📜 Where the Word “Devil” Really Comes From — And Why It’s NOT Hebrew

🔥 Most people think “Devil” is a biblical concept rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures. But it’s not. The word “Devil” never appears in original Hebrew. It comes entirely from Greek — and that changes everything.

📕 Greek Origin: διάβολος (diábolos)
Meaning: Slanderer, accuser, one who divides

Root Verb: διαβάλλω (diabállō) — to throw across, accuse falsely

This term existed in Greek literature long before the Bible. It referred to anyone who stirred up strife through false accusations — not a red, horned being of fire.

📖 The Septuagint’s Error
In the Greek Septuagint (LXX) — a translation of the Hebrew Bible around 250 BC — the translators used διάβολος to replace the Hebrew word שָּׂטָן (satan).

📌 But here’s the truth:

שָּׂטָן (satan) = adversary, accuser, opposer

It appears in passages like Job 1:6 and Zechariah 3:1

It refers to a role or task — sometimes even a human, not a cosmic enemy

In Hebrew, satan is never a proper name

So when Greek translators chose diábolos, they inserted interpretation over translation — shifting “satan” from a testing role under Yhwh’s command into a standalone villain.

❗️What This Created:
A move away from Hebrew thought (function and purpose)

A new idea of a personalized “Devil”

Later adopted by Roman and Christian theology

Eventually turned into “Satan vs. God” — a total distortion

📌 Summary
“Devil” = Greek διάβολος, not Hebrew.

Originally meant slanderer or accuser, not a supernatural monster.

Septuagint mistranslation changed the meaning of שָּׂטָן.

This helped birth the Christian concept of the Devil — not found in the original Hebrew Scriptures.