On Matthew 4:12 through Matthew 4:14

Hello, and welcome back to The Moral Vision of Jesus Christ.  If you are new here, and desire the full effect, you should start here at the Introduction.

Regulars to this Gospel Study will recall that, last time, we were still in the middle of a study-within-a-study, trying to understand the origins of the modern conception of the devil as a pitchfork wielding demon who literally roams the earth tempting men, women and children to sin so that he might have the opportunity to watch them suffer eternally inside some intricate and vast hell-system.  And all with God's blessing.

You'll recall that, to begin our study-within-a-study, we looked at various devil-like characters that predated the Jewish scriptures, showing that such creatures of malevolence predated the Jewish and Christian traditions and were by no means "new" in these faiths.  

You'll recall that we surveyed the extent to which the modern "capital-S" Satan originated in The Old Testament, and found that the "capital-S" Satan didn't exist in The Old Testament.  He doesn't even appear in the Garden of Eden, despite the prevalent modern belief that he does.

You'll recall that we looked at the Intertestamental Period for a "capital-S" Satan and found something very close to him in The Book of Enoch, an intertestamental, apocryphal, pseudepigraphical text.  In Enoch, we found a supremely evil leader of a group of fallen angels who had revolted against God.  The evil leader, Azazel, was kicked out of heaven, tempted humankind, taught them evil ways, and was banished to a fiery netherworld just like the Satan people frighten their children with today.

You'll also recall that, last time, we went through every instance of the use of the word "Satan" in The New Testament, and found that The New Testament is riddled with references to the "capital-S" Satan.  You may have been surprised to learn that The New Testament offers zero biographical information in its references to Satan, but, rather, takes knowledge of the tempter and the story of his angelic fall at the outset of history for granted in its readers.

Today, our study continues as we parse through every single instance of "devil" in The New Testament.  This work is tedious, and might strike some as overkill, but we desire certainty in our effort.  We go to these great lengths so that we can be absolutely sure when we say "Satan's backstory does not exist in Christian scriptural canon."

We will also continue to follow the story of Jesus in Matthew, as he is about to begin his "Galilean Ministry."

Happy studies.

Understanding the Origin of Modern Common Conceptions of The Devil in Christianity

Part V

Instances of the Word "Devil" in The New Testament

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is the official learning tool for the Church faithful.  It is the text used to orient people to cosmology, or the big picture, as the Church sees it.  It is taught and distributed world-wide in incredible quantities.

The word "catechism" is rooted in the Greek "katēkhein" meaning "to instruct orally."  To study one's faith, as a young Catholic, is to study "The Catechism."  

The word "devil" appears twenty-some times in The Catechism of the Catholic Church.  The word "Satan" occurs around twenty times in the same text.  The Catechism says:

The Church teaches that Satan was at first a good angel, made by God: "The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing."

The material quoted here in The Catechism is not from scripture, but rather from Canon 1 of The Fourth Lateran Council, which occurred in 1215 AD.  Lateran Council IV was one of a series of "eccumenical councils" wherein hundreds of clergy, heads of the Church and (sometimes) heads of state from all over Christendom gathered together to vote on changes to the doctrine and practice of the Christian faith.

In addition to the scripturally unfounded assertion that "the devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good," Lateran Council IV added the following notable laws to Church Canon:

- Before a doctor is allowed to treat a person's ailment, he ought to be compelled by law to try to make the patient talk to a priest about God.*

- All Christians should confess all of their sins to a priest at least once per year.  (Prior to this, forms of sacramental confession and penance were varied across Christendom, or, in some places, didn't exist at all.)

- All Jews and all Muslims must wear clothing that makes them distinct from the Christians in their community, so that they will not accidentally intermingle with Christians sexually.**

- Jews and Muslims need to stay inside on Passion Sunday, and during the last three days of Holy Week.  (Especially on Good Friday.)***

The text produced by Lateran Council IV ends by discussing plans for the unsuccessful Fifth Crusade, a Holy War against non-Christians (primarily Muslims) occupying the Holy Land.

The Church does not try to hide the fact that its modern Catechism gets at least part of its concept of Satan directly from a thirteenth century ecumenical council that advocated things like racial segregation, genocide, and extortion of the ill.

We assert again that the modern concept of Satan, or "The Devil," did not come from Christian or Jewish scripture.  By the end of this fifth segment of our study, we will have demonstrated this definitively.

We have a lot of material to cover, so we cannot delay.  Here are the thirty-two instances of the word "devil" that occur in The New Testament, in order of appearance.  (It will be helpful to have a Bible open in front of you while you read this.)

#1 through #4 - Matthew 4:1, 4:5, 4:8, and 4:11

As we've just seen in our broader study, Matt ch. 4 features "the devil" (not capitalized anywhere in The Bible outside of Revelation) appearing to and tempting a fasting Jesus in the desert, soon after Jesus' baptism.  This occurrence of the devil in the Temptation Narrative does not give us any information about the character's origin.  The mechanics of the modern concept of Satan are not explicated here.

#5 - Matthew 13:39

In this passage, Jesus is explaining "The Parable of the Weeds" to his inner-circle.  He says that the devil is like an enemy who sows weeds into one's field.  Here, the devil is made out to be the creator of the bad portion of the human race.  The explanation of the parable assumes the reader's familiarity with the concept of a "devil" and doesn't give the character a backstory in any sense.

#6 - Matthew 25:41

In Matthew 25:41, Jesus explains an apocalyptic vision about the judgement of humankind by the "Son of Man."  He says that the Son of Man will invite some of humanity into the kingdom that had been promised them since the beginning of time, and that others he will send to "the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels."  The conception of the devil as being damned to a fiery place is spoken of here as if it is common knowledge.  The cosmology of Satan is not explained here, but assumed.

#7 through #10 - Luke 4:2, 4:3, 4:6, and 4:13

Luke ch. 4 corresponds to Matt ch. 4 in its retelling of the Temptation Narrative.  The devil's history as a fallen angel from heaven is not explained here.  Intimate knowledge of him is assumed in the reader.

#11 - Luke 8:12

Luke 8:12 has Jesus explaining "The Parable of the Sower," which is very much like "The Parable of the Weeds."  In The Parable of the Sower, the sower's seed, having been sown, is not allowed to sprout to fruition because it is carried off by birds who eat it.  In his explanation, Jesus says that the seed taken by the birds represents "the word" being taken away from human hearts by the devil.  Here, as always in The New Testament, the biography of the devil is assumed to be known by the reader.  The modern concept of Satan did not originate here.

#12 - John 6:70

John 6:70 has Jesus speaking to The Twelve.  He says:

“Did I not choose you twelve? Yet is not one of you a devil?”

