FREE THE ORIGIN OF PDF

Elaine H Pagels | 214 pages | 01 Jun 1996 | Random House USA Inc | 9780679731184 | English | New York, United States - Document - The Origin of Satan

Satan did not step suddenly from the shadows, absolute evil all at once, co-star in the cosmic drama. He found The Origin of Satan way into the part, matured to the role. It took centuries for the Christian devil to arrogate to himself the various characteristics of the devils who make scattered appearances in the . Satan is present in only a few places in the Old Testament, most prominently in the Book of Job, where he seems to be a member of God's court who, with God's permission, is allowed to test Job. The snake is perhaps the The Origin of Satan symbol associated with Satan, but Genesis does not identify him with the cunning creature who persuaded Eve to try something new. Just how closely the Old Testament Satan is to be associated with evil is a matter on which scholars differ. To his successor in the New Testament and beyond, however, the scent of evil clings like a signature cologne. The creature conjured up today in the popular imagination by the word Satan is a mix of malevolent beast and fallen Miltonic presence, hooved and horned and burnt red by the circumstances of his overheated The Origin of Satan. Is the use of the male pronoun contested, by the way, or are those who have made God "She" disinclined to give Satan a makeover too? Is he still "All yours, guys"? The titles of these two new books, by Elaine Pagels, a professor of religion at Princeton University, and Andrew Delbanco, a professor of English at Columbia University, make them sound like proper bookends to the life and career of the Lord of Evil. All that's missing is an appropriate bridge volume, something like Satan: The Working Years. In fact, however, the two books are strikingly dissimilar, in purpose and approach. Pagels, the The Origin of Satan author of The Gnostic Gospels, here continues her study of early Christianity. Specifically, she wants to show how events related in the Gospels about Jesus and those who supported or opposed him "correlate with the supernatural drama the writers use to interpret that story - the struggle between God's spirit and Satan. Pagels argues that Christians reading the Gospels for almost 2, years have always identified themselves with the disciples and, as a consequence, have necessarily identified the disciples' opponents, "whether Jews, pagans, or heretics, with forces of evil, and so with Satan. The Jewish proto-Christians found evil in their differences with other Jews, and the polarization was progressive. The first stage of demonization saw The Origin of Satan. Author: Jan Morris. Date: Autumn From: The Wilson The Origin of Satan Vol. Document Type: The Origin of Satan review. Length: 2, words. Article Preview :. Access from your library This is a preview. Get the full text through your school or public library. Source Citation Morris, Jan. Accessed 21 Oct. The Origin of Satan by Elaine Pagels: | : Books

Satan[a] also known as the Devil[b] is an entity in the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehood. In Christianity and Islamhe is usually seen as either a fallen angel or a geniewho used to possess great piety and beauty, but rebelled against Godwho nevertheless allows him temporary power over the fallen world and a host of demons. In JudaismSatan is typically regarded as a metaphor for the yetzer haraor "evil inclination", or as an agent subservient to God. A figure known as "the satan" first appears in the Tanakh as a heavenly prosecutora member of the sons of God subordinate to Yahwehwho prosecutes the nation of Judah in the heavenly court and tests the loyalty of Yahweh's followers by forcing them to suffer. During the intertestamental periodpossibly due to influence from the Zoroastrian figure of Angra Mainyuthe satan The Origin of Satan into a malevolent entity with abhorrent qualities in dualistic opposition to God. In the apocryphal Book of JubileesYahweh grants the satan referred to as Mastema authority over a group of fallen The Origin of Satanor their offspringto tempt humans The Origin of Satan sin and punish them. In the Synoptic GospelsSatan tempts Jesus in the desert and is identified as the cause of illness and temptation. He is later bound for one thousand yearsbut is briefly set free before being ultimately defeated and cast into the The Origin of Satan of Fire. In ChristianitySatan is known as the Devil and is sometimes also called Lucifer. Although the Book of Genesis does not mention him, he is often identified as the serpent in the Garden of Eden. In the Middle AgesSatan played a minimal role in Christian theology The Origin of Satan was used as a comic relief figure in mystery plays. The Origin of Satan the early modern periodSatan's significance greatly increased as beliefs such The Origin of Satan demonic possession and became more prevalent. During the Age of Enlightenmentbelief in the existence of Satan became harshly criticized. Nonetheless, belief in Satan has persisted, particularly in the Americas. Although Satan is generally viewed as evil, some groups have very different beliefs. In Theistic SatanismSatan is considered a deity who is either worshipped or revered. In LaVeyan SatanismSatan is a symbol of virtuous characteristics and liberty. Satan's appearance is never described in the Bible, but, since the ninth century, he has often been shown in Christian art with horns, cloven hooves, unusually hairy legs, and a tail, often naked and holding a pitchfork. These are