Early Christian Quotes on Satan
The Shepherd of Hermas
(1st or 2nd Century)
Commandment 7:
The angel said, “Don’t fear the devil; for, fearing the Lord, you will have dominion over the devil, for there is no power in him.”
The Shepherd of Hermas
(1st or 2nd Century)
Commandment 12, Chapter 4:
The angel said, “Do not fear the devil, for there is no power in him against you, for I will be with you, the angel of repentance, who am lord over him. The devil has fear only, but his fear has no strength. So don’t fear him, and he will flee from you.”
The Shepherd of Hermas
(1st or 2nd Century)
Commandment 12, Chapter 5:
I said, “Sir, man is eager to keep the commandments of God, and there is no one who does not ask the Lord to give him the strength to keep these commandments; but the devil is hard and holds sway over them.”
The angel answered, “He cannot hold sway over the servants of God, who place their hopes in Him with all their heart. The devil can wrestle against these, but he cannot overthrow them. So, if you resist him, he will be conquered and flee from you in disgrace.
“So, anyone who is empty fears the devil as if he possessed power. When a man has filled very suitable jars with good wine, and a few among those jars are left empty, then he comes to the jars and does not look at the full jars, for he knows that they are full; but he looks at the empty, being afraid they’ve gone sour. For empty jars quickly become sour, and the goodness of the wine is gone.
“So also, the devil goes to all the servants of God to test them. Those who are full of faith resist him strongly, and he withdraws from them, having no way to enter them. He then goes to the empty, and finding an entrance into them, he produces in them whatever he wants, and they become his servants.”
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
(1st or 2nd Century)
Testament 10, Paragraph 3:
Flee from wickedness, destroying the devil by your good works.
Fragments of Justin Martyr
(Mid-2nd Century)
Chapter 3:
Before the coming of the Lord, Satan never ventured to blaspheme God because he was not yet sure of his own damnation since the prophets announced what was going to happen to him in parables and allegories only. But after the coming of the Lord, he learned plainly from the teachings of Christ and His apostles that eternal fire was prepared for him who voluntarily departed from God and for all who, without repentance, persevere in apostasy…Now, as if already condemned, he blasphemes the God who inflicts judgment upon him and blames the sin of his apostasy on his Maker instead of on his own will and decision.
Justin Martyr’s Dialog with Trypho
(Mid-2nd Century)
Chapter 39:
“But you hesitate to confess that He is Christ, as the Scriptures proves, as do the events people saw and did in His name, because you don’t want to persecuted by the rulers, who, under the influence of the wicked and deceitful spirit, the serpent, will not cease putting to death and persecuting those who confess the name of Christ."
Justin Martyr’s Dialog with Trypho
(Mid-2nd Century)
Chapter 45:
The serpent who sinned from the beginning, and the angels like him, will be destroyed.
(Mid-2nd Century)
Chapter 28:
Irenaeus’ Against Heresies, Book 5
(Late 2nd Century)
Chapter 24, Paragraph 1:
As the devil lied at the beginning, so did he also lie at the end, when he said, "I will give you all the authority and splendor of the kingdoms of the world; they have been given to me, and I can give them to anyone I want to." For he is not the one who gives and manages the kingdoms of this world, but God.
Irenaeus’ Against Heresies, Book 5
(Late 2nd Century)
Chapter 24, Paragraph 3:
The devil, the apostate angel, can only go as far he did at the beginning, namely to deceive and lead the mind of man astray into disobeying the commandments of God and gradually to darken the hearts of those who would endeavor to serve Him so that they forget the true God and adore him as God.
Irenaeus’ Against Heresies, Book 5
(Late 2nd Century)
Chapter 24, Paragraph 4:
The devil was one of the angels placed over the spirit of the air, as the Apostle Paul has declared in his Epistle to the Ephesians. Becoming envious of man, he became an apostate from the divine law, for envy is a thing foreign to God. And as his apostasy was exposed by man, and man became the means of searching out his thoughts, he has set himself in opposition to man in greater and greater determination, envying his life, and wishing to involve him in his own apostate power.
The Word of God, however, the Maker of all things, conquering him by means of human nature and showing him to be an apostate, has put him under the power of man. For He says, "I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy," so that, as the devil obtained dominion over man by apostasy, so again the devil’s apostasy might be deprived of power by means of man turning back again to God.
