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" in Kaunas, Lithuania|alt=A winged male humanoid devil holds a naked woman as she touches her breast. ]]A devil is the of as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of the devil can be summed up as 1) a principle of evil independent from , 2) an aspect of God, 3) a created being turning evil (a ) or 4) a symbol of human evil.

(1990). 9780801497186, Cornell University Press.

Each tradition, culture, and religion with a devil in its mythos offers a different lens on manifestations of evil. The history of these perspectives intertwines with theology, mythology, psychiatry, art, and literature, developing independently within each of the traditions. It occurs historically in many contexts and cultures, and is given many different names— (Judaism), (Christianity), (Judeo-Christian), (German), (Islam)—and attributes: it is portrayed as blue, black, or red; it is portrayed as having horns on its head, and without horns, and so on.Arp, Robert. The Devil and Philosophy: The Nature of His Game. Open Court, 2014. . pp. 30–50

Etymology
The Modern English word derives from the , from the , that in turn represents an early Germanic borrowing of the . This in turn was borrowed from the διάβολος]] diábolos, "slanderer", διάβολος, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus from διαβάλλειν diabállein, "to slander" from diá, "across, through" and βάλλειν bállein, "to hurl", probably akin to the gurate, "he lifts up".

Definitions
In his book The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity, Jeffrey Burton Russell discusses various meanings and difficulties that are encountered when using the term devil. He does not claim to define the word in a general sense, but he describes the limited use that he intends for the word in his book—limited in order to "minimize this difficulty" and "for the sake of clarity". In this book Russell uses the word devil as "the of found in a variety of cultures", as opposed to the word , which he reserves specifically for the figure in the Abrahamic religions.
(1987). 9780801494093, Cornell University Press. .

Yvonne Bonnetain describes the Devil as a mythic explanation model, in form of a personified supernatural power, for death, disease, and everything hostile to humanity.Bonnetain, Yvonne S (2015). Loki: Beweger der Geschichten Loki: (in German). Roter Drache. . . p. 267

In the Introduction to his book Satan: A Biography, Henry Ansgar Kelly discusses various considerations and meanings that he has encountered in using terms such as devil and Satan, etc. While not offering a general definition, he describes that in his book "whenever diabolos is used as the proper name of Satan", he signals it by using "small caps".

(2025). 9780521604024, Cambridge University Press. .

The Oxford English Dictionary has a variety of definitions for the meaning of "devil", supported by a range of citations: "Devil" may refer to Satan, the supreme spirit of evil, or one of Satan's emissaries or that populate Hell, or to one of the spirits that possess a demoniac person; "devil" may refer to one of the "malignant deities" feared and worshiped by "heathen people", a demon, a malignant being of superhuman powers; figuratively "devil" may be applied to a wicked person, or playfully to a rogue or rascal, or in empathy often accompanied by the word "poor" to a person—"poor devil".Craige, W. A.; Onions, C. T. A. "Devil". A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles: Introduction, Supplement, and Bibliography. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (1933) pp. 283–284

History
Pre-Historic period to Archaic period
Most early belief-systems had no unifying concept of evil.Russell, Jeffrey Burton (1987b). The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity. Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-9409-3. In the oldest available records, . In , evil is sometimes said to derive from , but there are no inherently evil demons or devils. Various spirits and deities could do both good and evil depending on whim.Maul, S., Jansen-Winkeln, K., Niehr, H., Macuch, M., & Johnston, S. I. (2006). Demons. In Brill's New Pauly Online. Brill. The oldest known Egyptian beliefs had no evil deities; the gods were morally ambivalent and required to submit to the divine order of the cosmos, evil being an action violating said harmony. In , deities, reflecting the supreme reality, are both benevolent and fierce. Even in the , the evil, and hence devilish characteristics, are an expression of Yahweh's wrath. Among ancient Middle Eastern beliefs, was the first institutionized belief-system which developed a clear demonology headed by a (Angra Mainyu), i.e. Devil.

Around 600 BC, urged his followers to turn away from the devas, in favor of dedicating worship to alone. Unique to Zarathustra's revelation was that he claimed that evil is not part of the Godhead (or ultimate reality), but a separate principle independent from God. For the formulation of Good and Evil as entirely separate principles, Zarathustra argued that God (Ahura Mazda) freely chooses goodness, while Angra Mainyu freely chooses evil. By doing so, he established the first known dualistic cosmological system, which would later influence other religions, including , , , and . Alienated from the new sole deity, spirits of previous belief-systems thus became and hence . As servants of the destructive spirit, the demons were believed to follow only evil; inflicting pain and causing destruction. Unfortunate souls, who find themselves in the domain of the evil spirits after death (i.e. in hell), are also tortured by the demons. Spirits found to align with the new sole deity then became the (i.e. angels).Barr, James. "The question of religious influence: The case of Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Christianity." Journal of the American Academy of Religion 53.2 (1985): 201-235

Thus, the originally monistic Canaanite form of Judaism absorbs parts of Persian dualistic tendencies during the .Van der Toorn, Karel, Bob Becking, and Pieter Willem van der Horst, eds. Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999. p. 236 However, Second-Temple Judaism, and later Christianity, differ from Persian dualism in some regards: the proposed omnipotence of God of the former does not allow for a radical dualism as proposed by Zorastrianism and later Manichaeism. Judeo-Christian tradition differs from earlier monistic beliefs by limiting the power of their Godhead through an evil principle or force, introduced by Zorastrianism. Christianity in particular, struggled with reconciling God's omnipresence with God's benevolence. While Zorastrianism sacrificed God's omnipotence for God's benevolence, thus giving rise to a principle Devil as independent from God, Christianity mostly insisted on the Devil being created and mildly dependent on God.

