What do you know about the history of Satan?

[Glanecia]

1. What do you know about the history of the word Satan, as it appears within Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Satanism? Other religions?

2. What is "Satan" to you?

Just a few questions to get a conversation started....

[morganxpage]

Satan, I believe, means Adversary.

Satan is the Christian God of Hell/Anti-God/Adversary of the Sky God Jehovah. I'm not a Christian so He doesn't mean a whole lot to me.

[ShadowcatX]

My understanding of Lucifer is this: That he was the light bringer, the angel who was assigned to the sun. When he and his were cast down by Jehovah Lucifer adopted the name Satan. He has since been allowed back into heaven (he converses with Jehovah in the book of Job).

As to what he means to me, not a thing. He's not part of my religion. He is interesting to hear debates about.

[Windsmith]

My understanding of Lucifer is this: That he was the light bringer, the angel who was assigned to the sun. When he and his were cast down by Jehovah Lucifer adopted the name Satan. He has since been allowed back into heaven (he converses with Jehovah in the book of Job).I think it's often argued that Lucifer and Satan are 2 very different entities (Lucifer being a Roman god and all), and that it was only later translators of the Bible who conflated the 2.

Interestingly, in the book of Job he's referred to as Ha-Satan - the Adversary. The idea seems to be that, in the celestial court, he is the chief representative of the "other side." Not evil, necessarily, just on the other side, kind of like the prosecutor and the defense attorney in a trial.

Satan isn't really anything "to" me; I don't believe in the literal existence of any deity. But stories about Satan do fascinate me. As a character, I see similarities to the trickster gods of other pantheons.

[David19]

I think ha-satan is a different to the Christian Satan, as ha-satan is more like a prosecuting attorney for YHWH, not really 'evil'.

The Christian Satan, i believe, to be an enemy of YHWH's, but not a god i worship, although like what others have said, i like hearing others views on him, especially those of Theistic Satanists (the saner ones anyway) (like Diane Vera, etc).

I don't believe he's 'pure evil', just one god among many.

[Rudas Starblaze]

well, if ya wanna get into old testement terms and gnostic terms, Satan was/is God's left hand man. his punisher. he sat next to God and was the one the evil doers were sent to in death. the holy revolution, as i put it, that was recorded in the OT was really started because Satan would NOT bow down to God's creation of mankind like God commanded his angels to do. the only reason why hes refered to as the "adversary" is primarily based on new testement and dante's inferno writings.

personally, i strongly believe the new testement and dante's inferno gave him a bad rep. grant it, there was more secret activity involving Satan centuries ago before "uncle" Anton wrote the Satanic Bible.....lol :smoke:

oh, and dont get me started on my fav.... Judas Iscariot. now he is someone who DOES NOT get the proper credit. Judas IS da man!!!\m/

[Hank Freid]

Satan is often caricatured as a red-horned, trident-raising cartoon villain; no wonder people question the history of Satan. His existence, however, is not based on fantasy. It’s verified in the same book that narrates Jesus’ life and death (Genesis 3:1-16, Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11). Christians believe Satan acts as leader of the fallen angels. These demons, existing in the invisible spirit realm yet affecting our physical world, rebelled against God, but are ultimately under His control. Satan masquerades as an “angel of light,” deceiving humans just as he deceived Eve in the beginning (Genesis 3).

Regards:
Hank Freid (http://eon.businesswire.com/releases/Marrakech/Kazbar/prweb484503.htm)

[Bettie]

Satan is often caricatured as a red-horned, trident-raising cartoon villain; no wonder people question the history of Satan. His existence, however, is not based on fantasy. It’s verified in the same book that narrates Jesus’ life and death (Genesis 3:1-16, Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11). Christians believe Satan acts as leader of the fallen angels. These demons, existing in the invisible spirit realm yet affecting our physical world, rebelled against God, but are ultimately under His control. Satan masquerades as an “angel of light,” deceiving humans just as he deceived Eve in the beginning (Genesis 3).



So if the bible verifies it, it must be true, right? :rolleyes:

How exactly does Satan "deceive humans"?

I don't believe that Satan is a real, living entity, more of a symbolic figure instead. To me, Satan represents the driving force of my life.

[Aidron]

1. What do you know about the history of the word Satan, as it appears within Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Satanism? Other religions?

A good deal, I suppose.


2. What is "Satan" to you?

An entity which appears in the beliefs and literature of some religions and paths, such as Christianity and Satanism, which while share a very close relationship I feel should be mentioned separately. Beyond that? Nothing. I don't give much thought to it, just as I don't give much thought to the god of Christianity. I'm not opposed to either (although I am opposed to a great deal of their followers), I am just apathetic.

And yes, Rainbow Brite totally rocks.

[Stormbeard]

Satan is the Christian God of Hell/Anti-God/Adversary of the Sky God Jehovah. I'm not a Christian so He doesn't mean a whole lot to me.

