The Three-Hundred-Tenth (The Adversary)
- Rob
- Aug 8
- 8 min read
Have you ever stopped to think about some of the common inherent beliefs that you can find among people all throughout the world? It’s fascinating to me that you can go up to pretty much anyone, no matter who it is, and even if they don’t say they believe in things like a God or a Satan, they at least know of them. And when you go to even remote parts of the world, they tend to have a greater belief and understanding of the spiritual aspects of creation and at a minimum know there is a good side and an evil side to it.
It’s also interesting to me that for such an integral individual to mankind’s current situation there’s a noticeable lack of concrete mentions in scripture about that certain main character. While Adam and Eve made the choice that led the world down the path of death and destruction, there was an influence that played a role in that choice. We’re told that it was the serpent who involved himself in that situation; one of the craftiest animals YHWH made (Genesis 3:1).
The question is, was this an actual snake that was talking to Eve? Was it the spiritual being we call Satan taking the form of a snake? If it was an actual snake, did he come up with this line of questioning on his own or did he get influenced by the being we call Satan?
Personally, I believe this was an actual snake talking to Eve. In fact, I believe that before sin many, if not all, animals could actually communicate with man in a way that we could understand. This situation in the garden, in my opinion, is proof of that.
First, scripture clearly states that the serpent said to Eve, with the Hebrew word there being amar (Strong’s H559). This word, for the most part, means literally talking, with its first use being YHWH speaking the universe into existence (Genesis 1). It can also mean saying something to yourself internally (Deuteronomy 8:17), but in the context of the serpent in the garden that is clearly not the way this word is used.
Second, you can see things happening today that almost prove that animals, in certain situations, attempt to communicate with humans. I see videos regularly of things like dolphins trying to get help for themselves or others, beavers going up to people and pulling them towards their homes to show the person what they’ve built, and wild birds showing up at a person’s house regularly without any prompting (i.e. the person wasn’t enticing them with food). Even recently, I saw a video about a whale that saw a diver swimming and knew there was a shark coming, so it saved her by pushing her back to her boat.
Finally, this whole scenario in the garden is presented as being just a normal, everyday occurrence. Eve doesn’t get surprised and run away, she just carries on the conversation. When YHWH comes into the picture, there’s no acknowledgement that talking animals is anything out of the ordinary.
Back to the topic at hand though, we typically make the serpent in the garden the same person as the being we usually call Satan. However, if we do this, we have to explain why the actual animal was cursed by YHWH for its role in Adam and Eve’s sin (Genesis 3:14-15). If it was actually the being we call Satan talking to Eve, rather than an actual serpent, it would not be just for YHWH to punish the serpent. It would not have even been involved in the whole thing.
Here we come into a sticky situation, because we’ve got other verses in scripture that seem to equate Satan and a serpent. In fact, there’s one verse that seems to unify Satan, “the” serpent, the Devil, and “the” dragon (Revelation 12:9). A lot of people immediately jump to Genesis 3 when the serpent is mentioned here.
The problem is that all these words are not names. While we capitalize words like satan and devil, these are just Hebrew and Greek words, respectively. They are not proper nouns.
Satan is the transliteration of a Hebrew word that means adversary or accuser (Strong’s H7854). It’s used twenty-seven times in what we call the Old Testament. Many times, we try to explain how to differentiate in scripture between the individual being we call Satan and the use of the word as adversary, in general, by saying if “the” is before satan then it’s the being. If there is no article prefix, then it’s just used to mean adversary.
The problem with that logic is that it’s making an assumption. The assumption is that the only “the Satan” is the being that we consider the archenemy of YHWH and the leader of all evil. That, however, is not necessarily a true statement.
For example, if you knew nothing about how my house is constructed and I told you I was going to look out the window, which window would I be talking about? Perhaps my house only has one window, and that’s why I call it the window. What’s more likely, based on our knowledge of typical house construction, is that there is more than one window and I’m using “the window” to speak generally of simply looking outside my house.
We don’t have enough knowledge about the spiritual realm, especially in the context of the evil spiritual beings in it, to know if a given “the Satan” in scripture is talking about the head guy or some other guy. We can’t, for sure, say that Zechariah’s prophetic vision involved “the” Satan or if it was referring a specific adversary/accuser of Joshua, the High Priest that was being accused in front of the messenger of YHWH in the verses (Zechariah 3:1-2). These verses clearly say Ha Satan, like in the book of Job (which is the only other time in the Old Testament where “the” is used before satan), but the context revolves around Joshua, so it’s plausible that there was a specific being considered “the accuser of Joshua.”
In other words, we don’t know if the spiritual realm has only one window (one Satan) or multiple windows (multiple accusers). We do know that all these words, serpent, devil, satan, and dragon, are used in multiple ways throughout scripture rather than only in the context of one, supremely evil being that’s in existence. In fact, words like serpent, or snake, are used so widely that it’s almost impossible to pin any of its uses on any one particular being.
