Did Satan know Jesus was God?

[MH84]

Continued from above post.

I also agree with Stephen Ryan here:

Also, miracles are not a sign of Divinity…only of God’s favor working in someone’s life. Old Testament prophets worked miracles for the good of the people, but they were most certainly not God. They were favored by God…sons of God if you will. So Jesus saying ‘Do not tempt the Lord your God’ isn’t a proof that He is God necessarily, but that in Satan asking Jesus to do these miracles, Jesus would be asking God to suspend natural law to do them. So Jesus could conceivably mean, ‘Do not tempt the Lord your God to do these miracles through me’, though we know that’s not so through Divine Revelation and our own Catholic Faith.

Deuteronomy 6:
1 These are the precepts, and ceremonies, and judgments, **which the Lord your God commanded that I should teach you, and that you should do them in the land into which you pass over to possess it: **2 That thou mayst fear the Lord thy God, and keep all his commandments and precepts, which I command thee, and thy sons, and thy grandsons, all the days of thy life, that thy days may be prolonged. 3 Hear, O Israel, and observe to do the things which the Lord hath commanded thee, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayst be greatly multiplied, as the Lord the God of thy fathers hath promised thee a land flowing with milk and honey. 4 Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. 5 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength.

11 Houses full of riches, which thou didst not set up, cisterns which thou didst not dig, vineyards and oliveyards, which thou didst not plant, 12 And thou shalt have eaten and be full: 13** Take heed diligently lest thou forget the Lord, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and shalt serve him only, and thou shalt swear by his name. **14 You shall not go after the strange gods of all the nations, that are round about you: 15 Because the Lord thy God is a jealous God in the midst of thee: lest at any time the wrath of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and take thee away from the face of the earth. 16 Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God, as thou temptedst him in the place of temptation. 17 Keep the precepts of the Lord thy God, and the testimonies and ceremonies which he hath commanded thee.

drbo.org/chapter/05006.htm

I think Jesus may have been quoting Moses here in Matthew.

 

[Cristiano]

Yeah, but I don’t think they who knew “Jesus” (the incarnate God)was. They knew who the Second Person of the Divine Trinity was from before the world was made. I think that maybe the plan of salvation was hidden from satan, including the fact of the Incarnation.

Its like a mum whom the children know, but if she dresses up in a constume and appears in front of them the children are not sure you that is.

I am not sure that I agree with you. What you say would be based on the fact that the angels (fallen or not) live and act based on the human chronos. I am not sure that such an assumption is correct.

 

[tm30]

Also - would Satan have had anyone other than Jesus be able to resist his “tempting in every way”? A sinner would have given in, Satan would not be used to someone being able to resist so much temptation.

There were three answers that Satan was looking for:

1. Do you have supernatural powers ? (turning stones to bread)
2. Do you command the angels? (cast yourself down and be rescued)
3. Do you need earthly power? (rule these kingdoms with me)

The third temptation was the coup de grace. No ordinary, starving, power-impoverished Jew would simply toss aside the opportunity of driving out the Romans from their lands and paving the way for the long-awaited Messiah to appear. The Jews were very tuned in to messianism at this point. Thus the great irony of crucifying the Son of God instead of one who was named “son of God” (Bar-Abbas), because he appealed to their hope of a revolutionary Messiah who would evict the Romans. By rejecting this notion out of hand, Satan had enough proof that he wasn’t dealing with an ordinary human being - Someone who prefers hunger, weakness, and subjugation to offending God in any way, shape, or manner.

 

[tm30]

Satan knew right away, that is why he prompted Herold to destory the children.

If he knew of Jesus before the Word became flesh, why didn’t he just prompt Herod to kill Mary specifically?

 

[tm30]

Satan as Lucifer was jealous of Jesus and knew who Jesus was before him and a third of the angels were tossed out of Heaven.

If he knew Him then–don’t think that He didn’t know Him later.

Satan may have known the Word of God, the Son. But he did not ascertain the Word made flesh. That did not occur until the Annunciation, and there’s not much evidence that Satan ascertained Jesus even then, since he did not specifically target Christ in the murder of the Innocents. Satan lives in darkness. In spite of being a part of the spiritual realm, there’s no reason to assume he had any further insight into who Jesus’ mother was any more than Herod did. It’s entirely possible God left this part of his intellect darkened for the very protection of the Holy Family during Jesus’ upbringing. After all, I’m sure that - if he knew who Jesus was - he had many opportunities to rub them out before Jesus no longer needed their protection.

 

[Orionthehunter]

My understanding is that Jesus and Angels (including Satan) existed before our world was created.

Satan was beautiful (Ezekiel 28:12), and perhaps this was the excuse for his pride.

But Satan became jealous when other other Angels worshipped Jesus, and thats when he became rebellious and thrown out of heaven.

So, my understanding is that Satan knew Jesus was God before our world was created.

