Where Did Satan Come From?

That's a question i have been asking my self among others, i'm not a believer of anything in religion of any kind, though i always think there must be some truth behind the various folk tales of good and evil, God and Satan, though i'm not well educated on such topics other than what i read here and there, as i expected it is simply calling your enemy "evil", "as God can't be both", i actually disagree with that looking at todays world, some worshipers of god seems very evil, i think they live in a fantasy world, trying to justify their believes.

Here is the tale and origin of Satan.

SOURCE

Many ancient religions have scriptures detailing the struggle between good and evil.
For instance, in the Zoroastrian religion, one of the world's earliest, the supreme deity, Ormazd, created two entities: the chaotic and destructive spirit Ahriman and his beneficent twin brother, Spenta Mainyu, said Abner Weiss, a psychologist and the rabbi at the Westwood Village Synagogue in Los Angeles.

"The ancient world struggled with the coexistence of good and evil," Weiss told Live Science. "They hypothesized a kind of demonic, divine force that was responsible for evil, arising out of the notion that a good god could not be responsible for bad things."

Another thread is currently going on that speaks on behalf of "Satans secret" in Revelations.

Here is what I put there ( below paragraphs) however it seems as if you quickly linked the origin in which Religion began the duality of God. The true origin is in my opinion on the scene in Genesis if you want to refer to the Bible.... with the serpent being the Duality of God.

Again here is what I put forth in another thread. www.abovetopsecret.com...

"I wanted to add to this thread this morning just to get some truth to the thread as I see it from a pov of reading and researching this since 1995, religiously. (pun intended)

It's my opinion "satan" or "devil" the duality of God, first came on the scene as a being not within our self but outside our self from Zoroastrianism between 1500–1200 BCE. Maybe even before then however I haven't found the evidence yet.

The Christian religion does indeed teach "satan" as being a fallen angel however other texts say we are ALL fallen. Let it be noted the Judean religion does not believe in satan as Christians do. Not many religions do. They ( Jews) describes Satan as the angel who is the embodiment of man's challenges. HaSatan works for G-d. His job is to make choosing good over evil enough of a challenge so that it can be a meaningful choice. In other words, haSatan is an angel whose mission it is to add difficulty, challenges, and growth experiences to life. Contrast this to Christianity, which sees Satan as God's opponent. www.shamash.org...

Within each of us is the tension of free will. When we are overcome with darkness we can then be said to be "attacked by satan" and this is more along the lines of truth. Satan is a creation just like you and I. The duality of good and bad are along the same literal line of truth. You can't have light without the dark via "Reason". ( “duality” is the nature in which anything and everything holds opposing truths: all of which are true) This link highexistence.com... is a really good read to understand duality.

Eve listening to the serpent is like us listening to our lower self.

We create our own adversities within and then such energy is transferred abroad.

All the other dogmatic twists of the truth are just that... dogmatic (inclined to lay down principles as incontrovertibly true).

Im not knocking the Bible at all... Im knocking the interpretation and translations have been lost. People follow teachings blindly.

Even Hermes is said to have been Satan. It's a play on words and if people knew the history of their soul through out times past they would understand their journey is the same as that of the soul of Jesus. Some say Jesus has in times past had other names. Hermes is one of them. Melchizedek another. Job? Also said to be the same soul. If you go back and read about these 3 people you may understand why people have made this judgement. Just as we see in nature... we evolve. We evolve spiritually within eternity because we are here for a purpose and the purpose is known before we enter the womb, to those who watch over us, and in the depths of our soul we know why we are here. We have to rise just as the soul of Jesus. When he died on the cross he said, "it's finished". We will be saying that too when our time on Earth comes to an end for the final time. We will have evolved into at-one-ment.

If the veil were lifted and mist was gone we would all have peace on Earth. What is going on in modern day is from seeds that were sown thousands of years ago to control and cause fear to a mass population and still exists today. Wars and the rumors of wars are caused from said seed. We are in the harvesting stage and spiritual warfare is happening in real time. We are all struggling within to understand the world in which we live and it causes major distress with our spirit. We are slaves to a system we do not like. We are no longer free, but burdened by the darkness.

Light will overcome the darkness, always does. There isn't anything to fear but fear itself. Just as the BIG Bang had order out of chaos so will we. We will eventually come to a state of mind whereas we will all be free of the chaos and the human attributes of self will be obsolete. Order of peace and reason will prevail. "

He came from scared white men who wanted to scare/shame everyone to believe the things they believe.

a reply to: Jefferton

Thats funny.. but in all reality it came from a spiritual sense into material here...

