The bad guys fromThe Bible are well known and as such don't require introduction, andeveryone knows they are evil. The really handy thing is that many of them are regularly theorized to becursed withimmortality as part of their punishment for being bad guys, providing a decent reason for aBiblical Bad Guy to show up in any time period.

To qualify for this Trope, a villain must, naturally, have first appeared in the Bible itself. Characters likeLilith, Asmodeus, and Mammon are disqualified, as they first appeared in deuterocanonical books that are not "official" parts of the Bible.

Note:Satan,Evil God, and theHorsemen of the Apocalypse have their own tropes. See also theName of Cain.

Cain -- The First Murderer

Anime andManga

• The Protagonist ofRurouni Kenshin (while notnamed Cain) may be aShout-Out to him; an individual who isWalking the Earth with a mark on him after committing murder.
• Guess what the name of the big bad inTrinity Blood was. Go ahead.Also, he's Abel's brother.

Comic Books

• TheFinal Crisis mini-series reveals that revelation is thatthe immortal caveman Vandal Savage is Cain, the "inventor of crime".
  • Maybe. A group called the Order of the Stone did some sort of magic ritual with the Spear of Destiny, causing Cain to be reborn in Savage. Whether he actually was Cain, or just being possessed or something, is up in the air. If anything, hebelieves himself to be Cain.
  • Cain is also theoretically present in the DC verse due to his presence inThe Sandman, where he and Abel became part of Dream's realm. It's implied, however, that he and his brother aren't the biblical Cain and Abel, but are instead symbols of the first sentient being to ever willingly kill another member of its species. They were then inducted into the Dreaming as the archetypes of the original murderer and victim, so while we see them as Cain and Abel, other species would see someone else. One character describes their existence as the "ghost of a memory of someone who, one suspects, never existed in the first place", as a result this is feasibly compatible with the above fact aboutVandal Savage.
• Invoked in the civilian name of Marvel's Juggernaut -- Cain Marko -- and his (former) relationship with his half-brother, Professor Charles Xavier of theX-Men.

Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends

• Grendel is sometimes portrayed as Cain in later adaptations. What we have of the original was rewritten to include Christian elements, so this isn't particularly surprising (though the wording it uses would imply adescendant of Cain.)

Tabletop Games

• InVampire: The Masquerade, the first vampire is named "Caine" and is the Cain from the Bible. InDemon: The Fallen (in thesame universe), it's noted that Caine invented murder and the killing of sentients.
  • Though in the vampire mythology Caine wasThe Messiah who righted wrongs and punished the wicked.
  • Cain is also alluded to in theVideo GameVampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines.Apparently, he spends his eternal afterlife working as a cab driver in Downtown LA. Playing as aMalkavian, you realize this whenyou eventually meet him. You wouldGo Mad from the Revelation, but, y'know, you alreadyare.
  • According to the in-universe Vampire scriptureThe Book of Nod, Caine spent a good amount of time with Adam's first wife Lilith, who taught him all about theDisciplines. It's not quite clear what she is, but she definitely had some sort of supernatural power and probably wasn't a Vampire herself, at least not in the same way that Caine was.
    • Wraith: The Oblivion suggests she might be Grandmother.

Video Games

• Cain is the name of a character that appears inGalerians, and turns out to benot only a Galerian, but a clone of the protaganist who was sent by the mother computer Dorothy to destroy him, and prevent the activation of the virus program that will destroy her.
• Naoya inDevil Survivoris a reincarnation of Cain, punished by God to be reborn every time the old body dies, and has the memory of every life time he has lived ever since his first life.Over his long life he has become obsessed with revenge and seeks to achieve that by having Abel, the player character, rebel against God. Granted, this isMega Ten, soYHWHkinda deserves it.
  • On a lesser note, Jezebel.
  • Acctually, YHWH's evilness is subverted here. He's mellowed out a lot since the90's. What that says aboutNaoya, though...
  • However it is implied in Overclocked that YHWHmanipulated Cain into killing Abel. He also hasn't mellowed out at all in the other games either.
• It is hinted at that the Nod commander Kane inCommand & Conquer is... Cain. Evidence for indicates that he is shown to be the same age during the 1940s, he survives an Ion Cannon blast that he embraces and when assumed to be be the Biblical Cain by followers does not deny it.
  • In the rather poorly recieved final chapter known as Tiberian Twilight, it is revealed that Cain isactually an Alien stranded on Earth for the past thousands of years. For some...reason. I have absolutely no idea where they were going with this, but he phoned home at the ending anyway.
• InAssassin's Creed II it's revealed in the optional glyphs that Cain killed Abelover a Piece of Eden and was the founder of theTemplar Order.