:twocents:

The Triune God is eternal. However, the Incarnation occured in a particular place in time and full understanding was not revealed until the confluence of the Resurrection/Assumption/Pentecost.

I do not believe that Satan knew who Jesus was until then. Otherwise, he would have known of the futility to tempt him in the desert (what can Satan offer God?). Furthermore, the Agony in the Garden was an attempt of Satan for Christ to cease to be this stellar example to God’s people.

Oh, I think that satan knew exactly Who Jesus was; what he didn’t know, was what He was planning…
This is something I actually realized from watching " Passion of the Christ"; all the time, satan was thinking that getting Jesus killed was going to be a big defeat for God, & then he suddenly saw that Jesus had come to earth precisely…in order to die.
And he was furious, enraged, because his pride was hurt, for one thing: he thought he was so smart–“I will ascend to the throne of God; I will be the most high”…“I will, I will, I will”…And now, all his tricking & scheming–is what has defeated him.

(I don’t use the capital “S” for satan, because it’s an honorific, & I have no intention of honoring him).

Much of the Passion of the Christ’s scenes not specifically in the Bible were drawn from the “Delorous Passion” by Sister Catherine Anne Emmerich. If you remember, it was after the Crucifixtion that Satan is seen crying to Heaven in utter agony. This scene is meant to depict that this is when Satan realized that God had used him to fulfill God’s Plan for Salvation History.

Satan as Lucifer was jealous of Jesus and knew who Jesus was before him and a third of the angels were tossed out of Heaven.

If he knew Him then–don’t think that He didn’t know Him later.

Satan really believed that Jesus was embrace at least one of the trillions of sins that He bore on the cross–all Satan needed was for Jesus not to perfectly bear all the sins on the cross.

When Jesus did perfectly bear all the sins of the world on the cross–Satan knew he was defeatred but being the liar that he is he deludes himseolf into believing that he can still beat God.

He can’t–he’s lost–and the end is a foregone conclusion–but we still have to persevere until the end not to join him.

By ourselves we can’t do tht–with God we can.

But as I said before, Satan knew Him in Heaven as part of the Trinity. He did not know Christ as God Incarnate.

 

[melekali]

I would think Herod’s attempt to kill the baby Jesus when he knew he was going to be born but did not have enough specifics could be argued as “inspired” by the devil. Obviously this is not something I can “prove” but it seems to be consistent with his modis operandi. In the Gospels of St. Matthew & Luke, we see Satan knew Scripture, so I don’t think this line of thinking can be so easily discarded. Surely Satan knew the Jewish understanding of the prophecies since he cannot read minds, but he can listen to the Jewish teachers or perhaps even reason himself, though imperfectly because he lacks love.

 

[ready]

I was in a discussion with a friend about the movie “The Passion of the Christ” and somehow we got on the subject of whether Satan knew Jesus was God. My friend insisted that Satan did not know until after Jesus died and resurrected. I just can’t believe he wouldn’t have known but I need to find a Scripture passage to support my stance. I’m not sure I can clearly defend my opinion.

I would love to hear others thoughts and more importantly, what does the Church say about this?

In Her Heart,
Catherine

In the approved private revelations of Ven. Mary of Agreda we read that Satan knew for sure that Jesus was God only when Jesus was on His Cross on Mt. Calvary. Before then Satan had suspected that either our Lord or St. John the Baptist could be the Messiah, but wasn’t sure of anything. At the words of:* It is finished* spoken by our Lord, Satan and the other fallen angels were hurled into hell and had their question resolved. God bless you.

 

[Leo_Domitor]

If the Devil knew that Jesus was God, he would have had no motivation to tempt Him, for God cannot sin and the Devil, who has a brilliant, though misguided, intellect would certainly know that God cannot sin. The fact that the Devil did tempt Jesus shows that he thought there was something to “gain” in tempting Jesus, which means he did not know that Jesus was God.

Likewise, if the Devil knew that Jesus was God, he would not have pursued Jesus’ crucifixion due to the ominous (for the Devil) prophecy of Gen 3:15: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and hers. He will strike at your head while you strike at His heel.”

It would appear that the Devil did not realize who Jesus was until the Resurrection, for that was the moment when death was overthrown, and it is also the definitive overthrow of the Devil’s dominion over man. Though the infinite debt resulting from Adam’s sin was paid by Jesus’ infinite act of charity exercised in His death for mankind, and the infinite breach between God and man, also the result of Adam’s sin, was healed by the same act of charity, this could not be recognized by mankind until after the resurrection, “for a hanged man is accursed by God” (Dt 21:23; also see Gal 3:13, Acts 5:30, 10:39). Jesus had been temporarily discredited, in the eyes of His disciples, by His crucifixion. The Devil appeared victorious. But, on the day of the Resurrection, the Devil found that he had been duped, and the disciples themselves came to recognize that Jesus was God.