The Enemy of your Soul
The enemy of your soul is….? The devil? Maybe. In a Christian worldview there is a character, a being, that is called Satan. You’ve probably heard of him. Here I want to ask the question: Who is Satan?
It kind of depends on who you ask. And the truth is, it can be a question that comes with a lot of baggage, making it hard to ask. If you were to ask any Christian, or your average Joe, or a Jew, or even a theologian, you will likely get a different answer. At least slightly. The answer could probably be summarized as a description of “the king of evil”, or the lord of demons, “the enemy”, or maybe the prison warden down in hell. Something along those lines. To be clear, when I am here considering the question “who is Satan”, I am talking within the Judeo-Christian context, not necessarily the modern, popular-media context. Although there is some overlap. So the preceding question is, where does our understanding of satan come from? Well, in the Judeo-Christian context, you think most people would answer: the Bible, of course. But is that true? That is what I want to explore and consider in this writing. Does our understanding and all the ideas and images we have surrounding satan all stem from the Bible? Or are at least founded in the Bible? Is there anything we are getting wrong? Is there anything we are missing?
First, let me lay out a brief but mostly-complete synopsis of who satan is in the Christian context. In case you aren’t aware and so this way we can understand the context of this conversation. Simply, Satan is the name we have given to what would more generally be called the devil, in the Bible. Sometimes he is also given the name Lucifer, which you may have heard. The belief is that satan, before time, was once actually an angel himself. Some say he was actually one of the highest ranked angels, the one who played worship before the Lord. But satan rebelled against God and so he was cast out of heaven, a fallen angel (which is where that idea comes from). It’s also believed that other angels joined satan and were cast out with him, and these became his minions, or the demons. Some believe part of his rebellion was that he tried to gain power and become more like God himself (which has some connection to the Genesis garden story if you know it). This is seen as the origin of satan. Generally in the Bible, satan is seen as an evil influence over humans. Satan is seen as the enemy of God and the tempter of humans. He is tied up in the original sin of man, perpetuates sin throughout history, and is defeated in the end of the story in the “final battle” at the end of time.
With this context in mind, let’s dive a bit into the Bible and see how and where satan exactly shows up, and compare it to this understanding of satan.
Before we really dive in, let me tell you where I am coming from. I am writing this article because when I began to look at the presence of satan in the Bible (namely in the Hebrew Bible), and looked closely, I did not expect what I found. What I found, I felt, was quite different from what I grew up understanding and believing (namely, what I laid out above). What I found was so different that I was in shock. So different that I felt I should write an article about it. I don’t really write this to present or begin an argument of any sorts (although it might feel that way at times). I more so write this to ask questions about the nature of satan, who is such a prominent player in Christian thought. I want to pose a fresh perspective, and I want the reader to think critically. I want the reader to reflect on their understanding and beliefs, to have an open mind and consider this perspective, even for just a moment. So, what did I find?
As far as I am concerned, if we want to gain a good understanding of something pertaining to the Christian faith (or the Jewish faith), we should probably look into the Bible. If it isn’t in the Bible at all, I wouldn’t say it has much weight, in terms of value for my belief. So that will be my focus. First, let’s start with the “Old Testament”, as Christians know it, or the Hebrew Bible or if you’re really feeling traditional, the Tanakh. I did a word search on the word “satan” and I found there were 14 verses in the Old Testament that have the english word “satan” in them. I searched across 7 different english translations and they almost all matched with the 14 verses. Almost. 6 out of the 7. Hm, that’s a little interesting. Well, the KJV, King James Version, had 15 verses, just one extra that had “satan” in it. Well, it is the KJV, a bit questionable, you might say. Well, let’s break down the translation: where does the word satan originate? It actually originates from the ancient Hebrew language. All of the Old Testament was originally written in ancient Hebrew (minus half of the prophet Daniel, that’s Aramaic). So, what is the underlying Hebrew word that is translated to “satan”? It is, as a noun: שָּׂטָן, or could be transliterated as shawtawn. What’s important is that yes, it’s a noun. It’s not a proper noun, just a noun. In some uses, which I will lay out here soon, it is written as ha-shawtawn. “Ha” is the definite article “the” which then makes it, “the satan”, which slightly different, but once again I will cover that. Regardless, it’s not a name, it’s just a word. Here’s a definition of the hebrew word:
שָּׂטָן
Adversary, one who withstands
Adversary (in general - personal or national)
So the word shawtawn is a noun that means “adversary” or “opposer”. In its raw form, it is not a proper noun, or a name for anyone. The word is a description, it is a noun that describes a type of person or the way someone is acting. For example, “the president” is a noun that could describe the proper noun of George Washington. Here, satan is the same as a president. So to apply it, if I was standing in your way and opposing you, you could call me satan (and funny thing is we literally see that later in the new testament with Jesus and Peter).
