What?  There’s no way that this can be true.  Anybody who has even a basic understanding of scripture knows that the first murder recorded in human history is the crime of Cain murdering his brother Abel.  And it’s true–this IS the moment of the first recorded murder, but it is NOT the description of the first murderer.  That description belongs to someone else.

I know what you’re thinking…if Cain is the first recorded murder in history, how can he NOT be the first “murderer”?

For that, we have to depart the first book of the Old Testament and go the the fourth book of the gospels–the book of John, where he reveals something very profound in chapter 8.

At that time, Yahshua was in the Temple teaching the people about his literal relationship with Yahweh in heaven as his actual son, but his explanation was met by a hostile group of Pharisees who called him a liar.

John 8:13–“The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou bearest record of thyself; thy record is not true.”

Yahshua went on to explain exactly who he is and that he was sent from the Father to fulfill his destiny on earth.  The Pharisees did not understand that he was referring to his heavenly father, so he tried to reason with them once more:

John 8:25–“Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Yahshua saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning.  ²⁶ I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him.  ²⁷ They understood not that he spake to them of the Father.”

In verse 25, when Yahshua was establishing his relationship with Yahweh, while pointing out his HUMAN identity, showing the consistency of his message, he said he’d been saying the same thing “from the beginning”.  The expression “from the beginning” is translated form the Greek words “από την αρχή”, which literally contain the words From THE Beginning.  Since we know that Yahshua, as the son of Yahweh has no beginning–that is, he has always existed–to cite his “beginning” to the Pharisees, he’s simply describing the beginning of his human existence on earth.  Or, to be precise, he was specifically referring to “the beginning” of his ministry, showing that he’s been consistent in his message.  But an interesting thing occurs a few short verses later that may sound the same as the expression above…until you look deep into the earliest transliteration of the words.

As he continued to reason with the Pharisees who continued to be confrontational, Yahshua summarized the moment with a question and an accusation.

John 8: 43–“Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. ⁴⁴ Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”

In this passage, Yahshua equates the Pharisees stubbornness with “the devil”, a.k.a., Satan. He then immediately provides two specific descriptions of exactly who Satan is: One) he’s a murderer; Two) he’s a liar. Neither of those descriptions should come as a surprise to students of the Bible. It’s self-evident, based upon Satan’s well-documented actions throughout history that he’s a murderer and a liar. What makes it so unique in this rendering?

Yahshua said Satan has been a murderer FROM THE BEGINNING, which is the identical expression used above in describing himself as a human being. Or, is it? The actual Greek words in THIS expression are merely “Από Αρχή”, exactly meaning “from beginning” without the word “the” in the middle. When the Bible was translated from Hebrew to Greek to Latin and finally to English, the KJV transcribers took the earliest versions of scripture (Greek) and inserted the word “the” to allow the thought to flow in the English language. It would have sounded choppy to write that Satan was a murderer from beginning, without the word “the” inserted to sound correct in our minds.

But…what if Yahshua’s omission of the word “the” was deliberate and he actually intended to only say that Satan was a murderer FROM BEGINNING? Was he describing Satan’s origin, or “beginning”, similarly to his human origin or beginning that he had previously described to the Pharisees above?

In fact, Yahshua just revealed to his doubting audience that Satan has been a murderer before the time of creation and especially before the moment that Cain killed his brother Abel. When he said that Satan has been a murderer FROM BEGINNING, he was not talking about the beginning of time or the beginning of Satan’s existence. He was talking about the Book of Genesis!

While Yahshua conducted his ministry on earth, all of what we now call the Old Testament existed. The final writings were completed over 500 years prior to his arrival on earth. Those writings were commonly referred to as “the law”, but it was more accurately broken down into three primary sections: The Law, The Writings and The Prophets. But these three sections of the Bible did not have names like we have today. The books of The Law were the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Each book was identified by name, using the first word in the first verse of each book. In the book of Genesis, the very first word to introduce it in verse one is “מתחיל”, pronounced “barasheeth”, meaning “BEGINNING”.

When Moses wrote the book of Genesis, in chapter one, verse one, we read “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth”, which sound correct in our ears, but what he ACTUALLY wrote was simply “Beginning created Elohim heavens and earth”.

The moment that Yahshua told the Pharisees that Satan has been a murderer FROM BEGINNING, he just said that even prior to the moment of creation, Satan was a murderer and was destined to that evil task once he takes up residency on earth. But, if this is true, what was Satan’s murder weapon? You don’t have to wonder. Yahshua himself identified that weapon in John 8:44 above.

“…for he is a liar, and the father of it.”

Satan is not just a murderer in the run-of-the-mill mass-murderer sense. No–he is the biggest mass murderer the world has ever seen, and his murder spree puts to shame the one person Cain murdered. As soon as Eve was tempted at the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden, Satan wielded his murder weapon and successfully killed EVERY HUMAN THAT HAS EVER EXISTED FOR OVER 6,000 YEARS. While it can be argued that Satan’s lie did not actually kill Eve nor Adam, remember, death had not yet been introduced on earth until that moment. When Satan’s lie caused humans to become mortal, then it’s unquestionable that he is directly responsible for every single human death in history.

A murder streak that has now reached the multiple billions of humans and still counting.

Pretty successful murderer, I’d say.