Luke 10:18, Satan And His Stars Fall From Heaven

And [Jesus] said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

//This verse has drawn much speculation from both scholars and casual readers of the Bible. What did Jesus see? When did he see it? Consider this version of the story in Revelation, described poetically as a retelling of a popular dragon myth:

And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. –Revelation 12:3-4

Whether you believe Satan was cast out of heaven before the world began, or during the age of Christ, or again in some future eschatological event, the idea here is that a third of the stars follow him down to combat the Christ child. They “fall from heaven” with him.

These stars are, of course, heavenly beings; the scripture often refers to the stars as living beings. Revelation, whether literally or symbolically, is very clear on the subject, such as when a star falls from heaven with a particular task of opening the bottomless pit. Likewise, the stars swept from heaven in this verse, by the tail of the dragon (Satan), are surely angels under the command of Satan. Satan, in Jewish tradition, was one of three angel bigwigs, called archangels, along with Micheal and Gabriel. Each commanded a third of the host of heaven, the lower-ranking angels. Satan’s third followed him down to earth.

Yet, many Christians continue to read verses like this one in Revelation as if they are cataclysmic end-time events, literally destroying the earth and heavens.

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