Satan AKA Angra Mainyu

Angra Mainyu, In ancient Persian (Iran) religion and books of Zoroastrianism, Angra Mainyu is the god of darkness, the eternal destroyer of good, personification and creator of evil, bringer of death and disease. He is also known as Ahriman, and his name means "fiendish spirit". He is seen as the personification of evil, he leading the dark forces against the hosts of Spenta Mainyu, the holy spirit, who assisted Ahura Mazda, the wise lord, and final victor of the cosmic conflict. Ahriman introduced the frost in winter, heat in summer, all manner of diseases and other ills, to thwart Ahura Mazda, and he also created the dragon Azi Dahaka, who brought ruin to the Earth. When Ahura Mazda created the heavens, Azi Dahaka sprung into the sky like a snake, and in opposition to the stars formed the planets. Both Ahriman and Ormazd were offspring of Zurvan Akarana, who had vowed that the firstborn should reign as king. Ahriman thus ripped open his mother's womb, and Zurvan pronounced that he should rule only for nine thousand years, after which period his twin brother should reign in his place. Ahriman's chief weapon was concupiscence, through which all that was his should be devoured, even his own creation. There was a female counterpart of Ahriman, called Az, and it is said that when Ahriman saw the righteous man he swooned, and lay in a faint for three thousand years, until the 'accursed whore', Jeh, awoke him and defiled men with her destructive spirit, introducing fear, jealousy, lust and greed into man. Ahriman lives in darkness, in a place where all those who do evil go to after their demise (Hell) and his symbol is the snake. He is what in Christian religion can be called Satan.

www.pantheon.org...

All religions need a bad guy, a scary figure that keeps their flock from going astray and that brings in a steady influx of new sheep. Just like the boogeyman is used to scare children into eating their food, Satan is used to scare people into believing and staying loyal to the church and God.

a reply to: Mianeye

There's many answers to your question depending on the stance we wish to take first.

If we look at Satan as an exclusive aspect of the religious texts, we end up with a character that's far deeper in origin than a figure simply representing evil. Combining various texts, from the Hebrew Bible to the Qu'ran to even the Book of Enoch, we get a fairly consistent story.

As a general rule of thumb, there are 3 grand classes of God's creations; Angels, Demons (or Djinn) and Humans.

Angels are God's servants and are the first made. They are used to make, sustain and develop at command. Demons are essentially Angels that have chosen to exercise their free will. Islam differs in that it states that Angels can never disobey Allah's command, and that the Djinn were the second made but had the gift of choice (yet not physicality as we understand it).

Satan was one of God's favourite Angels. One Hebrew story involves God actually confiding in Samuel/Samyaza/Shemjaza (his 'real' names) over his disappointment with the human race. Samyaza would often look down on humans and doubt the faith that the Lord seemed to have in us. He would take pride in the belief that he would not make the same mistakes as we do and would be quick to point out our flaws to God, although his intentions at this point were arguably not 'evil' as of such.

In Islam, Samyaza/Shaytan, is also one of Allah's favourite Djinn. However, when Allah creates humans and demands that the Djinn bow in the wake of the superior creation, Shaytan refuses to out of pride, and is banished to our world as a result. He then spends the rest of his days trying to manipulate and destroy humans as much as possible with what little power he has left (bitter dude lol).

The older Jewish/Christian texts go a bit deeper than this. Samyaza gets somewhat 'bored' of simply just overseeing humans and decides to openly interact with them instead, to God's great dismay. This involved things such as having offspring with our women (or rape depending on how you read it), as well as teaching us forbidden arts such as sword making and general warfare. The Book of Enoch goes into great detail about this and the other Angels that accompanied Samyaza in this 'crusade'.

It is due to these actions that God chooses to flood the Earth, and Samyaza is subsequently bound to it for eternity, where the story basically ends in the same manner as the Islamic version.

That's Satan for you. Now, if we want to be intellectually honest, the roots of these stories themselves lie in earlier Sumerian texts, such as the Eridu Genesis and so forth.

