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The in the hierarchy of Hell . In other languages ''devil'' may be derived from the same Proto-Indo-European root word for ''deva'', which roughly translates as " Angel ". However, a "deva" or "diva" is not a devil. Some scholars believe that the notion of a central supernatural embodiment of evil, as well as the notion of angels, first arose in Western Monotheism when Judaism came into contact with the Persian religion of Zoroastrianism . Much like classical monotheism, Zoroastrianism has one supreme God , and an evil spirit who ''chose'' to be evil, locked in a cosmic struggle where both are more or less evenly matched, though from the beginning Ahura Mazda 's triumph is foretold; making Zoroastrianism an ''ethical dualism''. Ahura Mazda ("Wise Lord"), also later known as Ormazd in Middle Persian , is the God of light, or Truth, and Angra Mainyu ("Evil Spirit"), also later known as Ahriman in Middle Persian, is the primeval Spirit of darkness, or the Lie. In a final battle between the forces of good and evil, human Soul s will be judged in a fiery ordeal of molten metal where the good will pass through as if it were warm milk and those who chose evil will be purified and all will be reunited in the new perfected world. Accordingly, humans are urged to align themselves with Ormazd and his Yazata s ("angels") and to shun His adversary who is the ruler of darkness and his demons, so that they may facilitate the final renovation (Frashō-kereti). . CONCEPT OF THE DEVIL IN WORLD RELIGIONS Christianity Christianity understands the Devil in the context of the Old Testament . Unlike Manichaeism which teaches a coeval Dualism , Christians see the devil(also known as bhoot,pishachi in Hindi,india) as a corrupted or Fallen Angel . He was Lucifer , an angel in authority before the Creation who fell because of pride and because he waged a war against God . Thomas Aquinas , in his '' Summa Theologiae '', said: "An angel or any other rational creature considered in his own nature, can sin; and to whatever creature it belongs not to sin, such creature has it as a gift of grace, and not from the condition of nature. The reason of this is, because ''sinning is nothing else than a deviation from that rectitude which an act ought to have''; whether we speak of sin in nature, art, or morals. That act alone, the rule of which is the very virtue of the agent, can never fall short of rectitude. Were the craftsman's hand the rule itself engraving, he could not engrave the wood otherwise than rightly; but if the rightness of engraving be judged by another rule, then the engraving may be right or faulty." (ST I.63.1, italics added) Commonly-quoted Bible -texts are: The grave below is all astir to meet you at your coming; it rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you — all those who were leaders in the world; it makes them rise from their thrones — all those who were kings over the nations. "And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down — that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him." () The Epic poem by John Milton , '' Paradise Lost '', has a stylized depiction of the devil that influenced C. S. Lewis ('' The Screwtape Letters '' and '' Space Trilogy ''), and the J. R. R. Tolkien characters Melkor and Sauron . Islam See Also: Iblis In Islam the Devil is referred to as Iblis , also called the Shaitan (a word referring to evil devil-like beings). According to the Qur'an , God (called Allah in Islam) created the Devil out of "smokeless fire", while he created man out of clay. The primary characteristic of the Devil, besides Hubris , is that he has no power other than the power to cast evil suggestions into the heart of men. According to the verses of the Qur’an, the Devil's mission until the Qiyamah or Resurrection Day (''yaum-ul-qiyama'') is to deceive Adam's children (mankind). After that, he will be put into the fires of Hell along with those whom he has deceived. The Devil is also referred to as one of the Djinns (genies), as they are all created from the smokeless fires. The Qur'an does not depict ''Shaitan'' as the enemy of Allah, for Allah is supreme over all his creations and Iblis is just one of his creations. Unlike the Zoroastrian beliefs, all good and bad deeds are from Allah himself and only he can save humanity from the evils of his universe and his creations. Shaitan's single enemy is humanity. He intends to discourage humans from obeying God. Thus, humankind is warned to struggle (''jihad'') against the mischiefs of the Shaitan and temptations he puts them in. The ones who succeed in this are rewarded with Paradise (''jannath ul firdaus''), attainable only by righteous conduct. He was expelled from the grace of Allah when he failed to pay homage to Adam, the father of all mankind. He claimed to be superior to Adam, on the grounds that man was created of earth unlike himself. Even the other angels showed a degree of suspicion when Allah informed them about the creation of man as the regent (caliph) of all things on Earth, but they ultimately prostrated before Adam to show their homage. However, Iblis, adamant in his view that man is a worthless being, never bowed his head before any other than Allah. This caused him to be expelled by Allah, a fact that Iblis blamed on humanity. Initially, the Devil was successful in deceiving Adam, but once his intentions became clear, Adam And Eve repented to Allah and were freed from their misdeeds and forgiven. Allah gave them a strong warning about Iblis and the fires of Hell and asked them and their children (humankind) to stay away from the deceptions of their senses caused by the Devil. (For a more detailed account, see ( Iblis or Shaitan .) Judaism In Hebrew , the biblical word ''ha-satan'' means ''adversary'' or ''obstacle'', or even "the Prosecutor " (recognizing that God is viewed as the ultimate Judge ). In the Book Of Job (Iyov), ha-satan is the title, not the proper name, of an Angel submitted to God; he is the divine court's chief prosecutor. In Judaism ha-satan does not make evil, rather points out to God the evil inclinations and actions of humankind. In essence ha-satan has no power unless humans do evil things. After God points out Job 's piety, ha-satan asks for permission to test the faith of Job. The righteous man is afflicted with loss of family, property, and later, health, but he still stays faithful to God. At the conclusion of this book God appears as a Whirlwind , explaining to all that divine justice is inscrutable with