Web Original

• Subverted in theSCP Foundation-verse. Cain is actually anice guy (and inthis world, that's saying something), only harmful to plants due to hisEnemy to All Living Things status. His brotherAbelon the other hand... Cain has also stated he knows about his brother but refuses to take part in any research involving him. Just how they ended up this way is open to the readers' interpretations.

Judas -- Iconic Betrayer

Comic Books

• Judas showed up in Marvel for a while... during theClone Saga, and probably in other places too. A Dr. Judas Iskariot. And somehow, everybody's surprised when he turns out to be a supervillain with supernatural powers. Turns out he's been researching 'The nature of evil', since back in biblical times...
  • If you mean Judas Traveller (yes, with two ls), it was eventuallyretconned (like everything else was in that mess) that he was a former criminal prosecutor turned crazy mutantMaster of Illusion who only thought he was aReality Warper.Hewas supposed to be aFallen Angelat one point.
• One of the four origins of thePhantom Stranger (a member of theJustice League) is that he is the actual Judas eternally doing penance for his crime. Not likely true, asthe other three origins he has given directly contradict it.

Film

• The Librarian has Judas as the first vampire.
• InDracula 2000Dracula is Judas who is also the Wandering Jew, a legend of a man forced toWalk the Earth very clearly based on the story of Cain.
  • Interestingly,the way to kill him is to re-create the conditions of the incomplete hanging that caused him to be trapped between life and death.

Literature

• Not a direct example, but The Knights of the Blackened Denarius inThe Dresden Files get their powers from 30 silver coins, each with a fallen angel inside. The coins are heavily implied to bethe 30 coins that Judas was paid to betray Jesus.
  • Nicodemus, leader of the Knights, also wears the noose Judas hung himself with as a necktie; it offers him protection from anything.Except, as Harry finds out when he tugs on the end of it, itself.

Theatre

• Jesus Christ Superstar actually deconstructs this.

Video Games

• In one of theUltima games you can recruit an ally named Saduj. Guess how loyal he is.....

Haman -- First Attempted Genocide

Western Animation

• OnSouth Park, Haman was depicted as anEldritch Abomination that the Synagogue of Anti-Semitic Jews wants to summon to take over the Jewish people. (Yeah, they were justrevelling inArtistic License Religion on this one.)

Book of Revelation -- The End of the World

Film

• "The Girl" who accompanies Dean Corso throughout the events of 1999'sThe Ninth Gate is all but revealed to be the Whore of Babylon at the end of the film.

Video Games

• InAgony, theRed Goddess is the Whore of Babylon, whileThe Dragon to her is the Beast of Revelations.

Other Figures

Web Original

• Hazbin Hotel:
  • Adam (as in, the first man) isleader of the Exorcists, aKnight Templar in charge of slaughtering Hell's residents during the annual purge. Utterly without mercy, it is hinted that he has a personal vendetta.
  • Lucifer (Charlie's father) seems to at least be partially based on his depiction in the Book of Isaiah, being aFallen Angel (confirmed byWord of God) with six radiant wings. However, this version of him is not a villain.
• Adam is mentioned in many canons of theSCP Foundation, including "Verse of an Endless Song", "The Trashfire" and SCP-7376's profile. It is in the"Project PARAGON" canon where he (as "Adam el Asem") is a villain, having been the first and most powerful ruler of humanity before becoming mad with power, betrayed, and overthrown.

Western Animation

• Delilah (along with Samson) appears in aPinky and the Brain segment ofAnimaniacs where Brain is also trying to discover the secret of Samson's great strength.

• Trope
• Biblical Bad Guy
• Biblical Motifs
• Villains