Okay, this is something that kills me in general. It’s something that makes me crazy in any context- biblical and in the eyes of Pop Culture. This just really boils my parsnips, the fact that many people don’t understand this.
Satan, Lucifer, and the Serpent ARE THREE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ENTITIES, WITH COMPLETELY DIFFERENT MOTIVATIONS AND ORIGINS. They are not all the same being! This misunderstanding comes from so many things , ranging from blatant rewriting that was done many times throughout history to the repeated translations and interpretations that make the text lose much of the meaning.
Before we begin, a note:It is critical that while reading this, it is understood that Judaism is the first and oldest of the Abrahamic Religions- the basis of not only Modern Judaism but also Islam and Christianity. These religions built off of that base and became the religions they are today, inherently influenced by not only the language but the history surrounding Judaism. It is also crucial to realize that in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; these stories were changed repeatedly before becoming the stories we know today. Whether divinely inspired or not is not the question- the fact remains that the holy scriptures from all three were written and recorded by human people- people influenced by not only their own beliefs and experiences, but the beliefs and experiences of their culture. Please bear this in mind as you read on. Thank You.
Part One: The Adversary- Satan
In Hebrew, “Satan” isn’t even the name of a specific character- it’s a role. Specifically, the role of the adversary, the opposition. But does that mean this is a role as the Enemy of God? Actually, biblical sources all respond with a big fat resounding NO. The Satan appears in the Book of Numbers and the Book of Job as one of God’s obedient servants, a messenger. An angel, working for the will of God. Hebrew storytellers introduced a supernatural character whom they called “the satan” in many of their stories, and people who don’t know the meaning of the word in Hebrew often don’t realize that they were referring to any one of the Angels sent by God himself for the specific purpose of blocking and/or obstructing human activity. The root “stn” means “one who opposes, obstructs, or acts as an adversary”; just as the Greek term Diabolos which was later translated to mean “devil”, literally means “one who throws something across one’s path”. “The satan” was intended to account for the unexpected obstacles and reversals of fortunes that people experience; and such parts of the human experience were attributed by the ancient Hebrews to human sin. So this role is held by any angel that God sends to perform a specific task, one that humans often do not particularly like. the idea is that God sends “the satan” to obstruct the path of sin and to turn the human to a path of good. The satan is a being sent by God to obstruct the path of the human to save them from worse harm.
The satan appears in the book of Numbers to a man named Balaam who decided to go where God specifically told him NOT to go. The story can be found in Numbers 22:23-33; and describes an angel literally blocking the path of Balaam’s donkey, not allowing it to pass. Balaam beats the donkey, and God makes the Donkey speak and ask why, when it had served him faithfully, did he beat it. Balaam responds that it’s because the donkey will not take him where he wants to go. Then the Angel makes itself visible to Balaam and Balaam falls to the ground on his face in reverence. But if The Satan proves just after that it is not an agent of itself, but rather an agent of God- he tells Balaam that God sent the angel to obstruct his path because the path he has chosen is “evil”. The satan is there to save Balaam, despite doing it in a way Balaam doesn’t like. The satan appears again in the book of Job, and God admits in this story that the satan incited him to act against Job (Job 2:3). The story begins when the satan appears as a “ben elohim”, or a “son of God”; in essence, an angel. This angel comes with the rest of the Heavenly Host to “present themselves before the Lord” and God asks whence he came, the angel responds “from roaming the earth, and walking up and down upon it.” This is a play on the similarity in sound between the Hebrew satanandshuwt, which means “to roam”, implying that the satan’s role is that of God’s sort of super secret spy, walking the earth and gathering intel for his master- a comparison that has rich historical meaning. At the time of Job’s gospel, the king of Persia had an elaborate system of of secret police and intelligence officers who often moved amoung the jews to report back to him any signs of disloyalty amoung his subjects- The same job as the satan.
