Satan
Satan or Satan (Hebrew: שָּׂטָן sa'tan, “adversary”, Arabic: شيطان Shaytan , "bad path", "distant") in Abrahamic religions, is a negative supernatural entity that seduces humans into sin or falsehood. In Christianity, he is generally seen as a fallen angel who used to possess great piety and beauty, however he ended up rebelling against God for which he was banished to hell, becoming the ruler and leader opposing the Kingdom of God. In Judaism, Satan is considered a metaphor for the "evil inclination", or as a subservient agent of God.
In the Christian faith, Satan is primarily an accuser and adversary; a decidedly malevolent entity possessing evil qualities. Satan is the antagonist in the Apocalypse readings and the one who wanted to tempt Jesus Christ in the desert.
In theistic Satanism, Satan is considered a positive force and a divinity who is worshiped and revered. In atheistic Satanism—the philosophy of Anton LaVey and his church—Satan is seen as an archetype of virtuous characteristics.
Etymology
The name Satan —or Satan— derives from the Latin Satāna, and this in turn from the Hebrew הַשָּׂטָן, ha-satan, "adversary, enemy, accuser." Although he is later mentioned as a wandering spy of God on Earth, the primary sense, from the root שטנ (štn, "to prevent, harass, oppose"), would simply be "enemy".
Description and history of the term Satan
In the book of Numbers he is called Shatan (in the sense of «adversary», «opponent»). The term Shatan also enters into Israelite legal life, in which it reaches the meaning of "accuser before the court" (Psalms 109:6, Zechariah 3:1), as well as the term shitna, derived from the same root, is "accusation." In the Greek Septuagint it was translated as διάβολος, in the sense of "he who throws (accusations)".
The Hebrew term "Satan" is translated many times with other terms in multiple ancient and modern versions of the Bible:
- Numbers 22:22 - in this verse the angel of God is an adversary (Hebrew Satan) to Balaam, putting himself on the way to prevent Balaam from coming out to curse the people of Israel.
- Numbers 22:32 - the phrase "I have gone out to resist you" is the translation into Spanish of a Hebrew phrase that literally says, "I have gone out as your adversary (satan). Again, the adversary in the angel of God. In these two cases, the satan or adversary referred to is the same angel of God, so it can be clearly seen that the word satan did not necessarily refer to an evil or evil being. The angel of God was a satan for Balaam simply because he "opposed" to go with Balac's ambassadors.
- 1 Samuel 29:4 - the Philistines fear that David might become an enemy (Hebrew Satan) if he go out to war with them.
- 2 Samuel 19:22 - David says that the sons of his sister Sarvia (Joab and Abishai) are adversaries (Hebrew Satan) because they want to kill Shimei, while David has decided to forgive him.
- 1 Kings 5:4 - Solomon says that there are no adversaries (Hebrew Satan), that is, he is in peace with the surrounding nations.
- 1 Kings 11:14 - Edomite Hadad is an adversary (Hebrew Satan) of Solomon.
- 1 Kings 11:23 and 11:25 (2 times) - The son of Eliada is another adversary (Hebrew Satan) of Solomon.
- Psalms 38:20 - David says that those who pay him evil for good are contrary to him (Hebrew Satan).
- Psalms 71:13 - David wants his adversaries to perish (Hebrew Satan).
- Psalms 109:4 - David complains of his adversaries (Hebrew Satan).
- Psalms 109:20 and 29 (2 times) - David complains again of those who are adversaries to him (Hebrew Satan).
- Zechariah 3:1 - The verb accuse corresponds to the Hebrew word satan.
Satan also came to be considered an angelic being who acted as a prosecutor in heaven, whose mission was to accuse men of their sins before God, since he subjected them to temptations to expose sin. In the Hebrew mentality Satan also became synonymous with perdition, destruction, malice and the pursuit of evil by men. This figure appears in the Old Testament repeatedly (eg 1 Chronicles 21:1), and in a second case, more clearly, it is mentioned in (Job 1:6-9), (Job 1:12) and in other verses.
Historical development
The original Hebrew term satan (Hebrew: שָּׂטָן) is a generic noun meaning "accuser" or "adversary," which is used throughout the Hebrew Bible to refer to ordinary human adversaries, as well as a specific supernatural entity. The word is derived from a verb meaning primarily "to obstruct, oppose". When used without the definite article (simply satan), the word can refer to any accuser, but when used with the definite article (ha-satan), it usually refers specifically to the heavenly accuser: satan.
Ha-Satan with the definite article appears 13 times in the Masoretic Text, in two books of the Hebrew Bible: Job ch. 1–2 (10 ×) and Zechariah 3:1–2 (3 ×). Satan without the definite article is used in 10 cases, two of which are diabolos translated in the Septuagint and "Satan" in the King James Version (KJV):
- 1 Chronicles 21: 1, "Satan arose against Israel" (KJV) or "And an adversary arose against Israel" (Young Literal Translation)
- Psalm 109: 6b "and that Satan should stand on his right hand" (KJV) or "that an accuser should stand on his right hand." (ESV, etc.)
