
This occurs when the Buddhist monk Upagupta journeys to the ancient Indian kingdom of
Mathura to preach the path of enlightenment.
Finding great success amongst the population, Mara's palace began to tremble, and he was
quick to take his revenge, attacking the Dharma- or the Buddhist teachings directly.
In order to seek out the source of the disturbance, Upagupta slipped into a meditative trance,
known as samadhi.
With the monk helpless before him, Mara slipped a fine jade necklace over his neck, an attempt
to tempt the monk with vanity.
Upagupta then gathered three corpses- that of a man, a dog, and a snake- and transformed
them into a beautiful garland.
Approaching Mara, the monk offered him the beautiful garland as a thank you token for
the jade necklace.
Reveling in his destruction of the monk's piety with his gift of precious jade, Mara
proudly extended his neck and received the garland, only to have it instantly transform
back into the three rotting corpses.
Angered and disgusted, Mara fled to the heavens, seeking anyone who could help him remove the
rotting corpses from around his neck.
In desperation, he approached Brahma himself- one of the principal deities of Buddhism-
and begged him to remove the necklace.
Brahma suggested that Mara return to earth and beg for the forgiveness of the monk who
had cursed him.
Mara thus returned to Upagupta and threw himself at the monk's feet.
Upagupta asked if he would turn from his evil ways and cease to attack the Dharma, to which
Mara eagerly agreed, and then began to repent for his many sins.
Thus, Mara was converted from his evil ways to the path of enlightenment.
In early Hindu beliefs, there is no one figure, or group of figures, responsible for evil.
Rather, evil simply exists in the world as part of the natural cycle of life.
As the Hindu faith evolved however, blame for evil was assigned to demons.
Both demons and gods made a choice to speak either truth or untruth, with the gods choosing
to speak only truth and the demons choosing to speak only untruth.
While we may be best familiar with the concept of the devil due to abrahamic religions, the
devil as a singular entity of ultimate evil, is believed to actually be the influence of
Zoroastrianism on early Judaism.
In Zoroastrianism, good and evil are not part of the same coin, but rather are two completely
opposite and separate forces that are forever in conflict with each other.
The force of good is called Ahura Mazda, and the force of evil, or “destructive spirit”,
is known as Angra Mainyu, or Ahriman.
Neither of these two forces is all-powerful, meaning one cannot outright control or defeat
the other.
But, good and evil are also not equals- good is free of the bonds of time and space, while
evil is constrained by both time and space.
Thus, when the world ends and time and space are dissolved, evil will die along with the
old word, leaving only good to reign forever.
This concept of two separate, powerful entities vying for the fate of the world, is believed
to have influenced early Judaism, prompting belief in a devil who was powerful- yet not
as powerful as God himself who would ultimately win and rule supreme.
In early Judaism though, there was no belief in an actual devil.
Yahweh rules supreme, and for a long time, Satan in Judaism was not so much an individual,
as he was a natural inclination by people to do wrong.
Translated as “opponent” or “adversary”, Satan was the sinful impulse or general forces
that prevent human beings from doing good.
There was no central figure who commanded these forces, and no tempter that played on
human frailty to lure people into evil.
A battle with Satan in Judaism is a battle with yourself, and your proclivity to be lustful,
selfish, lazy, etc.
Sometimes though the name Satan is used to reference an accusatory or prosecutorial figure,
who is actually also on God's side- not opposed to him.
Typically this is an angel which is allowed to act in a way that is adversarial to God's
people, in order to help them rid themselves of moral weaknesses or strengthen their character
and faith.
Perhaps the best known example of this is in the book of Job.
Job is one of the wealthiest men in the land of Uz, where he lives with his large family
and many flocks.
Described as a righteous man, who strives to do good and avoid doing evil, Job is blessed
with a large family and much wealth.
However, Satan approaches God one day and God boasts to Satan about how good and faithful
his servant Job is.
Satan however points out that it's easy to be good and faithful when you're living such
a good life, so he challenges God- take away Job's fortunes, and he'll surely curse your
name.
With that, God grants Satan power over Job's life- yet forbids him from actually killing
Job.
In just one day, Satan kills all of Job's livestock, ten of his children, and all of
his servants.
Job is not just financially destitute, but has lost nearly all of his family.
He shaves his head and tears his clothes in mourning, and then settles into the dust of
his home where he lays as three of his friends visit him and try to find the source of his
damnations- confident that it must be some secret sin in Job's life that brought this
catastrophe down on him.
During the course of his ordeal, Job defends his character against his friends and rebukes
his wife, who suggests that he curse God and die.
As Job refuses to blame God for his misfortune, Satan strikes him with all manner of illnesses,
further adding to his misery.
While Job expresses frustration with God, he still refuses to blame God for his woes-
pointing out that God had up until then, given him a long, happy life, so he had the right
to take it away.
Job's friends continue to harass him, all of them confident in their self-righteousness
that Job clearly must have been harboring some secret sin, or this evil wouldn't have
befallen him.
