satan: notes on the gods
DESCRIPTION
Nature of divine beings in the Bible, and the terminology applied to them. The terms are largely descriptive and titular, rather than nominal. Readers of the Bible often make the mistake of taking divine epithets as names.TRANSCRIPT
.ŒATAN
NOTES ON THE GODS
by
©Robert F. Smith
2012 (version 2)
Titlature
Satan, like Jesus, is a son of God and angel of YHWH who has a name which is1
.really a title, haŒatan, "the Adversary, Opponent" (Job 1:6-12, Ps 109:6, Zech 3:1-2, I
Chron 21:1, Lk 10:18, Rev 12:9, 20:2; 1QH frags. 4:6, 14:3, 1QSb 1:8), Satan, also like
Jesus, is termed an "angel of light" (in disguise, II Cor 11:14; cf. 1QS 3:20-21, CD 5:18),
and Satan, again like Jesus, can be called "the Father" (Matt 13:38, Jn 8:38-44, I Jn 3:8-15,
Acts 13:10). Satan has many other titles as well: Heb ’Abaddon, "Destruction,
Perdition" = Gk ’Apollyon, "Destroyer; Angel/ King of the Abyss/Bottomless Pit" (Job
26:6, Ps 88:12, Prov 15:11, 27:20 2Še’ol, Rev 9:11; cf. 1QS 4:12, CD 2:6, 1QM 13:12, 14:10;
II Enoch 53:3, 56:1, TB Šabbat 88a, TJ Šebu‘ot 6:37a), Asmodeus, "Destroyer" (Tobit 3:8,17;
= Persian Demon Aeshma Daeva), Ba)al-Zebul, "Lord-Majesty," or, by dysphemistic
word-play, Ba)al-Zebub, Beel-Zebub, "Lord-of-Flies" (II Ki 1:2-3,6, Matt 10:25, 12:22-30,
Mk 3:22-30, Lk 11:14-26), Beli)al/ Beliar/Belias (Dt 13:13/14, Ps 18:4, II Cor 6:15; 1QS
1:18,23-24, CD 4:13,15, 5:18, 7:2, 12:2, 1QM 13:11-12, 1QH 5:38-39, 4QFlor [4Q174] 8-9,
4QMMT; Jubilees 1:20, Testament of Levi 18:12, 19:1, Test. Dan 5:1; Martyrdom of Isaiah
2:4; Sibylline Oracles 2:167, 3:63,73; Didache 21:3; Apocryphon of John 11:4-5), Dragon,
Rahab, Leviathan, Serpent, Snake (Gen 3, Ex 15, Job 2:8, 26:13, Pss 74:12-17, 89:10-13, Isa
27:1, 51:9-11, Matt 3:7 [1QH 3:17], Rev 12:9, 20:2; Ugaritic “Baal & Mot” [CAT 1.5.I:1-
2,28-29]), Evil-One, God of this World (II Cor 4:4), Prince of Darkness, Prince of Devils
(Rom 5, Heb 2:14, Matt 9:34; = Beli)al in 1QS 3:20-21, 4Q390, Testament of Levi 19,
Testament of Joseph 7, 20), of Power of Air (Eph 2:2), of this World (Jn 12:31, 14:30,
16:11, II Cor 4:4; Martyrdom of Isaiah 2:4), Gk Diabolos, "Accuser, Calumniator, Devil"
(Job 1:6, Wisdom of Solomon 2:24, Matt 4:1, Jn 8:44, 13:2, Heb 2:14, Rev 12:9, 20:2,
Apocryphon of James 4:30,37,39), Accuser (Rev 12:10), Tempter (Gen 3, I Thess 3:5),
Wicked-One (Matt 13:19), Heb Samma&el, "Venom-of-God" = Gnostic archon Samael,
R. S. Kluger, Satan in the Old Testament, trans. H. Nagel (Northwestern Univ., 1967).1
.ŒATAN / LUCIFER
"Blind-God" (Baruch 4:9, I Enoch 6, Sibylline Oracles 2:215, Apocryphon of John 11:18,
Hypostasis of the Archons 87:3-4, 94:25-26, On the Origin of the World 103:18), )Az(azel,
"Scapegoat" (Lev 16:8-26, I Enoch 10:4-6, 54:6, Testament of Solomon 7:7, 4Q180),
.Maœtema (Jubilees 10:8ff,18ff, 11:5, 17:16, 18:9, 49:2; 1QS 5:22, CD 4:13, 5:18, 7:2, 16:5,
4Q390), one of the Watchers who fell from heaven (Dan 4:13,17,23, CD 2:16), etc.2
A Problem With Lucifer
A question is sometimes posed as to whether a particular pericope in the Old
Testament has anything to do with Satan, namely that famous passage in Isaiah 14. 3
Although some modern scholars have vacillated, early Church Fathers such as4
Tertullian, Origen, and Augustine made the connection very explicit. Others, such as5