human intellect. In the epilogue Job's possessions are restored and he has a second family to "replace" the one that died. There is no evidence in Torah , or in the books of the Prophets and other writings, to suggest that God created an Evil being. In fact, the Book Of Isaiah , Job, Ecclesiastes , and Deuteronomy all have passages which God is credited for creating both the good and the evil of this world. The Hebrew word for evil used above is usually translated as 'calamity', 'disaster' or 'chaos'. Hinduism In contrast to the Christian traditions and Islam, whose characteristics are similar to Devil's. However, Hindus, and Vaishnavites in particular, believe that Vishnu incarnates to destroy evil when evil has reached its maximum. (see Avatar .) Additionally, the problem of evil is mostly explained by the concept of Karma . Ayyavazhi Ayyavazhi , officially an offshoot of Hinduism, in Tamil Nadu, believes in a Satan -like figure, Kroni . Kroni, according to Ayyavazhi is the primordial manifestation of evil and manifests in various forms of evil, i.e., Ravana , Duryodhana , etc., in different ages or Yuga s. In response to such manifestation of evil, believers, in Ayya-Vazhi religion believe that God, as Vishnu manifests in His Avatar s, Rama , Krishna , to destroy evil. Eventually, the Ekam with the spirit (the spirit taken by Narayana only for incarnating in the world) of Narayana incarnates in the world as Ayya Vaikundar to destroy the final manifestaion of Kroni, Kaliyan . Kroni, the spirit of Kali Yuga is said to be omnipresent in this age and that is why one of the reasons, followers of Ayya Vazhi, like most Hindus, believe that the current yuga, Kali Yuga is so degraded. Buddhism A Devil-like figure in Buddhism is Mara . NAMES OF THE DEVIL The original names Originally, only the epithet of "the satan" or "the adversary" was used to denote the character in the Hebrew deity's court that later became known as "the Devil". The article was lost and this title became a proper name: Satan. There is no unambiguous basis for the Devil in the Torah, the Prophets, or the Writings. views ha-satan as an angel ministering to the desires of God, acting as Chief Prosecutor.
There are some who erroneously claim that the word 'devil' is from 'd'evil' -'of evil.' Some also believe that because the word 'evil' itself is 'live' spelt backward, the word originated through the nature of evil being "against living things," or the antithesis of life itself. Both claims are false, as the words are etymologically derived from pre-existing languages. Further development When the , and its king is referred to as "morning star, son of the dawn". This is because the Babylonian king was considered to be of godly status and of symbolic divine parentage ( Bel and Ishtar , associated with the planet Venus). While this information is available to scholars today via translated Babylonian Cuneiform text taken from clay tablets, it was not as readily available at the time of the Latin translation of the Bible. Thus, early Christian tradition interpreted the passage as a reference to the moment Satan was thrown from Heaven . Lucifer became another name for Satan and has remained so due to Christian Dogma and popular tradition. The Hebrew Bible word which was later translated to "Lucifer" in English is הילל (transliterated HYLL). Though this word, ''Heilel'', has come to be translated as "morning-star" from the Septuagint's translation of the Scriptures, the letter ה in Hebrew often indicates singularity, much as the English "the," in which case the translation would be ה "the" ילל "yell," or "the wailing yell." Later, for unknown reasons, Christian Demonologists appeared to designate "Satan", "Lucifer", and "Beelzebub" as different entities, each with a different rank in the hellish hierarchy. One hypothesis is that this might have been an attempt to establish a hellish trinity with the same person, akin to the Christian Trinity of Father , Son and the Holy Spirit , but most demonologists do not carry this view.
In Christian tradition Christian tradition differs from that of Christian demonology in that ''Satan'', ''Lucifer'', ''Leviathan'' and ''Beelzebub'' all are names that refer to "''the Devil''", and ''Prince of this World'', ''The Beast'' and ''Dragon'' (and rarely ''Serpent'' or ''The Old Serpent'') use to be elliptic forms to refer to him. ''The Enemy'', ''The Evil One'' and ''The Tempter'' are other elliptic forms to name the Devil. '' Belial '' is held by many to be another name for the Devil. Christian demonology, in contrast, does not have several nicknames for Satan. It should be noted that the name '' Mephistopheles '' is used by some people to refer to the Devil, but it is a mere folkloric custom, and has nothing to do with Christian demonology and Christian tradition. ''Prince of Darkness'' and ''Lord of Darkness'' are also folkloric names, although they tend to be incorporated to Christian tradition. The Medieval Cathar s believed that the Old Testament Yahweh was, in fact, the devil, based partially on ethical interpretations of the Bible and partially on the beliefs of earlier Gnostic sects (such as the Marcionists ) who regarded the god of the Old Testament as evil or as an imperfect Demiurge . Early Gnostics called the Demiurge '' Yao ,'' the Aramaic cognate to the Tetragrammaton , YHWH (Yahweh). Moreover, research into Ugarit ic texts revealed that the names of the Jewish god were the same as separate gods worshipped in the same region; Yahweh is cognate to Ugaritic Yaw who is there the god of chaos, evil, and world domination. THE DEVIL IN LITERATURE Many writers have incorporated the character of Satan into their works. Among the most famous are:
THE DEVIL IN MUSIC A few songs that make reference to the Devil are:
The Devil is a common theme in an extreme form of underground music known as Black Metal . The musical interval of an Augmented 4th is sometimes known as "The Devil In Music", a name given to it circa. 1400, given its unusual sound. Composers were encouraged to stay away from the interval, and whilst it is sometimes found in non-religious music of the time, it was never used in religious music until the existing system of keys came into use. THE DEVIL IN FILM AND TELEVISION Many films and television programs have portrayed the Devil in one form or another. Among these are:
THE DEVIL IN VIDEO GAMES As with films, the Devil (or some nearly identical character) has appeared in numerous Video Game s. A few of them are:
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