The title pretty much asks the whole question, I think. The concept of Satan as the source of evil and damnation is simply not found in Judaism…I do not know enough about Islam to say whether or not Satan is regarded similarly in that religion.
Can anyone help to answer this question? Perhaps Polycarp?
It comes from Judaism; “Satan” is from the Hebrew word for “adversary.” Satan was around for the Jews as the Heavenly prosecutor in the Old Testament long before Jesus showed up; see, e.g., the book of Job.
I thought it stemmed from Zoroastrianism, the idea of a god of light and a god of darkness.
The idea of Satan as the horned Prince of Evil seems pretty developed by the new Testament (the temptaion of Christ in the desert/with the dessert, etc.). I think I read somewhere that the whole Satan/demons/hell thing was greatly interested by Roman beliefs, since, as it was pointed out, this simply didn’t exist in the OT.
Our concept of HELL comes from Roman paganism. Underground fire and brimstone sounds like it comes from a people that lived near volcanoes. Volcanoes are in Italy not the middle-east.
The original text of the Bible says SHEOL, HADES and GEHENNA. The translation into Hell is incorrect. Sheol means “dwelling place of spirits” or “abode of the dead.” Hades is from Greek mythology but the Greeks didn’t have a heaven. Everybody went to hades so it means about the same as sheol.
I have never encountered a good explanation for THE DEVIL. I haven’t seen it in the Bible. I consider it to be a myth the religious leaders want to scare us with.
try:
OLD SOULS by Tom Shroder
for some alternate perspective wierdness.
Dal Timgar
And similarly, the “evil horned one” imagery mentioned in other posts comes Greek/European paganism. I believe it wasn’t popular until later in the middle ages. Regarding your question for “the Devil,” it is widely believed to be a corruption of the generic pagan god forms, making them represent evil.
Well, not quite true. There was Hades, then there was HADES. The Elysian Fields are one example of Hades not being “hell.”
That’s what I’ve always understood. There are references to Satan in the Bible as early as 1st Choronicles, however a description of the horned, trident weilding satan appears to have been a combination of various pagan gods such as Cernunos (horns), Poseiden (trident), Vulcan (fire)and Hades (Keeper of the Dead).
Wouldn’t surprise me, taking from the pagan gods at the time. What I meant was that the concept of “the Devil is gonna getcha” was not, I believe, a popular bed time story for the kiddies until the middle ages. I could be wrong.
Horns and hooves from the Greek Pan, was it? A shame, Pan’s pretty cool for a god.
Well, they are not unique to Pan, though Pan is the general image of a satyr. The satyr is generally a goat-man critter representing things like springtime, sowing crops, and generally the masculine side of the story (hence the horns). Satyrs were widespread throughout European paganism, stemming in part from the Greeks (not much is known about the source of that).
From all mythological accounts, Pan would be a pretty fun guy to hang out with, yea, though most modern pagans try not to let the slander and libel of the Catholic Church get in the way of that.
Okay - again, since I’m doing a lot of researching lately, here is some information from the Assemblies of God website. (And again, I do not attend church or subscribe to all of the beliefs contained on the AG website. I did go to an AG many years ago.) So to the OP for info alone…
"But, where did Satan come from? The Old Testament informs us that he, at one time, was one of the most attractive, powerful and wise of all the angels. Compelled by his pride, he sinned against God and was removed from his position of authority (Isaiah 14:12-14 and Ezekiel 28:14-19). Paul described him as one who appears as an “angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). His strategies are often cloaked and subtle.
In a world that is often obsessed with curiosity over evil, be it the occult or the latest horror movie, the question emerges: What is Satan like? J.I. Packer, noted Bible scholar, says, “The Scriptures picture Satan as the absolute opposite of God … Satan and his evil spirits [demons] are unimaginably evil, more cruel, more malicious, more perverted, more destructive, more disgustingly filthy, more despicable than anything our minds can conceive.”
http://ag.org/pentecostal-evangel/Articles2001/4558_crosby.cfm
What Guinastasia said. Zoroastrianism probably.
I wrote a paper for this a while back, let me quote from it:
Essentially, the Christians created the evil version of Satan all on their own. The whole idea of being a bargainer of souls came later, in the 6th century, CE from the tale of Theophilius.
We’ve discussed this several times before. Since you’re a member, you can search the archives. (Why, oh why, don’t they let guests use the search function?)