Irenaeus’ Demonstration of Apostolic Preaching
(Late 2nd Century)
Paragraph 16:
The man did not keep God’s commandment but was disobedient to God, being led astray by the angel. This angel was envious of man because of the great gifts God had given man. So, he brought himself to nothing and made man sinful, persuading him to disobey the commandment of God.
So, the angel became the author and originator of sin by his lie and was struck down, having offended God, and he caused man to be cast out from Paradise. And because he apostatized and departed from God, he was called Satan, according to the Hebrew word; that is, Apostate: but he is also called Slanderer.
God cursed the serpent, which carried the Slanderer. This curse came on the beast himself and on the angel hidden and concealed in him, on Satan. And He put man away from His presence, removing him and making him live outside of Paradise, because Paradise does not receive the sinful.
Theophilus of Antioch’s Book 2
(Late 2nd Century)
Paragraph 28:
In the beginning, Eve was deceived by the serpent. The serpent became the author of sin, the wicked demon, who also is called Satan. He spoke to her through the serpent and works to this day in those men who are possessed by him. And he is called "demon" and "dragon" because of his revolting from God. For at first, he was an angel.
Origen’s De Principiis
(Early to Mid-3rd Century)
Preface, Paragraph 6:
Regarding the devil and his angels and the opposing influences, the teaching of the Church has laid down that these beings do exist; but what they are, or how they exist, it has not explained with sufficient clearness. This opinion, however, is held by most, that the devil was an angel, and that, having become an apostate, he induced as many of the angels as possible to fall away with himself, and these are called his angels up to the present time.
Origen’s De Principiis
(Early to Mid-3rd Century)
Book 3, Chapter 2, Paragraph 1:
In the book of Genesis, the serpent is described as having seduced Eve to sin. In the work titled The Ascension of Moses (a little treatise the Apostle Jude mentions in his Epistle), the archangel Michael, when disputing with the devil regarding the body of Moses, says that the serpent, being inspired by the devil, was the cause of Adam and Eve's transgression.
Cyprian’s On the Unity of the Church
(Mid-3rd Century)
Paragraph 1:
It is not persecution alone you should fear, nor those things that advance by open attack to overwhelm and cast down the servants of God. Caution is easier where danger is manifest, and the mind is prepared beforehand for the contest when the adversary shows himself.
The enemy is more to be feared and to be guarded against when he creeps on us secretly; when, deceiving by the appearance of peace, he creeps forward. This is why he is called the Serpent. He is always subtle; that is his dark and stealthy cleverness for circumventing man. So, from the very beginning of the world, he deceived; and flattering with lying words, he misled inexperienced souls by an incautious trust.
Cyprian’s On Jealousy and Envy
(Mid-3rd Century)
Paragraph 2:
He walks around every one of us like an enemy besieging those who are shut up in a city, examining the walls and tests to see whether any part of the wall is less firm and trustworthy so that he can get inside. He presents to the eyes seductive forms and easy pleasures to destroy chastity by the sight of what is tempting. He tempts the ears with harmonious music, that by the hearing of sweet sounds, he may relax and drain Christian strength. He provokes the tongue by insults; he instigates the hand to murder by exasperating wrongs; to make us cheat, he presents dishonest gains; he heaps together mischievous hoards to take us captive by money; he promises earthly honors to deprive of heavenly ones; he makes a show of false things to steal away the true; and when he cannot hiddenly deceive, he threatens plainly and openly with the fear of turbulent persecution to vanquish God’s servants—always restless and always hostile, crafty in peace and fierce in persecution.
Cyprian’s On Jealousy and Envy
(Mid-3rd Century)
Paragraph 3:
At the very beginnings of the world, the devil was the first who both perished himself and destroyed others. He who was sustained in angelic majesty and was accepted and beloved of God, when he beheld man made in the image of God, broke into jealousy with hateful envy—not hurling down another by the instinct of his jealousy before he himself was first hurled down by jealousy, captive before he takes captive, ruined before he ruins others. While because of his jealousy, he robs man of the grace of immortality God gave man, he himself has lost what he previously had.
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