Freely invented, sustainably maintained
In some theologies, the origin of evil is attributed to Satan. He is supposed to be the cause of all misery in this world. This thought is widespread and distracts from the fact that God is above everything. It is an attempt to wash God clean of all evil. However, this cannot be done without losing the divinity of God.
Now, has Satan fallen morally? There are no direct statements for this in the Bible (on the contrary!), but the idea is read into some texts with pleasure. This interpretation says that Satan was once a blameless being, but then “fell morally” through pride (cf. “Pride comes before a fall,” Eccl. 16:18). Two Bible passages must be used for these assertions: Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14. There is already an article about the statements in Ezekiel 28 (“Is the prince of Tyre an image of Satan?”). Here we now turn to the second place. The interpretation is fictitious, but it is still “believed” by many today. That’s why it’s important to look at the job carefully.
Isaiah writes at length of the king of Babylon. Among other things, one reads the following:
“How you have fallen from heaven, you shining star, son of the dawn; fallen to the earth, overcomer of nations! And you said in your heart, ‘To heaven I will ascend, high above the stars of God I will raise my throne, and I will sit down on the mount of assembly in the farthest north. I will ascend to cloudy heights, making myself equal with the Most High.'”
Isaiah 14:12-14
Because of this figurative language, it is now assumed that this would be about a case of Satan. Or in other words, Isaiah doesn’t mention anything like that, but we know how it really is! This is called eisegesis (insertion), as opposed to biblical exegesis (interpretation). In the same passage we find in the Latin translation of the Bible also the term “Lucifer” mentioned (“quomodo cecidisti de caelo lucifer” Isa 14,12, according to the Vulgate). Lucifer is traded as another name of Satan. In this chapter, then, various thoughts come together that we can all assign to the “Fall of Satan” theme.
The “fall of Satan” is freely invented, but it is still carefully cultivated as a doctrinal opinion and foisted on unsuspecting people as “biblical teaching” with the same arguments over and over again. However, it is unfortunately a hoax, a freely invented false story.
Read text in context
If we do not want to fall into the suspicion of dealing with the Bible arbitrarily, an interpretation must emerge from the context itself. Someone cannot just come and project arbitrary thoughts into the Bible. When this happens, one can apply the rules of inductive Bible study, with which one can get back on track with the message of the Bible itself. Everyone can check for themselves and this post is about simple tips that want to encourage exactly that.
The text in Isaiah 14, which deals with the king of Babylon (Isa 14:4), does not stand in a vacuum. The saying about Babel already starts one chapter before.
“Saying over Babel, which Isaiah the son of Amoz beheld”.
Isa 13,1
From Isaiah 13, a new section of the Book of Isaiah begins, wherein various cities, kings and countries and their relationship to Israel’s history are presented. They are “sayings”, in the sense of warnings and prophecies of a prophet about these cities, countries and kings. In order, it deals with Babylon (13:1-14:23), Moab (15:1-16:14), Damascus (17:1-14), Ethiopia (18:1-7), Egypt (19:1-20:6), the desert of the sea (21:1-10), Duma/Seir (21:11-12), Arabia (21:13-17), and the valley of the visions (22:1-14).
So the speech of the king of Babel is only one in a whole series of similar stories. Isaiah referred to concrete situations. There is some evidence that not only Babel as a city was meant, but also a whole region (cf. “from a far country… from the end of heaven” Isa 13,5). “From the end of the sky” probably simply refers to the horizon, because from far away these people came. It is not a reference to heaven, as if these oppressors come “from heaven”, or as if this takes place “in heaven”. What is needed here is a basic understanding of visual language. Likewise, in the same chapter, Isaiah names Babylon with the words “pride of the pride of the Chaldeans” (Isa 13:19), Chaldea being the region wherein Babylon is located.
Isaiah’s warnings are alternated with glimpses of a positive future for Israel. Thus the saying about the king of Babylon, with all its terrors, also holds out hope for Israel:
“For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and will establish them in their land…And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy travail, and from thy trouble, and from the hard service which is laid upon thee, that thou shalt lift up this saying against the king of Babylon, and shalt speak.”
Isa 14:1-4
The oppression of Babel, from Isaiah’s perspective, will one day be over and then it will be possible to make a statement, a judgment. Immediately after these words then comes the content of this saying about the king of Babel. Now before we get to the actual verses, from which some infer a fall of Satan, we can listen carefully to the text. Why does it actually work? Who speaks to whom, with what words and with what intention? What are they talking about? Who is in focus? What is it about?
The man who made the earth tremble
Once you read through the two chapters 13 and 14, you learn a lot about this king of Babylon and what he did, you read about his pride and how he was brought down. However, we do not find any reference to Satan. This is a fundamental and important realization. There is no reference to a heavenly being here, but it is clearly referred to a human being:
“Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms; who made the circle of the earth desolate, whose cities were pulled down, whose captives were not released to their homeland? All the kings of the nations altogether lie with honor, every one in his house; but thou art cast down far from thy sepulcher, like a loathed sapling, covered with slain, pierced with the sword, which are gone down to the stones of the pit, like a trodden carrion.”
Isa 14:16-19
This king of Babylon was a man (hb. gever), a powerful but common man. Isaiah compares the king of Babylon with other kings of other nations and speaks of slain people on the battlefield. It is not about heavenly beings, but about ordinary people throughout. The king of Babylon is the man who made the earth tremble by bringing disaster on Israel and other nations and not least on his own people (Is 14:20).
Are there two interpretations?
Those who want to see chapter 14 of Isaiah as an explanation of the fall of Satan do so on the grounds that multiple meanings can take place. The statement then is that there is a “first” meaning that does justice to the direct historical context and another “prophetic” interpretation that then establishes the “fall of Satan.”
