DEVIL. This word occurs in Eng. VSS in relation to a number of terms in the OT and NT. References to devils in the OT while few in number, seem to be predominantly to foreign deities, as the term שֵׁדִימ׃֙ (Deut 32:17), rendered in the LXX by δαιμόνια. Another similar reference occurred in Leviticus 17:7, where שְׂעִירִ֕ם, LXX δαιμόνια, or “hairy ones,” has been interpreted as an allusion to “satyrs.” In a similar reference (2 Chron 11:15), the LXX reads μάταια or “vain things,” which casts some doubt upon a specifically demonic interpretation. Sēḏîm, a common post-Biblical Heb. term for “evil spirits,” was derived from the Assyrian shêdu or “guardian spirit,” but the pagan gods mentioned need not have been demonic (Deut 32:17; Ps 106:37). The general topic was of little interest to OT writers, so that references to it are few. (See [http://biblegateway/wiki/Demon, Demoniac, Demonology DEMON].)

By contrast devils figured prominently in the gospels. The personage of Satan (LXX διάβολος, G1333) was named in the NT as either diábolos or satanâs without any basic difference. In Job, Satan had been accused before God in a demonstration of the nature of disinterested virtue; in the NT he was depicted as one inciting to evil—the “prince of devils” (Matt 4:1; 13:39; John 13:2; etc.). Those under his control could be called devils or children of the devil (John 6:70; 8:44; 1 John 3:8, 10), and he held the power of death (Heb 2:14). Though ruler of the world, he was defeated by the death of Christ and His resurrection (cf. Matt 25:41; Rev 2:10; 12:9, etc.).

In the NT the word most commonly used for “devil” was δαιμόνιον, G1228, a diminutive form of daimōn, and referred to a spiritual being which was hostile to both God and man. There are numerous statements in the gospels about people being possessed by devils, a situation which manifested itself in eccentric behavior (Luke 8:27), dumbness (11:14) and epilepsy (Mark 9:17, 18). It should be noted, however, that the evangelists distinguished between sickness and possession by devils, as in Matthew 4:24, where the various categories are not identical with one another.

Christ’s enemies attributed His success in expelling devils to the indwelling of Satan himself (Luke 11:15), to which Christ replied that such a situation would disrupt the entire realm of evil (11:17, 18). Jesus shared His supremacy over devils with His disciples as in the missions of the Twelve (9:1) and the Seventy (10:17). Unlike His disciples He was unconcerned when others used His name to expel devils (Mark 9:38, 39).

Bibliography E. Langton, Essentials of Demonology (1949).