The word "satan" it does not appear in the Book of Genesis, which mentions only a talking snake and does not identify the snake with any supernatural entity. The first occurrence of the word "satan" in the Hebrew Bible in reference to a supernatural figure comes from Numbers 22:22, which describes the Angel of Yahweh confronting Balaam on his donkey: "Balaam's departure aroused the wrath of Elohim, and the Angel of Yahweh stood in the way as a Satan against him". In 2 Samuel 24, Yahweh sends the" Angel of Yahweh "to inflict a plague against Israel for three days, killing 70,000 people as punishment for David taking a census without his approval. In 1 Chronicles 21:1 this story is repeated, but replaces the "Angel of Yahweh" with an entity called "a satan".
Some passages clearly refer to satan, without using the word itself. 1 Samuel 2:12 describes Eli's sons as "sons of Belial"; the later use of this word clearly makes it a synonym for "satan". to torment King Saul as a mechanism to ingratiate himself with King David. In 1 Kings 22: 19–25, the prophet Micaiah describes to King Ahab a vision of Yahweh seated on his throne surrounded by the Host of Heaven. Yahweh he asks the Host which of them will lead Ahab astray. A "spirit", whose name is not specified, but which is analogous to that of Satan, volunteers to be "a lying Spirit in the mouth of all his Prophets".;.
Book of Job
Satan appears in the Book of Job, a poetic dialogue set in a prose setting, which may have been written at the time of the Babylonian captivity. In the text, Job is a righteous man favored by Yahweh. Job 1:6–8 describes the "sons of God" (bənê hāʼĕlōhîm) appearing before Yahweh Yahweh asks one of them, "the satan", where he has been, to which he replies that he has been wandering the earth. Yahweh asks, 'Have you considered My servant Job?' The Satan responds by urging Yahweh to let him torture Job, promising that Job will abandon his faith in the first tribulation. Satan destroys Job's servants and flocks, but Job refuses to condemn Yahweh. The first scene is repeated, with the Satan presenting himself to Yahweh along with the other 'sons of God'. Yahweh points out Job's continued faithfulness, to which the Satan insists that more proof is needed; Yahweh again gives him permission to test Job. In the end, Job remains faithful and just, and it is implied that Satan is embarrassed in his defeat.
Book of Zechariah
Zechariah 3:1–7 contains a description of a vision dated mid-February 519 BC, in which an angel shows Zacharias a scene of Joshua the High Priest dressed in filthy rags, representing the nation of Judah and his sins, on trial with Yahweh as the judge and satan standing as the prosecutor. Yahweh rebukes satan and commands that Joshua be given clean clothing, signifying Yahweh's forgiveness of Judah's sins.
Second Temple Period
During the Second Temple Period, when Jews lived in the Achaemenid Empire, Judaism was heavily influenced by Zoroastrianism, the religion of the Achaemenids. Jewish conceptions of Satan were impacted by Angra Mainyu, the Zoroastrian god. of evil, darkness, and ignorance. In the Septuagint, the Hebrew ha-Satan in Job and Zechariah is translated by the Greek word diabolos (slanderer), the same word in the Greek New Testament from which the word &# is derived. 34;devil". When satan is used to refer to human enemies in the Hebrew Bible, such as Hadad the Edomite and Rezon the Syrian, the word is left untranslated but is transliterated in Greek as satan, a neologism in Greek.
The idea of Satan as an opponent of God and a purely evil figure appears to have taken root in Jewish pseudepigraphy during the Second Temple Period, particularly in the apocalypses. The Book of Enoch, which the Dead Sea Scrolls have revealed to be almost as popular as the Torah, describes a group of 200 angels known as the 'Watchers', who are assigned to oversee the land, but instead abandon duties and have sexual relations with human women. The leader of the Watchers is Semjâzâ and another member of the group, known as Azazel, spreads sin and corruption among humanity. The Watchers are eventually kidnapped in isolated caves across the land and are doomed to stand trial at the end of times. The Book of Jubilees, written around 150 B.C. C., retells the story of the defeat of the Watchers, but, in deviation from the Book of Enoch, Mastema, the "Chief of the Spirits", intervenes before all the demon's offspring are sealed. and requests Yahweh to allow him to keep some of them to become his workers. Yahweh agrees to this request and Mastema uses them to tempt the humans into more sins, so that he can punish them for their wickedness., Mastema induces Yahweh to test Abraham by ordering him to sacrifice Isaac.
The Second Book of Enoch, also called the Slavic Book of Enoch, contains references to a Watcher named Satanael. It is a pseudepigraphic text of uncertain date and unknown authorship. The text describes Satanael as the prince of the Grigori who was expelled from heaven and an evil spirit who knew the difference between what was 'just' and what was 'just' and 'just'. and "sinful". In the Book of Wisdom, the devil is considered to be the being that brought death to the world, but originally the culprit was recognized as Cain. The name Samael, used in reference to one of the fallen angels, later it became a common name for Satan in Jewish Midrash and Kabbalah.
Judaism
Most Jews do not believe in the existence of a supernatural omnimalevolent figure. Traditionalists and philosophers of medieval Judaism adhered to rational theology, rejecting any belief in rogue or fallen angels, and viewing evil as abstract. The rabbis generally interpreted the word satan as used in the Tanakh as strictly referring to human adversaries and rejected all of Enoch's writings that mention Satan as a literal heavenly figure from the Biblical canon, doing everything possible to eradicate them. However, the word satan has been applied metaphorically to evil influences, such as the Jewish exegesis of the yetzer hara ('evil inclination') mentioned in Genesis 6:5.