God asks the satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is no one like him on earth, a blessed and upright man, who fears God and turns away evil?” The satan then challenges the Lord to put Job to the test, not unlike how God put Abraham to the test in Genesis; saying “Does Job fear God for nothing?…You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased. But put forth your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” (Job 1:9-11). God sees the wisdom in the satan’s words- it’s easy to be faithful when times are goo, but when times are tough, that’s when faith is put to the test, proved real. And in the old testament, there is nothing God loves more than putting humans and their faith to the test. He gives the satan permission to afflict Job, but with really specific guidelines, saying “Behold, all that belongs to him is in your power; only do not touch the man himself.”- A guideline that the satan is all too happy to agree to. But Job withstands the attack- the loss of all of his sons and daughter, his land, his prosperity. The satan incites God again, telling him that if God curses Job’s body to be sickly and weak, then Job will curse him. God gives the satan permission to afflict him yet again, only demanding that he spare Job’s life. The satan yet again agrees to this, and yet again Job withstands the test. And God blesses him “doubly” for passing this test. Many people think that because the satan “incited” God, that he is evil. But that’s not true- he follows God’s rules, he serves him, he is obedient. He does not work against God’s will, he executes it. The satan goes on to appear several more times in the Old Testament.
Part Two: The Morningstar- Lucifer
It wasn’t until the Book of Isaiah that we discover the story that would develop into the origin story of the most well known angel in the bible- Lucifer. While the idea of the Adversary was propogated throughout the bible even from Genesis, it was generally understood that though the Adversary caused troubles for humans, it was on God’s personal command, and that this Adversary wasn’t a particular, specific being or angel, but a title. But as history continued, the Jewish people, and particularly the Rabbis who were the ones who wrote and complied the Old Testament, fell back upon an ancient belief that was held by the whole of their population- the idea of “us” versus “them”; the idea of the nation of Israel versus other nations. The Bible was not just a basis of faith, but a basis of their laws, their customs, their belief. It was a living history of their nation; and naturally, this influenced the writing. It is in Isaiah 14:12-15 that we first encounter the fall of a great prince, a prince who would later become Lucifer:
“How are you fallen from Heaven, day star, son of the dawn! How are you fallen to earth, conqueror of the nations! You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven, above the stars of God; I will set my throne on high…I will ascend upon the high clouds… But you are brought down to darkness (or sheol, the underworld), to the depths of the pit.”
This prince, this luminous falling star would recieve his name translated into Latin, meaning light-bearer-Lucifer. The story would grow to entail details that Lucifer would not obey God and was cast out to roam the Earth, or to be trapped in Hell. But there is more than one origin of Lucifer- several apocryphal and pseudepigraphic stories tell stories of how lust drew the angelic “sons of God” to earth to lie with the mortal “daughters of man”. These stories come from a rather cryptic account from Genesis 6:
“When men began to multiply on the earth, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair.”
These angels mated with human women to produce human-angelic hybrid offspring, called Nephilim. According to Genesis, these beings were “giants in the earth…the mighty men of renown.” (Genesis 6:4). Later, other storytellers would claim that these giants, these nephilim, became demons, who took over the earth and polluted it. These storytellers would claim that Lucifer was the first of them to mate with humans, the one who leads them.
Still another exists, and it is perhaps the most popular, often blended with Isaiah’s story of the fallen prince, found in the apocrypha “Vita Adae et Evae”, or “The Life of Adam and Eve”. This third account of angelic rebellion tells of God summoning his angels to admire his work, the creation of Man, and commanding the Heavenly Host to bow down to their younger, human sibling (something that is paralelled later in the story of Joseph, son of Jacob). The Archangel Michael obeyed this order, but Lucifer refused, saying:
“Why do you press me? I will not worship one who is younger than I am, and inferior. I am older than he is; he ought to worship me!” (Vita Adae et Evae, 14:3)
The importance of the development of Lucifer is contained within the history that he is bourne of- infighting and separation amoungst the Jewish population. Lucifer is not a foreign enemy- he is the intimate enemy, the one we know well. He is an angel of God, a brother, one that is depended upon by not only his angelic relations, but God himself. He represents the member of the family who contributes to the health and well being of the family, only to turn “inexplicably” jealous and angry. This concept became so deeply ingrained in the Jewish culture as they faced foreign influence- those who joined the foreigners in their worship of other Gods, and those who fled away from this foreign influence and condemned all those who remained. These groups all believed that their people had turned against them- and therefore, against God. Stories of Lucifer, of fallen angels, were rampant at these times of internal turmoil and unrest, and created the basis of Satan as Christians know him today. The other. No longer simply an adversary, but a down to the rootsenemy. It was this in-fighting, this internal warring, that would lead to the First Book of Enoch, yet another story of the fall of Angels, and one that would give the name of the Archangel Azazel, who taught men Metallurgy and corrupted them- a story that would then be attributed to Lucifer.
