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I found this while surfing the web.
It is a very interesting account of the
history of Satan. It has given me something
to think about, and I share it with you.
We are Satanists. Knowledge and truth
are the keys to or existence.
SATAN:
EARLY HISTORY: 300 BCE to 100 CE
Before 300 BCE in Ancient Israel
Before 300 BCE in Ancient Iran
Between 300 BCE and 100 CE
Development of the Concept of Satan prior to 300 BCE in
Israel:
Traditionally, Christians have believed that the
Pentateuch [the first 5 books of the Hebrew Scriptures
or Old Testament] were written by Moses under the
inspiration of God circa 1450 BCE during the nation's
exodus from Egypt. The book of Daniel was seen as having
been written by Daniel himself, in the 6th century CE,
etc. Conservative Christians still believe this today,
largely because the Bible mentions the identity of its
authors in many locations, and conservatives believe the
Bible to be inerrant. However, analysis of the Bible as
a historical document since the late 19th century has
convinced essentially all non-Evangelical Old Testament
scholars that most of the Pentateuch was not written by
Moses. It is rather made up of a mixture of writings and
editing by three individuals or groups: in 950 BCE by
"J", 750 BCE for "E" and 539 BCE for "P". Deuteronomy
was written in the 7th century BCE, and Daniel was
written in the 2nd century BCE. In the following
material, we will assume that the liberal interpretation
is correct.
Among those books of the Hebrew Scriptures written
before 300 BCE, the term "satan" (root word "s'tn")
appears often. The word is derived from the original
Hebrew verb "satan" which means "to oppose." The
Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into
Greek was widely used in the early Christian church.
They translated "satan" as "diaboloc" from which we
derive our English term "devil" and "diabolic."
The word is used to refer to:
Any person acting as an accuser or enemy. For
example: 1 Samuel 29:4: The Philistines were
distrustful of David, fearing that he would be a
satan. (translated "adversary" or "someone who
will turn against us").
2 Samuel 19:22: Shime-i apologizes to King
David. The King rejects the apology, saying that
they should not be a satan to each other
(translated "adversary" or "opponent").
1 Kings 5:4: King Solomon is talking to Hiram,
the King of Tyre. He says that now that there is
neither satan nor bad luck to stop him, he can
build the Temple. (translated as "adversary",
"enemy", or "one who opposes").
1 Kings 11:14: God raised up Hadad the Edomite
as a satan against Solomon. (translated as
"adversary," or "opponent").
a divine messenger sent by God as an adversary:
Numbers 22:22 & 32: God appears in a dream,
telling Balaam to go with the princes of Moab to
meet Balak. But when Balaam sets out the next
morning on his donkey, God is angry with him for
some reason, and sent an angel/messenger to kill
him. The donkey saw the angel and took evasive
actions. The angel was invisible to Balaam, who
beat the animal. The donkey asked Balaam why he
had beat her three times. Balaam, who doesn't
seem to realize that a talking donkey is an
unusual occurrence, replies. The angel then
appears and explains that he has come as a satan
to kill him. (translated as "one who opposes,
"withstand," "adversary")
a member of God's inner council; a type of chief
prosecutor of Heaven: 1 Chronicles 21:1: Satan,
"a supernatural evil emissary," acting on God's
behalf, has influenced David to hold a census.
The census is taken, and God is angry for an
unknown reason. Perhaps God does not want humans
to be aware of the strength of the army. God
then offers David his choice of one of three
punishments: a 3 year famine, 3 months of
fleeing before his enemies' armies, or a plague
throughout Israel. David selects the plague and
God killed 70,000 men (and presumably a similar
number of women and many tens of thousands of
children). In 2 Samuel 24, the identical event
is described. However, this time, the text
states that God influenced David to hold the
census. Even though God had incited David to
enumerate the men of Israel and Judah, he was
still angry that it was done and punished the
Israelites with a plague. The writings in 2
Samuel are believed to be the original account;
1 Chronicles came later. It is believed that
when Samuel was finally edited (circa 560 BCE),
the editors thought that all supernatural
actions (good and bad) came from God. When
Chronicles was written over a century later,
(circa 400 BCE) the author viewed God as
operating indirectly through his helpers.
Job 1 and 2: Satan is described as one of the
members of the court of heaven. God mentions
that he is impressed at the behavior of Job, a
blameless man who has lived an upright life.
Satan attributes Job's commendable behavior to
his good fortune and says that Job would soon
curse God if he had a string of really bad luck.
God decides to conduct an experiment with Job;
he instructs Satan to destroy all that Job has:
kill his animals, murder his employees, and
murder his innocent children. But, even after
these disasters, Job still does not curse God.
