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
If having fallen down thou mayest worship me: then Jesus says to him, Get behind me, Satan; for it has been written; Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.
lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
A good tree is not able to produce evil fruits, neither is a corrupt tree able to produce beautiful fruits.
Two demoniacs met Him, having come to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, coming out from the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one was able to pass through that way.
Every one hearing the word of the kingdom, and not understanding it, the wicked one comes, and seizes away that which is sown in his heart: he is the one sown by the wayside.
and the enemy sowing them is the devil: and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are the angels.
Then will He also say unto those on the left, Depart from me, ye cursed, into eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.
Then will He also say unto those on the left, Depart from me, ye cursed, into eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.
And those who are by the way-side, where the word is sown; and when they hear it, immediately Satan comes, and takes away the word which was sown in their hearts.
And He said to them, I saw Satan having fallen as the lightning from heaven.
Did it not behoove this one, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan bound, lo, these eighteen years, to be loosed from this bondage on the Sabbath-day?
Simon, Simon, behold, Satan sought you out, to sift you as wheat:
You are of your father the devil, and you wish to do the lusts of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stood not in the truth, because there was no truth in him. When he may speak a lie, he speaks of his own: because he is a liar, and the father of the same.
Now is the judgment of this world: now the prince of this world shall be cast out.
And after the morsel, Satan entered into him. Then Jesus says to him; What thou art doing, do more quickly.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; because that which is known of God is manifest in them; for God has revealed it to them: read more. for the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are seen, being known by the things which are made, even His eternal power and divinity; so that they are without excuse: because, knowing God, they did not glorify Him as God, neither were they thankful; but they became vain in their reasonings, and their foolish heart was darkened.
For if being enemies we are reconciled to God through the death of his Son; how much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved through his life:
For I reckon that the sufferings of these present times are not worthy to be compared to the glory which is about to be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature awaits the revelation of the sons of God. read more. For the creature has been subordinated to mortality, not willingly, but through Him who subordinated it; therefore indeed pursuant to hope, the creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that all creation groans together and travails together until now; and not only so, but we ourselves, having the earnest of the Spirit, and we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption of sons, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope which is seen is not hope: for why does any one indeed hope for that which he sees? But if we hope for that which we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
But we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose.
But in all these we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that, neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, read more. nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Then thou wilt say to me, Why does he yet find fault? For who has resisted his will? O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Whether shall the thing formed say to him that formed it. Why did you make me thus? read more. Has not the potter the right of the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? But if God, wishing to show forth his indignation and make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of indignation having been perfected unto destruction: and in order that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he before prepared unto glory? whom he called, even us, not only of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles:
But those things which they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God. But I do not wish you to be the communicants of demons.
For we now see through a mirror in an enigma; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know perfectly even as I am perfectly known.
but I fear, lest, as the serpent beguiled Eve by his craftiness, your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity which is in Christ.
Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one having blessed us with all spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ: as he elected us in himself before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless in his presence. read more. in love having predestinated us unto the adoption of sons unto himself through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, unto the praise of the glory of his grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved: in whom we have redemption through his blood, the remission of transgressions, according to the riches of his grace, which he has abounded unto us in all wisdom and understanding, having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his own good pleasure, which he purposed in himself in the economy of the fulness of the times, to rehead all things in Christ, those in the heavens, and those upon the earth; in him, in whom we were also chosen by lot, having been predestinated according to the purpose of him who works all things within us according to the counsel of his own will; that we should be unto the praise of his glory, who first exercised hope in Christ: in whom you also, having heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom, also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the earnest of our salvation, unto the redemption of the possession, unto the praise of his glory.
neither give place to the devil.
Put on the panoply of God, that you may be able to stand against the methods of the devil,
having destroyed governments and authorities, he made a public exhibition of them triumphing over them on it.
and you have forgotten the exhortation which reasoneth with you as with sons, My son regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art proven of him: for whom the Lord loves he chastises, and scourges every son whom he receives. read more. Endure unto chastisement; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom the father does not chastise?
Endure unto chastisement; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom the father does not chastise? And if you are without chastisement, of which all have been partakers, then are you bastards, and not sons.
And if you are without chastisement, of which all have been partakers, then are you bastards, and not sons. Then indeed, we had fathers of our flesh who chastised us, and we endured: how much more then shall we submit to the Father of spirits, and live?
Then indeed, we had fathers of our flesh who chastised us, and we endured: how much more then shall we submit to the Father of spirits, and live? For they indeed for a few days were accustomed to chastise us according to that which seemed right to them; but he made unto our profit, in order that we might partake his holiness.
For they indeed for a few days were accustomed to chastise us according to that which seemed right to them; but he made unto our profit, in order that we might partake his holiness. Indeed no chastisement for the present seems to be truly joyful, but sorrowful: but afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them who have been disciplined by it.
Indeed no chastisement for the present seems to be truly joyful, but sorrowful: but afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them who have been disciplined by it.
Let no one being tempted say, I am tempted from God. For God can not be tempted with evils, and he tempts no one:
Therefore draw nigh unto God; and resist the devil, and he will flee from you:
Behold, we pronounce them happy who have endured: you have heard the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, because the Lord is very merciful, and sympathetic.
Be sober, watch. The devil is walking round like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour:
For if God spared not the angels who sinned, but having sent them down to hell, committed them to chains of darkness to be kept unto judgment;
and the angels who kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, has he kept in eternal chains unto darkness unto the judgment of the great day:
So many as I love, I rebuke and chastise; be zealous, and repent.
And the fifth angel sounded; and I saw a star having fallen from the heaven to the earth; and the key of the pit of the abyss was given to him. And he opened the pit of the abyss, and smoke came out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened from the smoke of the pit. read more. And locusts came out of the smoke into the earth: and power was given unto them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was said to them that they shall not hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree; only the men who have not the seal of God upon their foreheads. And it was given to them that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he may strike a man. And in those days men will seek death, and will not find it; and they will desire to die, and death flies from them. And the shapes of the locusts are like horses having been made ready for war; and upon their heads as it were crowns like gold, and their faces are like the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates as breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses rushing to war. And they have tails like scorpions, and stings: and their power is in their tails, to hurt men five months: and they have over them a king, the angel of the bottomless pit, to him the name is Abaddon in Hebrew, and in Greek he has the name Apollyon.
And the great dragon, the old serpent, the one called the devil, and Satan, the one deceiving the whole world, was cast out: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Therefore rejoice, O ye heavens, and those dwelling in them; woe unto the earth and the sea! because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has little time.
And he laid hold on the dragon, who is the old serpent, who is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
and the devil, the one deceiving them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also, and they shall be tormented day and night unto the ages of the ages.