The most important difference between the satan and Lucifer is that while the satan may cause strife and misfortune for humans, the satan does it at the command of God. Lucifer, according to all of his stories, rebels against God.
Part Three: The Tempter- The Serpent
Perhaps the most ancient symbol of “evil” in the bible is The Serpent that tepts Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil; a story that is a remenant of a time when Judaism was not monotheistic- a time when God had a female counterpart, a wife, his Asherah. It was not until the second century BCE, the time of the Macabees, that monotheism became the universalmodel of religion. Before then, YHWH’s female counterpart was his Asherah, his wife, the Queen of Heaven just as YHWH was the God of Heaven. Her importance was so great, both Aaron and Moses’ staffs, which performed the great wonders of God, were called “Asherah poles”. Her importance goes deeper- the very menorah still used today was designed to represent her most important symbol- the tree of life. It was not until Abraham’s time that Asherah worship became so critically and heavily condemned in the Bible.
Symbols commonly associated with Asherah reveal her connection to the story of the fall of Man- trees and groves, as well serpents. The Serpent, though a frightening symbol because of its ability to bring death, stood also for ancient wisdom and immortality. It lived in the Tree of Knowledge and preached a doctrine of immortality, “Ye shall NOT surely die.”
This knowledge has led many ancient scholars to believe that the temptation of Eve and Adam was not done without God’s knowledge- on the contray, many believe that this was done at his behest, by his beloved Wife. It’s believed that the association of the serpent with deception and lies would come later from the Abrahamic belief in monotheism, and the destruction of this goddess to make way for Abraham’s monotheistic model.
The Serpent is different from both the satan and Lucifer, not only in the lack of explanation of its motives, but also in it’s origin story.
And that’s the difference between Satan, Lucifer, and The Serpent.
The Name Game: Now that I see that Jenna Coleman is set to play Johanna Constatine in The Sandman, I was reminded that Jenna has once starred in another series as another Joanna. Joanna Lindsay in The Cry. It’s spelled differently, but basically the same name. That got me to thinking that Jenna has often played characters with extremely similar names.
She has played an Ann (Deever in All My Sons) and an Annie (Desmond in Titanic)
She has played a Jasmine (Thomas in Emmerdale) and a Jasmine (in an audition script for Doctor Who)
She has played a ‘Drina’ (as in Alexandrina in Victoria) and a ‘Trina’ (as in Katrina in Me Before You)
She has played the aforementioned Joanna Lindsay in The Cry and the new Sandman character Johanna Constatine. And she will be playing a Joan (Bright in The War Room) in the next few months
She has played a Marie in The Serpent and a Maria in a public service announcement for the NSPCC about child abuse
All in all, that’s a LOT of similar sounding names. I wonder if she’s realized what she is doing. Maybe she’s superstitious. That wouldn’t be IMPOSSIBLE, I guess. Hahaha.
on the road again: a retro road trip playlistdon’t you think it would be wonderful to get rid of everything and everybody and just go someplace where you don’t know a soul? sometimes I feel like doing that. i really really want to do it sometimes. ― haruki murakami, norwegian wood
LISTEN HERE INCLUDES:harry styles, bleachers, lana del rey, the beatles, bruce springsteen, sonny & cher, elvis presley, the rolling stones, alex cameron, vampire weekend… AND MORE
