And no marvel,.... This need not be wondered at, nor is it any new or strange thing; nor should it be thought to be incredible that there are such persons in being:
for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light; a good angel, one that has his abode in the regions of light; and is possessed of divine and spiritual light and understanding; who is clothed and arrayed with light, this is his form and essence. The apostle speaks agreeably to the notion, of the Jews, who say t,
"rwa Mh Mlk Mykalmhv, "that all the angels are light", the clothing of God himself;''
and they have a distinction between מלאכין דיום, "angels of the day", and angels of the night u: now Satan, the enemy of mankind, sometimes appears in the form of one of these; as he did to Eve in the garden, and to Christ in the wilderness; and by such appearances he often imposes on mankind; pretends the greatest friendship, when he designs nothing but ruin; and under a notion of good, either honest, or pleasant, or profitable, draws on into the commission of the greatest evils; and, under a show of truth, introduces the most notorious falsehoods and errors; and, under a pretence of religion, all sorts of idolatry, superstition, and impiety; it is in this way he has succeeded in his enterprises and temptations; these are his wiles, stratagems, and cunning devices.
t R. Abraham Seba, Tzeror Hammor, fol. 18. 4. u Zohar in Numb. fol. 91. 1. & 93. 3.