If you read deep enough into Sumerian literature, you will soon notice that the figures of the God and the Devil are derived from the characters of Anu, Enlil and Enki. Enki fulfils an extremely similar role to Samyaza, yet Enki is thoroughly portrayed as a good guy within the Sumerian culture. Despite Anu and Enlil having ultimate rule (and also initiating the flood event), they are seen as almost tyrannical. Their rule is stern and strict.

It's interesting that the roles got reversed, morally speaking, with the birth of the Abrahamic religions, though if you read between the lines you realise that Samyaza, and likewise the snake of Eden, is actually the character that allowed us to extend our existence beyond God's vision for us (at least in Genesis).

There's also Sumerian/Babylonian stories of the 'younger Gods' (Igigi) rebelling against Anu/Enlil and essentially doing the same things that Samyaza and his crew go on to do in later texts. This is where the waters start to get really murky in regards to the true derivation of these characters and their associative myths.

I don't take these stories as fact, but that's the origin of Satan in the religious texts. They actually read more like alien encounters at times than spirits and the word of God but that's a whole 'nother story. Now I could give you a completely different answer from a different perspective but I've unfortunately run out of characters .

Edit: Also, I feel it's important to note that evil is acknowledged in the religious texts through the gift of free will itself. It is essentially one of the core foundations of the metaphorical meaning in the Genesis/Eden stories, and the battle that all of God's will-gifted creations have to deal with.

originally posted by: BlueShaman
All religions needs a bad guy, a scary figure that keeps their flock from going astray and that brings in a steady influx of new sheep. Just like the boogeyman is used to scare children into eating their food, the devil is used to scare people into believing and staying loyal to the church and God.

haha...

originally posted by: MamaJ
Another thread is currently going on that speaks on behalf of "Satans secret" in Revelations.

Here is what I put there ( below paragraphs) however it seems as if you quickly linked the origin in which Religion began the duality of God. The true origin is in my opinion on the scene in Genesis if you want to refer to the Bible.... with the serpent being the Duality of God.

Again here is what I put forth in another thread. www.abovetopsecret.com...

"I wanted to add to this thread this morning just to get some truth to the thread as I see it from a pov of reading and researching this since 1995, religiously. (pun intended)

It's my opinion "satan" or "devil" the duality of God, first came on the scene as a being not within our self but outside our self from Zoroastrianism between 1500–1200 BCE. Maybe even before then however I haven't found the evidence yet.

The Christian religion does indeed teach "satan" as being a fallen angel however other texts say we are ALL fallen. Let it be noted the Judean religion does not believe in satan as Christians do. Not many religions do. They ( Jews) describes Satan as the angel who is the embodiment of man's challenges. HaSatan works for G-d. His job is to make choosing good over evil enough of a challenge so that it can be a meaningful choice. In other words, haSatan is an angel whose mission it is to add difficulty, challenges, and growth experiences to life. Contrast this to Christianity, which sees Satan as God's opponent. www.shamash.org...

Within each of us is the tension of free will. When we are overcome with darkness we can then be said to be "attacked by satan" and this is more along the lines of truth. Satan is a creation just like you and I. The duality of good and bad are along the same literal line of truth. You can't have light without the dark via "Reason". ( “duality” is the nature in which anything and everything holds opposing truths: all of which are true) This link highexistence.com... is a really good read to understand duality.

Eve listening to the serpent is like us listening to our lower self.

We create our own adversities within and then such energy is transferred abroad.

All the other dogmatic twists of the truth are just that... dogmatic (inclined to lay down principles as incontrovertibly true).

Im not knocking the Bible at all... Im knocking the interpretation and translations have been lost. People follow teachings blindly.

Even Hermes is said to have been Satan. It's a play on words and if people knew the history of their soul through out times past they would understand their journey is the same as that of the soul of Jesus. Some say Jesus has in times past had other names. Hermes is one of them. Melchizedek another. Job? Also said to be the same soul. If you go back and read about these 3 people you may understand why people have made this judgement. Just as we see in nature... we evolve. We evolve spiritually within eternity because we are here for a purpose and the purpose is known before we enter the womb, to those who watch over us, and in the depths of our soul we know why we are here. We have to rise just as the soul of Jesus. When he died on the cross he said, "it's finished". We will be saying that too when our time on Earth comes to an end for the final time. We will have evolved into at-one-ment.