Platonism and early Christianity in Antiquity
One way Christianity addressed the was by distinguishing between mind and body, an idea inherited from Greek . Similar to Zorastrianism, Platonism was dualistic. However, Platonism and Christianity differ from Persian dualism insofar as that they associated goodness only with spirit and evil with matter, proposing a form of mind–body dualism. According to , God is like a (Demiurge) who builds the best possible world. However, God has to abide by the and can only work with the material presented. Matter, thus, becomes the refractionary element in Plato's and later models of the cosmos, resisting the perfection God originally intended.Calder, Todd, "The Concept of Evil" Https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2022/entries/concept-evil/> Chapter: 2 In religious beliefs, applying such theories of evil, matter (Greek: hyle Ὕλη) becomes a sphere of lack of goodness and transforms matter into the devilish principle par excellence.Horst, P. W. v. d. (2018). Hyle Ὕλη. In Various Authors & Editors (ed.), Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible Online. Brill.

According to Neoplatonic cosmology, evil (or matter) results from a lack of goodness. The good spirit at the centre gives rise to several emanations, each decreasing in goodness and increasing in deficiency. Thus, in Christianity, following the privation theory of the Neo-Platonists, the Devil became the principle for the thing most remote from God.Russell, Jeffrey Burton. Lucifer: the Devil in the middle ages. Cornell University Press, 1986. p. 36 Details were worked out by Christian scholars, such as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and John of DamascusRussell, Jeffrey Burton (1986). Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages. Cornell University Press. . pp. 37-38 who argued that evil is merely a lack (or removal) of goodness. As such, the Devil was conceptualized as a ; a being brought forth as good first, but then turned evil by abandoning goodness. Https://< /ref> John of Damascus used the privation theory to combat dualistic approaches to evil.Russell, Jeffrey Burton (1986). Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages. Cornell University Press. . p. 38 Similar rebuttals were written by Augustine of Hippo.Babcock, William S. (1988). "Augustine on Sin and Moral Agency". The Journal of Religious Ethics. 16 (1): 28–55

The possibly strongest form of body-mind dualism, and a radical step back towards absolute dualism as conceptualized earlier in Zorastrianism, was reestablished by . Manichaeism was a major religionR. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern TimesSUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 founded in the third century AD by the Yarshater, Ehsan The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 3 (2), The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian Periods, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1983. prophet Mani (), in the . One of its key concepts is the doctrine of Two Principles and Three Moments: the world could be described as resulting from a past moment, in which two principles (good and evil) were separate, a contemporary moment in which both principles are mixed due to an assault of the world of darkness on the realm of light, and a future moment when both principles are distinct forever.

(2025). 9780834824140, Shambhala Publications.

Spread through Europe in late Antiquity and early Medieval Age
Due to Christian dualistic monotheism, non-Christian deities became associated with demons. 6:12, stating " our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" inspired early Christians to think of themselves on a mission to "drive out demons".Brown, Peter. Sorcery, Demons, and the Rise of Christianity from Late Antiquity into the Middle Ages. New York, NY, 1970. p. 31 By the fourth century, most Christians took it for granted that the Greek pagans worshipped demons and thus belong to the realm of the spiritually impure.Brown, Peter. Sorcery, Demons, and the Rise of Christianity from Late Antiquity into the Middle Ages. New York, NY, 1970. p. 24 In the 2nd century, already conceptualized the pagan deities as demons, responsible for persecution of Christians.Annette Yoshiko Reed Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature Cambridge University Press 2005 p. 162 By the end of the sixth century, Mediterranean society widely identified themselves as unequivocally Christian, with an exception to Jews.Brown, Peter. Sorcery, Demons, and the Rise of Christianity from Late Antiquity into the Middle Ages. New York, NY, 1970. p. 35 The last recorded worship of another non-Christian deity is dated to the 570s. considered the pagan gods to be under the power of fate.Quinn, Dennis P. "Early Christianity and Ancient Astrology–By Tim Hegedus." (2009): 125. The daimons (spirits) of the Greeks thus became the demons of the Christian's belief-system under the leadership of Zeus, whom they equated with he Devil, i.e. the leader of the foreign spirits. The Christians, however, would have broken free from the influence of the gods of the Greek pantheon and thus also free from the fetters of fate and the law.Quinn, Dennis P. "Early Christianity and Ancient Astrology–By Tim Hegedus." (2009): 126.

Abstract notions of the Devil, such as regarding evil as the mere absence of good, were far too subtle to be embraced by most theologians during the Early Middle Ages. Instead, they sought a more concrete image of the Devil to represent spiritual struggle and pain. Thus, the Devil became more of a concrete entity. From the 4th through the 12th centuries, Christian ideas combined with European pagan beliefs, created a vivid folklore about the Devil. In many German folktales, the deceived giants of pagan tales, are substituted by a devil.Röhrich, Lutz (1970). "German Devil Tales and Devil Legends". Journal of the Folklore Institute. 7 (1): 21–35 For example, the devil builds a bridge in exchange for the first passing being's soul, then people let a dog pass the bridge first and the devil is cheated.Russell, Jeffrey Burton (1986). Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages. Cornell University Press. p. 74 At the same time, magical rites calling upon pagan deities were replaced by references to Jesus Christ.Scribner, Robert W. "The Reformation, popular magic, and the" Disenchantment of the World"." The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 23.3 (1993): 481Cameron, Malcolm L. "Anglo-Saxon medicine and magic." Anglo-Saxon England 17 (1988): 214

