The Identity Of Satan (Part 2)

The Biblical story of the fall of Satan, like other aspects of Satan's identity, does not have the clarity it is merely assumed to have by many Christians.  Genesis 3 introduces Satan as the serpent of Eden, yet the serpent and the devil are not even confirmed to be the same figure until Revelation 12.  Nothing in Genesis hints at a past expulsion of fallen angels from heaven, and no explanation of the serpent's reason for opposing God is provided.  Even the New Testament does not lay this story out plainly!  Rather, it is Ezekiel 28:12-28 that seems to address Satan's origin and self-imposed corruption--although the subject of these verses may not even be Satan at all.

Ezekiel 28:12-28, unless the passage is almost wholly metaphorical, at least partly addressed an angelic being that possessed moral perfection and incredible beauty before it turned against God.  However, nowhere in these verses is the name Satan or Lucifer used.  What is established by these verses is that the being in question is said to have been a "guardian cherub" with the privilege of visiting Eden and bearing every kind of precious stone on its body.

The description of the King of Tyre leads to two clear possibilities: either 1) the passage is referring to two separate beings, one human and one formerly angelic, or 2) the passage is solely referring to a supernatural and formerly angelic being.  In the case of the latter possibility, Ezekiel 28 would therefore be saying that the true ruler of Tyre is not a person at all, but a demonic entity.  Hints of this are even present in the other possibility.  The human monarch is at a minimum being compared to a cherub that has allowed itself to forsake God's will in pursuit of arrogance and violence.

Now, there is no ultimate confirmation that the entity called the devil in the New Testament is the figure described here, but the passage certainly appears to be literally referring to a created non-human entity that appeared in Eden before the first humans were cast out.  At some point, this being was covered with every precious stone before being expelled from God's "mount," something that the Bible never even suggests is the case elsewhere about any mere human.  Even the first humans were only sent out of Eden, not out of a more explicitly supernatural realm.

The way the "King of Tyre" is addressed nevertheless overlaps with how many Christians describe Satan's past and fall.  Still, Ezekiel never directly equates the figure of Satan (or "the devil") with the King of Tyre.  While the two names could refer to the same being, it is also possible that they are two distinct demonic entities.  At a minimum, both are wicked spiritual beings that oppose God, but this similarity in no way proves that the Bible treats the two as the same demonic presence.