an amalgam of traits derived from various pagan deities, including PanPoseidonand Bes. He continues to appear in film, television, and music. The word "satan" does not occur in the Book of Genesiswhich mentions only a talking serpent and does not identify the serpent with any supernatural entity. Some passages clearly refer to the satan, without using the word itself. The satan appears in the Book of Joba poetic dialogue set within a prose framework, [21] which may have been written around the time of the Babylonian captivity. Zechariah —7 contains a description of a vision dated to the middle of February of BC, [25] in which an angel shows Zechariah a scene of Joshua the High Priest dressed in filthy rags, representing the nation of Judah and The Origin of Satan sins, [26] on trial with Yahweh as the judge and the satan standing as the prosecutor. The idea of Satan as an opponent of God and a purely evil figure seems to have taken root in Jewish pseudepigrapha during the Second Temple Period, [31] particularly in the apocalypses. The text describes Satanael as being the prince of the Grigori who was cast out of heaven [42] and an evil spirit who knew the difference between what was "righteous" and "sinful". Most Jews do not believe in the existence of a supernatural omnimalevolent figure. Rabbinical scholarship on the Book of Job generally The Origin of Satan the Talmud and Maimonides in identifying "the satan" from the prologue as a metaphor for the yetzer hara and not an actual entity. Each modern sect of Judaism has its own interpretation of Satan's identity. Conservative Judaism generally rejects the Talmudic interpretation of Satan as a metaphor for the yetzer haraand regard him as a literal agent of God. Satan is mentioned explicitly in some daily prayers, including during Shacharit and certain post-meal benedictions, as described in Talmud [58] and the Jewish Code of Law. The three Synoptic Gospels all describe the temptation of Christ by Satan in the desert Matthew —11Mark —13and Luke — Then indeed he may plunder his house" Matthew The Synoptic Gospels identify Satan and his demons as the causes of illness, [68] including fever Lukeleprosy LukeThe Origin of Satan arthritis Luke —16[68] while the Epistle to the Hebrews describes the Devil as "him who holds the power of death" Hebrews Jude 9 refers to a dispute between Michael the Archangel and the Devil over the body of Moses. Charlesworththere is no evidence the surviving book of this name ever contained any such content. The Book of Revelation represents Satan as the supernatural ruler of the Roman Empire and the ultimate cause of all evil in the world. Revelation describes a vision of a Great Red Dragon with seven heads, ten horns, seven crowns, and a massive tail, [96] an image which is clearly inspired by the vision of the four beasts from the sea in the Book of Daniel [97] and the Leviathan described in various Old Testament passages. Michael and his angels fought against Dragon. Dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in Heaven. Dragon the Great was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called Devil and Satan, the one deceiving the whole inhabited World — he was The Origin of Satan down to earth and his angels were thrown down with him. In Revelation —3Satan is bound with a chain and hurled into the Abyss[] where he is imprisoned for one thousand years. Despite the fact that the Book of Genesis never mentions Satan, [15] Christians have traditionally interpreted the serpent in the Garden of Eden as Satan due to Revelationwhich calls Satan "that ancient serpent". The name Heylelmeaning "morning star" or, in The Origin of Satan, Lucifer[c] was a name for Attarthe god of the planet Venus in Canaanite mythology[] [] who attempted to scale the walls of the heavenly city, [] [] but was vanquished by the god of the sun. In his apologetic treatise Contra Celsumhowever, The Origin of Satan changed his interpretations of Isaiah and Ezekiel —15, now interpreting both of them as referring to Satan. According to the ransom theory of atonementwhich was The Origin of Satan among early Christian theologians, [] [] Satan gained power over humanity through Adam and Eve 's sin [] [] and Christ's death on the cross was a ransom to Satan in exchange for humanity's liberation. Most early Christians firmly believed that Satan and his demons had the power to possess humans [] and exorcisms were widely practiced by Jews, Christians, and pagans alike. Satan had minimal role in medieval Christian theology[] but he frequently appeared as a recurring comedic stock character in late medieval mystery The Origin of Satanin which he was portrayed as a comic relief figure who "frolicked, fell, and farted in the background". The Canon Episcopiwritten in the eleventh century AD, condemns belief in witchcraft as heretical, [] but also documents that many people at the time apparently believed in it. During the Early Modern PeriodChristians gradually began to regard Satan as increasingly powerful [] and the fear of Satan's power became a dominant aspect of the worldview of Christians across Europe. In the late fifteenth century, a series of witchcraft panics erupted in France and Germany. By the early s, skeptics in Europe, including the English author Reginald Scot and the Anglican bishop John Bancrofthad begun to criticize the belief that demons still had the power to possess people. Mormonism developed its own views on Satan. According to the Book of Mosesthe Devil offered to be the redeemer of mankind for the sake of The Origin of Satan own