A wonderful history in this article... especially the Zoroastrian influence. Could it be bookended with another piece on the prime Canaanite religion and its influence in early Judaism? And how the war-god/ storm-god supplanted El/Baal?
Thanks so much, glad the Zoroastrian thread landed for you. And yes, that's a piece I'd love to write. The Canaanite backstory is arguably where the whole story starts.
The short version is: El, Yahweh, and Baal merged into one, and each has its own story.
Satan begins as a prosecutor and gets transformed (plagiarized really) by the new testament writers into Angra Mainyu ~ the king of darkness, and a handy scapegoat for everyone who needs to find someone other than themselves to blame for their bad actions and heinous deeds.
I did already know that the new testament writers created the Satan they needed for the Hell they wanted, but I sincerely appreciate how you always find the facts and fill in the details Tanner.
Ha,seems like God's (children)always needed a fall guy to explain their weakness. Seven deadly sins , ect. Human nature hasn't changed from the first cognisant thought to today's expanded consciousness. It seems like all the thoughts and wisdom placed on paper were just a justification of existence. The haves and have-nots is the same tiresome story, and a justification for any form of redemption. Just my personal opinion.
Beautifully put. The fall guy has always been useful machinery for explaining away what people would rather not own, and I appreciate you thinking it through here.
If you equate God with Life, let’s say God, that living spark in all of us, is Life; then Life brings us Joys and also sorrows. So God (creates, allows, prevents) all of these things in life and most of what happens to us is a result of our choices. We make our own heaven and hell as we live our lives. God is Life and life is God makes sense when you think about it, doesn’t it?
The God-as-Life view removes the problem of evil rather than solving it. The problem needs a separate God who has the power to stop suffering and declines to, so you can ask why he allows it. Merge God into Life and no separate agent remains to hold responsible, so the question has nothing to attach to. It stops being askable, not answered.
That said, I'm glad the distinction held, because the alternative curdles fast. Once suffering becomes something God metes out for reasons, every victim starts looking like a defendant. The raped woman must have done something. The sick child must be paying a debt. Keeping God out of the ledger is what protects people from having their pain read as a verdict.
A bit I only know the outlines of, is that while Christianity leans fully into Satan, Rabbinic Judaism mostly abandoned the figure as time went on, as the two religions diverged.
The Persian Empire employed overseers to monitor the satraps and ensure loyalty (faithfulness). This meant that the satraps would report on each other, since not reporting suggested collaboration. We see this in Nehemiah, when Sanballat reports to the Emperor that Nehemiah is building a wall around Jerusalem.
The Persians got the practice from the Assyrians, who got it from the Akkadians.
I believe a good translation of ha-satan is Grand Inquisitor.
A wonderful history in this article... especially the Zoroastrian influence. Could it be bookended with another piece on the prime Canaanite religion and its influence in early Judaism? And how the war-god/ storm-god supplanted El/Baal?
Thanks so much, glad the Zoroastrian thread landed for you. And yes, that's a piece I'd love to write. The Canaanite backstory is arguably where the whole story starts.
The short version is: El, Yahweh, and Baal merged into one, and each has its own story.
Satan begins as a prosecutor and gets transformed (plagiarized really) by the new testament writers into Angra Mainyu ~ the king of darkness, and a handy scapegoat for everyone who needs to find someone other than themselves to blame for their bad actions and heinous deeds.
I did already know that the new testament writers created the Satan they needed for the Hell they wanted, but I sincerely appreciate how you always find the facts and fill in the details Tanner.
Ha,seems like God's (children)always needed a fall guy to explain their weakness. Seven deadly sins , ect. Human nature hasn't changed from the first cognisant thought to today's expanded consciousness. It seems like all the thoughts and wisdom placed on paper were just a justification of existence. The haves and have-nots is the same tiresome story, and a justification for any form of redemption. Just my personal opinion.
Beautifully put. The fall guy has always been useful machinery for explaining away what people would rather not own, and I appreciate you thinking it through here.
If you equate God with Life, let’s say God, that living spark in all of us, is Life; then Life brings us Joys and also sorrows. So God (creates, allows, prevents) all of these things in life and most of what happens to us is a result of our choices. We make our own heaven and hell as we live our lives. God is Life and life is God makes sense when you think about it, doesn’t it?
The God-as-Life view removes the problem of evil rather than solving it. The problem needs a separate God who has the power to stop suffering and declines to, so you can ask why he allows it. Merge God into Life and no separate agent remains to hold responsible, so the question has nothing to attach to. It stops being askable, not answered.
That said, I'm glad the distinction held, because the alternative curdles fast. Once suffering becomes something God metes out for reasons, every victim starts looking like a defendant. The raped woman must have done something. The sick child must be paying a debt. Keeping God out of the ledger is what protects people from having their pain read as a verdict.
A bit I only know the outlines of, is that while Christianity leans fully into Satan, Rabbinic Judaism mostly abandoned the figure as time went on, as the two religions diverged.
The Persian Empire employed overseers to monitor the satraps and ensure loyalty (faithfulness). This meant that the satraps would report on each other, since not reporting suggested collaboration. We see this in Nehemiah, when Sanballat reports to the Emperor that Nehemiah is building a wall around Jerusalem.
The Persians got the practice from the Assyrians, who got it from the Akkadians.
I believe a good translation of ha-satan is Grand Inquisitor.