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I. Name Usually, in the Greek Bible the word nomos, law, is used to refer to the OT and Jewish Torah as a set of rules for life. (For a general treatment of the role of the law in Jewish writings of the Second Temple Period see the overview of Sanders 1992; the NT material is dealt with by Hübner 1981.) In the letters of Paul and in the Jewish apocalypse 4 Ezra, however, the word sometimes seems to designate a supernatural power or agent. II. Identity The word nomos is not often used as a personification (cf. LSJ s.v.). For Pindar (cf. Frag. 169—also quoted by Plato, Gorg. 484b) the Law is the king of…

I. Name ̔́ Υψιστος is a superlative form from the adverb ὕψι (there is no positive adj.) “most high, highest”. With the article ὁ it serves as a noun, having the sense “the most high” or “the highest”. In the Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible עליון (Elyon) is always translated by (ὁ) ὕψιστος. In these instances, as in the Greek literature of Judaism of the Second Temple Period and in the literature of primitive Christianity, the expression ὁ ὕψιστος refers to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In non-Jewish or non-Christian texts written in Greek, the expre…

I. Name The proper name ‘Satan’ is an Anglicization of the Hebrew common noun śāṭān. The noun śāṭān has been related etymologically to a variety of geminate, third weak and hollow verbs in Hebrew and in the cognate languages. These proposals include verbs meaning ‘to stray’ (Ar. šṭṭ, Heb. śṭh, Eth. šṭy, Akk. šâṭu 1 and Syr. sṭʾ), ‘to revolt/fall away’ (Aram. swṭ, Mandaean swṭ and Heb. swṭ), ‘to be unjust’ (Ar. šṭṭ), ‘to burn’ (Syr. swṭ and Ar. šyṭ) and ‘to seduce’ (Eth. šṭy and Heb. śṭh). These proposals require discounting the nûn of the noun śāṭān as p…