You know that's a very offensive view to take

[manual]

HISTORY IS INFINITE
the body of awareness, encompasses 'two sides'
the known 'side' and the unknown 'side'
in actuality the sides are one
meaning that both the unknown and the known
are within perception right now
occuring right now
the unknown is simply not focused on and so not comprehended
understood.. interpreted
so it is not 'registered' within perception
even tho it is there, it needs to be acknowledged
then converted into the known awareness
now.. as i examine my past awareness
my entire life that is past
i see that the awareness i have become aware of was always there in my field
seeing creation.. creation occurs right now always
even when 're-examining' the past
i am still in the moment NOW, with creation in hand.. the past
with the awareness and the direction we are looking to
creating
everything i become aware of i can remember in my past
i am saying is that i dream the past
a dream occuring now
with the observation and awareness that i possess
now

[ninurta2008]

I think that Satan (capital "S") in christianity is an epithet turned to a name of Azazel, who rebelled against YHWH and he and his angels went down to earth and mated with the daugheters of men.

[Toki Wartooth]

Thread necromancy. Good times.

As far as I know (which isn't much compared to some people's knowledge on the topic), "Satan" is this being in Christianity responsible for all the evils of the world, as well as for testing people's faith and such. He is considered "the adversary" and "the denyer." But, some would also add he's still performing God's or YHWH's work, as he is not above or equal to Him. (Some would say he and other angels and/or demons could be deities in Their own rights. So in this sense, He'd be doing His own work.)

I've read Satan equalized to Satanael, Azazel, Beelzebub, Samael, and Lucifer. I've seen all of these (well, not so much Sataneal) stand alone. It seems that "Satan" and "Lucifer" aren't directly connected or equalized in the Bible. (And, "Lucifer" is Latin, meaning "light-bearer," and was the name of Venus when it was on the horizon as the Sun was coming up.)

It was said Satan, or Lucifer, wanted to be equal or more than God, and that he was prideful. He, like certain others, did not want to bow down to mankind, one of God's many creations.

He's been called the Prince of Air or the Prince of Fire. He is sometimes said to have various other "royalty" underneath him, like Dukes and Barons. Sometimes he and others have "armies" split into groups like legions.

Some believe Satan simply represents the carnal, the primal, the material, the here and now, a sort of energy flowing through animals (perhaps moreso) and humans. Some see him as a metaphor or personification.

Uh...I think I've run out of info that I can regurgitate off the top of my head. But, I guess that's what I "know," i.e. what I've read/heard.

[NeoNomad]

Honestly I can say I know nothing for a fact... But you can get quite quite a few interesting spins on the history of Satan/Lucifer/the Devil from reading the roleplaying rulebooks to Steve Jackson's In Nomine game, or even from White Wolf's Demon: the Fallen rulebook. Interpretive fiction - but ideas based on someone's idea of truths, then embellished for entertainment... Let's just say that I was entertained.

[Darth Brooks]

1. What do you know about the history of the word Satan, as it appears within Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Satanism? Other religions?

Satan is like a patchwork quilt. A lot of people say he is simply a "Christian" idea, but in reality he originated as an idea that was entirely foreign to the Judeo-Christian worldview. Originally, Yahweh played both the part of a God and a devil in Jewish thought. He was the creator of both the light and the darkness, he brought both prosperity and disaster. (Isaiah 45:7) The Hebrews didn't need a devil because Yahweh did a pretty good job all by himself.

The word "Satan" comes from the Hebrew "ha-satan" meaning adversary or accuser. Originally, it was not a name, but simply a job title, like "mailman." It was not used to describe a single person; instead, it could be used to describe anybody. Anyone who was perceived to oppose whomever was speaking could be called a "satan." In light of Isaiah 45:7, this included Yahweh Himself.

The word did not become a proper name for a specific personage - i.e., the arch-enemy of Yahweh - until well after the Second Temple era of Jewish history, and just before the birth of Christ. By that time, the idea of an "arch-enemy" had gained quite a bit of popularity among certain fringe Jewish sects. This idea was partly based on Jewish stories about the Watchers, a race of angels who abandoned heaven to marry human women here on earth. But the idea was mostly a foreign import.

You see, the Hebrews never even considered the idea of a devil until after the Babylonian Captivity. Their devil was like a Frankenstein monster they constructed out of different parts - a little bit of Tiamat here, a little bit of the Anzu bird there, a little bit of Ahriman here, a little bit of Prometheus there, etc. It really wasn't until New Testament times that all these things were finally blended together to create Satan, the seven-headed red dragon of Revelation, whose expulsion from heaven and whose final condemnation at the end of days are really just newer versions of the Middle/Near-Eastern "combat myths." (E.g., Marduk vs. Tiamat, Ba'al vs. the dragon, Set vs. Apep, etc.)