What’s interesting, is if you do a word search on this specific word in hebrew, the word שָּׂטָן is found 27 times, in 23 verses in all the Hebrew Bible. So if we look back at what I found earlier, the english word satan is found in 14 verses (used 18 times). Why are there 27 uses of shawtawn, but satan is only seen 18 times in the english translation? What is happening is that the people who have translated from Hebrew to English have chosen specific verses to translate the word to the proper noun, “Satan”, and other verses to simply accuser, adversary, or opposer. Interesting. There must be some sort of reason why there is a distinction.
Ok, so since there are only 14 verses with the word satan, I am just going to copy those here so we can reference them. “Satan” is highlighted.
Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.
One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them.
The LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the LORD, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”
Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”
“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied.
The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.
On another day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them to present himself before him.
And the LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the LORD, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”
Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.”
“Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life.
The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.”
So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.
Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him.
The LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?”
Quickly looking over the usage, you can see that it spans only over 3 books. 1 use in 1 Chronicles, 14 uses in Job, and 3 uses in Zechariah. So the main observation is that it’s not used in many books of the Old Testament, and a majority is concentrated in the book of Job. So let’s look at what is going on in these different uses and contexts.
Job
I am going to start by looking at Job, because I want to save 1 Chronicles for later, for it is particularly interesting. Job is where we see the most frequent use of both “satan” and the Hebrew שָּׂטָן. Also, Job is a situation where we see the use of ha-shawtawn, which adds the definite article “ha” to make it, “the satan”. Which, seems to be referring to a specific person, or a specific character. Well, in the book of Job it is referring to a specific character. The reason for this is because of the style of book Job is. Job is written in the form of a Hebrew poetic play. If you skim through the book of Job, a majority of it is basically written as a script. You have prominent characters (Job, Elihu, Eliphaz, etc.), and they each have lines and it’s set up like a script for a play, or a dialogue. On the front end and the back end you have more or a narrative reading, that sets up the exposition for the play, and this is where we find ha-shawtawn, the satan. If you imagine this story like a play in how it was written, it makes sense to have a character who represents evil, or the overarching adversary. In the Hebrew, this character would have just been called, “The Adversary”. He is the villain in the story, the foil for our main character, “the man without blemish”, Job.
So it makes sense for satan to be so prominent in the book of Job, because the story begs to have a character who fits the role of satan. But another piece of why satan might be prominent in Job is the development of satan throughout history. One large theme we will see through this overall study of satan is that the use and appearance of satan grows in prominence as history advances. We will see that after the arrival of the Greeks and the Greek way of thinking, Western Civilization, satan is much more prominent as a character. He shows up a lot more in the new testament than the old testament, as we will see later. We saw that he shows up in both Chronicles and Zechariah, which are two of the last books in the history of Israel. But hold up, how does this have anything to do with Job? Isn’t Job one of the oldest, if not the oldest, books in the Bible? Now what I’m about to say might seem hard to believe to some, but please bear with me. If you haven’t ever heard such, most people will say that Job is one of the oldest books in the Bible. I’m here to propose that it actually isn’t. I believe that Job may have been written later in history, a lot closer to the likes of Chronicles and Zechariah, as old as 500 B.C. but as late as even 300 B.c. Before I get into why this might be, I will say that I do believe Job is one of the oldest stories in the Bible. I think that based on the content in the story of Job, it is set in a very ancient setting, potentially before some of the oldest stories in the Bible. And this is one reason why most will say that Job is such an old book. But just because the story is ancient, does not mean the book is ancient. It’s very possible that the story had existed in Jewish tradition for thousands of years, but what we know as the book of Job, was recorded and written much later in the form we see. And this is what I believe. Now there are a few clues I see that place the book of Job in what is called the Hellenistic period, or the arrival of the Greeks. One of the reasons lies in some of the language that shows up throughout the book. There is mention of some Greek names such as the constellations of Orion, Pleiades, and Ursa Major. But one of the big indicators is simply the style of the book. As I mentioned before, Job is written as a drama, and if you know anything about the book, it is certainly a tragedy. Tragedies like this were prominent works of literature and art in the Hellenistic era. Also of relevance is the script-style I mentioned before which could be compared to the genre of a Dialogue. Dialogue’s were most notably written by the likes of both Plato and Aristotle, prominent Greek thinkers. These factors tie the book to a later writing closer to the Hellenistic era. And one more point I will mention, is the use of “The Adversary”, or satan in this book. Like I said, viewing evil embodied within a character was something seen later in history, and was prominent in the Hellenistic era. Common of the Jewish writers of the Bible, they play on their cultural context to write a story about the God of Israel. It would seem that the authors are doing the same here, and pulling out pieces of the culture that surround them, like having a “Hades” character within in their dramatic tragedy, to act as a foil to the righteous man Job. So if we place Job as a later writing in the development of the Hebrew Bible, it makes sense for satan to be a prominent character.
