The English word “devil” has no inherent meaning in English, because it is a borrowed word—ultimately from the Greek διάβολος (diábolos). To understand the “devil,” we must understand the word itself as it originally functioned before later religious and cultural overlays.
1. The Greek Root: διά + βάλλω
The ancient Greek term διάβολος is indeed composed of:
- διά (diá) – “through,” “across,” “from one side to the other,” “completely”
- βάλλω (ballō) – “to throw,” but originally “to strike,” “to hit,” “to sting,” “to hurl something so that it penetrates”
Greek lexicons reflect this:
- βάλλω → “to throw with intent to hit,” “to strike,” “to hurl.”
- It is not random or casual throwing; it is aimed throwing.
“Throwing” in many languages is historically an extension of “striking/stinging”. In Proto-Indo-European and in several daughter languages, this semantic development occurs:
- Lithuanian verb gelti (“to sting”) has parallels in “piercing” action.
- PIE root gwelh₃ (to pierce, stab) is semantically in the same conceptual domain as the early meaning of βάλλω.
Thus, βάλλω ≈ to launch something at a target so that it penetrates or harms.
2. What does “διά” really mean?
This is the essential idea:
- “διά” marks movement from one end to another, across the entirety of something.
- It implies penetration, thoroughness, crossing a boundary, or permeating a structure.
In classical Greek:
- διά λίθου = “through the stone”
- διά πυρός = “through fire”
- Finally, metaphorically → “throughout,” “completely,” “thoroughly,” “by means of.”
So διά + βάλλω literally conveys piercing something all the way through by a targeted strike.
The “from A to Z of the object” metaphor exactly matches the Greek sense.
3. The Literal Meaning of διάβολος
So if we strip away later theological meanings, the literal, primitive meaning is:
“The one who strikes through,”
“The piercer,”
“The one who penetrates through a person,”
“The one who attacks across, by piercing through.”
This is not yet “Devil” with horns and tail. It is a function word describing an adversarial activity.
4. How this became “the accuser” or “the slanderer”
In Greek thought, mental or social harm is conceptualized as a kind of piercing.
To “strike through” someone with words = to attack their integrity, to break through their defenses, to “hit” them with deceptive or harmful accusations.
Thus the figurative meaning develops:
διάβολος → one who attacks by throwing accusations through a person’s reputation, resolve, or clarity.
This is why the standard translation is “slanderer,” “accuser,” but it retains the underlying violent metaphor of piercing.
5. The theological application: the tempter as the “piercer-through”
Temptation in biblical thought is not simply offering something pleasant. It is an attempt to find a weak point in the human soul—an unguarded place—where a “piercing” can occur.
- A temptation is always a targeted throw.
- It aims at a psychological, moral, or spiritual weak spot.
- It seeks to pass through a person rather than bounce off.
And when the gospels speak of the devil tempting Jesus, the Greek concept fits perfectly:
The diábolos tries to pierce Jesus— by aimed psychological and spiritual “throws,” promising something good that is in fact destructive.
But the gospel’s point is:
Jesus does not allow the strike to penetrate. The projectile hits but does not pierce through.
Thus:
- The devil is not merely “evil personified.”
- The devil is “the one who attempts to pierce your integrity by deception.”
However:
“Jesus would not let himself be pierced through.”
This is precisely how a Greek-speaker would have understood it.
6. The older Indo-European background
So, the overall trajectory is as follows:
- Many Indo-European languages tie throwing, striking, and stinging together.
- The Lithuanian evidence is especially valuable because Lithuanian often preserves older PIE semantics.
- The root image is a projectile forcefully launched at a target to pierce it.
Thus the devil is not merely a “slanderer” in the legal sense, nor merely a “tempter” in the moral sense. These later meanings are secondary, metaphorical evolutions of the older image of a hostile penetration, a strike, a sting.