Where did the Christian devil come from?
It will be obvious to most /his/ familiar with Jewish background to the New Testament that the NT devil comes virtually out of the blue. One can point to only two significant Satans in the whole OT (Job's and Zechariah's - one poetic, one prophetic) and then suddenly in the NT there is an explosion in diabolic activity from page 1 (35 mentions of "devil", 35 of "Satan", plus various synonyms such as "prince of this world"). Yet one searches in vain for anything in the Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha and Dead Sea Scrolls that prefigures the NT devil.
Why?
Jewish apocalyptic literature has a dualist approach to cosmology: Go(o)d vs (d)evil.
>The idea of a final triumph of God and His heavenly hosts over evil spirits also followed naturally, and kept pace with the development of the Jewish angelology. The "guardian angels" of Dan. ix.-xii., and the punishment of the "fallen stars," which occupies so much space in the Enoch literature, are only elaborations of beliefs which had already received distinct expression; compare Isa. xxiv. 21 et seq. (a most important passage), xxvii. 1; Ps. lxxxii.; Deut. xxxii. 8 (Greek); Job, xxxviii. 7, etc. The appearance of the evil spirit "Azazel" in Lev. xvi. 8 et seq. is proof that the names of angels and demons were in common use before the days of Daniel and Enoch.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1642-apocalypse
>in I Chron. xxi. 1 he appears as one who is able to provoke David to destroy Israel. The Chronicler (third century B.C.) regards Satan as an independent agent, a view which is the more striking since the source whence he drew his account (II Sam. xxiv. 1) speaks of God Himself as the one who moved David against the children of Israel. Since the older conception refers all events, whether good or bad, to God alone (I Sam. xvi. 14; I Kings xxii. 22; Isa. xlv. 7; etc.), it is possible that the Chronicler, and perhaps even Zechariah, were influenced by Zoroastrianism, even though in the case of the prophet Jewish monism strongly opposed Iranian dualism (Stave, "Einfluss des Parsismus auf das Judenthum," pp. 253 et seq.). An immediate influence of the Babylonian concept of the "accuser, persecutor, and oppressor" (Schrader, "K. A. T." 3d ed., p. 463) is impossible, since traces of such an influence, if it had existed, would have appeared in the earlier portions of the Bible.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13219-satan
>>1415949
I forgot to add: I'm a Joo and I believe OP's familiarity with your Jewish background of the NT is severely lacking.
>>1415937
Zoroastrian dualistic tradition, it was copied by gnostics/manicheans, and this element was somewhat carried on to later Christianity, with Satan becoming a pseudo-Angra Mainyu.
Im going to hijack your thread OP but is Lucifer the same as Satan? In Islam, Iblis is a title referred to a djinn that disobeyed God and is usually referred to as Shaitan but shaitain can also be other spirits and ill-meaning humans. In Judaism, Sateen is the Adversary. And it's basically anything that opposes the will of God. Is Christianity similar?
>>1415937
Obvious from Russia.
>>1416327
Lucifer comes used from the Latin Vulgate translation of the Hebrew Helel, which the Greek Septuagint translate as Eosphoros.
The Babylonian king who fell from grace that Isaiah makes fun of in Is 14 is interpreted as Satan, and that Latin name stuck.
>>1416327
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_in_Christianity
In Christianity, Satan is called the prince and even the "god" of this world. There's a lot of sin and temptation going on.
Read the article for more, including scriptural references.
>1 Peter 5:8 declares, "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour"
He's also the father of lies, and of the Jews, see John chapter 8.
>>1416429
>Satan is a singular figure and not a concept like the other Abrahamic faiths?
Iblis too.
>what's the point of the other demons and devils constantly referenced like Beezlebub, Baphomet, or Moloch
Satan doesn't work alone (Mat 25:41 see also Rev 12:7-9), pagan deities are demons (1 Cor 10:20).
>>1415937
Old testement is for 4chan, NT is for pleb redditors.
>>1416480
One's god is another's devil.