Revival of Dualism in the Medieval Age
Cosmological dualism underwent a revival in the 12th century by through , probably influenced by in the 10th century. What is known of the Cathars largely comes in what is preserved by the critics in the Catholic Church which later destroyed them in the Albigensian Crusade. Alain de Lille, , accused the Cathars of believing in two gods, one of light and one of darkness. Durand de Huesca, responding to a Cathar tract indicates that they regarded the physical world as the creation of Satan. In the Gospel of the Secret Supper, Lucifer, just as in prior Gnostic systems, appears as an evil demiurge, who created the material world and traps souls inside. Bogomilism owed many ideas to the earlier in and the Near East and had strong impact on the history of the . Their true origin probably lies within earlier sects such as , and , who all share the notion of a . Like these earlier movements, Bogomilites agree upon a dualism between body and soul, matter and spirit, and a struggle between good and evil. The Catholic church sanctioned dualistic teachings in the Fourth Council of the Lateran (1215), by affirming that God created everything from nothing; that the devil and his demons were created good, but turned evil by their own will; that humans yielded to the devil's temptations, thus falling into sin; and that, after , the damned will suffer along with the devil, while the saved enjoy eternity with Christ. Only a few theologians from the University of Paris, in 1241, proposed the contrary assertion, that God created the devil evil and without his own decision.

After the collapse of the , parts of Bogomil Dualism remained in concerning creation: according to a story, dated back to the eleventh to thirteenth century, before God created the world, he meets a goose on the eternal ocean. The name of the Goose is reportedly Satanael and it claims to be a god. When God asks Satanael who he is, the devil answers "the god of gods". God requests that the devil then dive to the bottom of the sea to carry some mud, and from this mud, they fashioned the world. God created his fiery angels from the right part of a flint rock, and the Devil created his demons from the left part of the flint. Later, the devil tries to assault God but is thrown into the abyss. He remains lurking on the creation of God and planning another attack on heaven. This myth shares some resemblance with as well as Bogomilite thoughts.

The story bears resemblance to other Turko-Mongolian cosmogonies. According to one myth found among the , God and his first creation are envisaged in the form of ducks. God asks his creature and companion to dive into the ocean to retrieve some earth. However, the second duck, identified with , turns against God and becomes his rival. A similar legend is recorded among the . Erlik and God swam together over the primordial waters. When God was about to create the Earth, he sent Erlik to dive into the waters and collect some mud. Erlik hid some inside his mouth to later create his own world. But when God commanded the Earth to expand, Erlik got troubled by the mud in his mouth. God aided Erlik to spit it out. The mud carried by Erlik gave place to the unpleasant areas of the world. Because of his sin, he was assigned to evil. Since he claimed equality with God by creating his own world, God punishes Erlik Khan, by granting him his own kingdom in the Underworld.Mircea Eliade History of Religious Ideas, Volume 3: From Muhammad to the Age of Reforms University of Chicago Press, 31 December 2013 p. 9David Adams Leeming A Dictionary of Creation Myths Oxford University Press 2014 p. 7 In one variant, recorded by , not only Erlik Khan, but also the spirits he created, were banished form the heavens and cast down to the lower realms.Fuzuli Bayat Türk Mitolojik Sistemi 2: Kutsal Dişi – Mitolojik Ana, Umay Paradigmasında İlkel Mitolojik Kategoriler – İyeler ve Demonoloji Ötüken Neşriyat A.Ş 2016 (Turkish)

Christianity
In , the devil or is a fallen angel who is the primary opponent of God.
(2025). 9780195156690, Oxford University Press (US). .
Some Christians also considered the Roman and Greek deities to be devils.

Christianity describes Satan as a who terrorizes the world through evil, is opposed to , and shall be condemned, together with the fallen angels who follow him, to eternal fire at the .

Christian Bible
Old Testament
The Devil is identified with several figures in the Bible including the serpent in the Garden of Eden, , , the tempter of the Gospels, , and the dragon in the Book of Revelation. Some parts of the Bible, which do not refer to an evil spirit or Satan at the time of the composition of the texts, are interpreted as references to the Devil in Christian tradition. Genesis 3 mentions the serpent in the Garden of Eden, which tempts Adam and Eve into eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thus causing their expulsion from the Garden. The Babylonian myth of a rising star, as the embodiment of a heavenly being who is thrown down for his attempt to ascend into the higher planes of the gods, is also found in the Bible and interpreted as a fallen angel (Isaiah 14:12–15).

Ezekiel's cherub in Eden is thought to be a description of the major characteristic of the Devil, that he was created good, as a high ranking angel and lived in Eden, later turning evil on his own accord: The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, p. 1283 John F. Walvoord, Walter L. Baker, Roy B. Zuck. 1985 "This 'king' had appeared in the Garden of Eden (v. 13), had been a guardian (v. 14a), had possessed free access ... The best explanation is that Ezekiel was describing Satan who was the true 'king' of Tyre, the one motivating."

The term () was originally a common noun meaning "accuser" or "adversary" and derived from a verb meaning primarily "to obstruct, oppose".ed. Buttrick, George Arthur; The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, An illustrated Encyclopedia Satan is conceptualized as a heavenly being hostile to humans and a personification of evil 18 times in Job 1–2 and Zechariah 3. In the Book of Job, Job is a righteous man favored by God. Job 1:6–8 describes the "sons of God" () presenting themselves before God. Satan thinks Job only loves God because he has been blessed, so he requests that God tests the sincerity of Job's love for God through suffering, expecting Job to abandon his faith. God consents; Satan destroys Job's family, health, servants and flocks, yet Job refuses to condemn God.

