who knew?

I have tried twice to take a stab at this question...One more try...
Is it biblical that Satan was thrown out of the heavens?
I believe that Satan was in the garden of eden.
So Satan is very acquainted with God. Since Jesus is part of the Trinity, then I think Satan would know of Him. I think Satan knew when Jesus was born. I'm sure it was big news among the angels and archangels.
He was there tempting Jesus in the desert for those 40 days. He knew who Jesus was...all along I imagine.
Not a lot of Biblical back-up I know...
Just my thoughts,
Donna

I think the Patrisitic answer is that the Viginity of Mary and the nature of the Incarnation were hidden from Satan.

Makes sense if you think about how he tempts him. He's always trying to hit at his humanity.

In the desert, he tempts him in his hunger. He offers him all the nations of the world to tempt him with power (if he knew that Christ was God and man, that would not be a very good temptation).

It makes Jesus quotation of "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God . . ." not just a rebuke, but a great joke as well. It takes care of Satan's particular temptation, but also smirks at him over what he doesn't understand, he's tempting the Lord.

If I had to guess, the nature of the incarnation was hidden from him. He knew Christ was a Holy Man, like the Patriarchs and Prophets, but I don't think he got the whole God-Man thing until the "It is finished."

So, I think Satan was the first Arian.

I have to agree with Kenny (though how often do I actually disagree with him?). Had Satan known that he was tempting our Lord he might have said something completely different than the salvation of man is impossible. Once Satan realized that Jesus was the Christ, Our Lord had already been resurrected from the dead and thus out of Satan grasp.

C.S. Lewis (though not a patriarchial authority, I think he knew something about the subject) asserted (via the character of Screwtape) that Demons could not hear what "the other side" was saying to us. The patriarchs do assert that only God can know our thoughts. I think because of this there was no way for Satan to believe that Jesus was also fully divine.

Satan would think that God making himself lowly, erobing himself in flesh, would be an unacceptably absurd concept that until after the resurrection Satan did not believe it was possible. Satan would never do such a thing if in God's place, it would be unimaginable. Thus, the greatest hoax in history.

Even now I believe that the concept is so outrageous and preposterous to the Devil that it seems that he spends all his time trying to convince us that 1) the resurrection is did not happen (e.g. Jesus didn't die, he got married and ran off to Ireland with the swim suit model of ancient times, Mary Magdalene); 2) That the real message was actually "be nice", "love" (in the secular sense), and "acceptance"; 3) Hell, evil, and Satan do not exist.

Actually, I think Satan first had an inkling of who Jesus was after Jesus' first announcement to the Apostles that He would have to die when they went to Jerusalem. Remember, St. Peter vehemently resists this, to the point that Jesus looks at him and actually calls him Satan. I think it's at that point that Satan begins to realize what's going on, and begins to resist the Passion.

But that's just me.

But then that could lead one to wonder: Did Satan have anything to do with the Passion and Death? Yes, I think, but also no. Yes, in that he may have tempted the Pharisees prior to realizing what was going on, starting a chain of events into motion that he later couldn't stop. I think this was Satan's greatest bumble. Prior to realizing that Jesus was God, sent to die for us, Satan probably figured: "I'll make the Pharisees mad at Him, and then they'll kill Him." After realizing what was truly going on, Satan may have wanted to stop it all -- it seems that he did based on St. Peter's continual resistance to the Passion, which Jesus identifies with Satan -- but it was too late. He had already tempted Judas and the Sanhedrin, and they had already decided, of their own free will, to crucify Jesus.

I think, from that point on, Satan decided it was in his best interest to get Jesus to stop the Crucifixion.

Based only on the movie, TPOTC, I don't think satan knew Jesus was the Son of God until he died. Maybe I am not remembering correctly, but didn't satan ask Jesus "Who Is Your Father" when in the garden? That indicates to me that satan still didn't realize who he was dealing with.