The Satan
the SATAN How God’s Executioner Became the Enemy Ryan E. Stokes
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Grand Rapids, Michigan
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 4035 Park East Court SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546 www.eerdmans.com © 2019 Ryan E. Stokes All rights reserved Published 2019 Printed in the United States of America 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ISBN 978-0-8028-7250-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Stokes, Ryan E., 1977– author. Title: The Satan : how God’s executioner became the enemy / Ryan E. Stokes. Description: Grand Rapids, Michigan : William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018056929 | ISBN 9780802872500 (pbk. : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Devil—History of doctrines. | Devil—Biblical teaching. Classification: LCC BT982 .S76 2019 | DDC 235/.47—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018056929
To the one who shared our flesh and blood so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death
Contents
Foreword by John J. Collins
xi
Preface xv Abbreviations xxiv 1. The Origin of the Satan
1
The Satan Tradition in the Hebrew Scriptures
3
What Is a Satan?
6
The Angel of Yahweh as a Satan in Numbers 22
10
The Satan Rebuked by the Angel of Yahweh in Zechariah 3
12
The Satan Who Stands against Israel in 1 Chronicles 21 What Kind of Satan Stands against Israel? Reading the Census Story in Light of the Balaam Narrative
17 18 21
Early Notions of God’s Executioner
26
2. The Satan and the Innocent Job
29
The Composition of the Job Story
30
The Satan as Attacker/Executioner
40
The Satan Attacks an Innocent Person
43
Is the Satan an “Accuser” in Job?
45
The Contributions of Job to the Satan Tradition
46
vii
Contents 3. Demons, Evil Spirits, Fallen Angels, and Human Sin
48
Taxonomies and Terminology for Harmful Superhuman Beings 48 Demons, Evil Spirits, and the Sons of God in the Hebrew Scriptures Šēdîm, “Demons” Evil Spirits Sons of God Demons, Evil Spirits, and the Sons of Heaven in the Book of the Watchers The Watchers and Forbidden Knowledge The Origin and Activity of Evil Spirits Demons, Evil Spirits, Fallen Angels, and the Worship of False Gods Superhuman Beings and Human Sin 4. The Prince of Mastema and His Deceptive Spirits
50 51 52 59 61 62 63 69 73 75
Interpreting Jubilees
75
Taxonomy, Terminology, and Titles for Harmful Superhuman Beings Satanic Titles and Terminology Designations for Demons and Evil Spirits
79 81 87
The Prince of Mastema, Deceptive Spirits, and the Nations The Danger of Deceptive Spirits The Prince of Mastema, Chief of the Deceptive Spirits Evil Spirits and the Election of Israel
88 88 90 94
The Satan and the Deception of the Nations
98
5. The Prince of Mastema, Enemy of God’s People
100
The Prince of Mastema Attempts to Harm God’s People The Prince of Mastema Causes a Famine The Prince of Mastema Tests Abraham The Prince of Mastema Assists the Egyptians
100 101 101 105
viii
Contents Two Perspectives on the Prince of Mastema
109
The Prince of Mastema as “Accuser”
111
Jubilees on the Origin of Evil
115
Unity and Diversity in the Portrayal of the Satan in Jubilees
118
6. Demons, Evil Spirits, the Satan, and Human Responsibility for Sin
120
Human Responsibility for Sin according to the Wisdom of Ben Sira
121
Demons, Evil Spirits, and Human Responsibility for Sin in the Epistle of Enoch Lawlessness Was Not Sent upon the Earth Demons and Evil Spirits as Mere Objects of Worship
126 128 134
“Evil Inclination” instead of the Satan in Barkhi Nafshi?
