The $64000 Question about Old Scratch
One of the greatest mysteries of biblical theology that still puzzles me is this: What is the Devil, really, and where did it come from?
While asking this question, I am imposing one limitation and one assumption. First, I am not concerned about potential historical-critical reasons or sources for the development of the concept of Satan in Jewish and Christian theology. The only significant element of this enterprise that factors into my question, an element a good reader recognizes without need for critical scholarship, is the stark difference between the minimally-present prosecutorial Satan of Job 1-2 and Zechariah 3 and the malevolent force of evil in the New Testament. The Satan who is a bit player in Yahweh's covenant becomes the opponent of the Son of God's redemptive mission.
My assumption for exploring this question is that there is indeed a real entity, intelligence, what have you, to which the biblical witness points. The discussion from here is moot if "Satan" is really a label for a metaphorical personification of all that is antithetical to the will of God. I have heard too many testimonies of the demonic to discount the notion of supernatural evil embodied in living beings of some sort, so why not a particularly prominent being among their number?
I used to have a straightforward answer to this question - one common to evangelical American Christians. The Devil was previously Lucifer, a perfect being who was glorious in splendor and chief over all the angels. At some point in the primordial past - perhaps before the creation of the world, perhaps just before or after the creation of human beings - Lucifer became filled with pride and led a rebellion of 1/3 of the angels to unseat God as god. Lucifer and his angels were cast out of heaven, they to become demons and he to become the Devil, the adversary of God and human beings. The Devil or Satan ("accuser") took the form of a serpent to deceive the original humans, and out of his jealousy has been tempting those who are made in God's image that they may suffer with him in the miserable perdition he knows awaits him.
There is a certain mythical elegance to this story that makes it grand fun when one is reading Milton's Paradise Lost, and yet it is so full of exegetical and theological holes that it looks like Charlie Brown's ghost costume on Halloween night. The "fall" of Lucifer cobbles together Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, two imagery-rich declarations of judgment on human kings (of Babylon and Tyre, respectively), and adds them to anachronistic intepretations of a statement by Jesus in the Gospels ("I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven") and Revelation 12 ("the dragon's tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky...and there was war in heaven"). Never at all is Satan identified as an angel in Scripture - even if he has an entourage of evil angels, as Jesus indicates ("the fire prepared for the devil and his angels"), that no more proves it is one of them than the many biblical statements about God's entourage. Nor, for that matter, are the demons equated with the fallen angels. That is also an assumed connection that, while plausible, is not itself stated in the Bible.
Moreover, the "fall" story raises a number of theological difficulties. Did spiritual death enter the world through "Adam," that is, through the actions of human beings, or was it already present through the agency of the Evil One? How could the chief angel in the presence of God come to believe it might somehow defeat the One who is the very ground of all being? Why would a malicious opponent of the people of God arise all the way back at the dawn of time and yet its true character would remain unknown until, at the earliest, a few centuries before the birth of Christ?
So what we're left with is a mysterious personality that Jesus and the New Testament writers clearly identified as a force to be reckoned with by the people of God. This same personality, however, is given no discernible history or clear biography. I grant that this can be for good reason. It is better to focus on resisting evil than feeding curiosity about it. And yet, we still wonder.
I would love to hear some feedback before I proceed with speculation of my own.
While asking this question, I am imposing one limitation and one assumption. First, I am not concerned about potential historical-critical reasons or sources for the development of the concept of Satan in Jewish and Christian theology. The only significant element of this enterprise that factors into my question, an element a good reader recognizes without need for critical scholarship, is the stark difference between the minimally-present prosecutorial Satan of Job 1-2 and Zechariah 3 and the malevolent force of evil in the New Testament. The Satan who is a bit player in Yahweh's covenant becomes the opponent of the Son of God's redemptive mission.
My assumption for exploring this question is that there is indeed a real entity, intelligence, what have you, to which the biblical witness points. The discussion from here is moot if "Satan" is really a label for a metaphorical personification of all that is antithetical to the will of God. I have heard too many testimonies of the demonic to discount the notion of supernatural evil embodied in living beings of some sort, so why not a particularly prominent being among their number?
I used to have a straightforward answer to this question - one common to evangelical American Christians. The Devil was previously Lucifer, a perfect being who was glorious in splendor and chief over all the angels. At some point in the primordial past - perhaps before the creation of the world, perhaps just before or after the creation of human beings - Lucifer became filled with pride and led a rebellion of 1/3 of the angels to unseat God as god. Lucifer and his angels were cast out of heaven, they to become demons and he to become the Devil, the adversary of God and human beings. The Devil or Satan ("accuser") took the form of a serpent to deceive the original humans, and out of his jealousy has been tempting those who are made in God's image that they may suffer with him in the miserable perdition he knows awaits him.
There is a certain mythical elegance to this story that makes it grand fun when one is reading Milton's Paradise Lost, and yet it is so full of exegetical and theological holes that it looks like Charlie Brown's ghost costume on Halloween night. The "fall" of Lucifer cobbles together Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, two imagery-rich declarations of judgment on human kings (of Babylon and Tyre, respectively), and adds them to anachronistic intepretations of a statement by Jesus in the Gospels ("I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven") and Revelation 12 ("the dragon's tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky...and there was war in heaven"). Never at all is Satan identified as an angel in Scripture - even if he has an entourage of evil angels, as Jesus indicates ("the fire prepared for the devil and his angels"), that no more proves it is one of them than the many biblical statements about God's entourage. Nor, for that matter, are the demons equated with the fallen angels. That is also an assumed connection that, while plausible, is not itself stated in the Bible.
Moreover, the "fall" story raises a number of theological difficulties. Did spiritual death enter the world through "Adam," that is, through the actions of human beings, or was it already present through the agency of the Evil One? How could the chief angel in the presence of God come to believe it might somehow defeat the One who is the very ground of all being? Why would a malicious opponent of the people of God arise all the way back at the dawn of time and yet its true character would remain unknown until, at the earliest, a few centuries before the birth of Christ?
So what we're left with is a mysterious personality that Jesus and the New Testament writers clearly identified as a force to be reckoned with by the people of God. This same personality, however, is given no discernible history or clear biography. I grant that this can be for good reason. It is better to focus on resisting evil than feeding curiosity about it. And yet, we still wonder.
I would love to hear some feedback before I proceed with speculation of my own.
When it comes to the devil, I try to keep some perspective and — while acknowledging Satan's existence — not throw out the baby with the Milton-flavored bath water.
But to be perfectly honest, I don't think about the devil that much, and when I do, it's usually in the context of devils.
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Vershal |
Sunday, April 19, 2009 10:11:00 PM
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