Devil: (Gr. diabolos), a slanderer, the arch-enemy of man's spiritual
interest
(Job 1:6; Revelation 2:10; Zechariah 3:1) He is called also "the accuser of
the brethen"
(Revelation 12:10) In
(Leviticus 17:7) the word "devil" is the
translation of the Hebrew sair, meaning a "goat" or "satyr"
(Isaiah 13:21; 34:14) alluding to the wood-daemons, the objects of
idolatrous worship among the heathen. In
(Deuteronomy 32:17; Psalms 106:37) it is
the translation of Hebrew shed, meaning lord, and idol, regarded by
the Jews as a "demon," as the word is rendered in the Revised Version.
In the narratives of the Gospels regarding the "casting out of devils"
a different Greek word (daimon) is used. In the time of our Lord there
were frequent cases of demoniacal possession
(Matthew 12:25-30; Mark 5:1-20)
(Luke 4:35; 10:18) etc.
