Victor R. Claveau, MJ
In the New Testament, there are frequent references to that serpent. Jesus refers to him declaring that the devil is “a murderer from the beginning”; in him “there is no truth”; “when he speaks falsehood, he speaks from what is his own, because he is a liar and the father of lies.”[1] And again Jesus calls him “the prince of this world.”[2]
Saint Paul affirms, “with his cunning the serpent seduced Eve”:[3] and he refers to those who become lost “following Satan.”[4] The same apostle speaks of the worldly way of life by which one follows “the prince of the powers of the air, that spirit who works in rebellious men;”[5] he makes mention of the “snares of the devil” and of our battle “against the principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the spirits of evil.”[6]
The first letter of Peter names the “enemy,” “the devil,” or “the accuser,” who “like a roaring lion goes prowling around seeking whom he may devour.”[7] And in the letters of John is recalled “the antichrist” who must come;[8] the “liar” who denies that Jesus is the Christ; the “antichrist” who “denies the Father and the Son.”[9] In Revelation, it is written: “A great war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon fought together with his angels, but he did not prevail and there was no place for them in heaven. And the great dragon, the ancient serpent, the one who is called devil and Satan and who seduces all of the inhabited earth, was thrown to earth and together with him his angels”[10]
[1] John 8:44.
[2] John 12:31; 16:11.
[3] 2 Corinthians 11:3.
[4] 1 Timothy 5:14.
[5] Ephesians 2:2.
[6] Ibid., 6:12.
[7] 5:8.
[8] 1 John 2:18.
[9] 2:22.
[10] 12:7-9.