leading evangelical theologian John Warwick Montgomery, are direct and frank in
accepting the connection. Still others have virtually granted the entire point without6
realizing it. Giving the passage in question a careful analysis leaves no doubt about the7
Some of these identifications are discussed in W. F. Albright & C. S. Mann, Matthew, Anchor2
Bible 26 (Doubleday, 1971), 34. Cf. Jeffrey Burton Russell, Satan: The Early Christian Tradition
.(Ithaca: Cornell Univ., 1982); Peggy Lynne Day, "œâtân in the Hebrew Bible," doctoraldissertation (Harvard Univ., 1986), abstract in HTR, 79 (1986), 471 = published as An Adversaryin Heaven: Satan in the Hebrew Bible, Harvard Semitic Monographs (Scholars Press, 1988).
My late friend, theologian Olive Wilcox, first raised the question, and the first draft of this3
paper was put into her hands in 1979.
F. F. Bruce, History of the Bible in English, 3rd ed., 264.4
Ronald F. Youngblood, "Fallen Star: The Evolution of Lucifer," Bible Review, XIV/6 (Dec5
1998), 24, citing Tertullian, Against Marcion 5:11,17 (Ante-Nicene Fathers III:454,466), Origen, DePrincipiis 1:5 (Ante-Nicene Fathers IV:259), and Augustine, City of God 11:13-15.
Montgomery, The Law Above the Law (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1975), 81.6
J. D. Davis & H. G. Gehman in Westminster Dictionary of the Bible, 5th ed. (Phila.:7
Westminster Press, 1944/ 1st ed., 1898), 364 @ Lucifer:
The prophet likened the splendor of the king of Babylon to Lucifer, son of themorning (Isa. 14:12; in R.V. day star), and Jesus calls himself "the bright, themorning star" (Rev. 22:16; cf. II Peter 1:19). The application of the name Lucifer
2
.ŒATAN / LUCIFER
.intended meaning, i.e., Isaiah 14:12 refers to Helel son of Šahar, "Bright-One, son of
Dawn" (=LXX Greek Heosphoros = Latin Vulgate Lucifer, "Light-Bearer, Morning-Star
[Venus]"), and Helel is being used in that context as a metaphor for a high and mighty
Assyrian or Babylonian king (perhaps Nebuchadrezzar II, Evil-Merodach, or
Nabonidus; Ezekiel 28:2-10 uses similar language to describe the ruler of Tyre).
However, Helel is the name or title of a well-known Canaanite god of the Dawn,
probably equivalent to Ugaritic hll, and Babylonian elil, "shining-one." He is more8
frequently seen as Canaanite and early South Arabic ‘Athtar, "Splendor," the Lion (I Pt
5:8), god of Venus-in-the-Morning, which is identical to Moabite ‘Aštar-Kemoš, Arabic
‘Atar-Œamayin, and Aramaic ‘Attar-Šamayin, "Morning-Star-of-Heaven," etc. 9
Canaanite ‘Athtar is god of the Underworld, who, like Punic Melqart, had challenged
Ba)al-Zephon for his throne in the ancient Ba)al Epic known from the Ugaritic texts of
Ras Shamra (which were first discovered in the 1930s):
.The North, Safon
In Isaiah 14:12-15 and the surrounding text, Isaiah is directly referring to and
perhaps even quoting from a Canaanite poem on the defeat of Mot or ‘Athtar in his
.battle with Hadad Ba)al-Safon (= )Elyon, "The Most High," there and in Hebrew
Religion), and the Heavenly Council -- the members of which are represented as the10
to Satan, the rebel angel hurled from heaven, has existed since the 3d century,especially among poets. It is based on the erroneous supposition that Luke 10:18is an explanation of Isa. 14:12; cf. also Rev. 9:1; 12:7-10.
