(Neues Testament) Diabolos, Satan, die bei fast allen Völkern bek. Verkörperung des Bösen. Nach einer Vorstellung des NT ist der T. der mit seinem Anhang (böse Geister oder Dämonen) von Gott abgefallene höchste Engel (Lucifer). Beelzebub.
ETYM French démon, Latin daemon a spirit, an evil spirit.
1. An evil spirit; a devil or demon.
2. A source or agent of evil, harm, distress, or ruin.
1. The face of a die that bears two spots
2. A playing card bearing an index number two
3. A throw of the dice yielding two points
4. [obsolete English deuce bad luck] Devil, dickens — used chiefly as a mild oath; something notable of its kind
5. One of four cards in a deck having two spots.
ETYM AS. deófol, deóful; akin to German teufel, Goth. diabaúlus; all from Latin diabolus the devil, Greek daimon the devil.
1. One of the evil spirits of traditional Jewish and Christian belief; SYN. fiend, demon, daemon, daimon.
2. A word used in exclamations of confusion; SYN. deuce, dickens.
In Jewish, Christian, and Muslim theology, the supreme spirit of evil (Beelzebub, Lucifer, Iblis), or an evil spirit generally.
The devil, or Satan, is mentioned only in the more recently written books of the Old Testament, but the later Jewish doctrine is that found in the New Testament. The concept of the devil passed into the early Christian church from Judaism, and theology until at least the time of St Anselm represented the Atonement as primarily the deliverance, through Christ's death, of mankind from the bondage of the devil. Jesus recognized as a reality the kingdom of evil, of which Satan or Beelzebub was the prince. In the Middle Ages the devil in popular superstition assumed the attributes of the horned fertility gods of paganism, and was regarded as the god of witches. The belief in a personal devil was strong during the Reformation, and the movement's leader Luther regarded himself as the object of a personal Satanic persecution. With the development of liberal Protestantism in the 19th century came a strong tendency to deny the existence of a positive spirit of evil, and to explain the devil as merely a personification.
However, the traditional conception was never abandoned by the Roman Catholic church, and theologians such as C S Lewis have maintained the existence of a power of evil.
In Muslim theology, Iblis is one of the jinn (beings created by Allah from fire), who refused to prostrate himself before Adam, and who tempted Adam and his wife Hawwa (Eve) to disobey Allah, an act which led to their expulsion from Paradise. He continues to try to lead people astray, but at the Last Judgment he and his hosts will be consigned to hell.
die mittelalterliche Kunst stellte den T. symbolisch in menschlicher und halbmenschlicher Gestalt dar. Als Symbole fungieren v.a. Schlange, Basilisk, Drache, Löwe u.a. Tiere. Als Versucher Christi erscheint der T. als nackter Engel mit dunkler Hautfarbe, manchmal mit Zackenkrone oder zackig gesträubtem Haar. Mißgebildet und variationsreich wurde der T. bis ins 16. Jh. hinein dargestellt: mit fratzenhaftem Gesicht, zottige Behaarung, lange und spitze Satyrohren, Bocksfüße, Hörner, Schwanz.
Erwin, 4.9.1939, dt. Politiker (CDU); seit 1991 Min.-Präs. von Ba.-Wü.