John Lightfoot on John 12:31

[The prince of this world.] The prince of this world: a sort of phrase much used by the Jewish writers; and what they mean by it we may gather from such passages as these: "When God was about to make Hezekiah the Messiah, saith the prince of the world to him, 'O eternal Lord, perform the desire of this just one.'" Where this Gloss is; "The prince of this world is the angel into whose hands the whole world is delivered."

Who this should be, the masters tell out: "When the law was delivered, God brought the angel of death, and said unto him, The whole world is in thy power, excepting this nation only [the Israelites], which I have chosen for myself. R. Eliezer, the son of R. Jose the Galilean, saith, 'The angel of death said before the holy blessed God, I am made in the world in vain. The holy blessed God answered and said, I have created thee that thou shouldst overlook the nations of the world, excepting this nation over which thou hast no power.'"

"If the nations of the world should conspire against Israel the holy blessed God saith to them, Your prince could not stand before Jacob," &c.

Now the name of the angel of death amongst them is Samael. "And the women saw Samael, the angel of death, and she was afraid," &c. The places are infinite where this name occurs amongst the Rabbins, and they account him the prince of the devils.

The wicked angel Samael is the prince of all Satans. The angel of death, he that hath the power of death, that is, the devil, Hebrews 2:14. They call indeed Beelzebul the prince of the devils, Matthew 12; but that is under a very peculiar notion, as I have shewn in that place.

They conceive it to be Samael that deceived Eve. So the Targumist before. And so Pirke R. Eliezer: "The serpent, what things soever he did, and what words soever he uttered, he did and uttered all from the suggestion of Samael."

Some of them conceive that it is he that wrestled with Jacob. Hence that which we have quoted already: "The holy blessed God saith to the nations of the world, Your prince could not stand before him." Your prince, that is, the prince of the nations, whom the Rabbins talk of as appearing to Jacob in the shape of Archilatro, or a chief robber. And R. Chaninah Bar Chama saith, he was the prince of Esau, i.e. the prince of Edom. Now "the prince of Edom was Samael."

They have a fiction that the seventy nations of the world were committed to the government of so many angels [they will hardly allow the Gentiles any good ones]: which opinion the Greek version favours in Deuteronomy 32:8; "When the Most High divided the nations" [into seventy, say they], "when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God." Over these princes they conceive one monarch above them all, and that is Samael, the angel of death, the arch-devil.

Our Saviour therefore speaks after their common way when he calls the devil the prince of this world: and the meaning of the phrase is made the more plain, if we set it in opposition to that Prince 'whose kingdom is not of this world,' that is, the Prince of the world to come. Consult Hebrews 2:5.

How far that prince of the nations of the world had exercised his tyranny amongst the Gentiles, leading them captive into sin and perdition, needs no explaining. Our Saviour therefore observing at this time some of the Greeks, that is, the Gentiles, pressing hard to see him, he joyfully declares, that the time is coming on apace wherein this prince must be unseated from his throne and tyranny: "And I, when I shall be lifted up upon the cross, and by my death shall destroy him who hath the power of death, then will I draw all nations out of his dominion and power after me."