After the seventy disciples returned from their mission and told Jesus that “even the demons are subject to us in your name,” he remarked that he “saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” Most intepreters understand this fall from heaven to be an ejection or dethroning of Satan by God (see Rev 12:9). Joseph Fitzmyer explains that Satan, “has met with ignominious defeat, and he has been dethroned from his prosecutor’s role in the heavenly court.” But since in Lukan theology the defeat of Satan is linked with Jesus’ victory on the cross and resurrection (or possibly with his end-time overthrow), most interpreters see the fall here as a proleptic indication of Satan’s future defeat.
But the point of Jesus’ comments to his disciples here is better explained as Satan raging in opposition to the mission the Lord has commissioned them to fulfill. This clarifies why Jesus would characterize the falling with the phrase, “like lightning.” The fall was not a sudden dethroning, but a furious effort to thwart the redemptive mission of God in the world. Previous interpreters have assumed that the verb πίπτω must refer to Satan’s defeat and dethroning (either a retrospective glimpse of the pre-historic fall of Satan [e.g Isa 14:12] or a prophetic insight into his future fall), but the verb can also be used with the sense of “falling” upon an army in battle, as Joshua “fell” upon the Canaanites in battle (Josh 11:7 LXX). “Like lightning” then refers to the speed and anger of the attack by Satan on Jesus’ messengers. So just as the chariots of Assyria’s army dart like lightning against their enemies (Nahum 2:4), Satan and his forces will bolt like lightning from heavenly places to oppose the spread of the Gospel. It is also notable that the thunderbolts of Zeus were proverbial in the ancient world for opposing and striking down his enemies.
Since the sending of the seventy is widely regarded as prefiguring the mission of the church, this explanation of Satan falling like lightning fits well with Luke’s theme of demonic opposition to the mission of the church. It also corresponds with Jesus’ prophetic announcement to Peter in Matthew’s Gospel that Jesus would build his church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matt 16:18).
This paper thus confirms and develops the view expressed by Friedrich Spitta in an important article in ZNW many years ago, who noted: “Satan’s falling from heaven like lightning can be understood as nothing other than an attempt by Satan to cause harm on earth… [Jesus] had clearly noticed that Satan had responded to his sending out of the Seventy in the service of the coming Kingdom of God with an attack of his own.”