Rabbinic scholarship on the Book of Job generally follows the Talmud and Maimonides in identifying "satan" of the prologue as a metaphor for the yetzer hara and not an actual entity. Satan is rarely mentioned in tannaitic literature, but is found in the Babylonian aggadah. According to one narration, the blowing of the shofar, which is primarily intended to remind Jews of the importance of teshuvah, is also intended symbolic of & #34;confuse the accuser" (Satan) and prevent him from presenting any lawsuit to God against the Jews. Kabbalah presents Satan as an agent of God whose function is to tempt humans into sin so that he can accuse them in the heavenly court. Hasidic Jews of the 18th century century associated ha-Satan with Baal Davar.
Each modern sect of Judaism has its own interpretation of Satan's identity. Conservative Judaism generally rejects the Talmudic interpretation of Satan as a metaphor for the yetzer hara, viewing him as an agent of God. Orthodox Judaism, on the other hand, outwardly embraces Talmudic teachings on Satan, and involves Satan in religious life. much more inclusively than other sects. Satan is explicitly mentioned in some daily prayers, including during Shacharit and certain post-meal blessings, as outlined in the Talmud and the Code of Jewish Law. In Reform Judaism, Satan is generally seen in the Talmudic role of him as a metaphor for the yetzer hara and the symbolic representation of innate human qualities such as selfishness.
Christianity
Names
The most common English synonym for "Satan" is "devil", descending from the Middle English development of Old English dēofol, which in turn represents an Early Germanic loan from the Latin diabolo (also the source of "diabolical"). This in turn was borrowed from the Greek diabolos "slanderer", from diaballeina "a slander": dia- "through, through" + ballein "to throw". In the New Testament, the words Satan and diabolos are used interchangeably as synonyms. Beelzebub, meaning "Lord of the Flies," is the derogatory name given in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament to a Philistine god whose original name has been reconstructed as probably "Baal Zabul", meaning "Baal the Prince". The Synoptic Gospels identify Satan and Beelzebub as equals. The name Abaddon (meaning 'place of destruction') is used six times in the Old Testament, primarily as a name for one of the regions of Sheol. Revelation 9:11 describes Abaddon, whose name is translated into Greek as Apollyon, meaning "the destroyer," as an angel who rules over the Abyss. In modern usage, Abaddon is sometimes equated with Satan..
New Testament
After the appearance of Christianity and the Gospels, this term is given a personal character as an enemy of Christ, also as an antichrist (John 1:18-29), especially in the accounts of the temptations (Mark 1: 12-13), (Matthew 4:1-11), (Luke 4:1-13) and the exorcisms carried out by Jesus of Nazareth (Mark 3:22-27), (Matthew 12:22 -30), (Luke 11:14-23). The figure of the Evil One is thus fixed for Christian doctrine. In Arabic it is called Shaytan, which by implication also means snake.
In the New Testament, in the Greek language it is the same term used as a correspondence in the Septuagint, the word diabolos devil, which comes from the verb dia-bállō, and It has a similar meaning to 'Satan'. In (1Mac. 1,36) (Greek text) we find the word diabolos with the meaning of 'adversary', as 'the enemy'. It also sometimes includes the meaning of 'accuser' or 'slanderer'.
In principle, it should be made clear that Judaism did not identify Satan with the prince of demons Lucifer. In non-canonical Old Testament documents, Satan is frequently called Belial (derived from Jewish opposition to the Canaanite cult of Baal); Likewise, the mention and definition of this opponent of God can be found in the New Testament, in which he is mentioned with the terms Beelzebub and Belial (Mark 3:20-30) (2 Corinthians 6:15). On the other hand, some suggest that names appearing in the pseudo-epigráficas books like that of Enoch (for example Semyazza and Azazel), would be just other names for Satan. In relation to this, it is also postulated that in these books the different names would describe other adversaries of God.
In the New Testament, on the other hand, Satan appears amalgamated in the single figure of the devil, as for example in the passages of the Apocalypse of Saint John, where the devil (the Evil One) is described as the "inspirer" 3. 4; of the Beast Antichrist, and also as "the old serpent, the one called devil and Satan". However, there are still traditions that name Beelzebub, Satan and Lucifer as different entities, indicating that they make up the triumvirate that rules Hell and its legions.
Patristic Era
Although the Book of Genesis never mentions Satan, Christians have traditionally interpreted the serpent in the Garden of Eden as Satan due to Revelation 12:7, which calls Satan "that ancient serpent& #34;. However, this verse is likely intended to identify Satan with Leviathan, a monstrous sea serpent whose destruction by Yahweh is prophesied in Isaiah 27:1. The first individual on record to identify Satan Satan with the Serpent from the Garden of Eden was the Christian apologist of the II century AD. C., Justin Martyr, in chapters 45 and 79 of his Dialogue with Tryphon. Other early church fathers who mentioned this identification include Theophilus and Tertullian. The early Christian Church, however, met with opposition from pagans such as Celsus, who stated in his treatise The True Word that "it is blasphemy... to say that the greatest God... has an adversary who limits your ability to do good" and said that the Christians "impiously divided the kingdom of God, creating a rebellion in it, as if there were opposing factions within the divine, including one that is hostile to God."
