Satan

The Book of Job, part 6: Satan

The mainstream Jewish view of Satan emanates from the Book of Job. Satan is seen as the Adversary or Prosecutor, an agent of G-d, very much part of the divine council, that searches out the individual's wrongdoings and appears as their accuser. This notion differs from mainstream Christian notions of Satan as some demonic fallen angel who opposes G-d or personifies evil in a war in heaven between the forces of good and evil. Satan in earlier Christian thought and certainly the dragon of the Book of Revelations is far from the description present in Job.

The view of Satan in Judaism conforms to the notion of free will present in mainstream Jewish thought. Jews see themselves as born with the ability to chose between good and bad. Within each human being is a Yetzer Tov and a Yetzer Hora, an inclination to do good and another to do evil. G-d commands us to choose good. As the concept of Satan evolved, he is very much associated with the yetzer hora (evil inclination) and seen as prosecutor and sometimes as tempter.

However, in Jewish Biblical literature Satan is not seen a fallen angel or some rebel on the loose trying to overpower G-d. Most Aggadic references to Satan in the Talmud see a more independent being but still one who tests our heroes (a rewrite of the story of Abraham shows Satan in this light). Jews have the notion that G-d is all-powerful so a challenge by Satan does not make sense. The G-d vs Satan/Lucifer idea present in some forms of Christianity lends itself to a more dualistic approach. Many scholars believe that both early Christianity and some forms of first century Judaism were heavily influenced by the Zoroastrian idea of dualism.

Different concepts of the source of evil, role of Satan and notions of salvation and redemption produces an interesting challenge for Jews and Christians and nowhere more so than in their relation to each other.

Christians believe that humans are born stained with sin. Jews do not believe that humans are born inherently sinful, but with a choice. Christians believe that only through the Messiah (and his crucifixion) can we be free from sin. Jews believe that redemption can come from true repentance, prayer and acts of charity. For Jews, the Messiah will come to deliver redemption in some eschatological (end of time) event but not necessarily in terms of exclusive salvation for Jews for those outside the faith need to observe seven simple Noachide Laws to stay on the straight and narrow. Ultimately, these differences led to irreconcilable schism and two thousand years of embittered relations.

Christianity's traditional theology focuses on an exclusive mode of salvation, and, therefore the authorities soon categorised the world into the saved and the damned: those who followed the 'true path' of Christianity were saved and the rest damned. Pluralism was not tolerated. Hence, the Middle Ages saw burnings of Christian heretics, a simple way to purge wrongful beliefs. Jews were already portrayed as beyond the pale or worse: some Christian theologians saw them as blind to the "coming of the messiah", whilst others quite literally demonized them. Medieval European cathedrals today still have statues of the fallen and blindfolded Synagoga standing beside a triumphant Ecclesia. St Augustine believed that Jews had been left to wander the earth as a "damned people" and later Christian rulers promoted anti-Judaic measures such as ghettoes, the wearing of special clothing and the banning of Jews from trades and from time-to-time Jews were butchered.

The notion that a person born into one group would be good and one born into another bad does not lend itself to a rationalist approach and robs the individual of responsibility of their actions. Surely, the good Jew, Samaritan, Christian or Muslim make decisions within their own cultural context but their choice to do good ultimately comes from a moral sense of duty.

Maimonides, the 12th century rabbi, believed that evil in the world resulted from impurities in matter, our bodies are made from blood and flesh. G-d is all-good and it is these impurities that result in our ability to do evil. Interestingly, Thomas Aquinas, a Catholic rationalist took up his thinking, . He acknowledged some of his Jewish references and in return Jewish thinkers appear to have borrowed from him. In the end there is considerable agreement. So surely, the notion of personified evil becomes irrelevant at this stage.

Ultimately, Jews and Christians can both share a notion that their test is an individual one. which leads us nicely back to the lesson of Job, who was neither Jewish or Christian, that when faced with an individual test it is up to that person to overcome it.