Before Satan was a Bad Guy

Before Satan was a Bad Guy

I found a pretty good short video giving some of the background info on the evolution of Satan as a character, as opposed to a satan as an obstruction or opponent.


What I thought I'd do is look at the first instance of a satan recorded in the Bible. It's Numbers 22:22.

22But God was angry because he was going, and the angel of the LORD took his stand in the way as an adversary[satan] against him. Now he was riding on his donkey and his two servants were with him.

For "as an adversary" there is the Hebrew word לְשָׂטָ֣ן, pronounced "lə·śā·ṭān", it's a preposition linked to a common noun. Other common nouns which could fit here would be an obstruction, or barrier. Like walls, dams, doors which must be opened in order to go through a doorway.

The story, of course, is the story of Balaam son of Beor. The prophet of God, the LORD, who contracted to curse the "Exodus Israelites before they could sweep in and possess the land".

So God was angry and sent an angel of the LORD to be a satan (blocker of the way).

There is a bit of extra Biblical info about Balaam, son of Beor. His house was found in 1967, at Deir Alla, Jordan. He wrote some vision and prophecy stuff on the walls of his house between 880–770 BCE. Biblical scholars avoid the subject because it sort of dates Balaam a long time after the "Exodus". Plus, he was obviously a polytheist. see: Deir_Alla_inscription

This evolution of Satan from being say a dam on a river to being The Dam which wants, desires, and schemes to destroy fishing and lead the city to death by starvation, is kind of like anthropomorphism. "The Volcano really wants to kill us." It's okay if you are an animist. Nothing wrong with that.

Before Satan was a bad guy, it wasn't a guy at all.

Balance .

All is in Balance . The Pendulum swings one way and is guaranteed to swing the other.

Jesus needed Judas.

God needs Satan.

Evil is a manifestation of Human Beings. Evil continues because Humans continue to commit evil acts.

My Favorite Bible verse . JOB 38:11 When I said,
‘This far you may come, but no farther,
And here your proud waves must stop!’

My interpretation of what Satan is from reading the bible over the years is that he is the angel or entity that tests our worthiness. One of the authors of the reality we live in.

I personally do not have anything against Satan, we do not have to take the bait he dangles in front of us. He gives us our test and god uses him to test us. Supposedly he wagers with god....I wonder what they use for money in their bets? He is god's adversary, not an enemy....after all he is one of god's angels. People blame Satan when his temptations lead to them doing bad things...Satan only tempts them, he does not force them to turn against god. Job was tested by Satan, with god's approval and passed his test eventually.

Don't actually know what the Devil or Demons are yet, but I think that people possessed by the devil are actually people who have turned evil...a human trait. Demons, might be the souls of people and possibly even animals that did not pass the test of righteousness and were not allowed to go to where good souls go. Heaven is where few really good souls go from what I read, then there is the collective consciousness of the good souls and also another place for the collective consciousness of the bad souls...maybe in some place called hell for the bad.

That is how I am interpreting things, not the same as I was taught in sunday schools and in church, but much of it actually intertwines with how I was taught when I was young. I do believe in God, the collective consciousness of all that exists, and in the local entity which is earths good collective consciousness of everything on this planet...they are both entities that have great power. Satan, sometimes referred to as Samael tries to deceive people into going away from god...one who delivers the test of rightiousness. I do not know if Lucifer is the same as samael and satan for sure. Lucifer does not seem to match the other angels name styles.

I spent some time...actually a lot of time studying this subject and the primordial human language. I personally have nothing against Satan, face it, why would I try to thrash at an angel when all I have to do is resist his temptations. I am not perfect, I have fallen for his temptations in the past, but now I have got pretty good at deflecting temptations to do things that are not right. I am sure no angel, but I could turn into a demon if I did not have coffee.

a reply to: asabuvsobelow

A perfect balance would require equal but opposite forces. That's kind of what Zoroastrianism is.

I don't know very much about Zoroastrianism, like what purpose a fire temple serves. When I found some Youtube videos by the leading expert living in the U.S. I got distracted by the ethics he was explaining.

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I found the explanation of teleological method of History toward the end of the video rather interesting. I sort of grew up with that outlook, like "Of course it was destined for Greece to beat Persia in the Battle of Marathon and the Battle of Salamis, else the present wouldn't be the present."

I eventually came to label that way of thinking Chauvinism of the Present.

a reply to: rickymouse

why would I try to thrash at an angel when all I have to do is resist his temptations.

I am no Platonist so I never had any reason to consider the intangible(idea) as more real than the actual. So pesky "demons" pretty much don't bother me. My "demons" don't actually communicate anything, just sort of stand there for a short time.
///Disclaimer/// That isn't a normal everyday sort of thing. It was a few months about 30 years ago. I chalk it up to extreme emotional messed-up-ness. No way of verifying if it was hallucination or not, and I use the Pagan definition of demon, "of divine origin". It's sort of etymologically correct.

Now coffee is an interesting topic: Some people need it, some don't. I drink about two pots a day; half of the 2nd pot within an hour of going to bed. I can't sleep a whole 6 or 7 hours straight without being fully caffeinated. I should check sometime how far that puts me out of the normal curve.