What is the Bible in terms of its relevancy to Satan? (FIRST LECTURE)
The Bible developed over time. There are different strata that are sometimes mixed up. Older stuff and
newer stuff.
Tanakh stands for: Torah (Teaching), Neviim (Prophets), Ketuviim (Writings) – 24 different writings, all
written anonymously. They were handed down and edited but mostly added to.
Dead Sea Scrolls are some of the oldest copies we have, though not the oldest.
Jewish bible written between 900 – 165 BCE
In 1st ce, the rabbis decided that these 24 books were canon but there were others other noncanonical ones
Septuagint – Greek translation – 70 – myth of the 70 translators
Early Jesus followers used oral. First time stuff was written down was with Paul, the missionary. The Old
Testament was the Septuagint. Has more than 24 books. This was the Bible early Christians read – Paul and
Gospel authors. Possible that Matthew could read the Hebrew bible too but they mostly used Greek.
4 Gospels – story of Jesus. Then letters. Revelation (not Revelations)
In between Jewish and Christian bible writings – there were other stuff
o Aramaic / Syriac Old Testament – 400 CE
o Latin translation of bible (Volgate) by Jerome - (Heronymous)
o Apostolic Fathers – some of them were in the Christian bible but were later taken out
Creation of canon was a debated thing; constantly changing
o Core was stable though
Torah
Gospels
Most gospels were rejected from canon
o Mary Magdalene
o Judas Iscariot
o Infancy gospel of James and Thomas
o Etc
Ancient Jews and Christians wrote in God’s name; pretending to be a prophet or gospel writers
Pseudopigripha – contains hundreds of documents that are falsely ascribed when they’re really anonymous.
Written much later in history than when those people existed or possibly existed.
Protestant Bible – 66 books (founded by Martin Luther – 1517 CE)
o Geneva Bible – 1560 CE (Calvin)
Roman Catholic Bible –
Jewish Bible – 24 books
3 big branches of Christianity – Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox but there are many others and they all
have different branches
Satan begins in the Hebrew bible.
Satan is a Hebrew word that was borrowed into Aramaic.
Satan, the character, began as an invention of Hebrew speakers.
WHAT IS SATAN? SONGS
1. Steven Lynch
a. Whispers seeds of doubt in humankinds’ ear
b. Beast, outcast and fallen angel
c. Old Scratch
d. Capricorn
e. Kills unborn
f. Devil horns, cloven hoods, goatee
g. Mephistopheles
h. Beelzebub
i. Fox news
j. Clubs Baby seals
, k. Hell
l. Son is Steven Lynch
m. Rush Limbaugh
n. Boston Red Sox win
o. Charlie Daniels fiddle
p. 666
WHAT IS SATAN? POWERPOINT
Where is Satan? Bound in Hell or on Earth messing with us
In Inferno – he’s embedded in lowest part of Hell which is solid ice
When did Hell become hot?
If he’s bound in Hell in ice or chains, how does he get around to tempt people?
Michelangelo made Satan female
LECTURE WEEK 1 (August 25th)
Charlie Daniel’s song “Devil went down to Georgia” – Satan lore 20th c.
o Souls
o Steals
o Hell breaking loose
o Devil’s bargain
Hebrew Bible
o No such thing as Hell or the soul
o Yahweh is a proper name of a god
o Nephesh isn’t the soul as we understand it
o Heaven simply means sky. People don’t go there when they die. It’s where God lives.
God has a horse drawn chariot in Elijah story when he goes to heaven
o Sheol - where people go in afterlife.
FALSE: Satan’s real name was Lucifer. When he fell, he became Satan. TRUE: Lucifer is Latin. Latin
didn’t even exist when the word satan was first written in Hebrew.
Knowing the history of something is knowing what’s behind/the causes of what made it what it is.
1 Chronicles 21:1
o The definite article is “ha” – hasatan – the satan
o Hebrew has no capital letters; so, it doesn’t help you in English translations
o Rewrite of II Samuel 24:1 in which YHWH makes David sin so he can punish him – morally icky.
He was mad at Israel and needs an excuse to kill 70,000 people.
o Chronicles is revisionist history of Israel. It cleans up the portrait of YHWH and the heroes. It
takes out YHWH and various kings faults.
o In Chronicles – satan – There is no definite article. So it’s not a proper name because in Hebrew
you can’t have a definite article with a proper name (though in Greek you can). You use a definite
article when… (same rules as French).
o Chronicles – satan means “a satan” or “Satan”. It’s a common noun not a specific definite noun.
There is no indefinite article in Hebrew.
It could be “an adversary” (a common noun) or “Satan” – a proper noun.
Translations interpret it differently. Translations are interpretations. They often get it
wrong because they’re following tradition or don’t put it in the historical context.
Majority makes it a proper name but majority is wrong.
In this context, it seems “satan” has a military context, but that’s not always the case.
Sometimes “satan” is in a court setting; like it’s the attorney general.
Yahweh is the main satan in the Bible.
Job – The Satan tests Job on order of YHWH
Eligwa – a satan of Santeria
Papa Legwa
Isaiah 45 – YHWH does good and evil. He says so.
, Pseuopigrepha – fan fiction
o Claim to be written by famous biblical character
o All Hebrew books are anonymous. Religious Communities put a name on them after the fact.
Apocrypha – 7 books that were part of the Hebrew Bible that were taken out – not part of the narrative.
