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 saith to him, "Depart, Satan; for it has been written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.'"
And bring us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.'
A good tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a worthless tree bear good fruit.
And, when He came to the other side, into the country of the Gadarenes, there met Him two demoniacs, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass along that way;
When any one hears the word of the Kingdom, and understands it not, the evil one comes, and snatches away what has been sown in his heart: this is he that was sown by the wayside.
and the enemy that sowed them is the Devil; and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels.
Then will He say also to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, ye accursed! into the eternal fire which was prepared for the Devil and his angels;
Then will He say also to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, ye accursed! into the eternal fire which was prepared for the Devil and his angels;
And these are those by the wayside, where the word is sown; and, when they hear, straightway Satan comes, and catches away the word which has been sown in them.
And He said to them, "I was beholding Satan fallen as lightning out of the heavens.
And was it not right that this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan bound, lo, eighteen years, should have been loosed from this bond on the day of the sabbath?"
"Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked for you, to sift you as the wheat;
Ye are of your father the Devil; and the desires of your father ye wish to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own; because he is a liar, and the father of it.
Now is the judgment of this world: now will the Prince of this world be cast out;
And after the morsel, then Satan entered into him. Jesus, therefore, saith to him, "What you do, do quickly."
For God's wrath is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hinder the truth in unrighteousness; because that which is known of God is manifested in them; for God manifested it to them. read more. For His invisible things, since the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being perceived by the things that are made, even His everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse: because, having known God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor did they give thanks; but they became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened.
For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son; much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved by His life;
For I reckon that the sufferings of the present time are of no account in comparison with the glory about to be revealed for us. For the earnest longing of the creation is waiting for the revelation of the sons of God. read more. For the creation was made subject to vanity, not of choice, but by reason of Him Who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation is groaning and travailing in pain together until now; and, not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruit of the Spirit, even we ourselves are groaning within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For by hope we were saved; but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for that which he sees? But, if we hope for that which we see not, we wait for it with patience.
And we know that all things are working together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose;
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him Who loved us. For I am persuaded that, neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, read more. nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
You will say to me, then, "Why doth He still find fault? for who has withstood His will?" Nay but, O man, who are you that reply against God ? Shall the thing formed say to Him Who formed it, "Why didst Thou make me thus?" read more. Or has not the potter a right over the clay, out of the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? And what if God, willing to show forth His wrath and to make known His power, endured with much long-suffering vessels of wrath fitted for destruction; and that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from Jews only, but also from gentiles?
Nay, but I say that the things which the gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I do not wish you to become partakers with the demons.
for now we see through a mirror, obscurely; but then, face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall fully know, even as I also was fully known.
but I fear lest, by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and purity which is toward Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ; according as He chose us in Him before the founding of a world, that we should be holy and without blemish before Him in love; read more. having predestinated us to the adoption of sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He graciously bestowed on us in the Beloved; in Whom we have our redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He made to superabound toward us in all wisdom and understanding; making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Him, for a dispensation of the fulness of the seasons, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth; in Him, in Whom we also were made a heritage, having been predestinated according to the purpose of Him Who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will; that we might be to the praise of His glory, we who had before hoped in Christ; in Whom ye also??fter having heard the word of the truth, the Gospel of your salvation, in Whom having also believed??ere sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
neither give place to the Devil.
Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil;
having despoiled the principalities and the powers, He made an example of them, celebrating a triumph over them in it.
and ye have forgotten the exhortation which, indeed, reasons with you as with sons: "My son, do not lightly regard the chastening of the Lord; neither faint, when reproved by Him; for whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He acknowledgeth." read more. For chastening endure ye: God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father chastens not?
For chastening endure ye: God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father chastens not? But, if ye are without chastisement, of which all have become partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
But, if ye are without chastisement, of which all have become partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore, we used to have the fathers of our flesh as chasteners, and we reverenced them: shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of our spirits, and live?
Furthermore, we used to have the fathers of our flesh as chasteners, 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 were chastening us, according to what seemed good to them; but He for our profit, that we may partake of His holiness.
For they, indeed, for a few days were chastening us, according to what seemed good to them; but He for our profit, that we may partake of His holiness. All chastening, indeed, for the present seems not to be joyous, but grievous; but afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained thereby.
All chastening, indeed, for the present seems not to be joyous, but grievous; but afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained thereby.
Let no one, when tempted, say, "I am tempted from God"; for God cannot be tempted with evils, and He Himself tempteth no one.
Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. But resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.
Behold, we pronounce those happy who endured: ye heard of the patience of Job; and ye saw the end of the Lord, that the Lord is full of pity, and merciful.
Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, is going about, seeking whom he may devour;
For, if God spared not angels that sinned, but, hurling them down to Hell, delivered them up to pits of darkness, kept for judgment;
And angels who kept not their own principality, but left their proper habitation, He hath kept in everlasting bonds, under darkness, for the judgment of the great day.
As many as I love, I reprove and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent.
And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fallen out of the 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 went up a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. read more. And out of the smoke came forth locusts upon the earth; and authority was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have authority. And it was said to them, that they should not injure the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only such men as 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 it strikes a man. And in those days will men seek death, and shall in no wise find it; and they will desire to die, and death flees from them. And the shapes of the locusts were like horses prepared for battle; and on their heads as it were crowns like gold; and their faces were as 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 it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running into battle. And they have tails like scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt men five months. They have over them as king the angel of the abyss: his name in Hebrew is Abaddon; and, in the Greek, he has a name Apollyon.
And the great dragon was cast down, the old serpent, he that is called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole habitable earth; he was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him.
On this account, rejoice, ye Heavens, and ye who dwell in them! Woe to the earth, and to the sea! because the Devil went down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has but a little time.
And he seized the dragon, the old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,
And the Devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where also the beast and the false prophet were cast; and they shall be tormented, day and night, forever and ever.