De betoverde weereld ... in vier boeken

18, 19

a conversation with a serpent is depicted: in which nothing is stated from which one may conclude that the Devil himself can work immediately on man's soul and body. I leave it at that. For those who say "yes" here, and explain how he otherwise might have brought man to his fall: they make themselves guilty of the very thing they charge me with: as if they must have a reason, and also give one, for how it happened; or if one refuses them that, they believe he does not believe it at all.

Investigating the Versoekinge des Heeren Temptation of the Lord by the Devil, I grant that the Tempter is the evil Spirit: although believing that one may hold the literal sense if one posits that a proud man is so named there. But understood as the evil Spirit, I show that the history being taken literally is far from proving what is sought therein, and much rather the opposite is to be drawn from it. But since it is desired that I shall say how I understand it myself: I take it for a Gesicht Vision.

One has no right to demand of me that in these and other places of Scripture, where people commonly think to draw great proof for the opinion that I call into question here; I shall explain the same precisely in all parts as I understand them myself, especially that of the Fall of the first humans in Paradise, and this of the Temptation of the Lord in the Wilderness. For my aim there was nothing else than merely to investigate whether, as the letter is recounted, the strength of the proof lay therein for such as people wish to conclude from it; that is, the cunning and power of the Devil to work upon man. To treat the matters themselves in detail requires a special book, which I am also not afraid to publish when God shall grant me the time for it.

In other places of Scripture, I show through a thorough investigation that no evil Spirit, but evil men; or God's work and not the Devil's is signified there, although people commonly apply those without doubt to the Devil. Especially that it was a man who egged David on to count the people, in the twenty-second chapter: and in the twenty-third that the understanding of Michael and of the Devil original: "Michael en van den Duivel" disputing there is currently uncertain and obscure, as all scriptural scholars here confess; and that it therefore

proves nothing: especially if one posits, as some scholars allow, that the Devil was but a man. Concerning the waarseggenden Geest soothsaying spirit in Acts 16, I show that it is applied to the Devil for no reason at all; in the twenty-fourth chapter. Even that famous passage of Job, which everyone has ready to prove the power of the Devil, being analyzed in detail, I show that it attributes not the slightest work to the Devil in the plagues that struck the pious man through God's special providence. I posit Satan's blows to Paul, like the dispute with Michael, as uncertain and giving no proof. And this is in the twenty-fifth chapter.

Now since the Besetenen Possessed are generally taken as a proof of the Devil's great power over man; and as one reads so much in the Gospels of evil Spirits being cast out by the Lord Jesus: I devote five chapters to investigating such things most thoroughly. I find thus that nowhere is the word Diabolos The Slanderer/The Devil, of which we say "Devil", used, but always Daimoon Demon/Spirit in such cases: in the twenty-sixth chapter. And that it was the custom to attribute the heaviest sicknesses, especially those of the head, to the Daimons or to name them so, in the twenty-seventh; that Christ never changed the common speech, nor immediately refuted all errors, in the twenty-eighth; and that thus the casting out of dæmonia demons (not actually of Devils) was a miraculous healing of incurable ailments. This is in the twenty-ninth and thirtieth chapters.

Afterward, having come to those places of Scripture where the name of Devil, or Satan, nor of Dæmon itself does not stand; but Prince of the world, and of the power of the air, Prince of this age, Principalities, Powers, Rulers, and so forth: I show that there is not the least reason to apply those to the Devil; but that the style of speaking in Scripture leads us to understand a certain kind of men by those names.

From all that has appeared to me through this investigation, I find myself compelled to conclude: that the Scripture, viewed fundamentally without prejudice, does not attribute such power and operation to the Devil as translators and interpreters, previously occupied with that opinion, recognize in him. This work is in truth hard for me