The Gospel of John teaches that διάβολος put the idea in Judas' heart to betray Jesus (John 13:2). Yes, the Bible does teach there's a malevolent spirit ruling the world that's alienated from God and that spirit is misleading the earth (Revelation 12:9): we encounter this idea in John's Gospel and in 1 John 5:19. Compare John 12:31; 14:30; 1 John 3:8.
Herman Ridderbos (The Gospel According to John, page 458):
Jesus' departure from this world (vs. 1) was also the hour of his great contest with "the ruler of this world" (see the comments on 12:31), which now had to be fought to the finish (cf. 14:30). In this respect as well there is now no longer any delay. The devil had already taken position, deep in the intimate circle of Jesus' disciples, in the heart of Judas Iscariot, by nudging him to the decision to "betray" Jesus. How he would do this is sufficiently well known and not described here, but the word used is the key word in the entire Passion narrative for Jesus' being "handed over into human hands." Here it is the demonic starting point in the process that pervades the entire story from start to finish as a chain of faithlessness.
7 comments:
its interesting John sticks to "ruler" then paul goes and calls Satan "ho theos"
Yes, but doesn't Paul qualify ho theos with tou aionou? And what does he mean by ho theos?
Paul seems to use it in the sense of "ruler" or in Paul's words "Ruler of the age" (or time period / world)
the genitive would limit the expression to not God (true God) or "a god" (due to the article) but to one of superior power.
That's how I understand it anyway
Observation: while it could be argued Satan is highlighted as a false god, a god only becomes a false god when worshipped - whether the god accepted it or not.
From Thayer's: diamon ". in Greek authors, a god, a goddess; an inferior deity, whether good or bad; hence, ἀγαθοδαιμονες and κακοδαιμονες are distinguished (cf. Winer's Grammar, 23 (22))." It then goes on to explain that in the N.T daimon always implies an unclean spirit.
Yes, in classical Greek, there is the famous example of Socrates being led by his daimon. It's not an "unclean spirit" per se but more like a guiding deity for him. Greek poetry continually speaks of daimones too.
This kind of thing happens more than once in the NT, just like the meaning of mythos undergoes a change.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jan-Van-Henten-2/publication/254921120_'Dragon_Myth_and_Imperial_Ideology_in_Revelation_12-13'/links/5499c9c70cf21eb3df60ddd8/Dragon-Myth-and-Imperial-Ideology-in-Revelation-12-13.pdf
Christian demonology is ridiculous. How is the NT at all congruous with the OT?
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