Revelation 12:10

An accuser in scripture is normally an adversary in a court of law — the prosecuting voice arrayed against the defendant. The Old Testament term satan (שָׂטָן) literally means adversary, and the figure in Job's heavenly council and Zechariah's vision (Zechariah 3:1) plays exactly this role: standing at the right hand of the accused, bringing charges, demanding judgment. Job 9 dramatizes the human side of the same image — though I were righteous, yet would I not answer, but I would make supplication to my judge. The accuser is a voice the soul cannot silence on its own. Two New Testament passages take the term in a sharper direction. At John 5:45, Jesus tells the religious authorities: *Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust.* The Mosaic law itself, which the leaders wielded against Jesus, has become their accuser — because the law's witness about the Messiah pointed straight at Jesus, and their refusal to receive him left them condemned by the same law they were using as a weapon. In Revelation 12:10, Satan is named the accuser of our brethren who accuses them before our God day and night. The verse celebrates his fall: heaven's loud voice declares him cast down, and the saints overcome him *by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony (12:11). The forensic role is real and ongoing — but it has been overruled at the cross. The defendant has been declared justified before the prosecution finished speaking. See also Satan and Witness* for fuller treatment of the related figures and the legal vocabulary of scripture.

• Job 1
• Zechariah 3
• John 5
• Revelation 12