I posted this in a recent thread :
Ooops, cut and paste lost the link to the relevant section of Jubilees.
This might be accurate if it began, “Where did some of the common misconceptions about Satan come from?”
Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 are explicilty about earthly kings. Only by taking verses out of context can they be made to appear to be about anything else.
Isa 14:4 - “You will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has come to an end. How his fury has ended!”
Isa 14:16 - “Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble?”
Ezekiel 28 is about a king of Tyre.
Eze 28:2 - "Son of man, say to the ruler of Tyre, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: In the pride of your heart you say, “I am a god; I sit on the throne of a god in the heart of the seas.” But you are a man and not a god, though you think you are as wise as a god.
There seems to be a perception, by some people, that the Old Testament was written, all religious thought came to an end, and then the Christians came along and started something entirely new. The historical reality is rather different.
Religious thought and speculation within Judaism continued from the return from Babylon right up to the present day. There are number of religious themes that the Christians adopted from within Judaism that the Jewish people looked over and dropped at about the time of the Christian heresy, but it is not accurate to claim that everything in Christianity that cannot be found in Judaism currently originated with the Christians. (Obviously, some themes did arise within Christianity: Jesus as God, God as Trinity.)
As FriendRob has pointed out, there was a certain amount of borrowing and reworking from the Mesopotamians by Judaism and there was a certain amount of borrowing and reworking of that material by the Christians. In addition to the ideas expressed in Jubilees, there were several references to Satan (or the satans) as the enemy of humanity in the book of Enoch and the Wisdom of Solomon from the Apocrypha indentifies the devil with the tempter in Eden. When those inter-testamental/apocryphal works were translated to (or written in) Greek, the term diabolos was often used interchangeably with the name Satan. (Note that in the stories of the temptation of Jesus at the beginning of his ministry, his tempter is referred to by name as Satan and also called “the devil” in adjacent verses.) The stories of the rebellion of a group of angels against God in heaven arose in this period (possibly borrowed from the neighboring pagans), but it was known to the Jewish people, otherwise the comments in Jude 1:6, Jude 1:9, and 2 Peter 2:4, (to say nothing of several themes in Revelation–9:11, 12:7-9, etc.) would have been meaningless to their audiences.
There has, of course, been some retro-fitting of beliefs. The references from the Assembly of God site to Isaiah 14:12-14 and Ezekiel 28:14-19 are examples of that. In Isaiah, for example, the prophet is condeming a pagan king by a reference to pagan mythology in which a minor god, Attar (“Daystar”), who has been bestowed with great favor rebels against the superior god, Baal, and is cast down. Once the “rebellion of the angels” had entered Jewish mythology, those stories were viewed in that light, but the initial prophecies of the prophets probably did not rely on an association of Satan to the rebelling god. (The use of the name Lucifer (“Light Bearer”), in Isaiah was from a translation into Latin and the association of Lucifer with Satan is a much later event.)
Basically, there was a period of several hundred years in which the character of Satan changed within the Jewish popular literature. Christianity latched on to one aspect that was prevalent in the first century and continued to develop it for several hundred years while Judaism (mostly) shed that line of thought and currently portrays Satan in an earlier manifestation.
Freyr said:
[qoute]Essentially, the Christians created the evil version of Satan all on their own. The whole idea of being a bargainer of souls came later, in the 6th century, CE from the tale of Theophilius.
[/quote]
Please support this from thr bible.
That’s my point, Raindog, it’s not supported in the Bible. By “bible” I assume you mean the sacred texts of Christians, encompassing what they call the Old and New Testaments.
Again, from the paper I wrote:
The whole idea of Satan as a bargainer of souls arise out of theology developed in the second half of the first millenium and from folklore.
So you’re saying there are correct conceptions about Satan?
Hey, it’s all myth, it’s been evolving forever, and continues to. From now on, people will believe that the Bible states that Satan has a baby inflicted with progeria.
I taught lit at a large state university for several years in the southeastern US, and I found that much of what my students believed to be Biblical actually came from Milton. The Satan they believed in (and around here, most do) came right off the pages of “Paradise Lost”.
It’s surprising what “Bible-believing Christians” don’t know about the Bible. I recall a student who refused to correct an error in one of her essays which asserted that the “Seven Deadly Sins” were of Biblical origin.
So the Bible is only part of the story. Literature and even pop culture have a very heavy influence these days.