In fact, there are several examples of such interpretations in the Bible. They can be found more often in the quotes. However, there is a big difference in terms of the doctrine of the Fall of Satan. In all subjects, there needs to be unambiguous statements somewhere that justify the idea. Other passages are then mentioned additionally as a prophetic interpretation. There is an example of this in these chapters as well, that the judgments mentioned still know a future component that goes beyond direct history (cf. Isa 13:10 and Mt 24:29 as a statement about the future day of the Lord, after which Jesus refers, in contrast to the day of the Lord mentioned in the chapter, Isa 13:9). However, this is not the case with this doctrine of the Fall of Satan.
There is no direct teaching that Satan is morally fallen. In the Gospel according to John, Jesus declared that the Counter-Effector (Satan) was a “slayer of men from the beginning, and stood not in the truth” (John 8:44). There was no “perfect beginning” of Satan followed by a “moral fall.” The Bible clearly sketches a different picture.
The judgment of the king of Babylon
Babel will be judged. We read about this in Isaiah 13:17:
“Behold, I raise up against them the Medes … And Babylon, the adornment of kingdoms, the pride of the arrogance of the Chaldeans, shall be as the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah by God.”
Isa 13:17-22
The powerful position of Babylon will thus be broken. Isaiah speaks of this and holds this out to the Israelites. Once this occurs, Israel is to raise a spell over the oppressor and say:
“And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy travail, and from thy trouble, and from the hard service which is laid upon thee, that thou shalt lift up this saying against the king of Babylon, and shalt say.
How the oppressor has ceased, the onslaught has stopped! The Lord has broken the rod of the wicked, the ruler’s rod, which smote nations in fury with blows without ceasing, subdued nations in wrath with persecution without restraint. It rests, the whole earth rests; one breaks out in jubilation. The cypresses also rejoice over you, the cedars of Lebanon: ‘Since you have been lying there, no one comes up to cut us down.’
Sheol below is in motion because of you, toward your coming; it upsets the shadows because of you, all the mighty of the earth, it makes rise from their thrones, all the kings of the nations. They all lift up and say to you, ‘You too have become powerless like us, have become like us!’ Into Sheol has fallen your splendor, the murmur of your harps. Maggots are bedded under you, and worms are your blanket.”
Isa 14:3-11
It is again a figurative comparison. It should be clear in this “saying” (Isa 14:4) that pride has led to fall and the king is now slain. All kings and people against whom he has fought stand as it were (figurative language!) as a witness that his fall was now very great. While the other kings had died with honor, this was not true of the king of Babylon. Maggots and worms devour his body. Gone is his arrogance and his splendor.
“How you have fallen from heaven, you shining star, son of the dawn; fallen to the earth, overcomer of nations! And thou saidst in thine heart, ‘To heaven will I ascend; high above the stars of God will I exalt my throne; and I will sit down upon the mount of assembly in the uttermost north. I will ascend to the heights of clouds, making myself equal with the Most High.”
Isa 14:12-14
This is the central place to establish the “Fall of Satan.” However, there is nothing to suggest that it is about anything other than the king of Babel. The king, with all his glory, had been given the name “Shining Star, Son of the Dawn.” This was the name given to the planet Venus, which the Assyrians worshipped as female at sunrise and male at sunset (Companion Bible, note on Isa 14:12). The Assembly Hill in the extreme north is also a reference to the religious practices of the Chaldeans. The king intended to ascend to divine heights. That was his arrogance. However, it concerns a human being, not a heavenly being. Nothing else can be deduced from the text.
“But into Sheol thou shalt be cast down, into the deepest pit. Those who see you look at you and say, ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world desolate, whose cities were torn down, whose captives were not sent home?’ All the kings of the nations altogether lie with honor, each in his own house; but you are cast down far from your sepulcher, like a detested sapling, covered with slain, pierced by the sword, who have gone down to the stones of the pit, like carrion trodden under foot.”
Isa 14:15-19
There is now also a reason for this disgrace:
“You will not be joined with them in burial, for you have ruined your land, you have murdered your people. The offspring of the transgressors will not be named forever.”
Isa 14,20 Elberfelder
“Do not unite with those in the tomb. For My land you have ruined, My people you have slain; you shall not be called for the eon, you seed of evildoers!”
Isa 14:20 Concordant Old Testament, Isaiah
Now you can read the rest of the chapter and interpret it in your own context. It is unanimous about the king of Babylon, about Assyria, and God’s judgment on that nation because of the king’s many cruel deeds. However, this is not a picture of Satan. Because any link to this is missing.
God’s work
Why this chapter is about is not just the king of Babylon and the terrors that came from Assyria. It is mainly about the God of Israel, who is above everything and has everything in his hands. He will liberate his people. There is confidence in that and that is the real lesson we can take from it today.
“And I will rise up against them, says the Lord of hosts, and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant and son and descendant, says the Lord. And I will sweep it out with the broom of destruction, says the Lord of hosts.
The Lord of hosts has sworn and spoken: Yes, as I have purposed before, so it shall come to pass, and as I have decreed, so it shall come to pass: that I will smite Assyria in my land [Israel] and tread it down upon my mountains. And so his yoke will depart from them [vom Volk Israel] and his burden will depart from their shoulder. This is the counsel that is decreed over all the earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out over all nations. For the Lord of hosts has decreed it, and who will thwart it? And his outstretched hand – who could turn it away?”
Isa 14:24-27
Something else we can learn from this: above everything, even above every beginning of Satan, stands God Himself. The theological attempt to transfer something of God’s omnipotence to Satan seems a silly human attempt to arrange the world according to own ideas. The Bible speaks more freely, more radically, more clearly than some theology. Discovering this may be a continuous reading and learning, trusting in Him who holds everything in His hands.