One may compare other articles in the same edition for broader perspective (esp. 424, 534-535,on Nergal and Satan).
Langdon in The Mythology of All Races: Semitic, V:145; Chicago Asssyrian Dictionary, I:1, pp.8
348-349, elilu, alilu, "brilliant one, brave one, warrior," an epithet of kings.
Black & Green, Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia, 35, 108; Gordon, Orientalia,9
37:427 §8; Cf. F. M. Cross in Bible Review, VIII/6 (Dec 1992), 28.
Both Ba)al-Hadad and YHWH are termed "Cloud-Rider" (Ps 68:4 [MT 68:5]; cf. Dan10
.7:13), both dwell in Mt. Safon (Pss 29:3,10, 48:2 [MT 48:3], Isa 14:13), both destroy the great
3
.ŒATAN / LUCIFER
circumpolar, eternal stars of God, by Isaiah and by Canaanite and Egyptian myth -- is a
witness to that defeat. The site of the battle in the "recesses of the North" (Heb.11
.yarketey Safon) mentioned in Isa 14:13, refers to the Cosmic and Holy Mountain of
Ba)al-Hadad (Jebel 'el-Aqra`) at the mouth of the Orontes River in North Syria, a kind12
of Canaanite Olympus.
The poem to which Isaiah probably has direct reference is Ugaritic Text 49:I:33-37
(CTA 6), as rendered by the late Mitchell Dahood:13
And, Athtar the terrible replied: "I cannot rule in the heart of Zaphon."
Athtar the terrible came down from the throne of Baal, and became king
in the vast underworld, all of it.
The Slavonic Enoch, composed in Egypt, probably edited by a Hellenistic Jew at the
beginning of the Christian era, and preserved in Slavic monasteries, contains an echo of
this and the Judeo-Christian tradition, e.g., II Enoch 29:4-5:
One from out [of] the order of angels [Satan, cf. 31:4] . . . conceived an
impossible thought, to place his throne higher than the clouds above the
earth, that he might become equal in rank to my power. And I threw him
Dragon, or Sea (Ps 74:12-15, Isa 27:1, Job 7:12), and both arrive in a great thunderstorm, withseven thunders or seven lightnings (Ps 29:3-9; KTU 1.101.3-4 = Ugaritica V.3.3-4) – alldiscussed by John Day in Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, I:548-549.
Albright, Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan, 134, 141-142n, 187, 228, 231-232, 239; Èerný,11
Ancient Egyptian Religion, 51-52; Journal of Egyptian Archeology, 21:5, n. 2; Erman, Literature of theAncient Egyptians, 142; Bright, A History of Israel, 3rd ed., 350n; cf. Pss 48:32148:3; Enuma elišV:1.
Hector Avalos in D. N. Freedman, Anchor Bible Dictionary (N.Y.: Doubleday, 1992), VI:1040-12
1041, citing R. J. Clifford, The Cosmic Mountain in Canaan and the Old Testament (Cambridge,Mass.: 1972); Michael D. Coogan, Stories from Ancient Canaan (Louisville, KY: Westminster,1978), 13, 22.
Dahood, Psalms, Anchor Bible 16, I:111; cf. UT 77:45-47 (CTA 24), Job 38:18, Isa 40:25-26, Lk13
10:18, Jude 6, II Nephi 2:17-18, 9:8-10, PGP Moses 4:3-4, Abraham 3:26-28, D&C 76:25-38.