Here, we are not talking about the devil, or Satan, but rather a devil.  Jesus is referencing the betrayal of Judas, of course.  Again, the passage doesn't refer to Satan, and certainly doesn't give us any portion of the Satanic biography.

#13 - John 8:44

John 8:44 has Jesus telling a group of Jews that they are illegitimate and that they are children of the devil because they do not love him.  The sayings here are not characteristic of the Jesus we know from the Synoptic Gospels.  The modern conception of the devil clearly did not originate here.  The common knowledge of the concept of Satan continues to be taken for granted here in John.

#14 - John 13:2

In this passage, the devil is given credit (as he was in Luke) for the actions of Judas the Iscariot, namely, the betrayal of Christ to the authorities.  The devil's origin and motivations are not explained here.  The author assumes that the reader already knows very well who this singular "devil" is.

#15 - Acts 10:38

In Acts ch. 10, Peter is summoned by a well known guy from a town or two over named Cornelius.  Peter goes to him, and Cornelius asks Peter to share the "good news" with him, as it were.  Peter begins by telling Cornelius that God accepts any nation that fears him and acts uprightly.  He then briefly recounts the action of Jesus during his ministry: "He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him."

Here, the devil is not defined or explained, but merely mentioned in passing.  It is clear that his biography predates this text in the mind of the author and in that of the intended audience.

#16 - Acts 13:10

Here, Paul and Barnabas are sent off by the Holy Spirit to convert the people of the island of Cyprus.  They land on the eastern coast at Salamis and make their way across the island to Paphos, declaring the word of God in the synagogues they found on the way.

In Paphos, they meet a Roman Proconsul named Sergius Paulus.  Paulus is amenable to hearing the proclamation of the word from Paul and Barnabas, but there is a magician in his retinue that tries to prevent it.  Paul calls the magician a "son of the devil," and then, magically and temporarily, the magician is struck blind.

Good story, but it isn't the story of the origin of Satan, so we must move on.

#17 - Ephesians 4:27

In Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians - perhaps not actually Pauline in origin - we see "Paul" explaining some guidelines that he would like to see enacted in an early Christian community.  He cautions them, starting in Ephesians 4:26, against anger.  Read for yourself:

26 Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun set on your anger, 

27 and do not leave room for the devil.

It is not entirely clear here what is meant by "do not leave room for the devil."  Since the phrasing occurs in the same sentence as the mandate not to "let the sun set on your anger," we must assume that anger and space for the devil are somehow being related.

What is entirely clear here is that the author doesn't feel a need to explain to his audience who "the devil" is.  The biography of this "devil" is taken for granted.

#18 - Ephesians 6:11

Ephesians ch. 6 advises the recipient of the letter to "put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil."  Offering no explanation of who the devil is, the text then contradicts the modern conception of "Satan" and "devils" as being hellbound by saying that one must fight against "the evil spirits in the heavens."

Immediately before this section of text, the author of Ephesians endorses slavery, which, for us here at The Moral Vision, pretty much negates everything the letter says anyway.

#19 and #20 - 1 Timothy 3:6 and 3:7

1 Timothy ch. 3 should be compelling to the modern reader because the text seems to directly contradict the concept of clerical celibacy.  The section of text at hand, labeled "Qualifications of Various Ministers," says that a bishop can only be married once, and that he ought to keep his children well behaved, otherwise how can he be expected to keep a church in order?

The references to the devil in this text occur as the "qualifications" for the ministers continue to be laid out.  See for yourself:

6 He should not be a recent convert, so that he may not become conceited and thus incur the devil’s punishment.  

7 He must also have a good reputation among outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, the devil’s trap.

The devil's biography is assumed, here, not explained.  Our search for a morsel of the Satanic backstory in The New Testament continues.

#21 - 2 Timothy 2:26

2 Timothy 2:26 is part of an injunction to not argue with one's fellows, but rather to be gentle and kind to all people.  The entirety of the injunction reads as follows:

23 Avoid foolish and ignorant debates, for you know that they breed quarrels. 

24 A slave of the Lord should not quarrel, but should be gentle with everyone, able to teach, tolerant, 

25 correcting opponents with kindness. It may be that God will grant them repentance that leads to knowledge of the truth, 

26 and that they may return to their senses out of the devil’s snare, where they are entrapped by him, for his will.

Here, the devil is understood to be a tempter of mankind, working against God.  The modern conception of Satan or "the devil" as the counterbalance to God and administrator of hell are not born here.  If one read 2 Timothy without knowing about the devil beforehand, one would be left wondering "who is this "devil" guy?"

#22 - Hebrews 2:14

Hebrews 2:14, while explaining why God had made Jesus in the form of man, says that Jesus defeated the devil, "the one who has the power of death," by dying himself.  Hebrews was probably written to early Jewish-Christians who were seen as wavering in the Christian portion of their faith for one reason or another.  The text does not explain the cosmology of the devil, but merely features him as part of this "death" motif.

#23 -  James 4:7

James 4:7 reads:

So submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

The text doesn't go on to explain that the devil used to be a leader off angels in Heaven.  It doesn't explain that the devil fell from heaven because of pride and was cursed to Hell by God.  It doesn't illuminate the devil's impetus for roaming the earth tempting humans to sin.

James assumes we already know everything we need to about "the devil."

#24 - 1 Peter 5:8

In 1 Peter ch. 5, Peter reaches out to the Christian communities in Asia Minor, telling them to act with humility in their daily lives.  He tells his readers to lay all of their problems at God's feet, because he cares for them.  It warns the reader to be "sober and vigilant" because "the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."

Ad nauseum, we see that these New Testament references to "the devil" do not present or explain the devil, but rather take common understanding of the devil's backstory for granted.

#25 and #26 - 1 John 3:8 and 3:10

In 1 John we are told that "one who sins belongs to the devil, because the devil has sinned from the beginning."  The text also talks about "the children of God" in contrast with "the children of the devil."

No novel information about the devil is revealed here.  If you didn't know the devil already, you'd finish reading 1 John wondering "who is the devil?"

#27 - Jude 1:9

The Letter of Jude is interesting because of it's brevity and its apparent link to at least two apocryphal texts.  Jude borrows from The Book of Enoch, which we've learned about before, and another text known as "The Assumption of Moses."  

The Assumption of Moses, which we do not have in a complete form, likely included an argument over the final resting place of Moses' body between the Archangel Michael and an entity called "Sammael," which Jude wants us to read as "the devil."  In "The Assumption," Michael resists reviling this "Sammael" because he lacked the authority to revile anything.  Instead of vociferously judging Sammael, Michael simply tells him "I hope God judges you!"

In the "Letter of Jude," the author warns the reader against false teachers, mentioning that false teachers "revile glorious beings."  It is at this juncture that Jude references the Michael/Sammael story, saying "if Michael wasn't allowed to revile the devil himself, how can a human be allowed to revile a glorious being?"

