Who is Satan?
Satan is a real personal spirit who opposes God and people. His names mean “adversary” and “slanderer”: he lies, accuses and tempts. But the Bible shows him as a limited being under God’s authority, defeated by Christ on the cross, and one whom believers can resist.
Satan is neither a red figure with a pitchfork nor an impersonal “force of evil.” The Bible speaks of him as a real spiritual being who is God’s enemy and ours. It tells us less about him than curiosity might wish, but enough to know what he does, what limits he has and how his story ends.
His names say who he is
The name Satan means “adversary,” and devil means “slanderer” or “accuser.” The New Geneva Study Bible notes that the Greek word for devil renders the Hebrew word Satan, and that the word for adversary in 1 Peter 5:8 was used of an opponent in a lawsuit. John MacArthur adds that “devil” points to someone who falsely accuses believers.
And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Rev 12:9 · King James Version (1769)
“The ancient serpent” takes us back to Eden, where the serpent deceived Eve (Genesis 3:1). The same verse names him the deceiver of the whole world. Jesus speaks of him in the harshest terms.
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
John 8:44 · King James Version (1769)
MacArthur understands “murderer from the beginning” as an allusion to the fall of Adam and Eve, when Satan tempted them and brought death. William MacDonald explains that Jesus does not mean His hearers were born of the devil, but that they imitated him: they lied and hated just as he does.
Where did he come from?
The Bible does not give a full account, and Christians read the key passages differently. The prophet Isaiah sings a mocking song over the fall of the king of Babylon.
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
Isa 14:12–15 · King James Version (1769)
In context these words are about a human ruler whose pride brought him down. Adam Clarke goes so far as to say that the text “speaks nothing at all concerning Satan.” The New Geneva Study Bible mentions both readings: the passage speaks directly of the king, though the “morning star” is sometimes understood as the fallen angel, and the comparison fits because pride caused both falls. MacArthur goes further and thinks that behind the king stands Satan himself. He points out that Jesus applied this passage to Satan’s fall (Luke 10:18) and that the lament over the king of Tyre may be read the same way (Ezekiel 28:12). Jamieson, Fausset and Brown likewise see in the language a picture of Satan, the spirit behind the pagan world power.
What all of these readings share is the root of the fall: pride and the wish to be like the Most High. Matthew Henry, writing on Ezekiel’s lament, says that all spiritual pride is of the devil. Whatever one decides about these verses, Satan appears in Scripture as a created being who rebelled, never as God’s equal.