SPECIAL TOPIC: FALL OF SATAN AND HIS ANGELS

SPECIAL TOPIC: FALL OF SATAN AND HIS ANGELS (from Rev. 12:4)

Rev. 12:4 "his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth" Because the term "the stars of heaven" is used quite often in the OT to refer to the saints of God (cf. Gen. 15:5; Jer. 33:22; Dan. 12:3), some have assumed that this refers to saints, but in the book of Revelation it probably refers to angels (cf. Dan. 8:10; 2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 1:6). Falling angels (i.e., in the imagery of falling stars) are a common motif in Jewish intertestimental apocalyptic literature (i.e., I Enoch).

Satan (see SPECIAL TOPIC: SATAN) is depicted with the angels in heaven before God in Job 1-2 and Zechariah 3. He was possibly a "covering cherub" (cf. Ezek. 28:12-18). This description, using imagery from the Garden of Eden, does fit the King of Tyre. The king's pride and arrogance mimicked Satan's (I am becoming more and more uncomfortable with Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 referring to Satan because of Ezekiel 31, where the king of Egypt is described as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Ezekiel regularly uses Eden vocabulary to describe ANE kings; please see my exegetical commentary of Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 online). In the OT Satan is not an enemy of God, but of mankind (cf. Rev. 12:10). Proper theology about God demands that Satan was not created evil but developed into an arch enemy of all things good and holy (cf. Gen. 1:31; see A. B. Davidson's An Old Testament Theology, pp. 300-306). Several times he is said to have been cast out of heaven (cf. Isa. 14:12; Ezek. 28:16; Luke 10:18; John 12:31; 2 Pet. 2:4; and Rev. 12:7-12). The problem is when. Is it:

during the OT period
1. before Genesis 1:1 (before creation)
2. between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 (gap theory)
3. in the OT after Job 1-2 (Satan in heaven, 2000 B.C. period)
4. in OT after 1 Kgs. 22:21 (Satan in heavenly council, Ahab's reign)
5. in the OT after Zechariah 3 (Satan in heaven, post-exilic period)
6. in the OT as in Isa. 14:12; Ezek. 28:15 and II Enoch 29:4-5, the pride of ANE kings condemned
during the NT period
1. in the NT after Jesus' temptation (cf. Matthew 4)
2. in the NT during the mission of the seventy (saw Satan fall from heaven, cf. Luke 10:18)
3. in the NT after the triumphal entry into Jerusalem (ruler of this world cast out, cf. John 12:31)
4. in the NT after Jesus' resurrection and ascension (cf. Eph. 4:8; Col. 2:15)
5. at the end-time (cf. Rev. 12:7, possibly as Satan stormed heaven in search of the Child)

One wonders if "the third of the stars" refers to angels who rebelled against God and chose to follow Satan. If so, this may be the only scriptural basis for the demonic of the NT related to fallen angels (cf. Rev. 12:9,12). The number, "one-third," may be related to the

limit of the destruction during the trumpet judgments (cf. Rev. 8:7-12; 9:15,18) and not a specific number
it may represent Satan's seduction of part of the angels
it may be a mythological allusion to a Babylonian creation account

At this point it may be helpful to remember that although this issue is interesting, it was not the author's intent in this context to discuss

the origin of the demonic
the fall of Satan
an angelic rebellion in heaven

In apocalyptic literature the central theme of the vision is crucial, but the literalness of the presentation, the details and the images are dramatic, symbolic, fictional (see SPECIAL TOPIC: APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE). It is our curiosity and western thinking that motivates our detailed, logical, doctrinal formulations of these symbolic texts. Be careful of pushing the details; apocalyptic literature is often true theology presented in an imaginative framework. It is true, but symbolically presented!

The Bible does not assert a dualism but a monotheism. Much of the discussion of Satan and his angels has been affected by Zoroastrianism's influence on the Jewish rabbis during the Persian period. See Alfred Edersheim's The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Appendix.