So God instructs Satan to up the ante by
returning to earth and destroying Job's health.
Here, Satan is portrayed as a servant of God
whose task it is to dutifully carry out evil
deeds at God's instruction.
Zechariah 3:1-7: Satan is again portrayed as a
member of God's council. Here he objects to the
selection of Joshua as the high priest.
There are no passages within the older parts of the
Hebrew Scriptures where Satan is portrayed as an evil
devil - the arch enemy of God and of humanity. At most,
he is described as a henchman who carries out God's evil
instructions. There is no dualism here between two
powerful supernatural entities: an all-good God and an
all-evil Satan. God is portrayed as performing, directly
and indirectly, both kind and evil deeds. When:
plagues are to be sent, or
a great genocidal flood is created to kill off
almost all of humanity, except for Noah and his
family, or
Onan was killed because he practiced an elementary
form of birth control, in violation of a cultural
tradition, or
Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed because its
residents were abusive to the needy and to
strangers, or
Lot's wife is turned into a pillar of salt because
she looked the wrong way,
it is God who does it. In essence, the ancient writers
of the early Hebrew Scriptures looked upon Jehovah as
performing both good and evil deeds. A good indication
of this is found in:
Isaiah 45:6-7:
"...I am the LORD and there is none else. I form the
light and create darkness. I make peace an create
evil. I the LORD do all these things." (KJV)
or in Job 9:22-23:
"...[God] destroys both the blameless and the wicked.
When a scourge brings sudden death, he mocks the
despair of the innocent." (i.e. laughs at the
suffering of the victim)
or in Lamentations 3:37-38:
"Who has commanded and it came to pass, unless the
Lord has ordained it? Is it not from the mouth of the
Most High that good and evil come?"
Development of the Concept of Satan prior to 300 BCE in
Ancient Iran:
Historians have traced the foundations for the concept
of Satan to the Indo-European invasion circa 2000 BCE.
This migration of what are now called the Kurgan people,
emigrated from what is now southern Russia into the Near
East, Middle East and Europe. They were polytheists, and
worshiped at least one Mother Goddess and one male God.
Their religious beliefs were based on the Hindu sacred
writings of the Vedas. Those who settled in western
Europe became the Celtic people with their religion of
Druidism and perhaps what is now called Wicca. Those
Kurgans who settled in the Middle East developed
religious belief along different lines. They developed
the twin concepts of salvation and damnation after
death. Upon dying, they believed that soul of the
deceased must pass over a narrow bridge on horseback. It
was called the "Bridge of the Petitioner." Rashu, a god,
judged each soul and decides who is sufficiently
righteous to cross the bridge and who will fall into a
type of Hell with "flames and terrible smells." 1 Once
salvation and Heaven, (and damnation and Hell) were
created, then the stage was set for the next logical
concept: that of a Devil.
Zoroaster (a.k.a. Zarathrustra, Zarthosht) is believed
by some to have lived circa 628 to 551 BCE. (Other
estimates run from 600 to 6,000 BCE) He was a Persian
prophet in what is now Iran. Like Jesus, he was recorded
as having been tempted by Satan; he performed many
miracles and healings and was considered a supernatural
being by his followers. He introduced a major spiritual
reform and created what is generally regarded as the
first established monotheistic religion in the world. He
rejected the worship of the established trinity of
Varuna, Mithra and Indra. The new religion, to be called
Zoroastrianism, involved the worship of a single male
god, Ahura Mazda, the "sovereign, lawmaker, supreme
judge, master of day and night, the center of nature and
inventor of moral law." He created the heavens and the
earth. In short, he had all of the attributes attributed
to Jehovah by the ancient Israelites, but with a
different name. Zoroaster also recognized Ahura Mazda's
twin brother: Angra Manyu, (a.k.a. Ahriman) the God of
Evil. The only things that he created were snakes,
demons, and all of the world's evil. 2 The old gods of
the previous polytheistic religion became the demons of
the new faith. Thus, Ahriman became the first Devil that
the world has seen, and his assistants became the first
cohort of demons under the control of a all-evil deity
Zoroaster taught that Ahura Mazda and Ahriman would
continually battle each other until the God of Evil is
finally defeated. At this time, the dead will be
resurrected, a Last Judgement will divide all the people
that have ever lived into two groups; the bad go to Hell
for all eternity; the good go to Paradise. As author
Gerald. Messandé so eloquently wrote: "The framework of
the three monotheisms [Judaism, Christianity, Islam] had
been erected. The Devil's birth certificate was filled
out by an Iranian prophet."