The name Heylel, meaning "morning star" (Latin for Lucifer), was a name for Attar, the god of the planet Venus in Canaanite mythology, who attempted to scale the walls of the celestial city, but was defeated by the sun god. The name is used in Isaiah 14:12 in metaphorical reference to the king of Babylon. Ezekiel 28:12–15 uses a description of a cherub in Eden as a polemic against Ithobaal II, the king of Tyre. The Father of the Church Origen of Alexandria (c. 184 - c. 253), who knew only the actual text of these passages and not the original myths to which they refer, concluded in his treatise On First Principles, which is preserved in a Latin translation of Tyrannius Rufinus, that none of these verses could literally refer to a human being, and therefore must allude to "a certain angel who had been given the charge of ruling the nation of the Tyrians", but it was thrown to Earth after it was found to be corrupted. However, in his apology tract Contra Celsum, Origen changed his interpretations of Isaiah 14:12 and Ezekiel 28:12–15, now interpreting both to refer to Satan. According to Henry Ansgar Kelly, Origen appears to have adopted this new interpretation to refute unidentified individuals who, perhaps under the influence of radical Zoroastrian dualism, believed "that Satan's original nature was Darkness." The late Church Father Jerome (c. 347-420), a translator from the Latin Vulgate, accepted Origen's theory of Satan as a fallen angel and wrote about it in his commentary on the Book of Isaiah. In Christian tradition since then, both Isaiah 14:12 and Ezekiel 28:12-15 have been understood allegorically as Satan. For most Christians, Satan has been regarded as an angel who rebelled against God.
According to the ransom theory of atonement, which was popular among early Christian theologians, Satan gained power upon humanity through the sin of Adam and Eve and Christ's death on the cross was a ransom for Satan in exchange for humanity's liberation. This theory holds that Satan was deceived by God because Christ was not only free from sin, but also Deity incarnate, whom Satan lacked the ability to enslave. Irenaeus of Lyons described a prototypical form of the ransom theory, but Origen was the first to propose it in its fully developed form. The theory was later expanded upon by theologians such as Gregory of Nyssa and Rufinus of Aquileia. In the 11th century, Anselm of Canterbury criticized the ransom theory, along with the associated Christus Victor theory, resulting in the decline of the theory in Western Europe. However, the theory has retained some of its popularity in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Most early Christians strongly believed that Satan and his demons had the power to possess humans, and exorcisms were widely practiced by Jews, Christians, and pagans alike. Belief in demon possession continued through the Middle Ages until the early modern period. Exorcisms were seen as a display of God's power over Satan. The vast majority of people who thought they were possessed by the Devil did not suffer from hallucinations or other "spectacular symptoms," but instead "complained of anxiety, religious fears and bad thoughts".
Middle Ages
Satan played a minimal role in medieval Christian theology, but he frequently appeared as a recurring comedy character in late medieval mystery plays, in which he was portrayed as a comic relief figure who " "frolicked, fell, and farted in the background." Jeffrey Burton Russell describes the medieval conception of Satan as "more pathetic and repulsive than terrifying" and was seen as little more than a nuisance for God's overall plan. The Golden Legend, a collection of lives of saints compiled around 1260 by Dominican friar Jacobus da Varagine, contains numerous stories of encounters between saints and Satan, in which Satan is constantly deceived by the saints' intelligence and power. of God. Henry Ansgar Kelly comments that Satan "appears as the opposite of fearsome." The Golden Legend was the most popular book during the Early and Late Middle Ages and more manuscripts have survived since then. period than for any other, including the Bible itself.
The Canon Episcopi, written in the XI century AD. C., condemns the belief in witchcraft as heretical, but also documents that many people at the time apparently believed in it. Witches were believed to fly through the air on broomsticks, consort with demons, act in " creepy sexual rituals" in the forests, they murdered and eaten human babies as part of satanic rites, and entered into conjugal relations with demons. In 1326, Pope John XXII issued the papal bull Super illius Specula, which condemned popular divination practices as consultation with satan. In the 1430s, the Catholic Church began to view witchcraft as part of a grand conspiracy led by Satan himself.
Early Modern Period
During the early modern period, Christians gradually began to regard Satan as increasingly powerful, and fear of Satan's power became a dominant aspect of the worldview of Christians throughout Europe. During the Reformation A Protestant, Martin Luther taught that instead of trying to argue with Satan, Christians should avoid temptation altogether by seeking pleasant company; Luther especially recommended music as protection against temptation, since the Devil "cannot bear joy." John Calvin repeated a maxim of St. Augustine that "man is like a horse, with God or the devil as a rider."
At the end of the 15th century, a series of witchcraft panics broke out in France and Germany. The German inquisitors Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger argued in their book Malleus Maleficarum, published in 1487, that all curses ("witchcraft") were rooted in the work of Satan. By mid-century XVI, panic spread to England and Switzerland. Both Protestants and Catholics strongly believed in witchcraft as a real phenomenon and supported its prosecution. In the late 1500s, the Dutch demonologist Johann Weyer argued in his treatise De praestigiis daemonum that witchcraft did not exist, but that Satan promoted belief in it to mislead Christians. The witchcraft panic intensified in the 1620s and slowly into the late 1600s. Brian Levack estimates that around 60,000 people were executed for witchcraft during the entire period of the witchcraft hysteria.