Now I know that the topic of when the Bible was written and who wrote it can be controversial. It could certainly be the topic of its own article. At the very least, if you do some research on when scholars believe Job was written, you will see the 6th Century bce as the most common answer. So, you can at least give me that.
Zechariah
I will start by saying I do not have as strong of opinions on the usage of satan in the book of Zechariah. Zechariah is a prophet that falls towards the end of the Hebrew Bible. Zechariah is considered one of the post-exilic prophets, meaning his prophecy was given after the exile of Babylonian, and in the early period of the Persian reign. This is the last period of history that is covered in the Hebrew Bible. Zechariah is also considered one of the great Apocalyptic literature books in the Bible (with many similarities to the Revelation seen at the end of the New Testament). Now where we see satan appear in Zechariah is in the first couple verses of chapter 3. There is an account of Zechariah seeing Joshua standing before the Angel of the LORD, and at the right hand of the angel is satan. The Hebrew reads like, “and ha-shawtawn standing at his right hand to shawtawn him” (using the verb form of shawtawn, which means “to accuse”). After this the LORD rebukes the accuser. Joshua is then honored and clothed in new, pure clothes. Now the appearance of satan in this passage is much more unclear to me. We see that satan is standing as an accuser, there to accuse Joshua. Which fits fine since “accuser” is one way shawtawn can be interpreted. But that’s about all that we see of satan here. We don’t see any other characteristics or definitions of satan here that we might expect, not even the same as we see in the book of Job. The only similarity might be that we see satan standing with an angel, which is similar to how we see him presented in the beginning of Job (1:6). So what I mean to say is that I see nothing in Zechariah to make me think that this character, ha-shawtawn is anything more than an accuser, in any form.
Genesis, Isaiah & Ezekiel
Now, let’s step back and recall what I presented in the beginning as the general understanding of who satan is in the Christian context. Have we yet seen anything about a fallen angel? Let alone all the details tied up with his nature as a fallen angel? Did we see satan appear in the story of the original sin, the “fall of man” in the Garden of Eden? I quoted all places in the Old Testament where satan appeared, and I didn’t see any of these things. Well now I want to talk about where satan is not in the Bible. Places that satan is never actually mentioned, but has been undoubtedly placed into the text in Christian thinking.
