What Is The Satan? How The Concept Evolved Over Time

The idea of the devil and demons that exists in Christianity today did not exist in ancient Israel. They did not believe in a devil [and demons] that opposed God [and angels] in a great cosmic battle. They believed in a pantheon of gods (sometimes called the Divine Counsel) that served under their God (first under El, then later under Yahweh, as they eventually became one and the same - but that's for a different post). The ha-satan character in the book of Job was one of these gods in the pantheon, working in the service of the supreme God. Everything this ha-satan character did was with God's permission. In fact, the word satan simply meant adversary or accuser, and was used in various ways in the OT, including for people, or a metaphor for sinful impulses (which is still a common use for it in Judaism today). It was not until after the Babylonian exile and the influence of Persian Zoroastrianism that some Jewish writings began to shift toward this devil character (and his demons) that so many believe in today. It was not an immediate, drastic shift, but seeped into the culture in the exile and post-exilic period. The dualistic view of a devil that opposes God, and demons vs angels in a cosmic battle, ultimately appears to have come from Zoroastrianism. (Of note, many Jews and Rabbis today do not accept this dualistic view, choosing a more pure Monotheistic view, and the use of the satan as a metaphor for sinful impulses or some other adversarial imagery, as mentioned above....but the dualistic view is prominent in Christianity). See resources below for more details on the origin and history of the satan.

HarperCollins Bible Dictionary - Revised & Updated - 3rd ed https://amzn.to/3DpZAty Notes in The Jewish Study Bible 2nd Edition https://amzn.to/2QX0SVm Notes in the Oxford Annotated 5th ed https://amzn.to/3y44YBG The Origins of Satan - Andrew Henry/Religion for Breakfast (see his video notes for more good sources & further reading) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sYhbtk8jJc Who Is Satan? https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/bible-interpretation/who-is-satan/ The Birth of Satan - Wray and Mobley https://amzn.to/3ox8G3A Deconstructing the Devil

https://bit.ly/2QIY7pT (more resources listed at the bottom of article) Where Did Satan Come From? https://www.livescience.com/56341-where-did-satan-come-from.html How the Serpent Became Satan https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/bible-interpretation/how-the-serpent-became-satan/ Even the idea of Satan is a fundamentally Zoroastrian one http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170406-this-obscure-religion-shaped-the-west The History and Origins of Satan - Sweeney https://www.iup.edu/assets/units/r/religious_studies/programs/undergraduate_programs_r/for_students/r._thomas_schaub_essay_contest/sweeney.pdf The Historical Figure of Jesus by E.P. Sanders https://amzn.to/3DvqWyy Persian Dualism (A clip from the book "History of the Devil" by Paul Carus 1900)

Article: http://www.sacred-texts.com/evil/hod/hod07.htm

History of the Devil by Paul Carus

https://amzn.to/2T1JLTe