New Testament
The Devil figures much more prominently in the and in than in the Old Testament.Caldwell, William. "The Doctrine of Satan: III. In the New Testament." The Biblical World 41.3 (1913): 167–172. page 167 The Devil is a unique entity throughout the New Testament, neither identical to the demons nor the fallen angels,H. A. Kelly (30 January 2004). The Devil, Demonology, and Witchcraft: Christian Beliefs in Evil Spirits. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 104 the tempter and perhaps rules over the kingdoms of earth. In the temptation of Christ (Matthew 4:8–9 and Luke 4:6–7),; the devil offers all kingdoms of the earth to Jesus, implying they belong to him. Since Jesus does not dispute this offer, it may indicate that the authors of those gospels believed this to be true. This event is described in all three , (Matthew 4:1–11, Mark 1:12–13 and Luke 4:1–13). Some Church Fathers, such as , reject that the Devil holds such power, arguing that, since the devil was a liar since the beginning, he also lied here and that all kingdoms belong to God, referring to Proverbs 21.

Adversaries of Jesus are suggested to be under the influence of the Devil. speaks about the as the "offspring of the devil". John 13:2 states that the Devil entered before Judas's betrayal (Luke 22:3). In all three (Matthew 9:22–29, Mark 3:22–30 and Luke 11:14–20), Jesus himself is also accused of serving the Devil. Jesus's adversaries claim that he receives the power to cast out demons from , the Devil. In response, Jesus says that a house divided against itself will fall, and that there would be no reason for the devil to allow one to defeat the devil's works with his own power.

According to the First Epistle of Peter, "Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). The authors of the Second Epistle of Peter and the Epistle of Jude believe that God prepares judgment for the devil and his fellow fallen angels, who are bound in darkness until the Divine retribution. In the Epistle to the Romans, the inspirer of sin is also implied to be the author of death. The Epistle to the Hebrews speaks of the devil as the one who has the power of death but is defeated through the death of Jesus (Hebrews 2:14). In the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, Paul the Apostle warns that Satan is often disguised as an angel of light.

In the Book of Revelation, a dragon/serpent "called the devil, or Satan" wages war against the archangel Michael resulting in the dragon's fall. The devil is described with features similar to primordial chaos , like the in the Old Testament. The identification of this serpent as Satan supports identification of the serpent in Genesis with the devil.

Theology
In Christian theology the Devil is the of , traditionally held to have rebelled against God in an attempt to become equal to God himself. He is said to be a , who was expelled from Heaven at the beginning of time, before God created the material world, and is in constant opposition to God.

Many scholars explain the Devil's fall from God's grace in . According to , God created rational creatures first then the material world. The rational creatures are divided into angels and humans, both endowed with free will, and the material world is a result of their evil choices. Therefore, the Devil is considered most remote from the presence of God, and those who adhere to the Devil's will follow the Devil's removal from God's presence. Similar, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite considers evil as a deficiency having no real ontological existence. Thus the Devil is conceptualized as the entity most remote from God. 's Inferno follows a similar portrayal of the Devil by placing him at the bottom of hell where he becomes the center of the material and sinful world to which all sinfulness is drawn.

From the beginning of the early modern period (around the 1400s), Christians started to imagine the Devil as an increasingly powerful entity, actively leading people into falsehood. For the Devil was not a deficit of good, but a real, personal and powerful entity, with a presumptuous will against God, his word and his creation. Luther lists several hosts of greater and lesser devils. Greater devils would incite to greater sins, like unbelief and , while lesser devils to minor sins like and . Among these devils also appears known from the Book of Tobit. These anthropomorphic devils are used as for his audience, although Luther regards them as different manifestations of one spirit (i.e. the Devil).

Others rejected that the Devil has any independent reality on his own. was the first of the to suggest the Devil was only an allegory (); this view found a small but persistent following in the Netherlands. The Devil as a symbolized Adam's fall from God's grace and Satan represented a power within man. taught that Christians need to reject belief in a literal devil as part of formulating an authentic faith in today's world.Edwards, Linda. A Brief Guide to Beliefs: Ideas, Theologies, Mysteries, and Movements. Vereinigtes Königreich, Westminster John Knox Press, 2001. p. 57

Gnostic religions
Gnostic and Gnostic-influenced religions postulate the idea that the material world is inherently evil. The One true God is remote, beyond the material universe; therefore, this universe must be governed by an inferior imposter deity. This deity was identified with the deity of the Old Testament by some sects, such as the and the . accuses Marcion of Sinope, that he (1909) in the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) mentions that accused Apelles, the 2nd-century AD Gnostic, of considering the Inspirer of Old Testament prophecies to be not a god, but an evil angel. These writings commonly refer to the Creator of the material world as "a " to distinguish him from the One true God. Some texts, such as the Apocryphon of John and On the Origin of the World, not only demonized the Creator God but also called him by the name of the devil in some Jewish writings, .Birger A. Pearson Gnosticism Judaism Egyptian Fortress Press p. 100