This reference to the devil is compelling because it is also a reference to intertestamental apocrypha, but neither the Letter of Jude nor this "Assumption of Moses" offer us the recognizable modern backstory of "the devil" that we've been looking for.  We'll call Jude 1:9 and the apocryphal text near-misses and move forward.

#28 through #32 - Revelation 2:10, 12:9, 12:12, 20:2 and 20:10

Remember last time when we lumped all the references to "Satan" appearing in the Book of Revelation together?  We're going to do that again here with "devil."

The word "devil" appears five times in Revelation.  Every instance of "the devil" in Revelation is a projection forward in time.  Revelation relays a bizarre fever-dream of an apocalypse that is all supposed to happen in the future.  One will find no biographical information about the devil in Revelation, but merely outlandish predictions of things that never came; for the last time today, I will say that "in this text, knowledge of Satan is presupposed in the reader by the author."

---

It's been a long couple of segments, I know.  We had to do this, though, and we had to do it this way.

We had to know for sure.

Join us again next time when we look briefly at the evolution of the concept of "the devil" since the Apostolic Age, and then redraw our main assertion: that Christian scripture is not where modern Christians got their preposterous idea of "the devil."

Now, back to our regularly scheduled Gospel reading.

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Matthew 4:12 through Matthew 4:14

12 When he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. 

13 He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, 

14 that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled:

------------------------------

My apologies for cutting a sentence in half here with today's Gospel selection.  Because of the awkward placement of some of the verse-breaks in The Bible, we will occasionally have to split a sentence or two up around here.  I will do my best to maintain continuity.

Last time we met, Jesus' temptation in the desert ended with angels ministering to him.  Immediately subsequent to that, and with no transition, Jesus now finds out that his friend (teacher?) John the Baptist has been arrested.  We aren't told exactly why he has been arrested.

The way the text reads, this moment in time is absolutely formative for Jesus.  It is as if the news of the arrest of his friend (teacher?) is what spurs all of his subsequent action.  Here, as we rarely see him, Jesus seems reactionary.  They've arrested his teacher, so he ratchets up his political action by moving and proclaiming a ministry.  God doesn't appear to Jesus with instructions.  Jesus simply acts.

There's a lot of geographical information in this reading.  Jesus had left Galilee southward to go to the place where John was baptizing.  Now, upon hearing of the arrest, Jesus heads back up north to the region of Galilee, although he changes his actual residence from Nazareth to a town called Capernaum.  The whole region of Galilee was known as a hotbed of political and/or religious radicalism at the time, especially when compared to the more conservative communities near Jerusalem, so it makes sense that this is where Jesus will commence and conduct his radical ministry.

We can see in verse 14 the first half of what will be a classic case of "Shoehorn Matthew," wherein Matthew will try to make it seem as though The Old Testament predicted Jesus' life and exploits exactly.  We will get the second half of that next time.  

The big thing to remember here is that Jesus had expressed no interest in leading a movement up until the point that John the Baptist was taken out of the picture.  This is, perhaps, because John the Baptist was the leader of the movement, to whom Jesus wished to defer as long as he could.

We'll continue to explore the compelling idea that Christ was not only baptized but also taught by John the Baptist as we move forward.

Thank you for sticking this out with me.  I know we've tended toward scholastic density lately, which makes for challenging study.  Our efforts and our patience with this will one day be rewarded one-million-fold.  I'd bet my whole life on that.

Please share this writing.

Love.

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* That's messed up.

** That's really messed up.

*** Come on!  Really!?
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To read what's next, click here.

To read what came prior to this, click here.

For the index of Christ's words, click here.

On Matthew 4:10 through Matthew 4:11

Hello friend.  Welcome to (or back to) The Moral Vision of Jesus Christ.  If this is your first time here, you can orient yourself to this project by starting at the Introduction, which can be found here.

Where did we leave off?

We've followed Jesus out to the desert to see him tempted by "the devil," aka "Satan," in Matthew Chapter 4.  We've discussed the likelihood that Jesus was having a hallucinatory experience in the desert, brought on by ascetic fasting.  To better understand the narrative, we've been digging deeply into the origins of this "Satan" character.

Today, we continue digging in our multi-part study-within-a-study: "Understanding the Origins of Modern Common Conceptions of The Devil in Christianity," and witness the ending of the "Temptation" narrative in Matt.  

Happy reading.

Understanding the Origin of Modern Common Conceptions of The Devil in Christianity

Part IV

Instances of "Satan" in The New Testament

Last time, as you'll recall, we discussed the presence of a figure that very closely resembles the modern "Satan" in an intertestamental, apocryphal, pseudepigraphical text called The Book of Enoch.  The Book of Enoch may be the first extant text to contain the "biography of the devil."  Now we will continue forward in chronological time to further identify, define and understand the concept of "Satan the Devil" in Christian Scripture.

Today, we will review every one of the thirty-three instances of the word "Satan" in The New Testament.  Where we found no "capital-S" Satan in The Old Testament, The New Testament will surprise us with instance after instance of the "capital-S" Satan.  However, as I've said before, we will not find Satan's biography in The New Testament.  

This study is expanding a little bit past what I initially planned as its limits, in order to accomodate more detail.  Next time we meet, we will comb The New Testament again, but for the term "devil" as opposed to "Satan."  Between Parts IV and V of this study, then, we will be able to say resolutely that we've exhausted New Testament references to the Prince of Darkness in search of his biography, or any functional information about him, and found none.

Let's get started.

#1 - Matthew 4:10

Interestingly, Matthew 4:10 is also part of today's Gospel reading.  Matt 4:10 shows Jesus rebuking Satan in the desert, after the temptations.  He refers to Satan as the "capital-S" Satan, but we are offered no information about the character.  The author of the text clearly assumes the reader's familiarity with the "capital-S" Satan.

#2 - Matthew 12:26

Here, Jesus is accused of performing exorcisms by the power of Satan.  Jesus replies, roughly, "how can Satan drive out Satan, though?" meaning "why would Satan help defeat one of his minions?"  

The fact that the wording surrounds a miraculous event makes the whole conversation dubious.  We'll discuss this in greater detail when we get to it in our study.  For today, we just need to understand that this verse offers no Satanic biography, and assumes the reader's prior knowledge of the entity.  

#3 - Matthew 16:23

In Matt 16:22, Peter argues with Jesus about whether or not he must be executed in Jerusalem.  In Matt 16:23, Jesus rebukes Peter for his argument by calling him "Satan."  He also says Peter is an "obstacle" to him.  Here, Jesus seems to return to an older usage of the word "satan."  He seems to use it more as a generic term meaning "adversary," and less as the "capital-S" Satan.