First, satan never appears in the story of the creation in the garden. Really? Isn’t this one of the most popular stories of satan? Yes it is a well known story, but it’s not of satan, but of “the serpent”. What is often called “The Fall of Man” is initiated by a walking and talking serpent in the garden of Eden: a beast. In brief, the serpent comes into the perfect garden of Eden, and convinces the first woman to go against the word of God, to act upon her desires to eat the forbidden fruit: the fruit of which God said not to eat. The woman listens to the serpent and eats the fruit. Now what is interesting here is that the serpent is only ever called the serpent in this story, never called satan here or even later in the Old Testament. And what’s interesting about this is that a lot of Jewish readers, scholars, and believers would never connect a satan character with the serpent. To the Jewish reader, this story is much more about man’s struggle between being the image of God and being the image of the beast. The choice of man to either have control over their desires as God has control, or to indulge in their desires as the beast indulges. That is the war here, between God and beast, rather than the involvement of a greater agent of evil called Satan. Whereas the Christian reader, scholar, or believer almost ubiquitously sees satan as the serpent in this story. Now there are a few reasons that this is the case. One is that Christians see satan as the great deceiver, and see him at the core and root of all sin, therefore he certainly is the agent in the “original sin”. But one of the original reasons behind this thinking comes out of Revelation chapter 12. Now I know it’s a little jump ahead into the new testament, but here it describes a battle with a great dragon and says, “And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan…” (Rev. 12:9). While reading that, it’s obvious why the connection is made. But out of context you can make a lot of things make sense for your perspective. I won’t dive too deep into what is happening in Revelation, I will save that for the New Testament portion. But what I’ll say is this character of “the great Dragon” and “the ancient serpent” is a character in Jewish symbolism and mysticism that has a lot more context surrounding it than just the snake in the garden. While Christians might hear “ancient serpent” and think, “oh, that must be the serpent in the garden”, a Jewish scholar would think of the great beast of the sea, sometimes called the Leviathan. And once again, later in history, especially in Revelation, the ideas around Satan are different and have a different context, which you will have to hold out for. But I will agree that I can see where a reader would make the connection to Genesis. And that’s fine, it’s alright to think that. It could very well be that the serpent in the garden is who we call satan.
Another place satan is not mentioned is in the stories that are used to describe the “fallen angel”. There are two places in the prophets that have been pulled out and used to describe the background or “origin story” of satan. These two places are Isaiah 14, roughly vserses 12-20 and Ezekiel 28, roughly verses 11-19. Here there are two prophetic sayings, written in poetic form, that speak the language we have come to understand as describing “the fallen angel from heaven”. But let’s actually read what these passages say, because it’s not so simple or clear-cut. In Isaiah chapter 14 we have this passage, it has an introduction in 14:3,
“When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:”
Then jumping ahead to verse 12, is where we see the passage that is taken to describe satan, continuing in this taunt towards the king:
“How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. Those who see you will stare at you and ponder over you: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities, who did not let his prisoners go home?’ All the kings of the nations lie in glory, each in his own tomb; but you are cast out, away from your grave, like a loathed branch, clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit, like a dead body trampled underfoot. You will not be joined with them in burial,because you have destroyed your land, you have slain your people.”
Now what do we have going on in this portion of Isaiah. If you were to read this in the context of the Christian understanding of satan, you can see the points: fallen from heaven, desire to rise above heaven and God, make himself like God, brought down low. That does seem to fit well in that synopsis we saw at the beginning. But there is a problem here. If we assume that this passage is about satan, and read it through the lens of satan, then of course it makes sense. But, what is the context of this passage? Well it’s given right to us in verse 3, “... take up this taunt against the King of Babylon”. The whole passage here is referring to the King of Babylon. And honestly if you read it in this context, it makes perfect sense. The empire of Babylon in the Hebrew Bible is rooted in the civilization of Babel (Gen. 11), in fact in Hebrew “Babel” and “Babylon” are actually the exact same word. What is the story of Babel in Gen. 11 about? It’s about a civilization that is building a tall tower and, you could say, is trying to “ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high … ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”. That definitely fits for Babylon. And you could break it down further. The empire of Babylon was terrifying in their hay-day, especially to the Jewish people. They slaughtered, they conquered, they “made the earth tremble” and “shook kingdoms”. When you read this in the context of the King of Babylon (whom Isaiah says he is speaking of), it makes great sense. Honestly, to me it makes a lot more sense than when I try to impose satan in the passage.
But, you might ask, “well couldn’t this passage be both about the King of Babylon, but also prophesying about a greater evil, satan?”. A lot of people will look for this dual meaning within the prophetic texts. But I might ask, “why does this passage have to be about satan, when we know it is about the King of Babylon and works well in that context?”. The original readers would read this and find no reason to connect this with any other character than the King of Babylon. Could it be that a character like satan would embody some of these characteristics seen in this passage? Sure. But that doesn’t give us good reason to build a theology or a backstory around satan, when this passage wasn’t about satan to begin with.
Next, let’s take a look also at the passage from Ezekiel 28. I will be a little more brief with this one, although it is a bit more interesting in its content. Here in both the beginning of chapter 28 and in verse 11 & 12, we get a similar exposition,
“Moreover, the word of the LORD came to me: ‘Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord GOD:” (v. 11-12).
With this, we know the proceeding must be in reference to the king of Tyre. And the following verses are the most referenced to satan,
“You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you.”
