How does the Bible describe Satan?

Answer 1

Jews appear to regard Satan as an angel. He is depicted in the Book of Job and in Jewish midrashim as the loyal assistant of God. Satan was written retrospectively into the history of 2 Chronicles, although the parallel passage of the somewhat older Second Book of Kings never mentions him.

The role of Satan, as perceived by the early Christians, might have evolved over time, in the gospels. In the earliest gospel, Mark, Satan arguably is portrayed in the Jewish manner, as the loyal assistant of God who tempts Jesus to prove his righteousness and thus his ability to fulfil the mission he was given. All the while, angels ministered to Jesus. In the last New Testament gospel, John, there is no mention of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, and Satan is definitely now the evil adversary of God, as perceived by modern Christians.

Christians also consider Lucifer to be another name of Satan. This is the result of a misunderstanding of the Hebrew text in Isaiah chapter 14, which refers to the king of Babylon, who laid the nations low. It talks of his pomp and splendour, how he had ruled the nations in anger, and his fate after his overthrow by the king of Persia. He had compared himself to the Morning Star (and was thus derisorily called 'Lucifer' - lucem ferre, which mean "light-bearer", a name for the dawn appearance of the planet Venus) and had thought that he would ascend into heaven and sit among the stars, but was now himself persecuted. Christian scholars misunderstood this text and assumed that it referred to Satan or the devil, a view that Judaism has never agreed with.