Hey, spidey--lovely to see you again.
arach writes:
the adversary (ha-satan), on the other hand, has become increasingly powerful in the mythology. he began as an agent of god, one of god's many sons, who was in charge of testing and prosecuting humanity, entirely under the service of god. this eventually became "evil", a territory that once claimed by god himself, and so the adversary became god's adversary instead of ours.
I just finished reading Elaine Pagels'
The Origin of Satan, which Wiki describes as arguing "that the figure of Satan became a way for Jews and Christians to demonize their religious and cultural opponents, namely, pagans, other Christian sects, and Jews."
I found it fascinating and persuasive. I'll never hear references to "demonizing the opposition" in quite the same way again.
"If you can keep your head while those around you are losing theirs, you can collect a lot of heads."