Person
Satan
Also called Beelzebub
Mentioned in 71 verses across 19 books, first in Luke 4:2. The verses below are the ones linked to this person (the Theographic dataset, with our sourced corrections), not counting Old Testament verses read as about them.
Questions about this
In the Bible
All 14 verses in Luke, in Bible order. Text from the Berean Standard Bible; verse numbers follow the KJV.
Luke
- Luke 4:2
where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He was hungry.
- Luke 4:3
The devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
- Luke 4:5
Then the devil led Him up to a high place and showed Him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.
- Luke 4:8
But Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”
- Luke 4:9
Then the devil led Him to Jerusalem and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple. “If You are the Son of God,” he said, “throw Yourself down from here.
- Luke 4:13
When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.
- Luke 8:12
The seeds along the path are those who hear, but the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.
- Luke 10:18
So He told them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
- Luke 11:15
but some of them said, “It is by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons, that He drives out demons.”
- Luke 11:18
If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? After all, you say that I drive out demons by Beelzebul.
- Luke 11:19
And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons drive them out? So then, they will be your judges.
- Luke 13:16
Then should not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be released from her bondage on the Sabbath day?”
- Luke 22:3
Then Satan entered Judas Iscariot, who was one of the Twelve.
- Luke 22:31
Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat.
Identified with Satan in later Jewish and Christian tradition
The Hebrew śāṭān means "adversary" or "accuser". In Job 1–2 and Zechariah 3 it has the article ("the satan"), a title rather than a name, and in Psalm 109:6 it is a human accuser ("let an accuser stand at his right hand"). 1 Chronicles 21:1 has no article and is the likeliest use as a name. Later Jewish and Christian tradition identifies these figures with Satan. These 15 verses are not counted above.
Read as Satan's fall in later Christian tradition
Isaiah 14:12-15 is a taunt over the king of Babylon (Isaiah 14:4); the "day star, son of the dawn" (Hebrew hêlēl, "shining one"; "Lucifer" in the King James and Douay-Rheims) is the king. The Catholic Encyclopedia (1908, "Devil") says the passage "is expressly directed against the King of Babylon, but both the early Fathers and later Catholic commentators agree in understanding it as applying with deeper significance to the fall of the rebel angel." These 4 verses are not counted above.
Events
Events the dataset lists Satan as taking part in. Dates follow its Ussher–Jones reckoning (one of several traditional counts), not established history.
- c. AD 26Temptations of Jesus
- c. AD 30Ananias and Sapphira lie to God
Dictionary
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), as attached to this record by Theographic. The entry is for the name and can describe more than one person who bore it. Easton wrote in 1897, and some of his views are now debated.
Read Easton’s entry
Adversary; accuser. When used as a proper name, the Hebrew word so rendered has the article “the adversary” (Job 1:6-12; 2:1-7). In the New Testament it is used as interchangeable with Diabolos, or the devil, and is so used more than thirty times.
He is also called “the dragon,” “the old serpent” (Rev. 12:9; 20:2); “the prince of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30); “the prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2); “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4); “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). The distinct personality of Satan and his activity among men are thus obviously recognized. He tempted our Lord in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-11). He is “Beelzebub, the prince of the devils” (12:24). He is “the constant enemy of God, of Christ, of the divine kingdom, of the followers of Christ, and of all truth; full of falsehood and all malice, and exciting and seducing to evil in every possible way.” His power is very great in the world. He is a “roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). Men are said to be “taken captive by him” (2 Tim. 2:26). Christians are warned against his “devices” (2 Cor. 2:11), and called on to “resist” him (James 4:7). Christ redeems his people from “him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14). Satan has the “power of death,” not as lord, but simply as executioner.