He said to them, “I saw Satan having fallen like lightning from heaven.
Parallel translations
- KJV And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.
- BSB So He told them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
- NKJV And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
- NASB And He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning.
- NLT “Yes,” he told them, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jesus says He saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. The mission's success signals Satan's defeat through the advancing kingdom.
Overview
Jesus' words declare the decisive overthrow of Satan that His ministry inaugurates. The disciples' victories over demons are visible signs of this larger defeat of the evil one. The verse points to the triumph of God's kingdom that will be sealed at the cross and consummated at the end.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Rev 12:7–9There was war in the sky. Michael and his angels made war on the dragon. The dragon and his angels made war.
- Isa 14:12How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low!
- John 16:11about judgment, because the prince of this world has been judged.
- John 12:31Now is the judgment of this world. Now the prince of this world will be cast out.
- Rev 9:1The fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from the sky which had fallen to the earth. The key to the pit of the abyss was given to him.
- Heb 2:14Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in the same way partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
- 1 Jn 3:8He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed: that he might destroy the works of the devil.
- Matt 4:10Then Jesus said to him, “Get behind me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only.’”
- Rev 20:2He seized the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole inhabited earth, and bound him for a thousand years,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 10:18 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.