Early English settlers in North America, especially the New England Puritans, believed that Satan "visibly and palpably" reigned in the New World. John Winthrop claimed that the Devil caused rebellious Puritan women to give birth to stillborn monsters with claws, sharp horns, and "on each foot three claws, like a chicken." Cotton Mather wrote that demons swarmed around Puritan settlements "like the frogs of Egypt".;. Some colonists claimed to have seen Satan himself appear in the flesh at native ceremonies. During the First Great Awakening, "new light" they portrayed their critics of the "old light" as ministers of Satan. At the time of the Second Great Awakening, Satan's primary role in American evangelicalism was to be the opponent of the evangelical movement itself, which spent most of its time trying to hinder the ministries of evangelical preachers, a role it has largely retained among current American fundamentalists.
In the early 17th century, skeptics in Europe, including English author Reginald Scot and Anglican bishop John Bancroft, they had begun to criticize the belief that demons still had the power to possess people. This skepticism was reinforced by the belief that miracles only occurred during the Apostolic Age, which had long since ended. Later Enlightenment thinkers such as David Hume, Denis Diderot, and Voltaire attacked the notion of Satan's existence outright. Voltaire called John Milton's Paradise Lost an "unpleasant fantasy"; and stated that belief in Hell and Satan were among the many lies propagated by the Catholic Church to keep humanity enslaved. By the 18th century, witch trials had ceased in most Western countries, with the notable exceptions of Poland and Hungary, where they continued. However, belief in the power of Satan remained strong among traditional Christians.
Modern era
Mormonism developed its own views of Satan. According to the Book of Moses, the Devil offered to be the redeemer of humanity for the sake of his own glory. Instead, Jesus offered to be the redeemer of mankind so that his father's will be done. After his offer was rejected, Satan rebelled and was cast out of heaven.In the Book of Moses, Cain is said to have "loved Satan more than God"; and conspired with Satan to kill Abel. It was through this pact that Cain became a Mahan Master. The Book of Moses also says that Moses was tempted by Satan before calling on the name of the 'Only Begotten', which caused Satan to leave. Douglas Davies claims that this text "reflects" the temptation of Jesus in the Bible.
Belief in Satan and demonic possession remains strong among Christians in the United States and Latin America. According to a 2013 survey by YouGov, fifty-seven percent of people in the United States believe in a literal demon, compared to eighteen percent of people in Great Britain. Fifty-one percent of Americans believe that Satan has the power to possess people. W. Scott Poole, author of Satan in America: The Devil We Know, has opined that "in the United States in the In the last forty or fifty years, a composite image of Satan has emerged that borrows from both popular culture and theological sources" and that most American Christians do not "separate what they know [about Satan] from the movies from what they know from various ecclesiastical and theological traditions." The Catholic Church generally downplayed Satan and exorcism in the late 20th century and early XXI, but Pope Francis brought a renewed focus on the Devil in the early 2010s, declaring, among many other pronouncements, that "The devil is intelligent, he knows more theology than all the theologians put together".
Bernard McGinn describes multiple traditions detailing the relationship between the Antichrist and Satan. In the dualistic approach, Satan will incarnate in the Antichrist, just as God incarnated in Jesus. However, in orthodox Christian thought, this view is problematic because it is too similar to the incarnation of Christ. In contrast, the "resident" has become more accepted, which stipulates that the Antichrist is a human figure inhabited by Satan, as the latter's power is not to be seen as equivalent to God's.
Islamic
The Arabic equivalent of the word Satan is Shaitan (شيطان, from the root šṭn شطن). The word itself is an adjective (meaning "misguided" or "distant", sometimes translated as "demon") that can be applied to both man (& #34;al-ins", الإنس) like al-jinn (الجن), but is also used in reference to Satan in particular. In the Qur'an, Satan's name is Iblis (Arabic pronunciation: [ˈibliːs]), probably a derivative of the Greek word diabolos. Muslims do not regard Satan as the cause of evil, but rather as a tempter, taking advantage of inclinations of humans towards egocentrism.
Quran
Seven suras in the Qur'an describe how God commanded all the angels and Iblis to bow down to the newly created Adam. All the angels bowed down, but Iblis refused, claiming to be superior to Adam because he was made of fire; while Adam was made of clay (7:12). Consequently, God expelled him from Paradise and condemned him to Jahannam. Iblis thereafter became a kafir, i.e. "an ungrateful disbeliever" whose sole mission is to lead mankind astray. God allows Iblis to do this, knowing that the righteous will be able to resist Iblis's attempts to lead them astray. On Judgment Day, while the fate of Satan remains in question, the who followed him will be thrown into the fire of Jahannam. After his banishment from Paradise, Iblis, who later became known as Al-Shaitan ('the Demon'), lured Adam and Eve into eating the fruit of the forbidden tree.
Satan's main characteristic, aside from his arrogance and desperation, is his ability to hurl evil suggestions (waswas) at men and women. Surah 15:45 says that Satan has no influence over the righteous, but those who err are under his power. 7:156 implies that those who obey God's laws are immune to Satan's temptations. 56:79 warns that Satan tries to prevent Muslims from reading the Qur'an and 16:98–100 recommends reciting the Qur'an as an antidote to Satan. 35:6 refers to Satan as the enemy of mankind and 36: 60 forbids humans from worshiping him. In the Qur'anic retelling of Job's story, Job knows that Satan is the one tormenting him.