Development of the Concept of Satan, 300 BCE to 100 CE:
The Scofield reference Bible closes the Hebrew
Scriptures with the book of Malachi, 397 BCE. It opens
the Christian Scriptures with Matthew's gospel in 37 CE.
This is a gap of over 4 centuries. This interval has
traditionally been called the "intertestamental period."
But modern Bible scholarship has found that reality is
not quite that neat:
The Book of Daniel seems to have been written
circa 165 BCE, in the middle of the
intertestamental period. It recounts events 4
centuries earlier and is written as if Daniel was
the author.
The Book of Esther was apparently written in the
1st or 2nd century BCE
The Gospel of Mark was the first gospel. Most Old
Testament scholars date it to about 70 CE. Matthew
came along later, circa 80 CE.
Many Jewish writings have been preserved from that era.
Some were collected and form the Apocrypha (Greek word
meaning "hidden."). These books appear in the Septuagint
(a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures) and in
the Vulgate (early Latin translation of the Bible). They
are found in Roman Catholic Bibles and some Protestant
Bibles. Conservative Protestants do not accept the
Apocrypha as inerrant or inspired by God.
During the last three centuries before Christ's birth,
the portrayal of Satan underwent a major change. The
Zoroastrian / Persian dualism concept appeared in Jewish
writing: God was now looked upon as wholly good; Satan
as profoundly evil. History was seen as a battle between
them. No longer was Satan simply God's prosecuting
attorney, helper, or lackey. Satan, and his demons, were
now humanity's greatest enemies.
Author G. Messandé 1 theorizes that from the middle of
the 5th century BCE until 53 BC and later, the Jews were
on particularly good terms with the Persians. From the
latter's religion, Zoroastrianism, the Jews picked up a
number of concepts: the immortality of the soul, angels,
and Satan. Of the 3 main divisions of Judaism (Essenes,
Pharisees, Saducees) in the 1st century BCE, the Essenes
seems to have focused the most on Satan.
Jesus and his disciples accepted the common belief of
the 1st century CE that mental illness and some physical
ailments were caused by indwelling demons. "Unclean
spirits" are mentioned 7 times in Mark, once in Matthew,
3 times in Luke and once in Revelation. A "dumb spirit"
and a "deaf spirit" are each mentioned once in Mark.
Luke talks about a "spirit of infirmity" in his gospel,
and, a "spirit of divination" & an "evil spirit" in
Acts. The concept of "violent possession" appears for
the first time in Scripture. Demons are believed to
posses individuals and cause them to mutilate
themselves, to collapse, to foam at the mouth, to thrash
around on the ground. Demons are seen as the cause of
many physical disabilities, including blindness, spinal
deformities, inability to speak. Satan figures
prominently throughout the Christian Scriptures: Jesus
is tempted by Satan (Matthew 4:1-3, Luke 4:2). The
Pharisees accused Jesus of casting out demons in the
name of "Beelzebub, the prince of the demons." (Matthew
12:24)
In the writings of Paul and the other apostles, the
character and range of activities of Satan and his
demons is further developed. God and Satan are seen as
the two most powerful forces in the universe. The
duality between an all-good God and all-evil Satan is
firmly established. Examples are:
2 Corinthians 11:12-14: Satan is seen to be
responsible for false teaching by "false apostles,
deceitful workers."
2 Corinthians 12:7: Satan has given Paul a "thorn
in the flesh" to trouble him.
1Thessalonians 2:17-18: Satan hindered Paul's
travels
I Timothy 1:19-20: Hymenaeus and Alexander have
fallen away from the faith and blasphemed. Paul
had excommunicated them and "delivered them unto
Satan." Here, he is expressing the belief found
also in 1 Corinthians 5:5 that once a believer is
excommunicated, he will be no longer protected by
God. Satan will torment him and perhaps purify
him.
The author of the Book of Revelation develops the
concept of a great battle between Satan and God at the
end of the world as we know it:
Revelation 2:8-9: Satan is portrayed as the power
behind the Roman Empire's persecution of the
Christians. The author apparently condemns
ex-Christians who pretend that they are Jewish in
order to avoid the persecution. They are referred
to as the "Synagogue of Satan."
Revelation 2:7-9: This passage is similar to
Revelation 2:8-9.
Revelation 12:9: Satan, viewed as the great
dragon, and his fallen angels were cast down to
earth.
Revelation 20:2-3: Satan is bound and sealed into
an abyss for 1000 years, so that he could no
longer deceive the nations.
Revelation 20:7-8: Satan is released after 1000
years, deceives the nations, and gathers them
together for war. He loses.