True. But the Bible, as we know it, says Satan is an actual spiritual being. It implies he was there with Jesus (Matt 4:3) - or that's always been my interpretation. And their 'Bible' version of the Temptation is really rather mundane and boring tripe.
"(7) But then Jesus thought again of some other words from the old books, "You must not push God too far." (8) Then his mind formed another picture. This time he seemed to be looking down from a very high mountain on all the countries of the world. (9) Jesus thought, "All this could easily be mine. All I have to do is to be cunning and gain the support of the right people." Jesus quickly dismissed these ideas. He thought "These are the ways of evil. The old books tell us the only one we should try to please is God. "
Yes, he is an actual, spiritual being... who does communicate to us by putting thoughts into our heads.
two points on the Matthew excerpt:
1. The implication of the text is that it is a literal confrontation which occurs in multiple real physical locations.
2. This heretical 'translation' is actually attempting to gloss over the three sources of temptation in this world:
A. The devil and his minions.
B. The fallen nature of the world and all within it.
and
C. The not-yet-sanctified and therefore still fallen nature inherent in each person.
If you look at it from this perspective, you'll see that the 'translator' is trying to make it seem that good and evil are primarily, if not solely, internal human reactions to things...talk about postmodernist garbage...