#4 - Mark 1:13

Mark 1:13 is part of Mark's highly condensed version of the Temptation in the Desert narrative.  In its entirety, the narrative consists of the following two verses from Mark Chapter 1:

12 At once the Spirit drove him out into the desert, 

13 and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.

No Satanic biography.  Just Jesus (probably) hallucinating in the desert.

#5 - Mark 3:23 and #6 - Mark 3:26

Mark 3:23 through Mark 3:30 is the Marcan analog of the conversation in Matt 12:26 (see #2).  Here, Jesus asks how Satan can drive out Satan, as he did in Matt. The reader's knowledge of a capital-S Satan is assumed, and no biographical information about Satan is given.

#7 - Mark 4:15

In Mark 4:15, Jesus is explaining the Parable of the Sower to his guys.  He says that Satan steals the word of God right out of some people once it is planted in them.  He doesn't teach us anything about where Satan came from.  He assumes the reader's prior knowledge of the Satanic biography, and the saying contains no moral prescription.

#8 - Mark 8:33

Analogous to Matt 16:23, see #3.

#9 - Luke 10:18

In Luke 10:18, Jesus says:

"I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky."

This is his response to the tidings of success brought to him by the Seventy-Two exorcists he had sent out to the countryside.  He is not talking about an angelic fall like the one we saw in Enoch, but instead of the decline of Satan's power over Earth at that time due to the works of his followers.  We can learn nothing about Satan's origin from this verse.  Jesus, here, is merely telling his guys "good job," and is not offering moral teachings.

#10 - Luke 11:18

See #2, #5 and #6.

#11 - Luke 13:16

Luke 13:16 introduces us to a woman "who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit."  The woman cannot straighten her back to stand up, which is blamed on this spiritual possession.  Jesus heals the woman by driving the demon out of her.  This occurs in a synagogue.  The leader of the synagogue reprimands Jesus for doing work - healing - on the sabbath.  Jesus says:

15 ... “Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger and lead it out for watering?
 
16 This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day from this bondage?”

From this story we can learn nothing about Satan's biography except that he is capable of causing severe back pain.

#12 - Luke 22:3

In Luke 22:3, the Apostle Judas is possessed by Satan himself to betray Jesus to the authorities of Jerusalem.  

This verse gives us no new information about Satan, but rather assumes the reader's prior knowledge of Satan, as do all of the verses on this list.

#13 - Luke 22:31

Luke 22:31 has Jesus talking to Peter about whether or not Peter will remain loyal to Jesus.  Jesus says that "Satan" wishes to sift the disciples "like wheat," the meaning of which is not immediately and perfectly clear.  Then he tells Peter "you will deny knowing me before the cock crows," parallel with Matthew 26:33-35 and Mark 14:29-31.  

No good information about Satan can be gleaned from this passage.  Here, as elsewhere, one could argue that "Satan" is just a stand in for the words "evil" or "fate."

#14 - John 13:27

About midway through the Gospel of John, we have Satan again entering Judas.  Here, Jesus is eating with his men and he says, roughly, "one of y'all will betray me," and they say "which one?" and he says "the one who I give this piece of bread to."  Then, he gives a piece of bread to Judas.  It is only then that Judas becomes possessed by "Satan."  Jesus then hurries the now possessed Judas off to accomplish his dark deed.  "What you are going to do, do quickly.”  

It is almost as if Satan is a minion or subordinate of Christ, here, helping Jesus accomplish his ultimate goal of dying at the hands of the Roman State.

Here we learn nothing biographical or functional about Satan.

#15 - Acts 5:3

Some time back, we glanced at the Book of Acts to learn what life was like for the very first Christians.  At that time, we noted that the very first thing said about the very first Christian community as it existed immediately after Christ's execution was that they had "devoted themselves to the communal life," and that they were "together and had all things in common."  This was to point out the stark contrast between the first Christians and today's American Christians, who honor Mammon* as their primary God, and Mars as their secondary.

In Acts, we also read a story about a guy in the first Christian community named Ananias.  If you'll recall, Ananias and his wife were found to have hidden some of their personal wealth so they wouldn't have to give it to the common bank of the nascent Christian community.  We bring this to light because, within that same narrative, we find one of our thirty-three mentions of Satan in The New Testament.

In Acts 5:3, Peter, the de facto leader of the community, is questioning Ananias as follows:

“Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart so that you lied to the holy Spirit and retained part of the price of the land?"

The question proves to be rhetorical, as Ananias is struck dead by God, or by Peter through the power of God, before he can respond.  When Ananias' wife get's home, the exact same thing happens to her.

(Yes, it appears the very first Christians were hardcore socialists of a sort.)

We learn nothing about Satan here at his mention, but I will always take any excuse to retell the tale of Ananias.

#16 - Acts 26:18

Acts 26:18 catches Paul of Tarsus in the middle of retelling the story of his conversion to Christ.

On his way to Damascus to persecute some Christians, Paul and his companions are struck to the ground by a great light in the sky and voice coming from it asking Paul "why are you persecuting me?"  Paul says "who are you?!"  The voice responds, roughly, "I am Jesus!  And today, I'm turning you into a Christian so you can go out to the world and turn other people away from Satan and towards God."

This is another instance where we could replace the word "Satan" with the word "evil" and never miss a beat.  We learn nothing functional about the Prince of Darkness, here.

Also, we find the story of Jesus' talking to Paul dubious at best, for reasons that will be explained later in great detail.

#17 - Romans 16:20

In Paul's Letter to the Romans, in a section now labelled "Against Factions," Paul tells the Christian community in Rome that he wants them to be cautious against divisions among themselves.

From Romans, Chapter 16:

17 I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who create dissensions and obstacles, in opposition to the teaching that you learned; avoid them.  

18 For such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites, and by fair and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the innocent. 

19 For while your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, I want you to be wise as to what is good, and simple as to what is evil; 

20 then the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

As you can see for yourself, this does not offer the Christian follower any functional information about The Devil.  Paul is just worried that the community will splinter apart in those turbulent and trying early years, and is warning against the factionalism that would lead to that outcome.  He assumes his audience knows who Satan is.

#18 - 1 Corinthians 5:5

In 1 Corinthians, Paul writes to the Christian community in Corinth and tells them that he has heard of some incest going on with one of their community members.  He instructs the community to kick the incestual lover out of their midst; to "deliver this man to Satan."

Paul is giving instruction to excommunicate the man for his sexual misdeeds.  Excommunication would have been equivalent to being "delivered to Satan."  Paul is extremely judgemental here.

In 1 Cornithians 5:5, Satan continues to serve as the opposite side of the dual natured universe.  If you aren't in the community, with God, then you must be outside of it, with Satan.  No biographical Satanic data can be found here.