138
The Satan and Human Responsibility for Sin in the Epistle of James
139
Superhuman Beings and Human Responsibility for Sin in Early Jewish Literature
141
7. Belial, Sin, and Sectarianism
142
The Corpus of the Dead Sea Scrolls
142
Taxonomies, Terminology, and Titles for Harmful Superhuman Beings Demons Spirits Satans Other Harmful Superhuman Beings
143 144 145 146 148
Melchiresha in the Visions of Amram
149
Belial in the Damascus Document
152
Are Belial and the Prince/Angel of Mastema the Same Person? 160 Belial in the Rule of the Community
163
The Dead Sea Scrolls, the Satan, and Sin
165 ix
Contents 8. Belial and the Powers of Darkness
167
The Angel of Darkness in the Treatise on the Two Spirits The Two Spirits The Angel of Darkness
167 168 173
Belial, the Enemy, in the War Rule Belial, Sin, and Punishment Belial and the Sons of Darkness versus Israel Belial versus God
181 183 185 189
Etiologies of Maleficent Superhuman Beings
190
The Question of Zoroastrian Influence
191
The Satan as Leader of the Forces of Darkness
194
9. The Satan in the New Testament
195
Taxonomies, Terminology, and Titles for Harmful Superhuman Beings Ho satanas, “(the) Satan” Ho diabolos, “the Adversary”
196 198 201
The Activity of the Satan The Satan and Sin The Satan as Attacker The Satan as God’s Agent and as God’s Enemy
202 204 205 208
The Accuser of the Comrades
210
Excursus: Satans in the Book of Parables
214
The Ancient Serpent
216
10. Conclusion
221
Bibliography
227
Index of Authors
255
Index of Subjects
260
Index of Ancient Sources
264
x
Foreword
T
he great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him” (Rev 12:9). So says the book of Revelation, narrating a vision of John of Patmos. In John’s vision, Satan was thrown down from heaven because the followers of Jesus had defeated him “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not cling to life even in the face of death” (12:11). This casting down, however, was not the final demise of Satan. Later we read that after Christ appears from heaven as a warrior riding a white horse, an angel seizes “the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan,” binds him for a thousand years, and throws him into the pit (20:2–3). Even then he is not finished. After the thousand years are ended, Satan is released from his prison and comes out to deceive the nations and gather them for battle. His host is destroyed, however, by fire from heaven, and Satan himself is finally thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, to “be tormented day and night forever” (20:10). The book of Revelation does not describe the full history of Satan, but it provides hints to show that he has a history. His role in this world is said to escalate in the latter days when he is cast down from heaven. That he is variously known as the dragon, the ancient serpent, and the Devil hints that the figure we know as Satan has a complex history and various identities. Even Revelation does not yet assign to him the role for which he is best known in modern times, that of torturer of the damned in hell. Satan as he appears in the book of Revelation is a prince of evil, the main adversary of God and Christ in the end time. It may come as a surprise to Christian readers that no such figure is known in the Hebrew Bible. xi
Foreword The closest analogue, perhaps, is the figure to which Revelation refers as the dragon. In many ancient Near Eastern cultures, the process of creation is thought to have involved a battle between the creator god and a sea monster—Tiamat in the Babylonian Enuma Elish, Yamm (Sea) in the Canaanite Baal myth known from texts found at Ugarit in northern Syria. We find allusions to similar creation stories in the poetic books of the Hebrew Bible. So Job 26:12: “By his power he stilled the Sea; by his understanding he struck down Rahab.” Or again, in Isa 51:9: “Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord! Awake as in days of old, the generations of long ago! Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon?” In Isa 27:1, the battle with the monster is projected into the future: “On that day, the Lord with his cruel and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.” When Daniel sees the four winds of heaven stirring up the great sea, and four great beasts coming up out of it (Dan 7), this too is a reflection of the same mythic tradition, as indeed is the beast from the sea in the book of Revelation. But while the dragon is an eschatological adversary of God, it is not a force of moral evil. It rather represents chaos—all the forces that threaten life and flourishing. It can represent natural forces or political entities, but it is not usually concerned with individuals. It is not a tempter, nor one who leads people astray. The idea of the tempter is associated in popular imagination especially with the snake in the garden of Eden, the “ancient serpent” of Revelation. But the snake in Genesis is not a supernatural agent. Rather the story in Genesis is a fable that expresses the lure of temptation in a literary way. It was not until the first century CE that the snake was identified with the devil (in Wis 2:24, written in Alexandria about the time of Christ). The figure of Satan does appear in the Hebrew Bible. Best known is his appearance in the book of Job, where he serves Yahweh by going to and fro upon the earth and testing people. Here he is clearly God’s agent and has not yet been expelled from the heavenly council. Ryan Stokes makes the case that originally “the satan” was God’s executioner. The expression “the satan” is not a proper name but refers to a role. In the story of Balaam in Num 22, it can even be played by the angel of Yahweh. In Job, however, this figure is transformed into one who also attacks the righteous. The book of Job, then, is pivotal in the development of the figure of Satan, even though he is still far from the character described in the book of Revelation. xii
