Why in Judaism, there is no Devil

Trypho the Jew to Justin Martyr: "The utterances of God are holy, but your expositions are mere contrivances, as is plain from what has been explained by you; nay, even blasphemies, for you assert that angels sinned and revolted from God." transl. P. Schaff Early Christian Fathers

Who said the following?:

"Follow him through the city and kill everyone whose forehead is not marked. Show no mercy; have no pity! Kill them all – old and young, girls and women and little children. But do not touch anyone with the mark. Begin your task right here at the Temple."

"The people of Samaria must bear the consequences of their guilt because they rebelled against their God. They will be killed by an invading army, their little ones dashed to death against the ground, their pregnant women ripped open by swords."

Hint:

"You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or worship them. For I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their father's wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation"

Answer: YHWH, a.k.a. Yahweh; Jehovah, god of the Jews.


According to Wikipedia:

The Talmud mentions the Satan in many places. In all of these places, the Satan is an agent of God, and has no independent existence. Sometimes the Satan is conflated with various demons, such as Asmodai. At times there is even some sympathy for him. Commenting on the Book of Job, the rabbis express sympathy that his job was to "break the barrel but not spill any wine."[20]

In Kabbalistic literature and its derivative, Hasidic literature, the Satan is seen as an agent of God whose job is to tempt one into sin, and then turn around and accuse the sinner on high. An additional understanding of Satan is from a parable to a prostitute who is hired by the King (God) to tempt his son (a Jew). The prostitute has to do the best she can to tempt the son; but deep down she hopes the son will pass the test. Similarly, Kabbalistic/Hasidic thought sees the Satan in the same situation. His job is to tempt us as best he can, and then turn around and accuse us; deep down, however, he hopes we will resist his blandishments.


In case the connection hasn't yet been made, Christians and Muslims believe in the Fall of Lucifer, yet in Judaism, there never was a rebellion against God. Jews, for the most part, do not believe in the Devil.
Are you able to see why?

In Judaism "satan" is not a sentient being but a metaphor for the evil inclination – the yetzer hara – that exists in every person and tempts us to do wrong.

The Hebrew word "satan" literally means "adversary" and in Jewish thought one of the things we struggle against every day is the "evil inclination," also known as the yetzer hara.

Sounds better than inventing a red guy with horns and a tail, spiting fire to scare the crap out of people if they do wrong - btw not a jew or christian

Interesting read, but you arrive at the same conclusion either way. That Lucifer is a tempter and accuser, and we should do what we can to avoid him. I imagine it's difficult to define good without the foil of rebellion/sin/evil.

reply to post by 1nOne


The idea that anything including an angel, can attempt to overthrow God is ludicrous.

I say the so called "war in heaven" never actually happened... it was fabricated nonsence...

IF the Devil actually exists... he is doing the job God gave him... Which is to tempt people to turn from God.

I think that Yahweh is lord of this world and is also Satan. He is not the God Jesus speaks of.
Yahweh wants to be worshiped by earthlings and he doesn't want our souls to leave this place after physical death, the light when we die is a spirit magnet so that we don't leave this earth. He isn't the true universal God, if he was, he wouldn't be jealous or afraid that people would worship another.

We are children of Satan, a lesser God, that doesn't want us to leave this eternal cycle of death, pain and sin. The time I traveled out of my body, I couldn't exit the earth. There seems to be a prison cell over the earth, I guess it's keep the cycle in place.

I believe we need to break this cycle to go back to heaven and then judgment day will happen. Satan doesn't want this day to come and built a cycle that we are stuck in.

Permit me to also enlighten those in ignorance to the fact that most modern English translations of the New Testament have been infiltrated and hence corrupted by the Seed of Cain.

For example, Jesus and the Apostles never once said, wrote or even alluded to Yahweh or Jehovah in the gospels. Instead, they used the words, "Theos" (God), "Kurios" (Lord), and "Pater" (Father). If you are in possession of a New Testament Bible that uses the words, "Yahweh", or "Jehovah", this is a blatant revision of text not to mention a patent lie concerning who was actually worshipped.

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; 1 Timothy 4:1

And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. Matthew 24:11

For such [are] false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 2 Corinthians 11:13-14

Furthermore, if you pay close attention to what Jesus and His Apostles truly said in the NT, it becomes very clear that the Heavenly Father, the Holy Spirit of whom they speak, is NOT Yahweh, god of the Jews.

These holy men were martyred by the Jews for a reason. Do them justice and rediscover why.

The greatest conspiracy of modern times.

reply to post by 1nOne


Not to mention the fact that the OT God routinely breaks his own commandments....

The fact is, people like a good superhero story, with a good guy versus and evil guy. It makes people feel good about themselves to think that evil is something almost tangible, easily distinguished from good, that they can fight against. Christians and Muslims borrow a lot of conflict myth from the Zoroastrians, who came up with the popular notion of good/light versus bad/darkness.

If you're really going monotheistic all the way, though, with a cosmic superentity of infinite power and omniscience, there's no way to logically justify there being any kind of realistic rival to him/it. God is both supreme good and evil, and what you really need to fear is not some pointy-eared monkey tempting you to shack up with your neighbor's wife, you need to fear God, who often lets the good suffer and the wicked thrive, and at a moment's notice can turn your life into suffering agony for no discernible reason.

And from there, it's just a few quick mental steps to replace "God" with "chance," and you've freed yourself from sin and all the foolish guilt associated with it. But then you have to start making decisions based on social responsibility, which is too much for some stupid people to figure out. So they just stick with the comic books and superhero stories.