#19 - 1 Corinthians 7:5

In 1 Corinthians 7:5, Paul tells the Corinthians how to administer their married lives.  He tells the community at Corinth that when two people marry, they must give one another their body, so that the wife is in charge of the husband's body, and the husband is in charge of the wife's.  He tells them specifically that neither should withhold sex from the other. He says they shouldn't deny one another sex "so that Satan may not tempt you through your lack of self-control."  Here, "Satan" could be seen as a stand-in for the lustful sensations of human flesh.  The instance of Satan here, like all the rest that we've seen in The Bible, is non-biographical.  The meaning of "Satan" is totally taken for granted.

#20 - 2 Corinthians 2:11

Here, Paul contradicts what he had been saying in his first letter to the Corinthians.  In this new letter, he tells the community to forgive members that break the rules.  Paul says that forgiveness is a safeguard against Satan.  Again, knowledge of this "capital-S" Satan is presupposed in the reader.

#21 - 2 Corinthians 11:14

Here, Paul is discussing the presence of false prophets who, at the time of the writing, are speaking in the name of Christ but are out of step with the larger Christ-Movement community.  He says, roughly, "of course there are false prophets, because even Satan dresses up as an angel of light."  Here again, Satan is the opposite of good; the counter-weight to God.

We learn nothing about Satan here, not that we would necessarily consider knowledge gained from a Pauline letter inherently "valuable."

#22 - 2 Corinthians 12:7

In 2 Corinthians ch.12, Paul rambles on back and forth about whether or not he should boast about himself and his accomplishments.  He settles, roughly, on "I won't boast, even though if I did boast, it would totally be true, because I have had all these amazing revelations."  Immediately after this deliberation, he explains his concern that he will become too "elated."

So that he won't become to "elated" as a result of his revelations, Paul says that "a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep me from being too elated."  God has sent some unspecified discomfort or pain to Paul's life, to keep him on the straight-and-narrow.

Satan as metaphor for pain.

This offers us no Satanic biography.

#23 - 1 Thessalonians 2:18

In his first letter to the Thessalonians - the one he actually wrote - Paul tells the Thessalonian community that he had meant to visit them in person, but that Satan had stood in his way.  Here, the use of the capital-S "Satan" is merely a way to say "bad fortune."  We learn nothing about Satan from this.

#24 - 2 Thessalonians 2:9

2 Thessalonians is, according to many modern scholars, pseudepigraphical.  It was possibly written by someone who knew Paul and was trying to imitate Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians.  Chapter 2 of the document seems to be talking about a coming Antichrist in the form of a "lawless one" who Jesus will "kill with the breath of his mouth."  This "lawless one," in 2:9, is called the one who "springs from the power of Satan."  A verse later, the author of this letter says that God is sending this deceiving "lawless one" to tempt people to believe a lie, so that they can be condemned.

The cosmology suggested here is nonsensical, and the text offers us no valuable information about Satan.

#25 - 1 Timothy 1:20

In 1 Timothy, which may be pseudepigraphical, Paul tells his friend Timothy how he wants the community Timothy oversees to be ran.  As an example to Timothy, Paul says that some community members in his town had rejected "conscience" and "made a shipwreck of their faith," and so they were "handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme."

This language is similar to that found in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 5.  To be "handed over to Satan" in the early Christian community, was to be excommunicated.  Paul is just telling Timothy to excommunicate some people.

There is no Satanic biography here.

#26 - 1 Timothy 5:15

1 Timothy ch.5 has Paul, or "Pseudo-Paul," writing to Timothy about how widows should be handled within the Christian Community.  He says, roughly, "old widows can be full members in a community.  They pose no risk of harm.  But young widows tend to get into trouble with gossip and sexiness, so they need to get married again in order to be full members.  That way, they have stuff to do, and they won't go around causing trouble.  Trust me, we've seen this before, and some of our members have been turned away to Satan because of this."

There's a lot that should be said here that we won't say until a later date, when we look at 1 Timothy as a whole.  What we will simply say for now is that 1 Timothy gives us no biography of Satan, and no functional information about him.

#s 27 through 33 - Revelation 2:9, 2:13, 2:24, 3:9, 12:9, 20:2 and 20:7

"Satan" is mentioned several times in The Book of Revelation.  The biography of Satan in Revelation is taken for granted, as it is in every other New Testament book that mentions him.

Scholars aren't certain who wrote Revelation, but it is clear from a stylistic point of view, and by analysis of historical context, that the "John" who claims to author Revelation is not the same "John" who claims to author The Gospel of John.

Revelation claims to be a prophecy handed down directly by Jesus from Heaven.  The narrative of Revelation occurs (generally) during the time in which it was written, not the distant-by-thousands-of-years future.

We feel comfortable lumping all the Revelation mentions of Satan together because Revelation is a fantastical fever-dream, and its narrative cannot be taken seriously except maybe as prose and literary context.  We will study Revelation at length at some point.  For now, just know that the last seven references to "Satan" in the New Testament - those found in Revelation - offer us no Satanic biography, but merely use Satan as the counterweight to God in a wild story about a time of epic war and tribulation.  Knowledge about Satan's origin is presupposed in every case, here.

----

And that's it.  We've reviewed every instance of the word "Satan" in The New Testament, and not one single time did the text tell us who Satan is, where he came from, how he gained dominion over Earth, how he became the administrator of Hell, or how he was given the job by God to tempt all humanity away from God.

In The Old Testament, the "capital-S" Satan does not even exist.  In The New Testament, his existence and back-story are taken for granted.  Again, all evidence points toward Satan's backstory having originated largely during The Intertestamental Period, and perhaps specifically in The Book of Enoch.

Next time, we will double-back and review every instance of the term "devil" in The New Testament in order to demonstrate that The New Testament absolutely does not offer us the biography of Satan, aka The Devil, aka Beelzebul, aka The Prince of Darkness.  That will complete our demonstration that Satan is simply not explained or defined in canon Christian Scripture, and make way for a quick survey of Satan's evolution between the first-century and modern times.  That should wrap up this multi-part study-within-a-study.

For now, let's get back to our Gospel.

------------------------------

Matthew 4:10 through Matthew 4:11

10 At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written:
    ‘The Lord, your God, shall you worship
    and him alone shall you serve.’”

11 Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him. 

------------------------------

It is an interesting coincidence that we've already had occasion to discuss Matthew 4:10 today.  

Matthew 4:10 contains Jesus Saying #4.  Recall that, last week, Satan offered Jesus all of the whole world if only Jesus would fall down and worship him.  Today, we get Jesus' firm retort.  He appeals to Jewish tradition and tells Satan to get lost.

Today marks the end of the "Temptation in the Desert" narrative.  I will reiterate one last time that I am of the opinion that the "miraculous" events that we've seen recently described during Jesus' desert trek didn't actually happen.  As I've said before, I do not believe in things that would defy human senses.  