Islamic tradition
In the Qur'an, Satan is apparently an angel, but in 18:50 he is described as "of the jinn". This, combined with the fact that he describes himself as made of fire, posed a major problem for Muslim Quran exegetes who disagree on whether Satan is a fallen angel or the leader of a group of evil jinn. According to a hadith by Ibn Abbas, Iblis was actually a angel that God created from fire. Ibn Abbas states that the word jinn could be applied to earthly jinn, but also to "fiery angels" like satan.
Hasan of Basra, an eminent Muslim theologian who lived in the 7th century AD. C., was quoted as saying: 'Iblis was not an angel for even a moment. He is the origin of geniuses as Adam is of humanity & # 34;. The medieval Persian scholar Abu Al-Zamakhshari claims that the words angels and jinn are synonymous. Another Persian scholar, Al-Baydawi, argues that Satan expected to be an angel, but his actions turned him into a jinn. Other Islamic scholars argue that Satan was a genie who was admitted to Paradise as a reward for his justice and, unlike the angels, was given the choice to obey or disobey God. When he was expelled from Paradise, Satan blamed humanity for his punishment. Regarding the fiery origin of Iblis, Zakariya al-Qazwini and Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad Ibshīhī state that all supernatural creatures originated from fire but the angels from its light and the jinn from its fire, therefore fire denotes a disembodied origin. of all spiritual entities. Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi argued that only the angels of mercy are created from light, but the angels of punishment have been created from fire.
The Muslim historian Al-Tabari, who died around AD 923. writes that, before Adam was created, earthly jinn made of smokeless fire roamed the earth and spread corruption. Furthermore, he relates that Iblis was originally an angel named Azazil or Al-Harith, from a a group of angels (in contrast to the jinn), created from the fires of simoom, who were sent by God to confront the earthly. Azazil defeated the jinn in battle and led them into the mountains, but was convinced to that he was superior to humans and all other angels, leading to his downfall. In this account, Azazil's group of angels were called jinn because they watched over Jannah (Paradise). In another tradition recorded by Al-Tabari, Satan was one of the earthly jinn, who was captured by angels and taken to Heaven as a prisoner. God appointed him as judge over the other jinn and he became known as Al-Hakam. He served his duty for a thousand years before being negligent, but was rehabilitated again and resumed his position until his refusal to bow to Adam.
Other traditions
During the first two centuries of Islam, Muslims almost unanimously accepted the traditional story known as the Satanic Verses as true. According to this narration, Satan told Muhammad to add words to the Qur'an that would allow Muslims to pray for the intercession of pagan goddesses. He mistook Satan's words for divine inspiration. Modern Muslims almost universally reject this story as heretical, as it calls into question the integrity of the Qur'an.
On the third day of Hajj, Muslim pilgrims to Mecca throw seven stones at a pillar known as Jamrah al-'Aqabah, which symbolizes the stoning of the Devil. This ritual is based on the Islamic tradition of that when God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael, Satan tempted him three times not to do so, and each time Abraham responded by throwing seven stones at him.
Hadith teach that newborn babies cry because Satan touches them while they are being born, and that this contact makes people apt to sin. This doctrine has some similarities with the doctrine of original sin. Muslim tradition holds that only Jesus and Mary were untouched by Satan at birth. However, as a child, Muhammad's heart was literally opened by an angel, who removed a black clot symbolizing sin.
Muslim tradition preserves a number of stories involving dialogues between Jesus and Iblis, all of which are intended to demonstrate the virtue of Jesus and the depravity of Satan. Ahmad ibn Hanbal records an Islamic account of Jesus' temptation by Satan in the desert of the Synoptic Gospels. Ahmad quotes Jesus as saying: "The greatest sin is love of the world. Women are the strings of Satan. Wine is the key to all evil." Abu Uthman al-Jahiz credits Jesus as saying, "The world is Satan's farm and his people are his plows." Al-Ghazali tells an anecdote about how Jesus went out one day and saw Satan carrying ashes and honey; when he asked what they were for, Satan replied: "Honey, I put the lips of those who bite so that they achieve their goal." The ashes I put on the faces of orphans, so people don't like it". The 13th century scholar Sibt ibn al-Jawzi claims that when Jesus asked him what broke his back, Satan replied: "The neighing of horses in the cause of Allah".
According to Sufi mysticism, Iblis refused to bow down to Adam because he was totally devoted to God and refused to bow down to anyone else. For this reason, Sufi teachers consider Satan and Muhammad the two most perfect monotheists. Sufis reject the concept of dualism and instead believe in the unity of existence. In the same way that Muhammad was the instrument of God's mercy, Sufis view Satan as the instrument of God's wrath.
Muslims believe that Satan is also the cause of delusions that originate in the mind and evil desires. He is regarded as a cosmic force for separation, despair, and spiritual envelopment. Muslims distinguish between satanic temptations and the mutterings of the lower bodily self (Nafs). The lower self orders the person to do a specific task or fulfill a specific wish; while Satan's promptings tempt a person to do evil in general, and after a person successfully resists his first suggestion, Satan returns with new ones. If a Muslim feels that Satan is inciting him to sin, he is advised to seek refuge with God by reciting: "In the name of Allah, I seek refuge in you, from Satan the outcast." Muslims are also required to "seek refuge" before reciting the Qur'an.
Satan as a synonym for Lucifer
In the tradition of the Catholic Church and other Christian churches, it is pointed out that Satan is synonymous with Lucifer. The term Lucifer is a Latin word meaning "Light Bearer", "Morning Star" or "Morning Star". Originally this term derives from the translation made in Jerome's Vulgate of the Hebrew word heylel (morning star) used in Isaiah 14 to refer symbolically to the kings of Babylon. Later, Christian theology took this passage as a description of the fall of the devil in a primeval heavenly rebellion.