At last, God appears before the group as a whirling tempest, and with a series of rhetorical
questions shows the frustrated Job and group just how little they understand creation or
the nature of God.
In an act of humility, Job admits his limited knowledge, which pleases God- though God remains
upset with Job's friends who had for days tried to pressure Job into admitting his suffering
was his own fault.
Job however asks God to forgive his friends, which pleases God once more, and God forgives
the friends while restoring to Job twice as much wealth as he had before, along with new
children and an extremely long, happy life.
While Christians have turned the Satan of the Book of Job into an individual entity
diametrically opposed to God, the ancient Jews understood the Satan of Job as merely
an actor in God's heavenly court.
Furthermore, while scriptural literalists will believe the Book of Job to be a real
story, it's widely acknowledged that the story was clearly a poetic exploration of deep theological
questions.
In Islam, itself an offshoot of Judaism, God created Adam- the first human- and then ordered
all of the anglels to prostrate themselves before Adam, signifying that man with his
free will and ability to choose, was the superior being.
All of the angels prostrated themselves except for one- Iblis, or Shaitan- who out of pride,
claimed that he was superior to a mere mortal.
For his pride, God cast Iblis out of heaven and into hell, but not before granting Iblis
his request that he be allowed to lead mortals astray.
Knowing that temptation would challenge and strengthen his people, God gave Iblis permission
to attempt to sway humans to evil.
Both good and evil are created by God in Islam, as Iblis was after all God's own creation.
God's will however is always good, even when it doesn't seem like it- thus evil in the
world is simply part of God's plan.
An argument could be made that the Holocaust couldn't have possibly been anything but mindless
evil, until one considers the resolute determination by modern nations today to never again repeat
such a horrific atrocity.
In this example, the evil of the Holocaust was still God's will, as it created a future
good that the victims of the Holocaust may not have seen, but which would potentially
save many more future lives.
In Islam, there is a strong emphasis on resisting evil, believing it to always be a test from
God.
When a believer is the victim of evil, it is their chance to prove that they trust God,
even if they cannot see the benefit or meaning to their suffering.
Islam's Iblis differs from Christianity not only in origin, but also in purpose and power.
While Christians believe that Satan rebelled against God directly, in Islam Iblis rebelled
against humanity.
Also, Iblis plays a much lesser role than Satan does in Christianity, where he is the
architect of all evil.
Instead, Iblis is reduced to a tempter, not capable of anything more than merely whispering
temptations into the ears of believers and unbelievers alike.
Finally, we get to the best known version of the devil in modern culture- the Christian
Satan.
In Christianity, Satan is evil incarnate, and at perpetual odds against God.
Because he's unable to hurt God directly, he instead targets what God loves most- humanity.
Thus, he attempts to lead humans astray, or bring about great calamities and evil.
While you've likely heard of the term Lucifer used to describe the devil, the truth is that
this is a misunderstanding of the use of the term in Isaiah 14:12.
Meaning 'bringer of light', the name Lucifer is believed by many to be Satan's angelic
name, before his fall, but is in fact a reference to a Babylonian King.
Most of what we know about the Christian devil comes from the Book of Revelation, apocalyptic
writings that are believed to be heavenly revelations to mankind on the behind the scene
workings of heaven and hell, as well as what the end of days will entail.
Here, we learn of a war that breaks out in heaven, though the motives are rather vague
and unclear.
Many reasons have been attributed to this war, with most accepting that it was Satan's
pride which led him to convince a third of the angelic host to try and overthrow God.
Interestingly, though many Christians accept that a third of the angels followed Satan's
lead, this is only because of a reference to a third of the stars being cast down by
a great dragon a few verses before the mention of a heavenly war.
There is no reason to believe that a third of the angelic host joined Satan in rebelling
against God.
For all we know it could've been Satan and two of his best friends, or Satan and 99%
of the angels.
All we know is that the archangel Michael and his own angels triumphed over Satan's
forces and cast them out of Heaven.
Satan is also believed to be the serpent that tempted Eve, as well as the accuser who brought
Job low- but again, there is no specific reason to believe, even within the Old Testament
texts themselves, that this is true.
Satan has merely been appropriated by Christians to replace all instances of evil, testing,
or tribulation in scripture, despite playing a shockingly small role in all of the text.
What is agreed upon in Christianity however is that today, Satan is prince of the earth.
This is a reference to the inherent wickedness of earthly ways- or our basic, selfish impulses.
Satan is allowed dominion over the earth so that we can strive against him and overcome
our own evil natures, and thus be made more righteous like God.
When the end of the world comes, Satan will rule over the earth for a set period, and
lead mankind's armies against God- only to be defeated and cast into the lake of fire
as punishment.
Then, a second earth will be created, free of the imperfections and evil of this one,
for the faithful to enjoy for eternity.
Now go watch 50 facts about the devil you didn't know, or click this other video instead!