This prophecy over the king of Tyre is obviously making connections back to the garden of Eden. And here is where some readers and scholars have connected satan back to the serpent, but also connect Satan to an angel (“you were a guardian cherub”). But once again, when you read this without first thinking it is written about satan, I don’t believe you really get the impression that it is about satan. Honestly, I would say that I more so get the impression this prophecy might be making a connection to Adam if anything. But we must return to the context, that this statement is to be addressed to the king of Tyre, an actual person. Tyre was part of what was later Phoenicia, a port city that had great wealth because of their trade. This could play into the use of expensive and precious stones listed in this prophecy. I don’t have a complete interpretation of this passage, but I feel if you step back from putting satan into this text, consider the context, I don’t see why we need to pull satan out of this text.
These two passages from Isaiah and Ezekiel are where ancient scholars and others over time began to form the backstory of satan that I laid out in the beginning. I believe it’s interesting that a large portion of what is considered the backstory and theology of satan are from parts of scripture that don’t even talk about satan. And I would argue don’t have any real or valuable connection to satan at all.
Chronicles
Now I actually left out one final satan reference that was listed above. So let’s talk about the final satan reference that is in 1 Chronicles and why it is so interesting. So for a quick overview that is important, the book of Chronicles (1 & 2) is a recounting or a retelling of the narrative that is written in all of the books of Samuel and Kings. A huge span of Israel’s history, from the end of the Judges through all the kings of Israel is covered in 1st and 2nd Samuel and 1st and 2nd Kings. It’s a large portion of the Bible. In the books of 1st and 2nd Chronicles, we have a much later writing that covers the exact same time period, but has a different style and a different focus, you might say. If you skim through Samuel and Kings, then through Chronicles, you will see some of the same stories and characters covered. Chronicles is a much shorter portion of scripture and therefore does not cover every single story and detail that Samuel & Kings covers, but chooses to focus on certain things. There is one crucial event in the life of King David that is covered by both accounts, and that is the Census of David. I like to think of this as David’s “you will not see the promised land” moment. It’s a pretty odd and interesting story all around, to me similar to Moses’ final moments. The accounts can be found in 2 Samuel 24, and in 1 Chronicles 21. I will not repost both accounts fully here, but I encourage you to go read them. If you do, you will find that the accounts are really quite similar in most ways (although the result of the census is different between the accounts which is odd). They are similar, although there is one detail that is different and I think is worth noting. It’s the opening sentence. Let’s see:
2 Samuel 24:1:
“Again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, ‘Go, number Israel and Judah.’”
1 Chronicles 21:1:
“Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel.”
I hope you noticed what I am trying to point out, what is so interesting here. Who was it that incited David to number the people? In 2nd Samuel, it is the anger of Yahweh. Yahweh who is the one true God, the God of Israel. In the second account it is Satan. But are they not two accounts of one story? Once again, if you didn’t read the stories, please go read them. You will see that a lot of the parts of the story line up, and that they are accounts of the same story. But this opening sentence does not reference the same person who incited David to take a census. What do we make of this? Who incited David? Was it the anger of the Lord? Was it Satan? Are we to say that the anger of the LORD and Satan are one in the same? Who really is satan, if he is compared, made parallel, to the anger of the Lord in the Bible itself? This is what I will leave you with.
Closing Remarks
That was a lot of information, coming from a lot of different directions. I did my best to cover everything I thought was important that was in the Hebrew Bible around this topic. Obviously I am aware that I did not cover anything from the New Testament. And it’s important to note that Satan is mentioned more frequently in the New Testament. Some readers might have a lot of questions or concerns related to things that are found in the New Testament. I do not have the space here to cover the New Testament references as well, that is something I will have to (and plan to) cover in my next post. As you can see, there is so much to talk about and unpack. But I do believe that it’s important to start with the Hebrew Bible, to look at the understanding that is found in the Old Testament as a foundation, and know that this is the world in which the characters and stories in the New Testament are coming from. Now let me close by addressing a question readers could have at the end of this: “Is he trying to say that Satan isn’t real?” No, I’m not trying to say that. I’m not trying to make any conclusion directly, although it may seem that way. I think what I am trying to say is that I truly don’t believe that all the theology and understanding that has been formed about the person of satan has strong biblical foundations. I think we need to do a bit of reconsidering and a bit of inquiry, and that is what I am trying to do here. Shalom.
Some Sources: