Satan in the Bible, God's Minister of Justice

by Henry Ansgar Kelly

Overview

Throughout the ages, Satan has been seen as God's implacable enemy, fiercely determined to keep as many human beings as he can from entering the heavenly kingdom. But according to Henry Ansgar Kelly, this understanding dates only from post-biblical times, when Satan was reconceived as Lucifer, a rebel angel, and as the serpent in the garden of Eden. In the Bible itself, beginning in the book of Job and continuing through the New Testament, Satan is considered to be a member of the heavenly government, charged with monitoring the human race. In effect, he is God's Minister of Justice, bent on exposing sin and vice, especially in virtuous-seeming persons like Job and Jesus. He fills the roles of investigator, tempter (that is, tester), accuser, prosecutor, and punisher, but also obstructer, preventer of vice, and rehabilitator. He is much feared and despised, accused of underhanded and immoral tactics. His removal from office is promised and his eventual punishment hoped for. The later misreading of Satan as radically depraved transformed Christianity into a highly dualistic religion, with an ongoing contest between good and evil. Seeing Satan in his true nature, as a cynical and sinister celestial bureaucrat, will help to remedy this distorted view.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781532613326
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	11/16/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	204
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Henry Ansgar Kelly is Distinguished Research Professor in the Division of the Humanities at UCLA. He is the author of The Devil, Demonology, and Witchcraft (2004), The Devil at Baptism (2004), and Satan: A Biography (2006).

Table of Contents

Introduction

A Major thesis: Satan in the Bible is not a rebel but God's employee xi

B Common satans and Satan proper xii

Abbreviations xv

Part 1 The Older Old Testament

1 David and other human satans 3

2 God Himself as a satan against Balaam 6

3 God and a heavenly satan confer about Job 9

4 Heavenly and human satans as judicial prosecutors against humans: Zechariah and Psalm 109 12

Part 2 The Newer Old Testament

5 A human satan causes David's sin in Chronicles 17

6 The Septuagint (LXX): Satan proper and common satans 20

A) Satan (Devil) is the adversarial angel of Job and Zechariah 20

B) Common human devils and satans in the Septuagint 23

7 The Genesis prequel: no satan or Satan in Eden, just the serpent 25

8 Wisdom's envious devil: not Satan-serpent, but Cain 28

Part 3 The Oldest New Testament: Paul's Epistles

9 Introduction to the spirit world of the New Testament 33

10 Paul's Satan as opposer: testing, punishing, rehabilitating: 1 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians 36

11 Paul's Satan as challenger, and guardian against pride: 2 Corinthians 41

12 Paul on Adam: no Satan; Satan returns as roadblock (Romans 16) 44

Part 4 The Gospels

13 Mark's Satan: testing Jesus 53

14 Matthew's Satan: trading Scripture with Jesus 58

15 Matthew's Satan as "evil"-or not so bad! 63

16 Luke's Satan: the appointed ruler of the world-due for a sudden fall 68

17 Luke on Satan's testing: by disease-spirits and in person 71

18 Luke's Satan in dialogue with God and Jesus 74

19 John's Devil: behind Cain and all sinners 78

20 John's Devil as ruler of the world, already judged but still at work 83

Part 5 The Rest of the New Testament

21 Deutero-Paul of 2 Thessalonians: Satan and God working together 89

22 Deutero-Pauls of 1-2 Timothy: dealing pastorally with Satan 93

23 Another Deutero-Paul, to Ephesus: Devil and the other super-powers 98

24 Hebrews: Devil as Angel of Death (and ruler of the world) 102

25 The Epistle of "Jude": Devil as Death-Angel, respected by Archangel Michael 105

26 Pseudo-Peter 1 and "James" on confronting Satan 110

27 First Pseudo-John: Devil, Cain, and Devil's works 114

28 John the Divine on Satan and the churches of Asia 118

29 Dragon-Devil's light with Michael, symbolizing Satan's future dismissal as celestial accuser 122

30 Dragon-Devil's still-more-future prospects:

1) Dealings with other symbolic beasts

2) Confinement in the abyss for a thousand years

3) Success as deceiver of the whole world

4) Final jettison, with Hades, Death, and sinners, into the lake of fire 126

Part 6 Post-Biblical Developments

31 Satan identified as Eden serpent (Justin Martyr) 133

32 Satan's resentment of Adam (Life of Adam, Qu'ran) 138

33 Satan-as-Lucifer falls out of pride, not because of Adam (Origen) 142

34 Satan gains control of humanity (Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas) 146

35 Satan's future defeat by Michael shifted back to Lucifer's original fall 150

36 Lucifer fell not to earth, but straight to hell, creating logistical problems 155

Part 7 Conclusion

37 Back to the Bible 163

38 Belief in Satan 168

Scripture Index 171

General Index 177

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“A world expert on Satan in the Bible, Henry Ansgar Kelly offers the fruits of years of research. His intriguing thesis is that Satan is not God's enemy in the Old and New Testaments but God's employee, a divine prosecuting attorney working for the celestial government. At once learned and provocative, this book is bound to be controversial in probing the biblical foundations of evil.”

—Mark S. Smith, Helena Professor of Old Testament Literature and Exegesis, Princeton Theological Seminary



“Henry Ansgar Kelly traces the story of the biblical Satan from its earliest sources to the post-biblical developments that dominate popular culture. In doing so, he carefully attends to the biblical contexts of references to the Adversary, distinguishing them from the misinterpretations and misappropriations that have accrued over the centuries. As such, Kelly has written an interesting, accessible, and biblically literate book of interest to scholars, students, and the general public.”

—Mary Ann Beavis, Department of Religion and Culture Undergraduate Chair, Religion and Culture Program, University of Saskatchewan

Editorial Reviews

"A world expert on Satan in the Bible, Henry Ansgar Kelly offers the fruits of years of research. His intriguing thesis is that Satan is not God's enemy in the Old and New Testaments but God's employee, a divine prosecuting attorney working for the celestial government. At once learned and provocative, this book is bound to be controversial in probing the biblical foundations of evil."

--Mark S. Smith, Helena Professor of Old Testament Literature and Exegesis, Princeton Theological Seminary



"Henry Ansgar Kelly traces the story of the biblical Satan from its earliest sources to the post-biblical developments that dominate popular culture. In doing so, he carefully attends to the biblical contexts of references to the Adversary, distinguishing them from the misinterpretations and misappropriations that have accrued over the centuries. As such, Kelly has written an interesting, accessible, and biblically literate book of interest to scholars, students, and the general public."

--Mary Ann Beavis, Department of Religion and Culture Undergraduate Chair, Religion and Culture Program, University of Saskatchewan

From the Publisher