glory. Conversely, Jesus offered to be the redeemer of mankind so that his father's will would be done. After his offer was rejected, Satan became rebellious and was subsequently cast out of heaven. It was through this pact that became a Master Mahan. Douglas Davies asserts The Origin of Satan this text "reflects" the temptation of Jesus in the Bible. Belief in Satan and demonic possession remains strong The Origin of Satan Christians in the United States [] [] [] and Latin America. Scott Poole, author of Satan The Origin of Satan America: The Devil We Knowhas opined that "In the United States over the last forty to fifty years, a composite image of Satan has emerged that borrows from both popular culture and theological sources" and that most American Christians do not "separate what they know [about Satan] from the movies from what they know from various ecclesiastical and theological traditions. Bernard McGinn describes multiple traditions detailing the relationship The Origin of Satan the Antichrist and Satan. Seven suras in the Quran describe how God ordered all the angels and Iblis to bow before the The Origin of Satan Adam. In the Quran, Satan is apparently an angel, [] but, inhe is described as "from the jinns". Ibn Abbas asserts that the word jinn could be applied to earthly jinn, but also to "fiery angels" like Satan. Hasan of Basraan eminent Muslim theologian who lived in the seventh century AD, was quoted as saying: "Iblis was not an angel even for the time of an eye wink. He is the origin of Jinn as Adam The Origin of Satan of Mankind. When he was expelled from Paradise, Satan blamed humanity for his punishment. The Muslim historian Al-Tabariwho died in around AD, [] writes that, before Adam was created, earthly jinn made of smokeless fire roamed the earth and spread corruption. During the first two centuries of Islam, Muslims almost unanimously accepted the traditional story known as the Satanic Verses as true. The hadith teach that newborn babies cry because Satan touches them while they are being born, and that this touch causes people to have The Origin of Satan aptitude for sin. Muslim tradition preserves a number of stories involving dialogues between Jesus and Iblis, [] all of which are intended to demonstrate Jesus's virtue and Satan's depravity. Women are the ropes of Satan. Wine is the key to every evil. The ashes I put on the faces of orphans, so that people come to dislike them. Muslims believe that Satan is also the cause of deceptions originating from the mind and desires for evil. The Origin of Satan is regarded as a cosmic force for separation, despair and spiritual envelopment. Muslims do The Origin of Satan between the satanic temptations and the murmurings of the bodily lower self Nafs. The lower self commands the person to do a specific task or to fulfill a specific desire; whereas the inspirations of Satan tempt the person to do evil in general and, after a person successfully resists his first suggestion, Satan returns with new ones. According to Sufi mysticism, Iblis refused to bow to Adam because he was fully devoted to God alone and refused to bow to anyone else. For the Muslim Sufi scholar Ahmad Ghazali Iblis was the paragon of lovers in self sacrifice for refusing to bow The Origin of Satan to Adam out of pure devotion to God The Origin of Satan Ahmad Ghazali's student Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir The Origin of Satan among the Sunni Muslim mystics who defended Iblis, asserted that evil was also God's creation, Sheikh Adi argued that if evil existed without the will of God then God would be powerless and a powerlessness can't be attrobited to God []. However, not all Muslim Sufi mystics are in agreement with a positive depiction of Iblis. Rumi 's viewpoint on Iblis is much more in tune with Islamic orthodoxy. Rumi views Iblis as the manifestation of the great sins of haughtiness and envy. He states: " Cunning intelligence is from Iblis, and love from Adam. Theistic Satanism, commonly referred to as "devil worship", [] views Satan as a deitywhom individuals may supplicate to. Atheistic The Origin of Satan, as practiced by the Satanic Temple and by followers of LaVeyan Satanismholds that Satan does not exist as a literal anthropomorphic entity, but rather as a symbol of a cosmos which Satanists perceive to be permeated and motivated by a force that has been given many names by humans over the course of time. In this religion, "Satan" is not viewed or depicted as a hubristic, irrational, and fraudulent creature, but rather is revered with Prometheus -like attributes, symbolizing liberty and individual empowerment. To adherents, he also serves The Origin of Satan a conceptual framework and an external metaphorical projection of the Satanist's highest personal potential. Gilmorefurther expounds that " Satan is a symbol of Man living as his prideful, carnal nature dictates. The reality behind Satan is simply the dark evolutionary force of entropy that permeates all of nature and provides the drive for survival and propagation inherent in all living things. Satan is not a conscious entity to be worshiped, rather The Origin of Satan reservoir of power inside each human to be tapped at will". According to Peter H. Gilmore, "The Church of Satan has chosen Satan as its primary symbol because in Hebrew it means adversary, opposer, one to accuse or question. We see ourselves as being these ; the adversaries, opposers and accusers of all spiritual belief systems that would try to hamper enjoyment of our life as a human being. Post-LaVeyan Satanists, like the adherents of The Satanic The Origin of Satanargue that The Origin of Satan human animal has a natural altruistic and communal tendency, and frame Satan as a figure of struggle against injustice and activism. They also believe in bodily autonomy, that personal beliefs should conform to science and inspire nobility, and that people should atone for their mistakes. The main deity The Origin of Satan the tentatively Indo-European pantheon of the YazidisMelek Tausis similar to the devil in Christian and Islamic traditions, as he refused to bow down before humanity. In fact, there is no entity in Yazidism which represents evil in opposition to God; such dualism is rejected by Yazidis. Christianity - Satan and the origin of evil | Britannica