Islam
In Islam, the principle of evil is expressed by two terms referring to the same entity:Jane Dammen McAuliffe Encyclopaedia of the Qurʼān Brill 2001 p. 526Jeffrey Burton Russell, Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages, Cornell University Press 1986 , p. 57Benjamin W. McCraw, Robert Arp Philosophical Approaches to the Devil Routledge 2015 (meaning astray, distant or devil) and . Iblis is the proper name of the devil representing the characteristics of evil.Jerald D. Gort, Henry Jansen, Hendrik M. Vroom Probing the Depths of Evil and Good: Multireligious Views and Case Studies Rodopi 2007 p. 250 Iblis is mentioned in the narrative about the creation of humanity. When God created Adam, he ordered the angels to prostrate themselves before him. Out of pride, Iblis refused and claimed to be superior to Adam. Therefore, pride but also envy became a sign of "unbelief" in Islam. Thereafter, Iblis was condemned to Hell, but God granted him a request to lead humanity astray, knowing the righteous would resist Iblis's attempts to misguide them. In Islam, both good and evil are ultimately created by God. But since God's will is good, the evil in the world must be part of God's plan.Jerald D. Gort, Henry Jansen, Hendrik M. Vroom Probing the Depths of Evil and Good: Multireligious Views and Case Studies Rodopi 2007 p. 249 Actually, God allowed the devil to seduce humanity. Evil and suffering are regarded as a test or a chance to prove confidence in God. Some philosophers and mystics emphasized Iblis himself as a role model of confidence in God. Because God ordered the angels to prostrate themselves, Iblis was forced to choose between God's command and God's will (not to praise someone other than God). He successfully passed the test, yet his disobedience caused his punishment and therefore suffering. However, he stays patient and is rewarded in the end.Jerald D. Gort, Henry Jansen, Hendrik M. Vroom Probing the Depths of Evil and Good: Multireligious Views and Case Studies Rodopi 2007 pp. 254–255

Muslims hold that the pre-Islamic , , became subject under to the judgment of God, and that those who did not submit to the law of God are .

Although Iblis is often compared to the devil in Christian theology, Islam rejects the idea that is an opponent of God and the implied struggle between God and . Iblis might either be regarded as the most monotheistic or the greatest sinner, but remains only a creature of God. Iblis did not become an due to his disobedience, but because of attributing injustice to God; that is, by asserting that the command to prostrate himself before was inappropriate.Sharpe, Elizabeth Marie Into the realm of smokeless fire: (Qur'an 55:14): A critical translation of al-Damiri's article on the jinn from "Hayat al-Hayawan al-Kubra 1953 The University of Arizona download date: 15/03/2020 There is no reference to angelic revolt in the and no mention of Iblis trying to take God's throne,

(2025). 9780815650706, Syracuse University Press.
(2025). 9781556353048, Wipf and Stock.
and Iblis's could be forgiven at any time by God.
(1998). 9780230373495, .
According to the Quran, Iblis's disobedience was due to his disdain for , a narrative already occurring in early New Testament apocrypha.
(2025). 9789004334816, .

As in Christianity, Iblis was once a pious creature of God but later cast out of Heaven due to his pride. However, to maintain God's absolute sovereignty,Amira El-Zein Islam, Arabs, and Intelligent World of the Jinn Syracuse University Press 2009 p. 45 Islam matches the line taken by Irenaeus instead of the later Christian consensus that the devil did not rebel against God but against humanity. Further, although Iblis is generally regarded as a real bodily entity,Cenap Çakmak Islam: A Worldwide Encyclopedia 4 ABC-CLIO 2017 p. 1399 he plays a less significant role as the personification of evil than in Christianity. Iblis is merely a tempter, notable for inciting humans into sin by whispering into humans minds ( waswās), akin to the Jewish idea of the devil as .Fereshteh Ahmadi, Nader Ahmadi Iranian Islam: The Concept of the Individual Springer 1998 p. 79Nils G. Holm, The Human Symbolic Construction of Reality: A Psycho-Phenomenological Study, LIT Verlag Münster, 2014 , p. 54.

On the other hand, Shaitan refers unilaterally to forces of evil, including the devil Iblis who causes mischief. "Shaitan, Islamic Mythology". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 23 June 2019. Shaitan is also linked to humans' psychological nature, appearing in dreams, causing anger, or interrupting the mental preparation for prayer. Furthermore, the term Shaitan also refers to beings who follow the evil suggestions of Iblis. Also, the principle of shaitan is in many ways a symbol of spiritual impurity, representing humans' own deficits, in contrast to a "", who is free from anger, lust and other devilish desires.Richard Gauvain, Salafi Ritual Purity: In the Presence of God, Routledge, 2013, , p. 74.

In Muslim culture, devils are believed to be hermaphrodite creatures created from hell-fire, with one male and one female thigh, and able to procreate without a mate. It is generally believed that devils can harm the souls of humans through their whisperings. While whisperings tempt humans to sin, the devils might enter the ( qalb) of an individual. If the devils take over the soul of a person, this would render them aggressive or insane.Bullard, A. (2022). Spiritual and Mental Health Crisis in Globalizing Senegal: A History of Transcultural Psychiatry. US: Taylor & Francis. In extreme cases, the alterings of the soul are believed to have effect on the body, matching its spiritual qualities.Woodward, Mark. Java, Indonesia and Islam. Deutschland, Springer Netherlands, 2010. p. 88

Sunni theology
Islamic theology ( ) does not discuss the role of Iblis in as much as related to angels and demons ( jinn and shayāṭīn), but rather in his role as the principle of evil. One major concern of Muslim theologians was to disprove cosmological dualism, the idea that the Devil partakes in the creation of the world, i.e. that God creates goodness and the Devil creates evil.
(1999). 9780195104721, Oxford University Press.
According to Sunni creed, God is the originator of both good and evil. Thus, the Devil, as embodiment of evil, is an example on the fate of the ( kuffār), rather than an independent principle. Like Iblis, disbelievers are also held to be misguided by God, for, as it has been demonstrated in the case of Iblis, belief and unbelief depend on God's will not on the individual.