If the veil were lifted and mist was gone we would all have peace on Earth. What is going on in modern day is from seeds that were sown thousands of years ago to control and cause fear to a mass population and still exists today. Wars and the rumors of wars are caused from said seed. We are in the harvesting stage and spiritual warfare is happening in real time. We are all struggling within to understand the world in which we live and it causes major distress with our spirit. We are slaves to a system we do not like. We are no longer free, but burdened by the darkness.

Light will overcome the darkness, always does. There isn't anything to fear but fear itself. Just as the BIG Bang had order out of chaos so will we. We will eventually come to a state of mind whereas we will all be free of the chaos and the human attributes of self will be obsolete. Order of peace and reason will prevail. "

Not to derail or anything but I am just curious why you use G-d instead of God? If seems if the intent is the same one couldn't be more accepted than the other as far as God is concerned right?

a reply to: sputniksteve

I wrote God like that because I was speaking on behalf of Judaism. I guess a respect thing even though Im not jewish.

a reply to: Mianeye

Also where did Jehovah come from? Because that is an important question as well.

a reply to: Noinden

I would argue (without the ability to be contradicted with indisputable fact) that both sprouted from the minds of man.

Imagination is fun, as are stories about both, but in the end, that's all we have: Fun, imaginative stories that lack real (or any) proof as to the divine (supernatural) details of the stories.

a reply to: SlapMonkey

I'm not going to argue this. Partly because I agree a little, and partly because it'd be off topic. I'm a Polytheist, and my belief is the entities we call Deities are attracted to the ideas we have, when enough of us believe them. I also believe that no deity is supreme, unless you call all of existence a deity. Then we are part of the deity, and thus divine

originally posted by: Noinden
a reply to: Mianeye

Also where did Jehovah come from? Because that is an important question as well.

You can get hot and cold water out of the same faucet. Duality is where good and bad, yin and yang, the devil and god came from.

The name Jehovah gets its roots from El.

a reply to: MamaJ

See your hot and cold water all have a temperature, and I say "what temperature?". Hence I am a polytheist

a reply to: Noinden

Haha... I know you are but what am I?

Room temp... Its neutral.

a reply to: MamaJ

Define room temperature Because that still has a range

a reply to: Noinden

It's all the same temp really. The neutral point. Comfortable and Impartial.

What God's do you believe in or are you under the impression we are all Gods?

originally posted by: Noinden
a reply to: Mianeye

Also where did Jehovah come from? Because that is an important question as well.

Said gods origin comes from an area south of Jordon

Twas an area called YWH long ago...

Basically the tribal god who won...

originally posted by: BlueShaman
All religions need a bad guy, a scary figure that keeps their flock from going astray and that brings in a steady influx of new sheep. Just like the boogeyman is used to scare children into eating their food, Satan is used to scare people into believing and staying loyal to the church and God.

I'm more afraid of spiritual evil as embodied by Hitler for example. A man, until his death, was rewarded by breaking about every "social contract" to gain ultimate power.

If you are more worried about what you can / cannot do than feeding love and charity, then you have lots of growing. It's not about rules. It's about sacrifice and faith for a better world.

a reply to: Mianeye

I'll go with Elaine Pagels' explanation at the bottom of your source and add my own spin.

The Hasids, a Jewish sect whose name translates into "The Holy Ones," were the first group in Judeo-Christian history to seriously discuss Satan, she said. The Hasids lived just before the Common Era and didn't like how the Romans and some of their Jewish collaborators ruled their country, Pagels said.

So, the Hasids withdrew from Jewish society and began preaching about the end of times, when God would destroy all of the evil people, "which meant all of the Romans and all of the Jews who cooperated with them," Pagels said.

The Hasids took a radical position: They said that they were following God, while their enemies had turned to the dark side, possibly without even knowing it. "So now, it's the 'Sons of God' against the 'Sons of Darkness,'" Pagels said. "It's a split Jewish group."
...
The Hasids likely had a big influence on early Christianity, because Jesus and John the Baptist preached similar ideas to those of the Hasids. That is, they said that the end of the world was coming and that God wouldn't tolerate evil people, Pagels said. This meant the Romans and the people working with them, she said.

So you get some zealous/fanatical "holy" people together with a plan to get rid of evil once and for all. Satan is the voice of reason who says, "Hold on a bit. Maybe you should think this through a bit more. Think of the children."

The opposition/satan character often gets killed for his efforts. That's the prelude to greater violence by the "holy" fanatics with the smell of blood fresh in their nostrils.