Satan as the cloven-hoofed satyr we all know and love was not created until the Middle Ages, and in that form it is easily deduced that he was given certain attributes from Pan and Dionysus. And post-Reformation ideas about Satan being worshiped by cannibalistic "witches" at a "Witches' Sabbath" were also clearly influenced by a variety of sources, a rather significant one being the Greek and Egyptian accusations that Sabbath-observing Jews were really cannibalistic Set worshipers.


2. What is "Satan" to you?In terms of the theological system in which Satan is most commonly cast, I think he is really just the dark side of Yahweh, which Christians and other monotheists have externalized in an attempt to view their God as all-benevolent. Much like how the New Kingdom Egyptians externalized Set as "the bad guy" so they could give Horus and Osiris all the glory.

In terms of my own theological system, Satan is a bastardization of Set.

[NightMaiden]

I also see the Christian Satan as a fallen angel. In the fact that in other religions that worship him as a deity just as any other.

To me, not being Christian, I see it more as the dark that must be present to keep balance. As you have light, you have dark. Everything has to have a balance, a yin to the yang almost.

[Rae'ya]

1. What do you know about the history of the word Satan, as it appears within Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Satanism? Other religions?

Ooooh here we go... lets see if I can collate it into something coherant...

The term 'Satan' wasn't initially the name of a particular being, but was a title (ha-satan) applied to the angel who stood at God's right hand in the divine court and acted as a sort of prosecutor. He challenged the belief and faith of humans and pointed out their flaws to God. The term ha-satan is variously thought to mean 'accuser' or 'adversary'. In Islam the term was el-shaitan and followed pretty much the same concept, with a few minor differences.

As far as I know, none of the references to 'Satan' or 'Shaitan' in the Old Testament, the Torah, the Apocryphal texts, the Talmud or the Qu'ran are actually specific references to the name of an individual being (but then I've not actually trawled through any of those texts to check myself so I could be wrong lol). Whenever the term refers to a particular being, there's usually another name in conjuction with it - Lucifer, Ba'al, Beezelbub, Iblis, Leviathan, etc etc. Most people take this linking to mean that those names were the alternate names of the being known as Satan, but personally I believe it's an indicator of the term being used as a title, not a name.

Modern Judeo-Christian usage lumps Satan, Lucifer, the Eden Serpent, the Devil, and various Demons together as a single being. There's plenty of evidence to suggest that they're all separate individuals, both in the actual Biblical texts as well as in the experiences, UPGs and PVPG's of Satanists and Demonolators. In general, Satan is considered to be a fallen angel, the Devil and the King of Hell, who commands the Demonic Legions and continues to tempt humans away from God's word.

I don't know what modern Islamic usage of the term is.

Demonolators tend to view Satan either as the King of Demons or as the All, the divine creative force, though this isn't a defined belief within the path and I know Demonolators who see Satan differently. LaVeyan Satanism uses the term to indicate the non-theistic concept of the Adversary, which dictates an attitude of self awareness, self expression and non-conformity.

Theistic Satanists use the term to indicate a deity or divine being which they worship, though the details are hugely varied. Some Theistic Satanists believe that Satan is a separate being in his own right; some believe it is a term that was applied to earlier deities such as Set, Enki, Lucifer or Ba'al and thus equate it with their god of choice; some equate all those gods together and consider them the one being who has been transplanted through the various cultures; some see him as the King of Hell or King of Demons; some as the Adversary who is a god of intelligence, enlightenment and challenging dogmatic rule; the list goes on and on lol.


2. What is "Satan" to you?

To me 'Satan' is a title which can be given to various deities who share certain characterstics and actions within their own pantheons. Kind of like categorising 'trickster gods' or 'moon goddesses' or 'sacrificial harvest gods'. There are certain gods who advocate intelligence, knowledge, free thinking and freedom of action; who challenged the physical and spiritual slavery of mankind; who faught for humanity when other gods would enslave them or allow them to die; who stood up against the gods who would raise themselves above the others and declare themselves supreme; and who generally encourage us to blaze our own path no matter what the mainstream dogma is. To me those gods are all a Satan.

[Rosselin]

You know that's a very offensive view to take

I dont see whats so offensive. It is correct that unless you accept atleast some Christian theology, Satan, or Lucifer, is nothing.

Now, in concept, Satan is to be the leader of all evil and represents all evil. In wicca, he doesnt exist because good and evil are choices we all make; not entities.

Now, while i'm not Christian, I do understand a great deal of Christian ideology and have retained much of it in my beliefs. While he is symbolically the King of those in Hell, he by himself is nothing much. He was cast out of heaven. Obviously, God and even the gods/goddesses are more powerful.

As for his being a roman god at one point, I believe this is still possible. Many former gods were corrupted by their power to become demonic.

Also, i agree with the earlier statements about Ha-Satan. Keep in mind also that Lucifer is only the main of many 'satan's. The angels cast down with him (i.e. Mephistopheles, Baal, Beelzebul, Azazael) are also called satan in various places in the Bible, as are demons. It is unlikely that they would have been allowed back into heaven anyway.