Devil

== Christianity ==
{{Main|Devil in Christianity}}
{{See also|Satan#Christianity|War in Heaven}}
[[File:Alexandre_Cabanel_-_Fallen_Angel.jpg|thumb|''The Fallen Angel'' (1847) by [[Alexandre Cabanel]] ([[Musée Fabre]], [[Montpellier]])]]
In [[Christianity]], evil is incarnate in the devil or [[Satan]], a fallen angel who is the primary opponent of [[God in Christianity|God]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont0000leem|url-access=registration|title=The Oxford Companion to World Mythology|last=Leeming|first=David|year= 2005|publisher=Oxford University Press (US)|isbn=978-0-19-515669-0|language=en}}</ref><ref>Jeffrey Burton Russell, ''The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity'', Cornell University Press 1987 {{ISBN|978-0-801-49409-3}}, p. 174</ref> Some Christians also considered the [[List of Roman deities|Roman]] and [[Greek primordial deities|Greek deities]] as devils.<ref name="Arp, Robert 2014" /><ref name="ReferenceD" />

Christianity describes Satan as a [[fallen angel]] who terrorizes the world through evil,<ref name=":0" /> is the [[antithesis]] of [[truth]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/devil|title=Definition of DEVIL|website=www.merriam-webster.com|access-date=12 June 2016}}</ref> and shall be condemned, together with the fallen angels who follow him, to eternal fire at the [[Last Judgment]].<ref name=":0" />

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 [[Enoch (ancestor of Noah)|Enochian books]]), as expressed/practiced by [[Jesus]], and with some minor variations. Some modern Christians {{Who|date=April 2016}} 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|date=April 2016}} as hating all humanity (or more accurately creation), opposing God, spreading lies and wreaking havoc on their souls.

[[File:Backer Judgment (detail).JPG|thumb|Horns of a [[goat]] and a [[Sheep|ram]], goat's fur and ears, nose and canines of a [[pig]]; a typical depiction of the devil in [[Christian art]]. The goat, ram and pig are consistently associated with the devil.<ref>{{cite book| last = Fritscher| first = Jack| title = Popular Witchcraft: Straight from the Witch's Mouth| year = 2004| publisher = Popular Press| isbn = 0-299-20304-2| page = 23| quote = The pig, goat, ram—all of these creatures are consistently associated with the Devil. }}</ref> Detail of a 16th-century painting by [[Jacob de Backer]] in the [[National Museum, Warsaw|National Museum]] in [[Warsaw]].]]

Satan is traditionally identified as the [[Serpent (Bible)|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,<ref>12:9, 20:2</ref> as has "the prince of this world" in the [[Gospel of John]];<ref>12:31, 14:30</ref> and "the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience" in the [[Epistle to the Ephesians]];<ref>2:2</ref> and "the god of this world" in [[Second Epistle to the Corinthians|2 Corinthians]] 4:4.<ref>{{bibleverse|2|Corinthians|2:2}}</ref> He is also identified as the dragon in the Book of Revelation<ref>e.g. [[s:Bible (American Standard)/Revelation#Chapter 12|Rev. 12:9]]</ref> and the tempter of the [[Gospels]].<ref>e.g. [[Matthew 4]]:1</ref>

[[Beelzebub]] is originally the name of a [[Philistines|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.{{cn|date=January 2024}} A corrupted version, "Belzeboub", appears in ''[[Divine Comedy|The Divine Comedy]]'' (''Inferno'' XXXIV).

In other, non-mainstream, Christian beliefs (e.g. the beliefs of the [[Devil in Christianity#Unitarians and Christadelphians|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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.christadelphia.org/pamphlet/devil.htm |title=Do you Believe in a Devil? Bible Teaching on Temptation. |access-date=29 May 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220529141551/http://www.christadelphia.org/pamphlet/devil.htm|archive-date=2022-05-29|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Apocrypha/Deuterocanon ===
{{See also|Apocrypha|Biblical apocrypha|Deuterocanonical books}}
In the [[Book of Wisdom]], the devil is represented as the one who brought death into the world.<ref>"But by the envy of the devil, death came into the world" – Book of Wisdom II. 24</ref> The [[Second Book of Enoch]] contains references to a [[Watcher (angel)|Watcher]] called Satanael,<ref>[[2 Enoch]] 18:3</ref> describing him as the prince of the ''[[Watcher (angel)|Grigori]]'' who was cast out of heaven<ref>"And I threw him out from the height with his angels, and he was flying in the air continuously above the bottomless" – [[2 Enoch]] 29:4</ref> and an [[evil spirit]] who knew the difference between what was "righteous" and "sinful".<ref>"The devil is the evil spirit of the lower places, as a fugitive he made Sotona from the heavens as his name was Satanail, thus he became different from the angels, but his nature did not change his intelligence as far as his understanding of righteous and sinful things" – [[2 Enoch]] 31:4</ref>

In the [[Book of Jubilees]], Satan rules over a host of angels.<ref>''[[Martyrdom of Isaiah]]'', 2:2; ''[[Vita Adæ et Evæ]]'', 16)</ref> [[Mastema]], who induced God to test [[Abraham]] through the [[Binding of Isaac|sacrifice of Isaac]], is identical with Satan in both name and nature.<ref>[[Book of Jubilees]], xvii. 18</ref> The [[Book of Enoch]] contains references to [[Sathariel]], thought also {{By whom|date=April 2016}} to be Sataniel and [[Satanel|Satan'el]]. The similar spellings mirror that of his angelic brethren [[Michael (archangel)|Michael]], [[Raphael (angel)|Raphael]], [[Uriel]], and [[Gabriel]], previous to his expulsion from Heaven.{{Citation needed|date=April 2016}}