In the Bibleespecially the New Testament, Satan the Devil comes to appear as the representative of evil. Enlightenment thinkers endeavoured to push the figure of the Devil out of Christian consciousness as being a product of the fantasy of the Middle Ages. It is precisely in this figure, however, that some aspects of the ways God deals with evil The Origin of Satan especially evident. The Devil first The Origin of Satan as an independent figure alongside God in the Hebrew Scriptures. There evil is still brought into a direct relationship with God. In the Book of JobSatan appears as the partner of God, who on behalf of God puts the righteous one to the test. Only in postbiblical Judaism The Origin of Satan the Devil become the adversary of God, the prince of angels, who, created by God and placed at the head of the angelic hosts, entices some of the angels into revolt against God. In punishment for his rebellion, he is cast from heaven together with his mutinous entourage, which were transformed into demons. Through the influence of the dualistic thinking of Zoroastrian religion during the Babylonian Exile — bc in Persia, Satan took on features of a countergod in late Judaism. Satan offers to give to Christ the riches of this world if Christ will acknowledge him as supreme lord. Thus, he is The Origin of Satan real antagonist of the Messiah —Son of Man, Christ, who is sent by God into the world to destroy the works of Satan. He is lacking, however, the possibility of incarnation: he is The Origin of Satan to rob others in order to procure for himself the appearance of personality and corporeality. With gnosticism a loose movement of groups that postulated a transcendent god and a lesser, creator goddualistic features also penetrated the Christian sphere of intuitive vision. This appears as the special temptational sphere of the Devil; in sexual activity, the role of the instrument of diabolic enticement devolves upon woman. Dualistic tendencies remained a permanent undercurrent in the church and determined, to a great extent, the understanding of sin and redemption. Satan remained the prototype of sin as the rebel who does not come to terms with fulfilling his godlikeness in love to his original image and Creator but instead desires equality with God and places love of self over love of God. In the Christian historical consciousness the figure of Satan plays an important role, not least of all through the influence of the Revelation to John. This altercation constitutes the religious background of the drama of world history. On earth the possibility of his The Origin of Satan is likewise limited by the return of the Lord. Many of these features were retained in the philosophy of religion of German idealism as well as in Russian philosophy of religion. Since the Enlightenment, Christian theologians who found the mythical pictures of Satan to be irrelevant, distorting, or confusing in Christian thought and experience have set out to demythologize this figure. Apologists such as the British literary figure C. Lewis and the Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyovhowever, have written cautionary words against this trend. Dogmatic teachings about the figure of Jesus Christ go back to the faith experiences of the early church, whose faithful recognized the incarnate and resurrected Son of God in the person of Jesus. Since the beginning of the church, different interpretations of the person of Jesus have existed The Origin of Satan one another. Approaches to Christologythe doctrine of Christ, that The Origin of Satan from the theological school of Antioch have followed one line of interpretation: they proceed from the humanity of Jesus and view his divinity in his consciousness of God, founded in the divine mission that was imposed upon him The Origin of Satan God through the infusion of the Holy Spirit. There, the divinity of the person of Jesus is understood not as the endowment of the man Jesus with a divine power but rather as the result of the descent of the divine Logos—a preexistent heavenly being—into the world. According to that school, the Logos took on a human body of flesh so as to be realized in history. Thus, it was that the struggle to understand the figure of Jesus Christ created a The Origin of Satan between the theologies of Antioch and Alexandria. Both schools had a wide sphere of influence, not only among the contemporary clergy but also among the monks and the laity. Christianity Article Media Additional Info. Article Contents. Load Previous Page. Satan and the origin of evil In the Bibleespecially the New Testament, Satan the Devil comes to appear as the representative of evil. Satan leaves the presence The Origin of Satan God to test God's faithful servant Job. Transfiguration of Christ, mosaic icon, early 13th century; in the Louvre, Paris. Load Next Page.