El Diablo III

Here are Part I and Part II

So far in this series we’ve looked mostly at the Old Testament. In there, we have managed to find absolutely no reference to “the devil” per se. Yes, there are a few references to Satan, but I think we’ve managed to establish that Satan is an Arch Angel. He is known as “Satan the Accuser” in more benedictory surrounds and his job is to remind god of all the sins you committed while you were alive. A nasty piece of work by yours and my standards, perhaps, but God obviously felt him necessary. For me he just raises another question though. If God is omniscient and omnipresent, then why does he need someone to remind him? Hmmm…

I digress. References to entities being “cast down” from heaven seem to have been similarly misrepresented over the years. The stories we know of Lucifer and/or Satan being cast out of heaven, have actually proven to be stories about the kings of Babylon and Tyre being defeated by the Israelites.

So where does that leave us. Well really, it leaves us with the new testament. The first mention of Satan as anything other than the accuser, is Mat: 4:10. To get to someone being cast down we have to go all the way to Luke 10:18 – He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven.” But please note that a) this is meant to be Jesus speaking and b) he said “heaven”. Correct me if I’m wrong, but if Satan is the devil, he has no business being in heaven.

Even so, if we put this into context with the preceding verse, what he actually seems to be referring to is the 72 telling him that “even the demons submit to us in your name!” In fact, my NIV bible’s study notes say just exactly that for verse 18: “Satan fall. Even the demons were driven out by the disciples (v. 17), which means that Satan was suffering defeat.” They still seem to think that the devil exists somewhere else, but you see what I mean.

This theme continues throughout the New Testament though, where Satan, Beelzebub, the Devil, etc. become the much maligned beasties that we know today. The question I have about all this though, is why so late? What happened that caused the Judaic religions to require a devil?

For at least a couple of thousand years, or so we’re lead to believe, there was only the choice between God or nothing. There was no devil or hell to serve as the opposite of God and heaven. Yet as we move into the New Testament and beyond, the legend of the devil grows until we have the imagery (the earliest of which comes to us from the middle ages), church and dogma surrounding him that we have today.

 There have been a number of ideas put forward as to why. There’s the ancient and obvious reason that you can’t have “good” without “evil”, “ light” without “dark” because they are opposite sides of the same coin, as it were. Then there’s the mythological reason that all Gods have their enemies. But my favourite runs a little deeper.

Personally, I subscribe to the theory that because there was no real alternative, no hell and the devil to torment you, the church started to lose it’s congregation. Maintaining a temple with priests takes quite a lot of resources that could probably be better used elsewhere.

First commenter get’s make comment number 666, so don’t be shy…:-)

4:01 PM - 27/2/2007 - post comment

#666

Well, that would be me then.

Actually, I once explored the possibility that, given that history is traditionally written by the winner, that Satan is the good guy and God is the bad guy.

http://dikkiisdiatribearchives.blogspot.com/2006/01/uoy-sevol-natas.html

dikkii - 12:56 AM - 1/3/2007

#670, actually

Sorry, someone else beat you to it on a previous post where I layed down a challenge to Willowsrealm to do me a public tarot reading and do better than 50% on the guesses for 10 times the fee.

Thanks for the link Dikkii. You make some very good points there, especially about man being a sinner and the scribe/translator of the bible.

I tried to leave a comment but the visual verification piccy wouldn't appear, so I couldn't...

Edited by plonka on 28/2/2007 at 6:11 PM

plonka - 11:19 AM - 1/3/2007

Tarot?

Can't believe that I missed that one - I've gotten a bit too pre-occupied with religion lately.

And, let's face it, new-age woo is funnier than religion.

Going to read it now.

dikkii - 2:16 PM - 1/3/2007

Challenge

The challenge is in the comments Dikkii... Forgot to mention that...

It's the post before this one...

Edited by plonka on 28/2/2007 at 9:24 PM

plonka - 2:33 PM - 1/3/2007

satan

Monotheistic Jewish reference to Baal was almost certainly pejorative, and grew to be used among other terms for Satan. Hence the name also later appears as the name of a demon or devil, often interchanged with Beelzebul.

The demonization of the deity is thought to have been one basis for the personification of Satan as the adversary of the Abrahamic god, though other influences such as the Zoroastrian Daeva may have contributed.

(This seems kind of plausible. Demonise a competing tribe's god.)

beepbeepitsme - 9:57 PM - 2/3/2007

One thing

...I've learnt from this little exercise Beep, is that biblically, there really isn't much of a basis for him to exist at all. Plenty of references, more new than old, butthey don;t seem to be based in anything solid. Well, not to my mind, anyway...

plonka - 4:33 PM - 3/3/2007

Western Christianity

The flavour of western Christianity is to focus on the good and bad. You know, I’m good, and I make my self good by ensuring all else is bad.. From my meagre understanding, Satan according to the Bible is The Adversary. It may be much better if we could forget the doctrine of western Christianity and return to the true questions Jesus asks of us.

Like wise 666, the USAmerican charismatic writers have made much 666 and the mark of the beast, with every one from Kissinger to the Pope wearing the number. It is interesting our word ‘stigma’ comes from that number in Revelation. Modern writers focus almost solely on the mark ‘666’ how often does one hear them remark on the new mark to be given by Jesus. Almost never.

DonQuixote - 11:50 AM - 5/3/2007

Satan

I've done quite a bit of research into this Don and have read and re-read every reference that exists in the bible to Satan. As far as I can tell, according to the bible Satan is NOT the adversery but rather "the accuser". He is part of God's host and has a specific job to perform. Man, or so it seems to me, has simply made him the adversary because basically, it's his job to "damn you" (for want of a better term) before God.

Also, I didn't recall any "mark" that Jesus is bringing, so I've combed my concordance and my bible and still haven't found anything. Could you give me a reference please? I'm stuck...

Edited by plonka on 4/3/2007 at 8:18 PM

plonka - 1:26 PM - 5/3/2007