What do you know about the history of Satan?

[Abbadon]

The god Set was adopted into Christian culture and assigned the role of the devil because his function is chaos or may be called Hinderance, sin is part of chaos, IMHO.

Incorrect. Satan was a part of Jewish culture well before Christianity came about.

Seth (Set) was considered an OK deity to worship for a while in Egypt and only became evil after Egypt was conquered by foreigners. Since Seth had red-hair, and red-hair was foreign in Egypt, Seth became regarded as a foreign god, which meant he was an evil one.

Ha-Shaitan was part of the Hebrew attempt to explain why bad things happen to good people, where he acts as a prosecuting lawyer in the case of Job V. the whole of existance. This was later combined with attributes of the Zoroastrian Ahriman to form what we think of as "the devil."

If you want to bring chaos into it -- Genesis mentions God going over the waters, and the word used originally for waters in that part of the Bible is Tehom. In Babylonian mythology, Tiamat was the chaotic water beast that was split in half to create the world.

The long barbed tail, the red body, his function, these came from the myth of Set.

The barbed tail is part of medieval art, the red was unrelated, and the functions are fairly different (an eventually politically villified desert god isn't exactly the same as a bad tempered persecuting attorney).

 

[Glanecia]

I always thought the jews believed Satan was an agent of God. I could be wrong though.

Jewish people don't believe that Isaiah 14: 12-15 refers to Satan, or a fallen angel --but a king.

 

[Glanecia]

Well first of all I should mention that I consider Satanism to be a joke rather than a religion. Satanism has no historical tradition, no doctrine, and no canonical scripture or standardized worship. It seems to me like something that teenagers claim as their religion to act rebellious. So I don't think that it's important to consider what Satan means to a Satanist.

1. LaVeyan Satanism has a very short history, starting in 1966.
2. The concept of "Satanism" is almost as old as Christianity. Though, those branded as Satanists didn't always agree with the accusations.
3. LaVeyan Satanism has doctrine, has a "Satanic Bible" and ritual. Satan is not the object of worship, but worship of the 'self' and those whom we love.

I can assure you, it's no joke. I'm not a teenager, and Satanism is my religion. Moreover, Satanism IS a nationally recognized religion in the USA, UK and other countries.

 

[Jo1]

Hi my husbands really into a christian teacher called Andrew Wommack. His teaching ministry has really helped my husband. We have literally just today read an incredible article called Who made Satan? you can read it if you like on this link
http://www.awmi.net/extra

 

[Fortuna]

Incorrect. Satan was a part of Jewish culture well before Christianity came about.

Yes, satan was part of Babyonian and Ancient Egyptian culture thousands of years before. Evil has always been personified. And this image, adopted by the Medieval Christians was most likely from the image of the god Set. I will try to find my reference for this as I did a lecture on this several years ago.

Seth (Set) was considered an OK deity to worship for a while in Egypt and only became evil after Egypt was conquered by foreigners. Since Seth had red-hair, and red-hair was foreign in Egypt, Seth became regarded as a foreign god, which meant he was an evil one.

Yes, this is true to an extent. Set was the god adopted by the Pharaohs to defeat foreign enemies. Can you reference your work? I was in the Kemetic (Ancient Egyptian) faith before I became a Christian. I believe that Set is a very ancient god.

Ha-Shaitan was part of the Hebrew attempt to explain why bad things happen to good people, where he acts as a prosecuting lawyer in the case of Job V. the whole of existance. This was later combined with attributes of the Zoroastrian Ahriman to form what we think of as "the devil."

Well, the information in my previous post is from a Jewish woman whose son is a rabbi. She explains that the Jewish point of view is that hasatan cannot do anything without being directed by G-d, he has no free will. Further, God created hasatan and he is not in competition with God nor on the same level as God.

If you want to bring chaos into it -- Genesis mentions God going over the waters, and the word used originally for waters in that part of the Bible is Tehom. In Babylonian mythology, Tiamat was the chaotic water beast that was split in half to create the world.

I am not nearly as familiar with Babylonian myth as I am Egyptian, sorry. Could you quote references?

The barbed tail is part of medieval art, the red was unrelated, and the functions are fairly different (an eventually politically villified desert god isn't exactly the same as a bad tempered persecuting attorney).

I see the red color as being very significant later on with the red suited devil with the long barbed and red tail.

Anyway, thank you for your comments and if you could offer references to support your comments, I would be grateful as I am not familiar, as I said, with some of them.

Thanks again, Fortuna

 

[Abbadon]

Most of my sources are currently in the reference section of my local library, sorry. Here's what I can find online.

Set/Seth/Sutekh -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_(mythology) (Of particular interest is the section "Saviour of Ra" bit.) and http://www.pantheon.org/articles/s/seth.html

Satan -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satan and http://www.pantheon.org/articles/s/satan.html

Gustav Davidson's Dictionary of Angels (most comprehensively researched book on the subject I've seen) also doesn't connect Set with Satan.

The earliest example of Seth and Satan being equated with each other that I ever heard of is from the Victorian era (Crowley, and I wouldn't be surprised if he got it from Levi).

Most neo-pagans worship hypostatic forms of deities from particular periods in history, but the world's religions changed along with the cultures that produced them. Set was originally a desert god, then was equated with foreigners, and it wasn't until Osiris became popular that Set was regarded as a devil figure. I think it's probably because the latter-day Egyptian kingdom wrote more often, and wrote in stuff that was easier to read (like Greek or Demotic), scholars were more familiar with the later kingdom's ideas.

The idea's only match in the later Egyptian kingdoms, not for the entire Egyptian civilization. Then there's the entymology of the names. The names don't have the same meaning ("dazzler" or "pillar of stability" VS "adversary"), and the roots aren't similar enough either ("STCh" VS "STN").

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As for Tiamat: http://www.pantheon.org/articles/t/tiamat.html

Glad to help