Not all agree that Wis 2:23-24 refers to the devil,
however. The key phrase φθονω
δε διαβολου, rendered “through the devil’s envy” by
the NRSV and many other translations, could also be interpreted “through the
envy of an adversary.” Some have argued that the adversary in question is Cain:
Abel is after all the first person to die in Genesis. In support of this
interpretation, one may appeal to 1 Clement. Clement speaks of death entering
the world, apparently alluding to Wis 2:23-24, but he interprets this passage
as speaking of the murder of Cain. He writes, “each one walks according to the
desires of his evil heart, which have aroused unrighteous and impious
jealousy—through which also death entered the world” (1 Clem 3:4). He continues
his account by retelling the story of Cain and Abel, and concludes, “You see,
brothers, jealousy and envy brought about the murder of a brother” (1 Clem
4:7). Some scholars claim that Clement thereby identifies the διαβολος whose envy brought death into the world
in Wis 2:24 as Cain; it was his jealousy that drove him to murder his brother
(cf. Gen 4:5). I am not convinced by this interpretation of Wis 2:24. It is
true that διαβολος has
various meanings, and it could simply refer to an adversary. It was however
also used to designate the supernatural adversary by the time Wisdom was
written, and the Septuagint uses it to translate śāṭān. I do not
understand why Wisdom would choose as ambiguous a term as διαβολος to refer to Cain. Had the author wanted
to refer to Cain, he could have done so more directly, by name or by referring
to him as a brother for example. Wis 2:22-24 speaks of the secret purposes of
God for mankind that seemed initially to be thwarted by the envy of some other
character. Cain is too insignificant a character for this contrast to work. The
line, “those who belong to his portion experienced it [i.e., death]” (Wis
2:24b), also supports my interpretation. The portion or company of the
adversary is contrasted with the righteous whose souls are in the hands of God
(Wis 3:1). Wisdom is probably referring to the company of Satan, rather than
the company of Cain. Some have argued that the absence of an article before διαβολου in Wis 2:24 (φθονω δε διαβολου) renders the translation “the envy of
the devil” unlikely. But the same text speaks of the mysteries of God (μυστηρια θεου, Wis 2:22), without an article before διαβολου. The mere absence of an article is not
enough to determine whether the noun is definite or indefinite; if διαβολου refers to the devil, no article would
be necessary as it is a monadic noun.
I consider it most likely that when John speaks of the
devil as a liar and murderer from the beginning he is thinking of the narrative
sequence beginning with the serpent tempting Adam and Eve and continuing
through the murder of Abel (Gen 3:1-4:16). Based in part on my interpretation
of Wis 2:24 I think it is reasonable to believe that the association of the
serpent in the garden with Satan was common even before Revelation was written.
When John refers to the devil as the father of lies, he is thinking of this
first lie in Gen 3:4, but also of later lies, such as Cain’s lies in Gen 4:9.
The first murder is the one referred to in the fourth chapter of Genesis. While
Satan is not referred to directly in Genesis 4, the author uses a curious
personification of sin in this passage: “if you do not do well, sin is lurking
at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it” (Gen 4:7 NRSV). I
suspect that John and his contemporaries saw this personification as a
reference to Satan. Thus, the first murder that Satan was implicated in was the
murder of Abel (Gen 4:8), and it was this event that John has in mind when he
refers to the devil as a murderer from the beginning.
John refers to the devil as a murderer (ανθρωποκτονος) in John 8:44. Michaels
notes that the more common word for murderer was φονευς, and that ανθρωποκτονος is more literally
man-killer or homicide. John uses the same noun ανθρωποκτονος in his First Letter:
We know that we have passed out of death into life,
because we love the brethren. HE who does not love abides in death. Any one who
hates his brother is a murderer [ανθρωποκτονος], and you know that no murderer [ανθρωποκτονος] has eternal life abiding in him. (1 John 3:14-15 RSV)
1 John 3:12 specifies
that Cain was from the evil one (εκ
του πονηρου);
one might say that when he killed Abel he was doing his father’s doing. I find
it significant that this passage in 1 John speaks about relations between
“brothers.” We find the same combination of references to brothers and murderer
in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5:21-22), suggesting that the story of Abel
and Cain was frequently used as a negative example of how not to behave. In our
passage in John 8, the culprits are Jews, people who like Jesus could claim
descent from Abraham (8:33). More to the point, they are Jews who had believed
in him (8:31). They are false brothers whom Jesus accuses of doing the devil’s
bidding. They seek to convict him of sin (8:46) and they prepare to stone him
to death (8:59, also 8:37), acting in the same way that the devil had done
throughout history. (Torsten Löfstedt, The Devil, Demons,
Judas, and “the Jews”: Opponents of Christ in the Gospels [Eugene, Oreg.:
Pickwick Publications, 2021], 315-17)
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