Reference: Evil
Hastings
EVIL is an older form of the word 'ill'; used, both as substantive and adjective, to tr various synonyms and ranging in meaning from physical unfitness to moral wickedness. The former is archaic, but occurs in Ge 28:8 (Authorized Version margin), Ex 21:8 (Authorized Version margin), Jer 24:3 (AV), and Mt 7:18, though the two last passages are not without an ethical tinge. But the word almost invariably connotes what is either morally corrupt (see Sin) or injurious to life and happiness.
1. In the OT the two meanings are at first scarcely differentiated. Whatever comes to man from without is, to begin with, attributed simply to God (Am 3:6; La 3:38; Eze 14:9; Isa 45:7). Destruction is wrought by His angels (Ex 12:23; 2Sa 24:16; Ps 78:49). Moral temptations come from Him (2Sa 24:1; 1Ki 22:23), though there is a tendency to embody them in beings which, though belonging to the host of heaven, are spoken of as evil or lying spirits (1Sa 16:14; Jg 9:23; 1Ki 22:22). The serpent of the Fall narrative cannot be pressed to mean more than a symbol of temptation, though the form which the temptation takes suggests hostility to the will of God external to the spirit of the woman (2Co 11:3, cf. Ge 3:1-3). Then later we have the figure of the Adversary or Satan, who, though still dependent on the will of God, is nevertheless so identified with evil that he is represented as taking the initiative in seduction (Zec 3:1; 1Ch 21:1, but cf. 2Sa 24:1). This marks the growth of the sense of God's holiness (De 32:4 etc.), the purity which cannot behold evil (Hab 1:13); and correspondingly sharpens the problem. Heathen gods are now identified with demons opposed to the God of Israel (De 32:17; Ps 106:37; cf. 1Co 10:20). This tendency, increased perhaps by Persian influence, becomes dominant in apocryphal literature (2Pe 2:4 and Jude 1:6 are based on the Book of Enoch), where the fallen angels are a kingdom at war with the Kingdom of God.
2. In the NT moral evil is never ascribed to God (Jas 1:13), being essentially hostile to His mind and will (Ro 1:18-21; 5:10; 1Jo 1:5-7; 2:16,29; 3:4,9); but to the Evil One (Mt 6:13; 13:19; 1Jo 5:19), an active and personal being identical with the Devil (Mt 13:39; Joh 8:44) or Satan (Mt 4:10; Mr 4:15; Lu 22:31; Joh 13:27), who with his angels (Mt 25:41) is cast down from heaven (Re 12:9, cf. Lu 10:18), goes to and fro in the earth as the universal adversary (1Pe 5:8; Eph 4:27; 6:11; Jas 4:7), and will be finally imprisoned with his ministering spirits (Re 20:2,10, cf. Mt 25:41). Pain and suffering are ascribed sometimes to God (Re 3:19; 1Th 3:3; Heb 12:5-11), inasmuch as all things work together for good to those that love Him (Ro 8:28); sometimes to Satan (Lu 13:16; 2Co 12:7) and the demons (Mt 8:28 etc.), who are suffered to hurt the earth for a season (Re 9:1-11; 12:12).
The speculative question of the origin of evil is not resolved in Holy Scripture, being one of those things of which we are not competent judges (see Butler's Analogy, i. 7, cf. 1Co 13:12). Pain is justified by the redemption of the body (Ro 8:18-25; 1Pe 4:13), punishment by the peaceable fruits of righteousness (Heb 12:7-11), and the permission of moral evil by the victory of the Cross (Joh 12:31; Ro 8:37-39; Col 2:15; 1Co 15:24-28). Accept the facts and look to the end is the teaching of the Bible as a guide to practical religion (Jas 5:11). Beyond this we enter the region of that high theology which comprehensive thinkers like Aquinas or Calvin have not shrunk from formulating, but which, so far as it is dealt with in the NT, appears rather as a by-product of evangelical thought, than as the direct purpose of revelation (as, e.g., in Ro 9, where God's elective choice is stated only as the logical presupposition of grace). St. Paul is content to throw the responsibility for the moral facts of the universe upon God (Ro 9:19-24; cf. Job 33:12; Ec 5:2; Isa 29:16), who, however, is not defined as capricious and arbitrary power, but revealed as the Father, who loves the creatures of His hand, and has foreordained all things to a perfect consummation in Christ the Beloved (Eph 1:3-14 etc.).
J. G. Simpson.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Then Jesus said to him: Get behind me, Satan, for it is written: You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the Evil One.
A good tree can not produce diseased fruit; nor can an unsound tree produce goodly fruit.
And when he had come to the opposite side, into the country of the Gadarenes, there met him two men, coming out of the tombs, possessed with demons, very fierce, so that no one could pass that way.
When any one hears the word of the kingdom, and understands it not, the wicked one comes and catches away that which was sown in his heart. This is he that received seed by the way side.
the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels.
Then will he say to those on his left hand: Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
Then will he say to those on his left hand: Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
These are they that received seed by the wayside, where the word is sown; and when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.
And he said to them: I saw Satan, like lightning from heaven, falling.
And ought not this woman, who is a daughter of Abra ham, whom Satan has bound, lo, these eighteen years, to be loosed from this bond on the sabbath-day?
