"Demons" and "Devils" -Part 2 - Liars

In Part 1 of this series, we discussed the Greek word, daimonion, translated as “devils” in the KJV and as “demons” in more recent translations. In this post, we examine the Greek word, diabolos, which is translated in more recent English versions as “the devil.” This word means “slanderer” or “false accuser.” More simply, we might say “liar.” Since it is only used in four Jesus verses (Matthew 13:3, Matthew 25:41, Luke 8:12 and John 8:44) of Jesus’s words, we will be able to look at each verse in some detail.

The word’s true meaning is important because, as much as Christianity focuses on fighting the “devil,” Jesus fought against the liar. For him, “the liar” is the main adversary and the source of adversity. Falsehood was the root of all other mistakes, playing a part of all failure. He gave up his life on earth to disprove the biggest lie of all: that death was a final end to our stories.

The Greek Word

The Greek word is diabolos (διάβολος). The word is an adjective, which means “backbiting,” “slanderous,” “prone to slander,” and “accusing falsely.” When introduced by the Greek definite article ("the"), it becomes a noun meaning a “backbiter,” “liar,” “false accuser,” and “slanderer.” Jesus always uses the word as a singular noun. However, in the King James Version, it is translated as “devil” thirty-five of the thirty-eight times it is used.

Diabolos is used more often in the New Testament than the Old, where it appears in the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, twenty-times. It is used always to translate a surprising Hebrew word, satan (שָׂטַן). Of course, this is also the source of the Greek word satanas, that is discussed in detail in this earlier article. The strange fact is that the Judeans translated the Hebrew satan less often into the Greek form of the Hebrew word, satanas, than they did into word of diabolos. The original meaning of satanas as “adversary” is thereby conflated with the Greek concept of a “slanderer” and “liar.” “Satan” was treated as a proper name, which it wasn’t and “the devil” was his title.

We know that this was not what Jesus’s listeners heard. Satan is not a proper noun, and it is used in a positive sense in the Old Testament when the “adversary” involved was fighting Israel’s enemies. Those listening to Jesus understood that the noun was the description of an opposing force. The idea of an “invisible or non-material agent or cause” from the term daimonion does not connect to either of these two other words directly.

Jesus’s Uses of the Word

Since diabolos and satanas, both come from the same Hebrew word, the question is whether or not Jesus uses the two words interchangeably. Since he only uses diabolos four times, we can see exactly what he does with it. In every case, he uses it when he wants to emphasize the idea of lying about the truth. We start with Jesus’s explanation of the Parable of the Weeds in Matthew 13:3:

New Internation Version (NIV): … and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
Listeners Heard (LHV): The hateful, then, the one sowing them, is the slanderer. The harvest then is a culmination of an age. The harvesters then are messengers.

This makes sense because "the weeds” is the parable are the Bibles as “weeds” planted among the seeds of the wheat. These seeds symbolize the “message.” The “false wheat seeds” are lies. The one sowing is the liar.

Now we go to another parable, The Sheep and Goats at the final judgment in Matthew 25:41:

NIV: Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Listeners Heard: Then he will also say to those out on a right side, "Be driven away from me, you having cursed yourselves, into the fire, the perpetual one,  the one having been prepared for the slander and those messengers of his.

Once we change the religious terms, “devil” and “angels” to their literal meanings “slanderer” and “messengers,” we again see the focus on the truth. Liars and lies are fuel for the fire (see this article on the meaning of fire).

In Luke, we again are in another parable or, rather, an explanation of one, the Parable of the Sower. The word used by Mark is diabolos. Matthew uses Greek words that mean “the worthless one.” Mark, used satanas, “the adversary.” Here is Luke’s version in Luke 8:12.

NIV: Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.
Listeners Heard: The ones, however, beside the way are the ones hearing. Soon he starts out, the slanderer, and lifts away the message from that heart of theirs so that, not trusting, they might not be rescued.

Since the context is “the message” being removed, saying “the liar” has a more specific meaning than just saying “the devil.”

Finally. we have John 8:44:

NIV: You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a man-destroyer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Listeners Heard: You yourselves are from that father--the slanderer. And the desires of that father of yours, you desire to perform. That one there was a man-destroyer from a beginning and in the truth, he didn't stand because truth isn't in him. When he conveys this lie, from these of his own he conveys it. Because he is lying, and the father of it.

Jesus’s use of “slanderer” is once more closely connected here to lying in order to hide the truth. The focus is on lying and encouraging others to lie as "the father of lies".

Conclusions

In all four verses, we see that sloppy translation decreases the emphasis on the truth. When we change the “liar” to the “devil,” we change the focus from a contrast between truth and lies to the contrast between good and evil. This confuses both the New and Old Testaments and the connections between them. Jesus kept his words precise, but we cannot see that in translation because modern translators are not precise at all.