StrongerBible

diabolos

διάβολος

GreekG1228“devil, slanderer, ...”

Appears 38 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 4:1Mat 4:5Mat 4:8Mat 4:11Mat 13:39Mat 25:41Luk 4:2Luk 4:3Luk 4:5Luk 4:6Luk 4:13Luk 8:12Jhn 6:70Jhn 8:44Jhn 13:2Act 10:38Act 13:10Eph 4:27Eph 6:111Ti 3:61Ti 3:71Ti 3:112Ti 2:262Ti 3:3Tit 2:3Heb 2:14Jas 4:71Pe 5:81Jn 3:8 (3×)Jud 1:9Rev 2:10
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradedee-AH-bol-osadjective/noun

What diabolos means

1

the Devil: the personal supernatural enemy of God who accuses and tempts human beings

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

By far the most common use of this word in the New Testament names a single being: the great cosmic adversary, usually called "the Devil" in English. The word is the standard Greek translation of the Hebrew title for the heavenly accuser (the satan), and it keeps that older flavor: at its root it means a person who throws hostile, distorting speech between God and people. So the Devil is pictured doing exactly that. He accuses, he tempts, he lies, and he opposes.

The senses below are not different beings but the different things this one figure is shown doing.

  • He puts Jesus to the test in the wilderness
  • he snatches away the word so it cannot take root
  • he traps people in sin and holds them under the fear of death
  • and he stands behind betrayal and murder from the very beginning

Revelation gathers all of this up and states plainly that the Devil, Satan (Σατανᾶς), the ancient serpent, and the dragon are one and the same enemy.

The word "Devil" is most often paired with the definite article ("the Devil"), which shows it working almost like a personal name, though the New Testament writers never quite finish turning it into one. It overlaps completely with the title Satan (Σατανᾶς): the two words point to the same figure, and writers tend to choose one or the other by audience and habit rather than by meaning.

Nuances

1athe tempter who tries to turn people away from obeying God
Mat 4:1Mat 4:5Mat 4:8Mat 4:11Luk 4:2Luk 4:3Luk 4:5Luk 4:6Luk 4:13Eph 4:27Eph 6:11Jas 4:7
1bthe adversary who snatches away the word and ensnares people in sin
Mat 13:39Luk 8:12Act 10:38Act 13:101Ti 3:61Ti 3:72Ti 2:26
1cthe murderer and liar who has worked sin and death from the beginning
Jhn 6:70Jhn 8:44Jhn 13:2Heb 2:141Jn 3:8 (3×)1Jn 3:10
1dthe enemy faced and finally defeated in the last things
Mat 25:41Jud 1:9Rev 2:10Rev 12:9Rev 12:12Rev 20:2Rev 20:10

Disputed

Whether the cosmic figure named by this word is one coherent being inherited from Jewish tradition, or a synthesis the New Testament writers assembled from several distinct earlier figures (the Watchers, Mastema, Belial, and the accuser of Job and Zechariah).

  • majorityBy the New Testament this word names one settled figure, identical to Satan, with Revelation 12:9 simply unmasking him across all his traditional titles.; Werner Foerster, "διάβολος," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. 2 (1964), 71-81; G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (NIGTC; Eerdmans, 1999), 656-68
  • minorityThe New Testament inherited several partly distinct evil figures, and its unified Devil is still a synthesis in progress; different writers may hold substantively different portraits.; Devorah Dimant, "Between Qumran Sectarian and Non-Sectarian Texts: The Case of Belial and Mastema," in History, Ideology and Bible Interpretation in the Dead Sea Scrolls (FAT 90; Mohr Siebeck, 2014), 235-56
2

slanderer: a person who damages others with false or malicious accusations and gossip

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

Before this word ever named the Devil, it was an ordinary insult in everyday Greek. It described a person whose habit is hostile, twisting speech: a slanderer, a malicious gossip, a false accuser. The New Testament keeps this plain human sense in a small but unmistakable group of verses, all in lists of good or bad character.

In these places the word is plural and stands without "the," which is the clue that it is being used as a common description of people rather than as a title for the one Devil. The instruction is that those in the church, and especially its leaders and respected older members, must not be people who tear others down with their words. The same letter that warns against slanderous people also speaks of "the Devil" only a few verses away, so the writer is plainly aware that one word covers both: the human slanderer does in small the very thing the great Slanderer does in full.

1Ti 3:112Ti 3:3Tit 2:3

What scholars say about diabolos

The standard lexicons agree that this word is at root a speech-act term, a verbal adjective from the verb "to throw across," specialized in classical Greek into "to slander, to accuse falsely" (LSJ; Spicq). Its use as a title for the Devil is a secondary development (BDAG), and Louw-Nida files the two senses in separate semantic domains: malicious gossip (33.397) and the supernatural Devil (12.34). The decisive turn came when the Septuagint chose this word to render the Hebrew "satan" in Job, Zechariah, and a few other texts, importing courtroom-accusation connotations into the figure (Foerster, TDNT). Critical commentators are unanimous that the plural uses in the Pastoral Epistles mean human "slanderers" (Marshall, Mounce, Knight, Towner), and that the term is functionally synonymous with Satan in the New Testament, distributed by register and audience (Foerster; Farrar and Williams).

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDAG (3rd ed., 2000), s.v. διάβολοςlexicon
  • Liddell-Scott-Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. διάβολος, διαβάλλωlexicon
  • Louw-Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains (2nd ed., 1989), 33.397 and 12.34lexicon
  • Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (1994), vol. 1, s.v. διάβολοςlexicon
  • Werner Foerster, "διάβολος," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. Gerhard Kittel, vol. 2 (1964), 71-81lexicon
  • Henry Ansgar Kelly, Satan: A Biography (Cambridge University Press, 2006)monograph
  • Ryan E. Stokes, The Satan: How God's Executioner Became the Enemy (Eerdmans, 2019)monograph
  • I. Howard Marshall, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles (ICC; T&T Clark, 1999)commentary
  • William D. Mounce, Pastoral Epistles (WBC 46; Nelson, 2000)commentary
  • Thomas J. Farrar and Guy J. Williams, "Diabolical Data: A Critical Inventory of New Testament Satanology," JSNT 39.1 (2016): 40-71article

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of διάβολος

nominative m s

διάβολος, διάβολός

Mat 4:5, Mat 4:8, Mat 4:11, Mat 13:39, Luk 4:3, Luk 4:5, Luk 4:6, Luk 4:13

genitive m s

διαβόλου

Mat 4:1, Luk 4:2, Jhn 8:44, Jhn 13:2, Act 10:38, Act 13:10, Eph 6:11, 1Ti 3:6

dative m s

διαβόλῳ

Mat 25:41, Eph 4:27, Jas 4:7, Jud 1:9

accusative f p

διαβόλους

1Ti 3:11, Tit 2:3

accusative m s

διάβολον

Heb 2:14

nominative m p

διάβολοι

2Ti 3:3