One of the most interesting things to learn from studying the evolution of religions is the complex relationship between theology and history. Although theology tends to reveal eternal and unchanging truths, the truth is that the analysis of its changes over time shows us how it articulates and responds to human concerns and needs that have arisen at certain historical moments. Today I will talk about one of the most interesting examples of this phenomenon: the historical origin of Satan.

Although there are some rare passages in the Old Testament where an angel called “Satan” appears, he is nothing like the demonic being we know today. Although the word “satan” in Hebrew means “adversary”, in the Old Testament this angel is not described as an adversary of God, but as one of his servants. What makes this angel called “Satan” is the fact that, in the few stories in which he appears, God authorizes him to become the “adversary” of the human being. This is the case, for example, with “Satan” who appears in the book of Job, where God authorizes him to test Job’s faith.

The concept of the devil as we know it today does not actually come from biblical literature, but from texts that began to be created from the 2nd century BC. C. Books that I assume the reader has probably never heard of, such as the Book of Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, or the Testament of Moses. Although these ancient writings were not included in the Bible (being suppressed as “apocryphal” books), the ideas they articulated had a huge influence on both Judaism and Christianity. Indeed, among other things, the now-famous idea that there are rebellious angels appears for the first time in this literature, and where “satan” from the Old Testament is transformed into God’s adversary.

The concept of the devil as we know it today does not actually come from biblical literature…

In this literature, the existence of these demonic agents is used to explain why in the world created by God the righteous often suffer persecution from the unrighteous: it is not God, but Satan, who is responsible for the suffering of the good. while the wicked prosper. The fact that these books began to be written at that time is not a coincidence, since at that time the Jewish people experienced one of their worst crises: the persecution of the Seleucid emperor Antiochus Epiphanes, who tried to force them to abandon their customs by torture and death. ancestor Although this was not was the first disaster the Hebrews experienced, it was the first time they faced someone who was systematically trying to eradicate their identity and faith.

The psychological impetus behind the origin of Satan, then, is quite clear. Persecuted for trying to remain faithful to God, the authors of these texts were unable to explain how their cruel reality was possible in a world governed exclusively by him. Only by imagining the existence of dark forces did his plight become comprehensible. (OR)