Foreword The crucial period for the development of the figure of Satan, however, was the Hellenistic age, especially the last two centuries before the Common Era. The Book of the Watchers, in 1 En. 1–36, tells the story of the fallen angels, or watchers, who beget evil spirits on the earth. These evil spirits have much in common with the demons of Mesopotamian incantation texts. Unlike the evil spirit that troubled Saul in 1 Samuel, these spirits are not affiliated with God. Unlike the Mesopotamian demons, they not only afflict people with illness but become instigators of sin. In the book of Jubilees, the leader of these evil spirits is called Mastema, but his character is that traditionally associated with Satan. When Noah’s sons beseech God to banish these spirits, Mastema lodges an appeal, asking God to let some of them remain: “For if some are not left me, I shall not be able to exercise over men the authority I want; for these are destined for corruption and to be led astray” ( Jub. 10:7–8). Remarkably, God agrees. One-tenth of the evil spirits are allowed to remain on earth, while nine-tenths descend to the place of punishment. The mythology of evil spirits underwent further development in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Here the leader of evil spirits is given other names, most prominently Belial. (The word is used in the Hebrew Bible, but not as a proper name. “Sons of Belial” is a designation for “evil people.”) Most significant is the Treatise on the Two Spirits in the Community Rule (1QS 3–4). Here we are told that when God created human beings, he gave them two spirits, one of light and one of darkness. These struggle within the hearts of individuals and incline them toward good or evil. God has assigned them equal measure until the final judgment. Another text from the scrolls, the War Rule, describes a final battle between the children of Light, led by the archangel Michael, and the children of Darkness, led by Belial. The battle is divided into seven phases. The forces of Light and the forces of Darkness each prevail in three phases until God intervenes decisively in the final phase. The mythology of evil in the Dead Sea Scrolls is distinctive in ancient Judaism in two respects. First, the Treatise on the Two Spirits is unambiguous in claiming that God created the spirit of Darkness as well as the spirit of Light. In the older mythology, the dragon and the Sea seem to have an existence independent of God. The fallen angels of Enoch and Jubilees are created, but their intervention on earth is originally a rebellion. Nonetheless, the rebellion is qualified in Jubilees, where the evil spirits receive divine permission to continue to lead human beings astray. In the scrolls, however, Belial and the Angel of Darkness (who are presumably the same xiii
Foreword figure) do the will of God, mysterious though it may be, although they are not less evil for that reason. Second, the dualism of the scrolls is evenly balanced between the forces of good and evil. In Enoch and Jubilees, the fallen angels and their progeny are agents of disruption in a good creation. In the scrolls the world is divided evenly until the time of judgment. There can be little doubt that the distinctive dualism of the scrolls is influenced to a degree by Zoroastrianism, which also divided the world between Light and Darkness, although the channels of influence are obscure. This is not to say that the scrolls reproduce the Zoroastrian system. On the contrary, they adapt it to reconcile it with Judaism. One of the notable differences between the scrolls and Zoroastrianism is that people are predestined to good or evil in the scrolls, whereas the Persian system insisted on freedom of choice. The Satan of the NT, then, was heir to complex traditions, and was indeed a complex personality. Passages that speak of Satan draw on different traditions, and these are not fully reconciled. Satan continued to evolve after the NT period. He appears as a prominent figure in two of the classic works of Western literature, Dante’s Inferno and Milton’s Paradise Lost. Dante’s Satan is a grotesque giant lacking in personality. Milton’s Satan is a proud rebel, who thinks it better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven. Satan (Shaitan) is also a major figure in Islam, where he is granted divine permission to mislead Adam and his descendants. Ryan Stokes has done a masterful job in showing how the understanding of Satan developed in the biblical tradition. In so doing, he uncovers different nuances in the phenomena of temptation, sin, and life-threatening evil that have beset humanity since ancient times and are still very much with us today. John J. Collins Holmes Professor of Old Testament Yale Divinity School
xiv