Even if the Temptation in the Desert had happened as we've seen it described, though, the events in the narrative shed no light on the human morality of Jesus, and don't further the cause of instructing humanity how to live their daily lives.  Ultimately, that's what we are after, here at The Moral Vision.  

We want to know, and we will precisely find out: "how did Jesus Christ advise us to live?"

Thank you for visiting.  Thank you for reading.  Please share this work.

Love.

-------------------------

* Mammon means material wealth.

-------------------------
To read what's next, click here.

To read what came prior to this, click here.

For the index of Christ's words, click here.

On Matthew 4:7 through Matthew 4:9

Hello, friend, and welcome back to The Moral Vision of Jesus Christ.  This will be the most intensive free-form Gospel study ever written.  Each time we meet, we digest a tiny part of the Gospel of Christ in succession - no more than three verses.  Our focus is to perceive the truest, most intellectually honest Jesus Christ that we can, and to try discern from that perception the actual moral positions and teachings of The Man.  If you'd like to start from the beginning, click here.

Today, we continue a multi-part study designed to help us understand how the concept of a "capital-S" Satan evolved from being non-existent in the Biblical Hebrew tradition to being a cartoonish super-villain that balances the power of the Almighty here on earth in the modern day.

After that, we'll study Matthew 4:7 through 4:9, wherein we will find Jesus Saying Number 3, as he continues to interact with Satan in the desert.

Please don't forget that we at The Moral Vision are of the opinion that Jesus is not interacting with a literal devil, but rather that he is experiencing a kind of vision or hallucination brought on by forty days of deliberate fasting.  Also, please don't forget that we are compiling a separate page containing a running list of Jesus' sayings as they appear to us during the course of our study.  That page can be found here. 

Alright, let's get going.

Understanding the Origin of Modern Common Conceptions of The Devil in Christianity

Part III

The Book of Enoch and the Intertestamental Period

When last we met, we excluded The Old Testament as the source of the modern conception of Satan by looking at the various uses of the Hebrew word "satan" found therein.  We discovered that "satan," in The Old Testament, is not used as a name but a term meaning, generally, "adversary."  Knowing that Satan is used as the capitalized name for The Devil in The New Testament, we have been left wondering: when did satan become Satan?  The answer is "during the Intertestamental Period."

We may have defined "Intertestamental Period" before, but in case we missed it, the "Intertestamental Period" is that period of time between the closing of The Old Testament Canon around 420 BC and the first-century-AD writing of The New Testament works.  Another phrasing used for this period is "deuterocanonical."  Here we will use both words, in order to increase familiarity with the terms.

Some might think by merely reading the modern Bible that, during the Intertestamental Period, all significant writing and prophesying stopped within the Jewish tradition.  This would be short-sighted.  The period of time in question, rather than being a period of silence as some have termed it, was actually a period of great clamor for Judaism.  All the major divisions and sects of Judaism we've discussed to date had foundational roots in the Intertestamental Period.  The Essenes, The Sadducees and The Pharisees all came to exist as divisions of Judaism during the Intertestamental Period.

The unique literature found at the Qumran caves in The Dead Sea Scrolls represent a portion of what we call "intertestamental apocrypha," that is, religious texts written during the Intertestamental Period that are not accepted as canon.  Other intertestamental apocrypha include The Book of Tobit and The Book of Judith (both excluded from Jewish Canon but later accepted into Roman Catholic Canon).  We introduce these terms and examples to give context to a particular piece of intertestamental apocrypha, a fragment of which was indeed found among The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Book of Enoch.

The Book of Enoch is a multi-part text that was likely written over a period of some lifetimes by several different authors.  The book claims to be authored by Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah.  Jews reading Enoch when it was first widely in circulation - the second and first centuries BC - would have believed this authorship claim and thus understood Enoch as being far more ancient than modern scholarship tells us it is.  Modern scholarship points to Enoch's authorship between 300 and 100 BC, roughly.

The book was likely excluded from The Tanakh* and The Septuagint** because concepts in Enoch were thought to be blasphemous at the time of the formation of these canons.  Particularly blasphemous, it seems, may have been the idea, presented in Enoch, that a group of God's heavenly angels had staged a rebellion against him.  This idea is not in keeping with Jewish tradition, which holds that God is in total control of all things in Heaven as well as on earth.  Dividing the power of God by writing that his own minions had rebelled against him would have been blasphemous, indeed.

The Book of Enoch was widely known, read, and circulated during the early years of Christianity, and there are examples of ancient Church Fathers having quoted from or otherwise having availed themselves of the text, despite the fact that it was not accepted into what would eventually become official Christian canon.  We see Augustine of Hippo, living between the fourth and fifth centuries, speaking out against the cosmology of The Book of Enoch, which indicates it was still being widely read at that time.  We must also note that The Book of Enoch was and is accepted as canon in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

So, why do we go to such lengths to introduce this "Book of Enoch" in the context of a study of Satan?  Well, as it turns out, The Book of Enoch may be the origin of a huge portion of the "cosmology" of Satan.

(We will undoubtedly need to return to The Book of Enoch at a later date for in-depth study outside of our current context, so do not fret today when we cherry-pick through the text for data pertaining to our devilish topic.)

Broadly, The Book of Enoch presents us with five distinct texts.  The first part of the Book of Enoch is known as The Book of Watchers.  The Book of Watchers describes, among other things, a "fall of angels" from Heaven, a hellish crucible designed to hold the fallen angels, and a particularly evil chief of these fallen angels, "Azazel."  The Book of Watchers is where we will focus all of our energy today.  For good measure, however: the second part of Enoch is The Book of Parables of Enoch, which we will find interesting later for its eschatological qualities.  The third part is The Astronomical Book, which describes the movement of celestial bodies and lays out a 364 day calendar.  The fourth part is The Book of Dream Visions, traditionally understood to be a dream-prophecy of Jewish history from a pre-Flood vantage point.  The fifth and last portion is The Epistle of Enoch, containing exhortations and fragmentary history.

The Book of Watchers is our primary focus because The Book of Watchers is the first place in Jewish literature or scripture that we find a character that could be roughly equivalent to the modern Satan.  The Book of Watchers tells the story of 200 angels in heaven who are watching humanity as it multiplies in its early days.  The angels (apparently all male) begin to talk amongst one another about how sexually appealing the human women had become over the generations.  They resolve to each go down to earth, pick out a woman, and impregnate her.  Before they go, there is discussion among them acknowledging the sinfulness of their desire.  They decide to do it anyway.

In 1 Enoch*** Chapter 7, the text refers to the women in question:

"And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells..."

So the result of the unholy union between these sinful, fallen angels and the human women is that the women become pregnant with a race of giants that would be, depending on how you convert from the ancient unit of measurement "ells," nearly a mile in height!  The narrative continues:

"...Who consumed all the acquisitions of men.  And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind."

