There are a lot of myths about the devil. What do we actually know from scripture?
Four times this week, I have had to listen to the same old myth that the devil used to be the heavenly choir leader before it fell.
I don’t know where this myth came from. I haven’t yet tracked it down. I’ve heard it a lot since the mid-’90s. I suspect it’s related to Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite’s Celestial Hierarchy, in which he puts angels into nine categories, or “choirs,” grouped into three “hierarchies.” Others since him have rearranged the categories, but they still used that word “choir” for them. And the devil was supposedly one of the cherubs, so it’d be in that choir. But by “choir” Dionysius didn’t necessarily mean “a group of singers.” All angels sing. He spent more time talking about cherubs’ pursuit of wisdom.
Nonetheless, I’ve heard over and over again that Satan’s job in heaven was to be the worship leader. Then it fell. Now it takes advantage of its abilities in its former job by tricking us humans into to corrupting music. (Some have even specifically pointed out rock music as a tool of the devil; Bill Gothard is notorious for preaching that rock’s backbeat is inherently anti-natural because it runs contrary to a heartbeat, and that’s why rock is evil.)
So what’s the scriptural basis for any of this stuff? There isn’t any. All this stuff is Christian mythology and unproven hypotheses.
What was the devil’s heavenly job? For crying out loud, look at its name. Satan means “accuser, opposer, adversary, slanderer.” When it’s referred to by name in scripture, what’s it doing? Accusing.
The first reference to Satan in the scriptures is in Zechariah. (I’m going by Hebrew order.) Joshua the priest is standing before Yahweh’s angel; Satan is there to accuse him; Yahweh rebukes Satan in his own name because he knows Joshua’s character.
The second reference is in Job. Satan—who apparently has no problem presenting itself to God—accuses Job of being flaky. Yahweh decides to prove it wrong by letting it do horrible things to Job.
The final reference in the Old Testament is in 1 Chronicles, when Satan incites David to perform an unlawful census. (In 2 Samuel, Yahweh does this; scholars argue that this doesn’t reveal an error in scripture, by saying that Yahweh allowed Satan to incite David. Yeah, okay. Whatever makes you sleep better at night.)
In the New Testament, when Jesus refers to Satan, it’s now more of an evil being than accuser; Jesus points out that he saw it fall from heaven. Actually, in Luke 10.18, “saw”—
Revelation identifies Satan with the serpent that tempted Eve. That’s pretty consistent with its job as accuser; here it was accusing God. The result was that serpents got cursed, but Satan apparently didn’t get tossed yet. Maybe it repented. (The idea that angels can never be forgiven is another Christian myth that has no basis in scripture.)
As for the so-called Lucifer passage in Isaiah 14, it’s about the king of Babylon, and any connection to the devil is stretching the text to fit the mythology.
The only conclusions I can come to are these.
- Satan used to be an accuser. We’d now call it a “devil’s advocate”—one who takes up a contrary position because someone has to. (Jewish mythology still thinks of Satan in this way; when we stand before God for judgment, Satan is our prosecutor.) Likely Satan took its job too far.
- What sort of angel is it? In Job 1, Satan shows up with the sons of God. This is not a classical medieval category, so Dionysius lumps Satan together with cherubs; but we’ve no proof of that. “Sons of God” is an angelic category also found in Genesis 6—when they got caught mating with humans. So they don’t have the best track record of staying pure. (I might speculate that the sons of God may have even been presenting themselves for punishment for this in Job 1, but that’s just a wild guess; plus it would chronologically place Job’s story before the Flood.)
- Archangel? Cherub? Worship leader? Heavenly accountant? God’s right-hand angel? Prince of Israel? All speculation about Satan’s previous job that has, to one degree or another, passed into Christian mythology and has been preached in Christian churches. If there’s any truth to them, you won’t find it in scripture. And if you can’t find it there, stop preaching it.
Now, as to the red skin, horns, tail, bat wings, and pitchfork… well, that has to do with blending the imagery of pagan gods together with Satan. (Interestingly, the popular myths used to gave Satan black skin, but that became politically incorrect and it’s since changed to red.) How the dragon and beast are described in Daniel and Revelation are metaphors; after all, we wouldn’t describe Jesus as being a lamb with seven horns and seven eyes looking like it was killed. It’s a spirit. It has no form unless God gives it one. And since it likes to play God, the pop culture images of Satan will only help it deceive people easier because they’ll be expecting that.
Christians really need to read their bibles.