So god creates his own adversary? Ridiculous. Not only that, but said adversary revolted in heaven in pursuit of his own kingdom to rule. God casts him down to hell where "the light of God does not shine". God is not present in Hell thus souls sigh and are tortured without hope of ever being near God. So, Satan rules over Hell, which is for him only to oversee without God's presence therefore Satan got what he wanted by revolting! Satan won the heavenly war lmao! Not only that, but he walks the earth freely and even bets and competes with god for souls making them opposites yet equal. I dont know how equal though since God is extremely bloodthirsty, cruel and will show absolute favoritism towards a small population of his human creation, something Satan is not shown to be as he is only portrayed as a tempter.

The notion of the devil is pure fairytale garbage that has no place in the new millenium. I understand that this wannabe satyr makes an excellent excuse when caught committing a criminal or immoral act. Just utter the phrase "the devil made me do it", belch out a few hail marys and you're set with a blank slate!

There is no devil more wicked, degenerate, murderous or inescrupulous than a human being.

Want to see the REAL incarnations of Satan? Turn on your tv and tune in on FOX News, CNN, MSNBC, etc.
Instant TRUE satans on your screen. The hell I say, those on your screen would actually make the biblical devil run for cover! The wickedness of an entity that commits genocide after genocide, ending thousands if not millions of children's hopes and dreams, loving embraces and bright futures all for plunder and profit is leagues beyond any fairytale Pan figure.

The devil is a myth, but infinite human cruelty is real.

YHWH is Enki.

The jews stole from the Sumerians.

reply to post by Snoopy1978


And who owns FOX News, CNN, MSNBC....?

Who is pushing Christian nations into a war with the Muslims, again?

Satan is seen as an agent of God whose job is to tempt one into sin, and then turn around and accuse the sinner on high. An additional understanding of Satan is from a parable to a prostitute who is hired by the King (God) to tempt his son (a Jew). The prostitute has to do the best she can to tempt the son; but deep down she hopes the son will pass the test. Similarly, Kabbalistic/Hasidic thought sees the Satan in the same situation. His job is to tempt us as best he can, and then turn around and accuse us; deep down, however, he hopes we will resist his blandishments.

Sounds like an FBI agent.

reply to post by 1nOne


Seriously? I have to tackle a few a week of these 'Yahweh is the devil' posts on ATS.

Firstly, I'm a bit confused as why you proceeded to rail against English translations then quoted the ROOT of the mistranslation, the Greek Septuagint. There is still debate as to if Jesus even spoke Greek, AND we know that the first gospel, the gospel of Matthew was translated from the Logia which was written in Hebrew. Don't even get me started on the blatant, grievous mistranslations of the Septuagint.

I perfer and encourage the reading of Masoretic Bible. The word LORD in Hebrew, is the PROPER name of God. It is transliterated to YAHWEH. Now, we understand that the sacred tetragrammaton, which could not be spoken, has been lost through time. It would make sense, that Yeshua hypothetically if he knew the true name of God did not say it for obvious reasons?

Originally posted by PageAlaCearl
In Judaism "satan" is not a sentient being but a metaphor for the evil inclination – the yetzer hara – that exists in every person and tempts us to do wrong.

The Hebrew word "satan" literally means "adversary" and in Jewish thought one of the things we struggle against every day is the "evil inclination," also known as the yetzer hara.

Sounds better than inventing a red guy with horns and a tail, spiting fire to scare the crap out of people if they do wrong - btw not a jew or christian

edit on 6-3-2012 by PageAlaCearl because: (no reason given)

I am a Christian and I support this interpretation. I reject the assumptions of the OP to claim there's a universal belief in a literal Satan/devil in Scripture.

Originally posted by Akragon
reply to post by 1nOne

 

The idea that anything including an angel, can attempt to overthrow God is ludicrous.

Yeah it is. Satan fell because he desired worship, not for trying a coup de tat.

I say the so called "war in heaven" never actually happened... it was fabricated nonsence...

Why would Jesus lie about that?

reply to post by CaptainNemo

Seriously? I have to tackle a few a week of these 'Yahweh is the devil' posts on ATS.

The funniest way to get them to shut up is to bring up what "Eliyahu" (Elijah) means in Aramaic.

Originally posted by 1nOne
reply to post by Snoopy1978

 

Who is pushing Christian nations into a war with the Muslims, again?

Same as always..


"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Ephesians 6:12

Originally posted by Akragon
reply to post by 1nOne

 

Not to mention the fact that the OT God routinely breaks his own commandments....

No He doesn't, He's God not man.

Mommy tells her 3 year-old children they cannot drink whiskey, yet mom drinks whiskey every Friday and Saturday night. Mom breaks her own rules?

No, mommy's rule was for the children, not mommy.

Originally posted by 1nOne
reply to post by Snoopy1978

 

And who owns FOX News, CNN, MSNBC....?

Who is pushing Christian nations into a war with the Muslims, again?

Exactly. Humans who will stop at nothing to spread their agenda. No demons here, just pure HUMAN greed, arrogance and blood thirst! There's no worse demon than a greedy, murderous fascist human.

Originally posted by NOTurTypical

Originally posted by Akragon
reply to post by 1nOne

 

Not to mention the fact that the OT God routinely breaks his own commandments....

No He doesn't, He's God not man.

Mommy tells her 3 year-old children they cannot drink whiskey, yet mom drinks whiskey every Friday and Saturday night. Mom breaks her own rules?

No, mommy's rule was for the children, not mommy.

edit on 7-3-2012 by NOTurTypical because: (no reason given)

We are not kindergarteners here so please address us as adults.

Maybe you do need things explained in toddler terms, perhaps?

Here goes:

If sin is not appropriate for us "kids" and "Godmommy" can sin as he pleases, then he's a hypocrite. You are not actually equating drinking whisky with torture and genocide, are you? You know the commandments order us not to kill yet God has killed innocent men, women and children in extremely brutal ways.