Life on earth descends into chaos as the giants spread sin everywhere and consume mankind.  Then, in 1 Enoch Chapter 8, the fallen angel chief Azazel teaches humanity the ways of war and materialism****:

"And Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures.  And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways."

Chapter 9 shows the top echelon of the loyal angels of Heaven, including Gabriel, Michael, Uriel, and Raphael, asking God why he has allowed Azazel and the other fallen angels to wreak havoc on earth.  It is a classic framing of the "question of evil."  To paraphrase, they ask God: "if you are all good, and you know all things, and are thus privy to the sin unleashed on earth, how is it that you allow that sin to occur?"

God responds by telling the angels to warn Noah that there would be a flood which would destroy the world.  He then tells the heavenly angels to cast the 200 fallen angels into what can be interpreted to be "hell."  From Chapter 10, the Lord is quoted:

"Bind Azazel hand and foot, and cast him into the darkness: and make an opening in the desert, which is in Dudael, and cast him therein.  And place upon him rough and jagged rocks, and cover him with darkness, and let him abide there for ever, and cover his face that he may not see light.  And on the day of the great judgement he shall be cast into the fire."

Resolutely, regarding the origin of sin, God says to his angels:

"And the whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by Azazel: to him ascribe all sin."

It will be immediately clear to anyone familiar with modern Christian cosmology that Azazel and his comrades are the direct pre-cursors to the capital-S Satan that arrives in The New Testament.  For the first time, we see Jewish literature reflecting the rough outline of the "Satan" story.  A prideful angel(s) has fallen from the grace of the heavenly court and thus made earth its realm.  That angel has taken his opportunity of power on earth to corrupt humanity and to teach it all the wicked, lustful ways of the world.  The angel is then condemned to a special realm of punishment which is filled with fire.  These concepts are simply never spelled out in the canonical Jewish scriptures the way they are here in the non-canonical Book of Enoch. 

The Deuterocanonical Period, as one familiar with The Old and New Testaments would be bound to expect, proves to be absolutely transformational in terms of Jewish cosmology.  The shift that occurs during the Deuterocanonical Period is so important to our understanding of Jesus, going forward.  The shift was away from the thinking that God was personally responsible for all things, good and evil.  The shift was to the thinking that God never acted wrongly, but was balanced by an evil force that sat cosmologically external to him and begat all sin and suffering in the world.  The Book of Enoch articulates this shift very well.

The need to split the powers of the cosmos into a dualistic "good/evil" scheme probably arose during the Deuterocanonical Period because this was also the period during which Israel lived as a (grateful) subject of the Persian Empire.  As the cultures intermingled, The Jews would have been exposed to the Persian religion of Zoroastrianism, and likely found the dualistic nature of that religion intriguing.  (You'll recall from a couple installments back that Zoroastrianism featured an omnibenevolent God, Ahura Mazda, balanced by a powerful, lizard-like force of pure evil, Angra Mainyu.)  

In addition to Zoroastrian influences from the east, Jews later in this era would have been introduced to Hellenistic philosophical concepts such as the "immortality of the soul," which led to increased speculation about the nature of some kind of final judgment, and the existence of a divided afterlife.  Wordly horizons, in many ways, very rapidly opened up to the Jewish community in Palestine during the Intertestamental Period, and this goes a long way in explaining a) where the dualistic cosmology of The New Testament comes from and b) why we suddenly see apocalypticism and cults of extremism abound during the late portion of that period.

Somewhere between The Book of Enoch and The Gospel, Satan was born.  Within context, his birth at that time makes perfect sense.

Next time, we will look at how Satan or "The Devil" is portrayed in The Gospel, and the rest of The New Testament.  

For now, let's get back to our regularly scheduled Gospel reading.

------------------------------

Matthew 4:7 through Matthew 4:9

7 Jesus answered him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.’” 

8 Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, 

9 and he said to him, “All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” 

------------------------------

Recall that, last time, Satan preposterously challenged Jesus to jump off a high edge, because he thought that if Jesus was the Son of God (which he hasn't claimed to be), angels would swoop out and save Jesus before impact.  Today, in Matt 4:7, we get Jesus' snappy retort.  He says that scripture says "not to test God," so he's not going to test the "angels-protecting-him-from-a-fall" theory just on a whim, as it could be sinful.

In response to this, The Devil takes Jesus to a spot from which they can see all the kingdoms of the world.  He indicates the world and says to Jesus "worship me, and I will give you all of this."

Matthew 4:9 reflects perfectly the dualism that we've just been learning about.  Matthew 4:9 implies that all of the kingdoms of earth are under the influence and possession of The Devil because, after all, he could not offer these things to Jesus unless they were already his to give.  The cosmology reflected here is distinctly outside that of Biblical Judaism.  In The Tanakh, the world would never be anyone's to give aside from God's.

Do you think Jesus is going to prostrate himself and worship Satan in exchange for dominion over the world?

You'll have to tune in next time to find out, as Jesus' mystical experience in the desert continues.

Thank you for reading.  Please share this writing.  Until next time...

Love.

-------------------------

* The Tanakh, remember, is the Hebrew Bible.

** The Septuagint is the earliest extant translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, created between the third and second centuries BC.

*** We call Enoch "1 Enoch" because there was another text written later, in the first century AD, which was called The Book of Enoch.  We call the second one 2 Enoch.

**** Azazel: The First American?

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To read what's next, click here.

To read what came prior to this, click here.

For the index of Christ's words, click here.

On Matthew 4:5 through Matthew 4:6

Welcome back to The Moral Vision, a comprehensive and ongoing gospel-study.  If this is your first time here, you might take a peek at the "Introduction" and move forward from there.  The Introduction can be found here.

Last week, we began a multi-part study of the origins of the modern conception of The Devil by studying some demons and devils that pre-dated Judaism (or were at least as old.)  This week, that study continues from where we left off, as we look at The Devil in The Old Testament.  We've taken this course of study because our narrative in The Gospel According to Matthew has Jesus currently out in the desert being tempted by Satan.

Belief in Satan is widespread in the modern United States.  Understanding of where the idea of Satan comes from is not.  Over time, we can remedy this with study.  Let's get to it.

Understanding the Origin of Modern Common Conceptions of The Devil in Christianity

Part II

Devils and Satan in The Old Testament

In Part I, we met some demons that all had motifs in common with the "Satan" modern Christians believe in today.  This gave us some literary context for Christ's encounter with Satan in the desert.  However, if we stopped there, our literary context would be woefully incomplete.  Of course, the most important context for Jesus, always, is the ancient Jewish context, so we must now peer through the Holy Scriptures of Judaism -The Tanakh, or "Old Testament,"- in search of Satan.