It further shows that the blessed can become damned and the damned become blessed, as Iblis, when he was the leader of the angels, was happy, but miserable after his fall. Abu-Sufyani is the opposite example, someone who was miserable but then became blessed once he became a Muslim. The principle Devil also demonstrates that disobedience does not equal unbelief because Iblis became an unbeliever due to his arrogance and will to follow his own desires rather than loving God.

In Sufism and mysticism
In contrast to Occidental philosophy, the Sufi idea of seeing "Many as One" and considering the creation in its essence as the Absolute, leads to the idea of the dissolution of any dualism between the ego substance and the "external" substantial objects. The rebellion against God, mentioned in the Quran, takes place on the level of the that must be trained and disciplined for its union with the that is pure. Since psyche drives the body, flesh is not the obstacle to humans but rather an unawareness that allows the impulsive forces to cause rebellion against God on the level of the psyche. Yet it is not a dualism between body, psyche and spirit, since the spirit embraces both psyche and corporeal aspects of humanity.Fereshteh Ahmadi, Nader Ahmadi Iranian Islam: The Concept of the Individual Springer 1998 p. 81-82 Since the world is held to be the mirror in which God's attributes are reflected, participation in worldly affairs is not necessarily seen as opposed to God. The devil activates the selfish desires of the psyche, leading the human astray from the Divine.John O'Kane, Bernd Radtke, The Concept of Sainthood in Early Islamic Mysticism: Two Works by Al-Hakim Al-Tirmidhi – An Annotated Translation with Introduction, Routledge, 2013, , p. 48. Thus, it is the I that is regarded as evil, and both Iblis and Pharao are present as symbols for uttering "I" in ones own behavior. Therefore, it is recommended to use the term I as little as possible. It is only God who has the right to say "I", since it is only God who is self-subsistent. Uttering "I" is therefore a way to compare oneself to God, regarded as shirk.Peter J. Awn, Satan's Tragedy and Redemption: Iblis in Sufi Psychology, BRILL, 1983, , p. 93.

Islamist movements
Many strands emphasize a dualistic worldview between believers and unbelievers,Thorsten Gerald Schneiders, Salafismus in Deutschland: Ursprünge und Gefahren einer islamisch-fundamentalistischen Bewegung, transcript Verlag 2014, , p. 392 (German). The unbelievers are considered to be under the domain of the Devil and are the enemies of the faithful. The former are credited with tempting the latter to sin and away from God's path. The Devil will ultimately be defeated by the power of God, but remains until then a serious threat for the believer.Richard Gauvain, Salafi Ritual Purity: In the Presence of God, Routledge, 2013, , p. 67.

The notion of a substantial reality of evil (or a form of dualism between God and the Devil) has no precedence in the Quran or earlier Muslim traditions.Leezenberg, Michiel. "Evil: A comparative overview." The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Evil (2019): 360-380. p. 22 The writings of ibn Sina, Ghazali, and ibn Taimiyya, all describe evil as the absence of good, rather than having any positive existence. Accordingly, infidelity among humans, civilizations, and empires are not described as evil or devilish in Classical Islamic sources. This is in stark contrast to Islamists, such as Osama bin Laden, who justifies his violence against the infidels by contrary assertions.

While in classical , devils ( shayāṭīn) and are responsible for ritual impurity, many Salafis substitute local demons by an omnipresent threat through the Devil himself.Richard Gauvain, Salafi Ritual Purity: In the Presence of God, Routledge, 2013, , p. 68. Only through remembrance of God and ritual purity, can the devil be kept away.Richard Gauvain, Salafi Ritual Purity: In the Presence of God, Routledge, 2013, , p. 69. As such, the Devil becomes an increasingly powerful entity who is believed to interfer with both personal and political life.Michael Kiefer, Jörg Hüttermann, Bacem Dziri, Rauf Ceylan, Viktoria Roth, Fabian Srowig, Andreas Zick "Lasset uns in shaʼa Allah ein Plan machen": Fallgestützte Analyse der Radikalisierung einer WhatsApp-Gruppe Springer-Verlag 2017 p. 111 For example, many Salafis blame the Devil for .Janusz Biene, Christopher Daase, Julian Junk, Harald Müller Salafismus und Dschihadismus in Deutschland: Ursachen, Dynamiken, Handlungsempfehlungen Campus Verlag 2016 9783593506371 p. 177 (German)

Judaism
, the god in pre-exilic , created both good and evil, as stated in Isaiah 45:7: "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things." The Devil does not exist in Jewish scriptures. Satan, who will later become a representative for the Devil in Christian tradition, is not yet the Devil. The Hebrew term śāṭān (Hebrew: שָּׂטָן), meaning "accuser" or "adversary", was applied to both human and heavenly adversaries.Kelly, Henry Ansgar (2006). Satan: A Biography. Cambridge University Press. p. 1-13Campo, Juan Eduardo (2009). Encyclopedia of Islam. Facts On File. . p. 603 However, even when the term is referring to a supernatural adversary, such as in Numbers 22:22 and in Job 1–2, Satan is merely one "of the Sons of God", a manifestation of God's will.

