DEVIL (O. E. deofol; O. S. diubal; O. H. G. tiufal; M. G. Teufel; Gothic, diabo lus, from Gk. 6ta30;tos, a slanderer), an evil spirit, Satan, the tempter, slanderer and tor mentor of human beings, according to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Most of the old religions of the East acknowl edged a host of demons not good or bad, but merely exercising a salutary or injurious in fluence. In the latter case they were looked upon as punishing spirits, without inimical or wicked purpose. Siva, the judging and de stroying god of the Indian mythology, is a symbol of the great power of nature, which is alternately beneficent and injurious, but in it self neither good nor evil. Zoroaster named this evil principle Ahriman. The Greek my thology did not distinguish with the same pre cision between the good and bad spirits. Beelzebub, or Beelzebul, appears to have been regarded by the Jews as the prince of devils. According to the Mohammedans, who have de rived their account from Jewish traditions, the devil, or, as they sometimes call him, Eblis, was an archangel, whom God employed to destroy the jinns or genii, a race intermediate between men and the angels, who tenanted the earth before the creation of Adam.
The Satan of the New Testa ment is a rebel against God. Endowed with the intellect and power of angels, he uses them i since his fall to entangle men in sin, and ob tain, power over them.
The doctrine of Scripture on this subject soon became blended with numerous fictions of human imagination, with the various su perstitions of different countries and the my thology of the pagans. The gods of the ancients
became evil spirits, seeking every opportunity to injure mankind. The excited imaginations of people frequently led them to suppose Satan visibly present; and innumerable stories were told of his appearance, and his attributes dis tinctly described. The writings of the fathers of the Church also contain several passages re specting the appearance of the devil. In many works or appearances of an extraordinary character, the devil was supposed to be con cerned. Thus, many a dam, bridge, etc., has been built in one night with his assistance, and everyone knows that superstitious writers of former days, applying the legends that had become connected with Dr. Faust, the reputed worker of magic, to Fust, to whom the inven tion of printing has frequently been ascribed, taught that he invented the art by the help of Satan. The modern tendency is to regard the personal Devil as a pant of the mythology of early times when men conceived the world forces as endowed with personal form. This is due to the advance of medical and natural science, better methods of historical criticism and modern philosophy. Consult Carus, 'His tory of the Devil' (Chicago 1900) • Conway, 'Demonology and Devil Lore) (London 1878) ; Grimm, 'Deutsche Mythologic' (4th ed., Berlin 1878) ; Horst, < Damonologie (Frankfort 1818) ; Lecanu, 'Histoire de Satan, sa chute, son culte, ses manifestations, ses ceuvres' (Paris 1861) ; Mayer, (Historia Diaboli) (Tii bingen 1780). See DEMONOLOGY.