Diabolus

Diabolus the Lat. form of the Gr. διάβπλος, Engl. "devil," i.e. properly an accuser, a calumniator. We rarely meet with this word in versions of the Old Testament. Sometimes it answers to the Hebrew Belial, sometimes to Satan. The Eblis of the Mohammedans is the same with our Lucifer; and the name is similar to that of Diabolus. The Mussulmans call him likewise Azazel, which is the Scripture name for the scape-goat, and is probably the Azazel of the Book of Enoch (q.v.). They maintain that Eblis was called by this name, signifying perdition, or refractory, which is nearly the meaning of Belial, because, having received orders to prostrate himself before Adam, he would not comply under pretense that, being of the superior nature of fire, he ought not to bend the knee to Adam, who was formed only of earth. Diabolus sometimes signifies the devil, as Wisdom of Song 2:17: sometimes an accuser, an adversary who prosecutes before the judges, as Ps 109:6; Ecclesiastes 21:27. SEE DEVIL.