Under influence of during the Achaemenid Empire, which introduced the idea of Evil as a separate principle into the Jewish belief system, Satan gradually developed into an independent principle, abolishing the Godhead from evil actions. In the Book of Jubilees, the evil angel substitutes deprecated actions of Yahweh.Löfstedt, Torsten. "Who is the Blinder of Eyes and Hardener of Hearts in John 12: 40?." Svensk Exegetisk Årsbok 84 (2019): 191.Russell, Jeffrey Burton. The devil: Perceptions of evil from antiquity to primitive Christianity. Cornell University Press, 1987. p. 204 Nonetheless, Mastema can only act with God's permissionRussell, Jeffrey Burton. The devil: Perceptions of evil from antiquity to primitive Christianity. Cornell University Press, 1987. p. 194 and only succeeds then attacking non-Jewish nations.Hanneken, Todd R. The Subversion of the Apocalypses in the Book of Jubilees. Vol. 34. Society of Biblical Lit, 2012. p. 63-64

In the Book of Enoch, there is an entire class of angels called satans.Russell, Jeffrey Burton. The devil: Perceptions of evil from antiquity to primitive Christianity. Cornell University Press, 1987. p. 206 According to Jeffrey Burton Russell, Satan is yet another name for , the leader of the of the story. Derek R. Brown argues that here, the Devil and the satans are still distinct: while Azazel and his angels rebel against God, the satans act on God's behalf as God's executioners of Divine Judgement.Derek R. Brown The Devil in the Details: A Survey of Research on Satan in Biblical Studies, Currents in Biblical Research 9, no.22 (Mar 2011): 200–227 The fallen angels are blamed for introducing the forbidden arts of war into the world and sire demonic offspring with human women.Laurence, Richard (1883). "The Book of Enoch the Prophet". from the original on 5 February 2022. By ascribing the origin of evil to angels acting from God independently, evil is attributed to something supernatural from without; external to the prevailing belief-system.Annette Yoshiko Reed Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature Cambridge University Press 2005 p. 6 Due to resemblance of the fallen angels with creatures of Greek mythology, the fallen angels might be a reaction invading Hellenistic culture, resulting in perceived oppression of the Jews.George W. E. Nickelsburg. "Apocalyptic and Myth in 1 Enoch 6–11." Journal of Biblical Literature, vol. 96, no. 3, 1977, pp. 383–405

The story of fallen angels, proposing a second independent power in heaven, was at odds with later .SUTER, DAVID. Fallen Angel, Fallen Priest: The Problem of Family Purity in 1 Enoch 6—16. Hebrew Union College Annual, vol. 50, 1979, pp. 115–135. JSTOR, Therefore, the Book of Enoch, which depicted the evil as an independent force besides God were rejected.Jackson, David R. (2004). Enochic Judaism. London: T&T Clark International. pp. 2–4. After the apocalyptic period, references to Satan in the are thought to be .

Mandaeism
In Mandaean mythology, fell apart from the World of Light and became the queen of the World of Darkness, also referred to as .
(2025). 9780195153859, Oxford University Press.
She is considered evil and a liar, sorcerer and seductress.Deutsch, Nathniel (2003). Mandaean Literature. In She gives birth to Ur, also referred to as . He is portrayed as a large, ferocious dragon or snake and is considered the king of the World of Darkness. Together they rule the and create the and . Also found in the underworld is , the greatest of the five Mandaean Lords of the underworld. He dwells in the lowest depths of creation and his epithet is the 'mountain of flesh'. Prominent infernal beings found in the World of Darkness include , nalai (), niuli (), latabi (devil), gadalta (), satani () and various other demons and evil spirits.

Manichaeism
In , God and the devil are two unrelated principles. God created good and inhabits the realm of light, while the devil (also called the prince of darkness) created evil and inhabits the kingdom of darkness. The contemporary world came into existence, when the kingdom of darkness assaulted the kingdom of light and mingled with the spiritual world. At the end, the devil and his followers will be sealed forever and the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness will continue to co-exist eternally, never to commingle again.

(4th century CE) accuses that the Persian prophet Mani, founder of the Manichaean sect in the 3rd century CE, identified Jehovah as "the devil god which created the world" Manichaeism by Alan G. Hefner in The Mystica, undated and said that "he who spoke with Moses, the Jews, and the priests … is the Prince of Darkness, … not the god of truth." Acta Archelai of Hegemonius, Chapter XII, c. AD 350, quoted in Translated Texts of Manicheism, compiled by Prods Oktor Skjærvø, p. 68.History of the Acta Archelai explained in the Introduction, p. 11

Yazidism
Dualism is rejected by Yazidis;Birgül Açikyildiz The Yezidis: The History of a Community, Culture and Religion I.B. Tauris 2014 p. 74 according to , evil is nonexistentWadie Jwaideh The Kurdish National Movement: Its Origins and Development Syracuse University Press 2006 p. 20 and there is no entity that represents evil in opposition to God. Yazidis adhere to strict monism and are prohibited from uttering the word "devil" and from speaking of anything related to .Florin Curta, Andrew Holt Great Events in Religion: An Encyclopedia of Pivotal Events in Religious History 3 ABC-CLIO 2016 p. 513

Zoroastrianism
probably introduced the first idea of the devil; a principle of evil independently existing apart from God. In Zoroastrianism, good and evil derive from two ultimately opposed forces.John R. Hinnells The Zoroastrian Diaspora: Religion and Migration OUP Oxford 2005 p. 108 The force of good is called and the "destructive spirit" in the is called . The equivalent is . They are in eternal struggle and neither is all-powerful, especially Angra Mainyu is limited to space and time: in the end of time, he will be finally defeated. While Ahura Mazda creates what is good, Angra Mainyu is responsible for every evil and suffering in the world, such as toads and scorpions. Iranian Zoroastrians also considered the as devil creature, because of this in the , it is mentioned as both Ahriman Div () as a devil.

Devil in moral philosophy
Spinoza
A non-published manuscript of 's Ethics contained a chapter (Chapter XXI) on the devil, where Spinoza examined whether the devil may exist or not. He defines the devil as an entity which is contrary to God., B. d., Spinoza, B. (1985).  The Collected Works of Spinoza, Volume I. Vereinigtes Königreich: Princeton University Press.Jarrett, C. (2007). Spinoza: A Guide for the Perplexed. Vereinigtes Königreich: Bloomsbury Publishing. However, if the devil is the opposite of God, the devil would consist of Nothingness, which does not exist.