The Fall of Lucifer
Revelation 12 describes a great battle in heaven in which an army of rebellious angels fight led by the great red dragon, but are exiled from heaven after being defeated by the archangel Michael and his angels (Revelation 12: 7 to 11). This seven-headed red dragon is described in the same passage as dragging a third of the stars in heaven with its tail, an expression interpreted by exegetes as the same rebellious angels who fought and were expelled from heaven. heaven (Revelation 12:4).
In the Gospel of Saint Luke, Jesus claims to have seen Satan fall from heaven:
And he said unto them, I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning.
Lc.10, 18
Since pseudepigraphical Jewish literature mentions the fallen (nephilim), (although in the book of Enoch the sons of the second fall of angels (the Grigori) are called nephilim before the deluge, commanded by the Angel Shemihaza betray heaven, tempting and fornicating with humans and showing them what is forbidden), has also been linked to the fall of Satan to certain Old Testament passages; while other traditions indicate that the fall (betrayal) of Satan (Lucifer) would be a different event than that which occurred by Shemihaza and his entourage. In the Old Testament there are also two passages that recounted the fall of arrogant kings who oppressed Israel, and in which the Church Fathers saw descriptions of the fall of the devil:
Against the kings of Babylon:
How have you fallen from heaven, Lucero, son of the Aurora!You have been beaten to the dominating land of nations!
You who said in your heart, 'I will go up to heaven, above the stars of God I will lift up my throne, and I will sit on the Mount of Meeting in the north end. I will rise to the heights of the cloud, and I will be like the Most High.
Is. 14, 12-14
Against the Phoenician kings of Tire and Sidon:
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You were the seal of a masterpiece, full of wisdom, finished in beauty. In Eden you were in the garden of God. All kinds of precious stones formed your mantle: ruby, topace, diamond, chrysolit, onyx stone, jasper, sapphire, malaquita, emerald; in gold were the earrings and pinjantes that you carried, straightened from the day of your creation. Querubín protector of unfolded wings had I made you, you were on the holy mountain of God, walking between stones of fire. You were perfect in your conduct from the day of your creation, until the day in which iniquity was found in you. The breadth of your trade has filled your inner violence, and you have sinned. And I have degraded thee from the mount of God, and have eliminated thee, the shield cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart has been paid for your beauty, you have corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. I have precipitated you on earth, I have exposed you as a spectacle to kings. By the multitude of your guilt for the immorality of your trade, you have defiled your sanctuaries. And I have brought forth from thee the fire that hath devoured thee: I have brought thee to ashes upon the earth, in the sight of all that looked upon thee. All the peoples who knew you are suffering from you. You're a scary object, and you've disappeared forever.
Ez. 28, 12-19
In a strict literal contextual sense, the recipient is made explicit as a human king:
... Swallow a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and tell him that thus says the Lord God...
Ez. 28:12
But it is also indicated that it is: "the protective cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire... you were in the garden of Eden", for which reason it has been reinterpreted as a cryptic message about the devil.
Other religions, such as Seventh-day Adventists, have elaborated deeply on detailed descriptions of this primordial war and fall, beginning with the visions and writings of Ellen G. White. Also Milton in his work describes the fall of the devil adding dramatic details.
Many ancient peoples had founding myths of the war of the gods against the monsters of chaos.
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Satan according to the exorcists
According to some exorcists of the Catholic Church (such as Father José Antonio Fortea), Lucifer and Satan are two different demons. Lucifer was the highest angel, the greatest work of God, before his fall, but after it he came second to Satan. Satan is the most evil of demons, surpassing Lucifer in evil.
Satan in the occult
Rudolf Steiner, founder of anthroposophy, describes the power of the demon Ahriman (Satan's equivalent) as something that incites humans to materialistic superstitions, and that of his opposite Lucifer as something that incites humans to all exaltations, the false mysticisms and the pride of rising without borders.
Satan in culture
In literature
In Dante Alighieri's Inferno, Satan appears as a giant demon, frozen mid-chest in ice at the center of the Ninth Circle of Hell. Satan has three faces and a pair of bat wings under each chin. In his three mouths, Satan holds Brutus, Judas Iscariot, and Cassius, whom Dante considered to have betrayed the "two greatest heroes of the human race": Julius Caesar, the founder of the new order of government and Jesus, the founder of the new order of religion. As Satan flaps his wings, he creates a cold wind that continues to freeze the ice around him and the other sinners in the Ninth Circle. Dante and Virgil climb up the Satan's hairy legs until gravity reverses and they fall through the earth towards the southern hemisphere.
Satan appears in several stories in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, including 'The Summoner's Prologue,' in which a friar arrives in Hell and sees no other friars, but is they say there are millions. Satan then raises his tail to reveal that all the friars live inside his anus. Chaucer's description of Satan's appearance is clearly based on Dante's. The legend of Faust, recorded in the The 1589 book The Story of the Damnable Life and Merited Death of Doctor John Faustus, refers to a pact allegedly made by the German scholar Johann Georg Faust with a demon named Mephistopheles who agrees to sell his soul to Satan in exchange for twenty-four years of earthly pleasure. This chapter book became the source of Christopher Marlowe's The Tragic Story of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus.
