Subject text: 1 Peter 5:8,9 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.”
The bolded texts are the ones I zeroed in on….
1) The word adversary, interestingly enough, is NOT satanas. I would have thought that if Peter wanted to associate the “devil” and “satan” together he would have used “satanas” but he did not. The word is “antidikos”, Strongs #476, and is made up of two primitive roots; anti — (against, oppose), and dikos — (judgement, sentencing, judicial, vengeance)
I thought that odd, that the definition of the word is a very specific one, referring to a specific kind of opponent in a judicial system, or a court trial.
So let us look at its uses in the New Testament:
- Matthew 5:25, “Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.”
- Luke 12:58, “When thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, [as thou art] in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him; lest he hale thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison.”
- Luke 18:3-6, “Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.”
Notice the specific way this word ‘adversary’ or ‘antidikos’ is used, it is never used with reference to anything except an opponent in a court of law… and by its very definition to boot, this is the same way in which Peter used it
2) Next, we have “devil” which simply means false accuser, or slanderer… in keeping with the previous adjective “opponent in a court of law”, a “false accuser” i.e. “devil” makes perfect sense, there is nothing else said or implied in the text up to this point
3) So now we are left to determine, just who this “false accuser in the judicial system” is… I would suggest it can be found by the next term “a roaring lion”
Notice:
Proverbs 19:12, “The king’s wrath [is] as the roaring of a lion; but his favour [is] as dew upon the grass.”
Proverbs 20:2, “The fear of a king [is] as the roaring of a lion: [whoso] provoketh him to anger sinneth [against] his own soul.”
Proverbs 28:15, “[As] a roaring lion, and a ranging bear; [so is] a wicked ruler over the poor people.”
Ezekiel 22:25-29, “[There is] a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof. Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed [difference] between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. Her princes in the midst thereof [are] like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, [and] to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain. And her prophets have daubed them with untempered [morter], seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord GOD, when the LORD hath not spoken. The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.”
It seems so clear why both Paul and Peter would use the symbol of a roaring lion… at the time, Rome was doing exactly what Israel had done in the past
2 Timothy 4:17, “Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and [that] all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.”
4) And finally, the phrase “the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren”… now let us think about this. Peter said the afflictions were “accomplished”
which literally means “to bring to an end, finish” seeing as how this passage
is supposed to encourage the brethren to persevere, what benefit would it be for Peter to remind them that a supernatural “devil” had “accomplished” his work, i.e. devoured the brethren all around the world? It wouldn’t, and he didn’t say so. On the contrary, the thing which was “accomplished” was the “false accusations and slanderings” that the Roman “judicial system” had brought against the Christians, like a “roaring lion”
These are the only precedents for the term, roaring lion…
The specific use of the word “antidikos” and not “satanas” directs us to the true intention of the writer… and I believe, the solution to the “problem”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One