Person
Satan
Also called Beelzebub
Mentioned in 71 verses across 19 books, first in Revelation 2:9. 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 10 verses in Revelation, in Bible order. Text from the Berean Standard Bible; verse numbers follow the KJV.
Revelation
- Revelation 2:9
I know your affliction and your poverty—though you are rich! And I am aware of the slander of those who falsely claim to be Jews, but are in fact a synagogue of Satan.
- Revelation 2:10
Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Look, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison to test you, and you will suffer tribulation for ten days. Be faithful even unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.
- Revelation 2:13
I know where you live, where the throne of Satan sits. Yet you have held fast to My name and have not denied your faith in Me, even in the day when My faithful witness Antipas was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
- Revelation 2:24
But I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned the so-called deep things of Satan: I will place no further burden upon you.
- Revelation 3:9
Look at those who belong to the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews but are liars instead. I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and they will know that I love you.
- Revelation 12:9
And the great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
- Revelation 12:12
Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea; with great fury the devil has come down to you, knowing he has only a short time.”
- Revelation 20:2
He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.
- Revelation 20:7
When the thousand years are complete, Satan will be released from his prison,
- Revelation 20:10
And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, into which the beast and the false prophet had already been thrown. There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
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.