In a paper called On Devils, he writes that we can a priori find out that such a thing cannot exist. Because the duration of a thing results in its degree of perfection, and the more essence a thing possess the more lasting it is, and since the devil has no perfection at all, it is impossible for the devil to be an existing thing.Guthrie, S. L. (2018). Gods of this World: A Philosophical Discussion and Defense of Christian Demonology. US: Pickwick Publications. Evil or immoral behaviour in humans, such as anger, hate, envy, and all things for which the devil is blamed for could be explained without the proposal of a devil. Thus, the devil does not have any explanatory power and should be dismissed (Occam's razor).

Regarding evil through free choice, Spinoza asks how it can be that Adam would have chosen sin over his own well-being. Theology traditionally responds to this by asserting it is the devil who tempts humans into sin, but who would have tempted the devil? According to Spinoza, a rational being, such as the devil must have been, could not choose his own damnation.Polka, B. (2007). Between Philosophy and Religion, Vol. II: Spinoza, the Bible, and Modernity. Ukraine: Lexington Books. The devil must have known his sin would lead to doom, thus the devil was not knowing, or the devil did not know his sin will lead to doom, thus the devil would not have been a rational being. Spinoza concluded a strict in which as a free choice, cannot exist.

Kant
The Devil found a way into through 's personification of the "idea of absolute egoism". In Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone, Immanuel Kant uses the devil as the personification of maximum moral reprehensibility. Deviating from the common Christian idea, Kant does not locate the morally reprehensible in sensual urges. Since evil has to be intelligible, only when the sensual is consciously placed above the moral obligation can something be regarded as morally evil. Thus, to be evil, the devil must be able to comprehend morality but consciously reject it, and, as a spiritual being (), having no relation to any form of sensual pleasure. It is necessarily required for the devil to be a spiritual being because if the devil were also a sensual being, it would be possible that the devil does evil to satisfy lower sensual desires, and does not act from the mind alone. The devil acts against morals, not to satisfy sensual lust, but solely for the sake of evil. As such, the devil is unselfish, for he does not benefit from his evil deeds.

However, Kant denies that a human being could ever be completely devilish, since a human does not act evil for the sake of evil itself, but for is perceived as good, such as a law or self-love.Calder, Todd, "The Concept of Evil" Https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2022/entries/concept-evil/>< /ref> Kant argues that despite that there are devilish vices (ingratitude, envy, and malicious joy), i.e., vices that do not bring any personal advantage, however, the person cannot act for the sake of evil itself and thus, not be considered a devil. In his Lecture on Moral Philosophy (1774/75) Kant gives an example of a tulip seller who was in possession of a rare tulip, but when he learned that another seller had the same tulip, he bought it from him and then destroyed it instead of keeping it for himself. If he had acted according to his sensual urges, the seller would have kept the tulip for himself to make a profit, but not have destroyed it. Nevertheless, the destruction of the tulip cannot be completely absolved from sensual impulses, since a sensual joy or relief still accompanies the destruction of the tulip and therefore cannot be thought of solely as a violation of morality.Hendrik Klinge: Die moralische Stufenleiter: Kant über Teufel, Menschen, Engel und Gott. Walter de Gruyter, 2018,

Kant further argues that a (spiritual) devil would be a self-contradiction. If the devil would be defined by doing evil, the devil had no free choice in the first place. But if the devil had no free-choice, the devil could not have been held accountable for his actions, since he had no free will but was only following his nature.Formosa, Paul. "Kant on the limits of human evil." Journal of Philosophical Research 34 (2009): 189–214.

Titles
Honorifics or styles of address used to indicate devil-figures.

  • Ash- "Satan", the attributive Arabic term referring to the devil
  • , Ahriman: "malign spirit", "unholy spirit"
  • Der Leibhaftige Teufel (German): "the in the flesh, corporeal"Grimm, Deutsches Wörterbuch s.v. "leibhaftig":
"gern in bezug auf den teufel: dasz er kein mensch möchte sein, sondern ein leibhaftiger teufel. volksbuch von dr. … der auch blosz der leibhaftige heiszt, so in Tirol. Fromm. 6, 445; wenn ich dén sehe, wäre es mir immer, der leibhaftige wäre da und wolle mich nehmen. J. Gotthelf Uli d. pächter (1870) 345
  • Diabolus, Diabolos (Greek: Διάβολος)
  • The Evil One
  • The Father of Lies (John 8:44), in contrast to Jesus ("I am the truth").
  • , name of the devil in Islam
  • The / Lord of / Lord of this world
  • / the Morning Star (Greek and Roman): the bringer of light, illuminator; the planet , often portrayed as Satan's name in Christianity
  • Kölski (Iceland)
  • , the Stranger, Old Nick: a colloquialism for the devil, as indicated by the name of the character in the short story "The Devil and Tom Walker"
  • Prince of darkness, the devil in Manichaeism
  • Ruprecht (German form of ), a common name for the Devil in Germany (see )
  • / the Adversary, Accuser, Prosecutor; in Christianity, the devil
  • (The ancient/old/crooked/coiling) Serpent
  • (fictional character in The Master and Margarita)

Contemporary belief
Opinion polls show that belief in the devil in Western countries is more common in the United States ...
+ Belief in the devil in 1982
17
where it is more common among the religious, regular church goers, political conservatives, and the older and less well educated, but has declined in recent decades.
+ Belief in the devil in the U.S.
58

See also

Notes
Sources

External links

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