Some religions keep them. Some don’t.
o Hebrew no
o They were originally part of Christian Old Testament. They were a part of NT, but they put them
in two section.
o Means “hidden”
o Protestant Reformers – They don’t belong in the Bible
Luther said they were bullshit
o Geneva - Taken out of OT and put in separate section
o Created in 100 – 180 BCE in Greek (mostly) (Hebrew Bible latest 165 BCE)
o Catholics call them “Deutero-Canonical” because they find Apocrypha offensive. (Deutero –
secondarily)
o I Maccabees and Ecclesiasticus were originally written in Hebrew.
Sourcery Chapter 1 Supplement:
Sample English Translations of I Chronicles 21:1
NRSV: Satan stood up against Israel, and incited David to count the people of Israel
RSV: Satan stood up against Israel, and incited David to number Israel.
NIV: Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.
Orthodox JB: (Jewish) And Satan stood up against Yisroel, and provoked Dovid to number Yisroel.
Wycliffe: Soothly Satan rose against Israel, and stirred David for to number Israel.
Tree of Life Version: Then satan stood up against Israel and incited David to count Israel.
NET: An adversary[a] opposed[b] Israel, inciting David to count how many warriors Israel had.
a. 1 Chronicles 21:1 tn Or “Satan.” The Hebrew word (שׂ ָטןsatan)
ָ refers to an adversary, typically used without the
article to refer to anyone in an adversarial role. Used with the article in Job 1-2 and Zech 3:1-2, it refers to “The
Satan,” the demonic opponent. Of the heavenly accuser in those passages NIDOTTE (IV, 1231) says that “it is
improbable that a specific demonic being is referred to (a possible exception may be 1 Chr 21:1).” TLOT (p. 1269)
believes that 1 Chr 21:1 represents the first use of “satan” without the article as
a personal name. But see the study note at the end of the verse. Several of the translations that translate Satan have a
footnote that reads: Or, an adversary
Amplified Bible: Satan [the adversary] stood up against Israel and incited David to [a]count [the population of]
Israel. (The Amplified Bible was created to have it both ways)
September 1st Lecture
Summary of Satan Sources:
o Hebrew/Aramaic Sources
Chief God: Yahweh-Elohim
Yahweh-Tsaba’ot (Yahweh of Armies/Lord of Hosts is common translation but it sucks)
, Yahweh ‘ish milhamah (Yahweh is a man of war) – he is a tribal war god (most
lightning/thunder gods have these attributes)
Nefesh – self (later translated as soul but it’s wrong because the authors had no concept
of the modern soul)
Sheol – where people go when they die (not Hell)
Beney-elohim – Sons of gods
Ha-satan – the satan
Ehad mibbeney Elohim – The satan in Job is one of the sons of the gods/or god
o Timeline
900 BCE – earliest evidence of written Hebrew; the religion is polytheistic or monaltrist
800 BCE – Bil’am stories (Numbers 22 – messenger of Yahweh as “satan”
700 BCE – Yahweh is responsible for evil
600 BCE – First edition: Books of Samuel and Kings (I Sam 16; II Sam 24; I Kings 22)
Ca 519 Oracle of Zechariah (ch 3)—hasatan and messanger of YHWH in divine
court
500 BCE – Monotheistic Judaism arises – Yahweh is responsible for evil (Isaiah 45 5- 7
Culture shift – under monotheism – beney-elohim has to be conflated with
angels (this is where we get the concept that Lucifer is son of god as in the show
Lucifer)
400 BCE – Hebrew Torah reaches canonical form (Gen 2-3 and Lev 16 to be used later)
300 BCE – Chronicles revisionist history of Israel – Satan sin articulo (I Chronicles 21:1)
(rewrite of Samuel and Kings)
250 BCE - Septuagint (LXX) – Culture shift – Hebrew ideas translated into Greek with
fusion of Greek and Hebrew religious and philosophical ideas—psyche athanata soma
kakon
Psyche athanata – Immortal/deathless soul
Soma kakon – Evil body
o The body is bad/evil – platonic – prison of the soul
o Many Greek philosophers saw the body, sex, birth as necessary evils
o Philo of Alexandria – Jewish-Greek philosopher 50 BCE – his
worldview was Greek
Women are about the Body – inferior/Men about the Soul
Written by Jews in diaspora (fled wars in Israel). They adopted the language of
the place they were living (in Egypt – aftermath of Alexander the Great’s
conquest – a Greek-speaking Macedonian)
o They Lost Hebrew and Aramaic
o They were culturally Greek
Greeks and Persians had been at war. The Persians had conquered Turkey and
were trying to conquer Greece.
Alexander defeated the Persian empire. Then he conquered other countries like
Egypt, Israel, Babylon, India. He wanted the entire world to be culturally Greek
200 BCE – Pseudepigrapha (Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek, Latin) – fan fiction
Enoch, Jubilees (retell story of Genesis)
o Enoch is the first apocalyptic text we have. The Jewish authors
invented it.
All of reality is divided by two warring factions: Good and
Evil. No mention of Satan but we have predecessors (see
below) – rebellious angels.
They are given a certain amount of reign on Earth.
Origin of Apocalyptic: beney-‘or vs beney-hoshek, fallen angels with chief god:
Mastema, Beelzebub, Beliar/Belial, etc.
Colored by Greek ideas
Genesis 6 – Sons of god/s impregnating mortals – created giants (demi-gods) –
transformed into angels later because God can’t have kids in monotheism. The
later interpretation says that these angels spread evil because their sex polluted