John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost features Satan as its main protagonist. Milton portrays Satan as a tragic anti-hero destroyed by his own arrogance. He draws heavily on Greek tragedy, recreates Satan as a complex literary character who dares to rebel against "tyranny" of God, despite God's own omnipotence. The famous English poet and painter William Blake quipped: "The reason Milton wrote in shackles when he wrote about Angels and God, and at liberty when about Devils and Hell, is because he was a true poet and party-goer. Devils unknowingly". Paradise Regained, the sequel to Paradise Lost, is a retelling of Satan's temptation of Jesus in the wilderness.
William Blake regarded Satan as a model of rebellion against unjust authority and features him in many of his poems and illustrations, including his 1780 book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, in the that Satan is celebrated as the ultimate rebel, the embodiment of human emotion, and the epitome of freedom from all forms of reason and orthodoxy. Based on Biblical passages that portray Satan as the accuser of sin, Blake portrayed Satan as "an enacter of moral laws".
In visual art
Satan's appearance is never described in the Bible or in any of the early Christian scriptures, although Paul the Apostle writes that "Satan masquerades as an angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14). The Devil was never shown in early Christian artwork and may have first appeared in the VI in one of the mosaics in the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo. The mosaic "Christ the Good Shepherd" it features a blue-violet angel on the left side of Christ behind three goats; opposite a red angel on the right side and in front of sheep. Depictions of the devil became more common in the 9th century, where he is shown with cloven hooves, hairy feet, a goat's tail, pointy ears, a beard, a flat nose, and a set of horns. Satan may have first been associated with goats through the parable of the sheep and the goats, recorded in Matthew 25:31–46, in which Jesus separates the sheep (representing the saved) from the goats (representing the damned); the damned are thrown into hell along with "the devil and his angels".
Medieval Christians were known to adapt previously existing pagan iconography to fit depictions of Christian figures. Much of the traditional iconography of Satan in Christianity appears to derive from Pan, a rustic, legged fertility god of goat in ancient Greek religion. Early Christian writers such as Saint Jerome equated Greek satyrs and Roman fauns, whom Pan resembled, with demons. The devil's pitchfork appears to have been adapted from the trident wielded by the god Greek Poseidon and Satan's flaming hair appears to have originated from the Egyptian god Bes. In the Early Middle Ages, Satan and demons appear in all Christian works of art: in paintings, sculptures, and cathedrals. Satan is usually depicted nude, but their genitals are rarely shown and are often covered by animal skins. The depiction of Satan in the form of a goat became especially associated with him in the role of him both as an object of worship for sorcerers and as an incubus, a demon believed to rape human women in their sleep.
Italian frescoes from the late Middle Ages onward show Satan chained in Hell, feeding on the bodies of the perpetually damned. These frescoes are early enough to have inspired Dante's depiction of his Inferno. Like the serpent in the Garden of Eden, Satan is often shown as a serpent with arms and legs, as well as the head and upper torso of a woman. Satan and his demons could take any form in medieval art, but when they appeared in their true form, they were often shown as short, hairy, black-skinned humanoids with clawed and birdlike feet and additional faces on their chests, bellies, genitals, buttocks, and tails. The image of modern popular culture of Satan as a well-dressed gentleman with small horns and a tail originates from the depictions of Mephistopheles in the operas The Damnation of Faust (1846) by Hector Berlioz, Mefistofel e (1868) by Arrigo Boito and Fausto by Charles Gounod.
In film and television
The devil is depicted as a vampire bat in Georges Méliès's The Haunted Castle (1896), which is often considered the first horror film. The so-called "black masses" they have been portrayed in sensationalist B-movies since the 1960s. One of the first films to portray such a ritual was the 1965 film Eye of the Devil, also known as 13. Alex Sanders, a former A black magician, he served as a consultant on the film to ensure that the rituals portrayed in it were accurately depicted. For the next thirty years, Dennis Wheatley's novels and Hammer Film Productions' films played important roles in shaping the popular image of Satanism.
The film version of Ira Levin's book, Rosemary's Baby, made satanic themes a staple of mainstream horror fiction. Later films such as The Exorcist (1973), The Omen (1976) and Angel Heart (1987) present Satan as an antagonist.
In music
References to Satan in music date back to the Middle Ages. During the fifth century, a musical interval called the tritone became known as "the devil in music"; and was banned by the Catholic Church. Giuseppe Tartini was inspired to write his most famous work, the Violin Sonata in G minor, also known as "The Devil' s Trill", after dreaming of the devil playing the violin. Tartini claimed that the sonata was a minor imitation of what the Devil had played in his dream. Niccolò Paganini was believed to have derived his musical talent from a deal with the Devil. Charles Gounod's Faust presents a narrative involving Satan.
In the early 1900s, jazz and blues became known as the "Devils Music," as they were considered "dangerous and ungodly." According to legend, the Blues musician Tommy Johnson was a terrible guitar player before he traded his soul to the Devil for a guitar. Later, Robert Johnson claimed that he had sold his soul in exchange for becoming a great blues guitarist. Satanic symbolism appears in 1960s rock music. Mick Jagger takes on the role of Lucifer in "Sympathy for the Devil" by the Rolling Stones (1968), while Black Sabbath played the Devil in numerous songs, including "War Pigs" (1970) and "N.I.B." (1970).
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