We already talked about the problem of the garden situation where we have a snake that’s supposedly cursed without even being involved in anything. We’ve also got the same word, nachash (Strong’s H5175), used to refer to Moses’ staff when it’s changed as a sign from YHWH (Exodus 4:3), a tribe of Israel (Genesis 49:17), and even our Savior, Yeshua (Numbers 21:6-8, John 3:14-15). That’s only a few of them, but there is a common theme for all occurrences, and that is that none of them refer to anything good.
For Moses’ staff, it was a sign of YHWH’s power over the serpent, that He could transform objects into that cursed form and out of it at will. For the tribe of Israel, Dan, it was a prophecy of imposing judgment on Israel, and this was fulfilled later in scripture (Jeremiah 8:16-17). In the case of Yeshua, He was connecting His eventual crucifixion to becoming a curse (Galatians 3:13, Deuteronomy 21:23). It was a direct connection between Him, the bronze snake Moses hung in the wilderness as commanded by YHWH, and the fact that YHWH cursed the snake in the garden.
Well, if all that isn’t interesting enough, just wait. Do you recall that while YHWH showed Moses the staff-into-serpent sign, when it came to performing this sign in front of Pharaoh it was actually Aaron and his staff that did it? When you read this account in English, it seems like the exact same thing that Moses witnessed, but the Hebrew, and even the Greek, tell a different story (Exodus 7:10).
Aaron’s staff did not, in fact, turn into a nachash, and you’ll never guess what it actually turned into. It became a tannin (Strong’s H8577). What is that, you might ask? Well, this isn’t the only verse where this Hebrew word is used.
This word is actually used twenty-seven times in the Old Testament. Its first occurrence? The very first chapter of scripture, where YHWH creates “great sea creatures” (Genesis 1:21).
Wait a minute. That makes no sense. Aaron’s staff turned into a great sea creature in front of Pharaoh?!
Let’s take a look at the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament that’s quoted many times by the apostles in their writings. What we find there is quite interesting. We find the word drakon (Strong’s G1404), and it brings us back to our “Rosetta Stone” verse of Revelation that connected all these words together.
Yes, that’s right, this is the Greek word for dragon. Yes, YHWH created dragons on the fifth day of creation. Yes, dragons are mentioned twenty-seven times in the Old Testament, and apparently they are both sea and land creatures (Psalm 91:13).
Before we try to make sense of all this, let’s take a quick look at the other word used, devil. This comes from the Greek word diabolos (Strong’s G1228). The majority of the time the Hebrew satan is used in scripture, this Greek word is used in the Septuagint. Much like the Hebrew, this Greek word just means slanderer or false accuser.
So, what does this all mean? All these words are used both generally and specifically and it’s hard to determine which is which without reading our own beliefs into the text. Does this mean that there is no “head evil guy” that we call Satan and when scripture uses these words it’s just allegorically referring to evil, an enemy, or an adversary?
Some believers will tell you that’s exactly what it means. The problem with that belief is the preponderance of evidence in scripture in which the words satan and devil are clearly used in the context of a singular being that’s the source of all evil. A being that is defined in his rebellion against YHWH and his desire to destroy YHWH’s creation and make it his own.
This evidence is mainly in the writings of the apostles, with Paul’s writings being the most prolific in its usage. The Greek word used is satanas (Strong’s G4567), but as stated earlier, diabolos is also used in the context of a singular being. One of the most obvious references is in Hebrews where “the devil” is stated as being the one who holds the power of death (Hebrews 2:14-15).
When you take the entirety of scripture as a whole, you cannot deny that there is reference to one being that is considered the leader of all the other evil, rebellious beings in creation. Yeshua Himself called the Pharisees and other Jews children of this being (John 8:44) because they wouldn’t listen to the truth. The only thing that scripture does not tell us is the actual name of this being, and I believe that is on purpose.
The lesson we should take away from all this is that while there is certainly a singular being, which we typically call Satan, we can, and do, come up against adversaries and accusers in many different forms that are not necessarily him. They are still satans and devils, but they aren’t necessarily the Satan. Regardless, they are all in the same cadre of evil beings that ultimately report to Satan, and as believers, through the power of Yeshua, we have the ability to overcome all of them, including Satan!
We hope you have a great week! Shabbat shalom and YHWH bless you!
-Rob and Sara Gene
The Gospel
We are born sinful as a result of Adam and Eve's sin (Genesis 2:17, 3:6, 1 John 1:8)
The consequence of sin, which is unavoidable through our own works, is death (Romans 6:23)
Yeshua, the Son of YHWH, lived sinless and was put to death (Hebrews 4:15)
His death, therefore, cleanses us of sin that would have required our death
He rose on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:4)
Because of His resurrection, we are confident in our future resurrection and eternal life
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