Modern believers in Satan believe that his first appearance is in Genesis, tempting Eve in The Garden of Eden.  In fact, Genesis only mentions a "snake" or a "serpent," depending upon the translation, and not a fallen angel named "Satan."  This occurs in Chapter 3, when Eve is having a talk with a snake in The Garden of Eden.

From Genesis, Chapter 3:

1 Now the snake was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the LORD God had made. He asked the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You shall not eat from any of the trees in the garden’?” 

2 The woman answered the snake: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 

3 it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, or else you will die.’” 

4 But the snake said to the woman: “You certainly will not die! 

5 God knows well that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, who know good and evil.”

The snake is referred to as one among the several animal species existing in The Garden of Eden.  It is not described as being a fallen angel.  It is not described as being a demon, or as being possessed by a demon or The Devil.  The snake that tempts Eve in Genesis simply is not the modern capital-S Satan.

The serpent in Genesis is not associated with Satan anywhere in The Old Testament.  In fact, it is not associated with Satan anywhere in The New Testament.  The first time we see them associated is in writings from the second-century AD.

Satan, in Hebrew, means "adversary" or "accuser."  The word does occur a handful of times in The Old Testament as translated in The New American Bible, but the word is never used as a proper name anywhere in said text.  It always occurs with "the" or, less frequently, with "a" preceding it.

The word occurs most frequently, in The Old Testament, in the first two chapters of The Book of Job.  There "the satan" is described as one of a kind of council of divine beings.  In Job, Chapter 1, God prys at "the satan," unprovoked:

8 The Lord said to the satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him, blameless and upright, fearing God and avoiding evil.”

The satan suggests that Job is only blameless and upright because he has a big loving family and land and livestock and abundance.  The satan suggests that if these things were taken from Job, Job would curse God.  God tells the satan to go wreak havoc on Job's life, but that he may not touch Job.  The satan kills and destroys all that Job has, and waits to see him curse God.  Job does not curse God, and Chapter 1 ends.  Chapter 2 is a repeat of Chapter 1, only this time, God allows the satan to touch Job's flesh.  Job becomes afflicted with a skin condition that sounds just unbearable.

7 So the satan went forth from the presence of the LORD and struck Job with severe boils from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.

8 He took a potsherd to scrape himself, as he sat among the ashes.

Let the imagery sit with you for a moment.  Job, sitting in the very ashes of his life, scrapes at the boils on his skin with the sharp edge of a shard of pottery.  Brutal, eh?  Yet God allows it from "the satan," about whom The Book of Job offers no biography.

Past this point, some of Job's friends enter the scene as a kind of suicide watch.  They have some lengthy dialogues with him about life and the nature of suffering in relation to an omnibenevolent God.  Satan does not re-enter the scene.  So, to reiterate, the book of the Tanakh which contains the word "satan" most frequently is Job, and in The Book of Job we are given zero biographical information about this "adversary."

First Chronicles offers us another use of "satan."  In 1 Chronicles 21:1, where the text recounts part of the story of the reign of King David, we read the following:

1 A satan rose up against Israel, and he incited David to take a census of Israel.  

2 David therefore said to Joab and to the other generals of the army, “Go, number the Israelites from Beer-sheba to Dan, and report back to me that I may know their number.” 

3 But Joab replied: “May the LORD increase his people a hundredfold! My lord king, are not all of them my lord’s subjects? Why does my lord seek to do this thing? Why should he bring guilt upon Israel?”

Again, this is not Satan with a capital-S like modern Christians believe in.  This is "a satan," which means "adversary" or "accuser."

Interestingly, the parallel King David narrative in Second Samuel 24:1 replaces the satan inciting David with God himself.  How could the same character be God in one instance of scripture and, in another, a satan?  See for yourself, as in 2 Samuel Chapter 24:

1 The LORD’s anger against Israel flared again, and he incited David against them: “Go, take a census of Israel and Judah.” 

2 The king therefore said to Joab and the leaders of the army who were with him, “Tour all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba and register the people, that I may know their number.” 

There are two more possible references to check out.  First of all, Zechariah 3:1 and 3:2, which read as follows in The New American Bible:

1 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, while the adversary stood at his right side to accuse him.  

2 And the angel of the LORD said to the adversary, “May the LORD rebuke you, O adversary; may the LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?”

The word that was translated to "the adversary" here was, again, the Hebrew "satan." Not the capital-S Satan that modern Christians believe in. This "adversary" is a kind of faceless prosecutor in the court of God. Zechariah offers no biography for the entity, and no other reason for us to link this "adversary" entity with the capital-S Satan.

The last bit of the old scriptures we'll note here is Psalms 109, where "the accuser" again makes an appearance.  (Note that the King James Version takes a liberty here and uses the capital-S "Satan," which probably helped the notoriety of the capital-S Satan, but was not true to the original scripture, which meant, again, "accuser.")  

This is the pertinent text from Psalms 109 as it appears in the more linguistically accurate New American Bible:

6 Appoint an evil one over him,
an accuser to stand at his right hand, 

7 That he may be judged and found guilty,
that his plea may be in vain.

It is amazing to see this fact laid bare before us: there is no capital-S "Satan" in the Jewish Holy Scriptures.

This fact, it stands to reason, would surprise a great many of Satan's fervent believers today.  What may be more interesting is the sudden appearance of a capital-S Satan in The New Testament, which seems to come out of nowhere.  Next time, in part three of our study, we will dispel the sense that Satan's appearance in The New Testament is "out of nowhere" by identifying the origins of the New Testament Satan in the intertestamental period.

Now, let's get back to our gospel.

------------------------------

Matthew 4:5 through Matthew 4:6

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, 

6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: 

‘He will command his angels concerning you’
and ‘with their hands they will support you,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”

------------------------------

Today, the devil tempts Jesus to try to kill himself with a fatal leap off of the high-spot of the Second Temple, because, he says, "if you are truly the Son of God, angels would catch you before you hit the ground."

Recall that Jesus has not said that he is the Son of God, to our knowledge.  These words are being put into Jesus' mouth.  Satan references Psalms 91 erroneously here, and will do the same again in Luke.

It is somewhat unclear why Jesus would find suicide tempting in that moment, or, more to the point, why Jesus would take the time and considerable risk to satisfy the whim of The Devil's curiosity.  This interchange really only makes sense in the context of a Gospel designed as a marketing tool. The third character in this interchange is the reader, for whom the conversation is being had.

I'll remind you that we are not taking the temptation in the desert as historical, except to acknowledge that Jesus went to the desert for an ascetic period of fasting during which it is possible he experienced altered states of consciousness due to exposure and lack of calories and water.

Next time, we will hear Christ's retort to this preposterous dare.

We'll leave it here for today.  Join us next time, and please share this writing.

Love.

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