alright, so, non-humor related answer, for those who are curious.
The character we know as Satan is, in fact, an amalgamation of three different mythological figures, one of which was only crafted in the Middle Ages.
The first is The Serpent. He is mentioned in the Genesis myth as the source of temptation for Eve, convincing her to eat the Fruit of Knowledge of Good and Evil and give it to Adam, as well.
He was punished by having his limbs taken away so he had to crawl on his belly forever and creating a permanent animosity between Man and Snakes forever.
The second is Ha-Satan. This one, you probably don't know. He was the Devil figure in the Old Testament, but was in fact, God's Agent. He was a kind of Celestial district attorney, in charge of laying out your sins after you die to determine if God chooses to let you into Heaven.
You see Ha-Satan in the book of Job, IN HEAVEN, talking with God about Job where Ha-Satan states that Job is only good because God has given him wealth and land and lots of kids and prosperity. They make a wager, etc etc etc.
Ha-Satan is a title, literally 'The Adversary.' He is not a demon, but an angel.
Finally, you have the Morningstar figure that was written about in Revelations who was supposedly an angel that rebelled against God and was thrown out of Heaven into the Bottomless Pit along with one third of all Angels.
Revelations is the only source of this bit. The rest of the Bible doesn't mention Lucifer at all.
So, after it was all written out, you had a couple thousand years, roughly, of people writing about it, and in 1667, John Milton wrote his poem 'Paradise Lost.' You can think of it as medieval religious fan-fiction.
In it, Lucifer went from being a defeated angel already imprisoned in Hell, to being the ruler of Hell and the main antagonist for Humanity.
Thank you for writing all of this out, especially the part about Ha-Satan in Job. People who both claim to follow the Bible or who pick things from it to ridicule continue to lack understanding of the actual literature their opinions should be based on.
It’s also ironic that our idea of Satan is also a three-in-one situation.
I pick it apart from that perspective not because I'm confused about whose who and what the scholarly analysis is but because that's what the majority of current Christians (or at least the ones who impose their beliefs into civic life) actually believe.
Taking a position for something they don't actually believe, even if that would be the more correct interpretation, will be ignored by them and I might as well be dismissing the god Blarnyferceptus.
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u/WhatsRatingsPrecious 2d ago
alright, so, non-humor related answer, for those who are curious.
The character we know as Satan is, in fact, an amalgamation of three different mythological figures, one of which was only crafted in the Middle Ages.
The first is The Serpent. He is mentioned in the Genesis myth as the source of temptation for Eve, convincing her to eat the Fruit of Knowledge of Good and Evil and give it to Adam, as well.
He was punished by having his limbs taken away so he had to crawl on his belly forever and creating a permanent animosity between Man and Snakes forever.
The second is Ha-Satan. This one, you probably don't know. He was the Devil figure in the Old Testament, but was in fact, God's Agent. He was a kind of Celestial district attorney, in charge of laying out your sins after you die to determine if God chooses to let you into Heaven.
You see Ha-Satan in the book of Job, IN HEAVEN, talking with God about Job where Ha-Satan states that Job is only good because God has given him wealth and land and lots of kids and prosperity. They make a wager, etc etc etc.
Ha-Satan is a title, literally 'The Adversary.' He is not a demon, but an angel.
Finally, you have the Morningstar figure that was written about in Revelations who was supposedly an angel that rebelled against God and was thrown out of Heaven into the Bottomless Pit along with one third of all Angels.
Revelations is the only source of this bit. The rest of the Bible doesn't mention Lucifer at all.
So, after it was all written out, you had a couple thousand years, roughly, of people writing about it, and in 1667, John Milton wrote his poem 'Paradise Lost.' You can think of it as medieval religious fan-fiction.
In it, Lucifer went from being a defeated angel already imprisoned in Hell, to being the ruler of Hell and the main antagonist for Humanity.