And the Lord said: Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded you apostles for himself, that he may sift you as wheat.
You are of your father, the devil; and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the be ginning, and stood not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks that which is false, he speaks from what is his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Now is the judgment of this world: now is the prince of this world cast out.
And after the morsel was given, then Satan entered into him. Then Jesus said to him: What you do, do quickly.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who, by unrighteousness, restrain the truth. Because that which may be known of God, is manifest among them; for God has made it manifest to them, read more. (for, since the creation of the world, his attributes, which are invisible, are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, both his eternal power and divinity,) that they may be without excuse; because, when they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were they thankful; but they became perverse in their reasonings, and their wicked heart was darkened;
For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
For I consider the sufferings of the present time not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed for us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waits for the revelation of the sons of God. read more. For the creature was subject to frailty, (not by its own will, but for his sake who subjected it,) in hope, that even the creature itself shall be made free from the bondage of corruption, and introduced into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that every creature groans, and is in pain together, till now: and not only they, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by this hope; but hope that is seen is not hope; for, what any one sees, why does he also hope for it? But if we hope for that which we see not we wait for it with patience.
And we know that all things work together for good, to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
Yet, in all these things, we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, read more. nor hight, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. SECTION THIRD. God's Dealings with Israel as a People,
You will then say to me, Why does he yet find fault? For who has resisted his will? No, but rather, O man, who are you that dispute with God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed, it, Why have you made me thus? read more. Has not the potter power over the clay, to make from the same mass one vessel for honor, and another for dishonor? What, then, if God, intending to show his wrath, and to make his power known, yet, in much long-suffering bore with the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction: and, that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he before prepared for glory, showed mercy to us, whom he has called, not only from among the Jews, but also from the Gentiles?
But I say, that the things which the Gen tiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God. I do not wish you to be partakers with demons.
Now we see through a mirror, obscurely; but then, face to face; now I know in part, but then shall I know, even as I am known.
But I fear lest, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity which pertains to Christ.
Praised be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly things in Christ, according as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love, read more. having predestinated us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he has shown us favor in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the remission of sins, according to the riches of his grace, which he has made to abound to us in all wisdom and understanding, by making known to us the mystery of his will according to his good purpose which he had before established in himself, for a dispensation at the fullness of the times, in order that he might bring together for himself all things in the Christ, both those which are in the heavens, and those which are on earth; in him in whom we have obtained our portion, having been predestinated according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, that we should be for the praise of his glory; even we, who before had hope in the Christ: in whom you also hoped after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom, after you also believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, given for the redemption of his possession to the praise of his glory.
nor give place to the devil.
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the wiles of the devil:
and having spoiled the principalities and authorities, he made a show of them openly by triumphing over them through it.
and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as to sons: My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him. For, whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and scourges every son that he receives. read more. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons: for what son is there whose father chastens him not?
If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons: for what son is there whose father chastens him not? But if you are without chastisement, of which all are par takers, then are you bastards, and not sons.
But if you are without chastisement, of which all are par takers, then are you bastards, and not sons. So, then, we have had fathers of our flesh who corrected us, and we reverenced them; shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of our spirits, and live?
So, then, we have had fathers of our flesh who corrected us, and we reverenced them; shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of our spirits, and live? For they, indeed, for a few days, chastened us as they thought it good; but he chastens us for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.
For they, indeed, for a few days, chastened us as they thought it good; but he chastens us for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. But no chastisement seems, at the time, to be a matter of joy, but of grief: yet afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who are exercised by it.
But no chastisement seems, at the time, to be a matter of joy, but of grief: yet afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who are exercised by it.
Let no one say, when he is tempted, My temptation is from God; for God can not be tempted by evils, and he himself tempts no man.
Submit yourselves, therefore, to God; resist the devil, and he will flee from you;
Behold, we count those happy who endure. You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the final dealing of the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.
Be sober, be watchful: for your adversary, the devil, like a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour.
For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus, and delivered them over to chains of darkness, to be kept for judgment;
The angels also that kept not their own dominion, but left their proper habitation, he has reserved, in eternal chains under darkness, to the judgment of the great day.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous, therefore, and repent.
And the fifth angel sounded; and I saw a star fall from heaven to the earth; and there was given to him the key of the pit of the abyss; and he opened the pit of the abyss; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit. read more. And out of the smoke there came locusts upon the earth; and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And they were commanded not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but the men who have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And they were permitted, not to kill them, but to torment them five months; and the torment inflicted by them was like the torment inflicted by a scorpion, when he stings a man. And in those days men will seek for death, and shall not find it; and they will desire to die, and death shall flee from them. And the shapes of the locusts were like horses prepared for battle; and on their heads were, as it were, crowns of gold; and their faces were like the faces of men. And they had hair like the hair of women; and their teeth were like the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails; and they had power to hurt men five months. And they had over them a king, the angel of the abyss: his name, in Hebrew, is Abaddon, and, in Greek, he has the name Apollyon.
And the great dragon, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world, was cast into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Therefore, rejoice you heavens, and you that dwell in them. Alas for the land and for the sea! for the devil has come down to you with great anger, because he knows that he has but a short time.
And he laid hold of the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,
And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are: and they shall be tormented day and night from age to age.