4
.ŒATAN / LUCIFER
from the height.14
This is similar to the Mesopotamian legend of the god Nergal, who descended to the
Netherworld at the time of creation. Adam likewise causes Satan's expulsion from15
heaven at the time of creation in the 5th century A.D. "Book of Adam and Eve," I:6:
But the wicked Satan set me at naught, and sought the Godhead, so that I
hurled him down from heaven.16
Such imagery is familiar from the Book of John the Evangelist ("He set his seat above
the clouds of heaven"), the Gospel (or Questions) of Bartholomew 4:24-25, the Papyrus17
Bodmer X, 54:12, and later in Geoffrey Chaucer's "Monk's Tale," as well as in "Piers18 19
Plowman," II:105-11, and certainly in John Milton's "Paradise Lost."20
R. H. Charles, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, II:426, § 4. Cf. F. I.14
Andersen's translation in J. H. Charlesworth, ed., The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (N.Y.:Doubleday, 1983), I:148,154, which include comments on the inclusion there and elsewhere ofSotona/Satana/Satanail/Satanael/Satanao (cf. Gospel of Bartholomew 4:24-25).
Cf. Giorgio de Santillana & Hertha von Dechend, Hamlet's Mill: An Essay on Myth and the15
Frame of Time (Gambit, 1969/ Boston: D. Godine, 1977), 297,323-324,413,417,437,448-449.
Vita Adae et Evae, xii-xvii, in R. H. Charles, APOT, II:137 (Life of Adam & Eve 14:2-3, 15:1, in16
Nibley, Works, XII:195-196, n. 83); cf. Testament of Levi 3:2, Test. of Dan 5:5-6, II Enoch 18:3. Seealso K. L. Schmidt, "Luzifer als gefallne Engelsmacht," in Theologische Zeitung, VII (1951), 261-279.
Montague R. James, Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford, 1924/1955), 188.17
Nibley, Works, XII:196, n. 84; J. K. Elliott, ed., The Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford:18
Clarendon Press, 1993), 663.
Youngblood, "Fallen Star," Bible Review, XIV/6 (Dec 1998), 25, 31; see the "Canterbury19
Tales," frag. VII, lines 1999-2006, and frag. B , lines *3189-*3196, in F. N. Robinson, ed., The2
Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, 2 ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1957), 189.nd
B. Bamberger, Fallen Angels (N.Y., 1954); Neil Forsyth, The Satanic Epic (Princeton Univ.20
Press, 2003).
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.ŒATAN / LUCIFER
In its 6th edition, Gehman's New Westminster Dictionary of the Bible finally
accepted the theretofore rejected parallel of Luke 10:18 with Isaiah 14:12 as employing a
common simile or metaphor ("figure"), thus following modern scholarship at long last.21
Father and Sons
Thus, just as Canaanite Ba)al and ‘Athtar are competitors for the kingdom of
their father (El, so are Yahweh (Jehovah) and Satan the Biblical adversaries, even as22
Isaiah uses the battle as a metaphor for the future fall of a human king. The motif is
clearly applied to several great kings in order to show that their hubris is their nemesis:
Kings Rezon and Hadad are "satans" raised up against Solomon (I Ki 11:14ff, 23ff),
while the king of Tyre, thinking himself the god Melqart (Ba)al-Melcarth < milk-qart,
"king of the city"), also receives his comeuppance according to Ezekiel (26:2-19, 28:2-19)
with the same "revival of ancient mythologoumena", which we see in Isaiah 13 - 14. 23
Jesus, on the other hand, refuses to seize cosmic power (Matt 4:1-10, Philipp 2:6-9).
Gehman & Davis (Phila., 1970), 835; cf. 569, where the relationship to Ugaritic Helel is21
finally noted though not developed. This and the 5th edition are in error in any case inmaintaining that the application of the metaphor began in the 3rd century A.D. As noted in theInterpreter's Dictionary of the Bible (Abingdon, 1962), III:227b, Satan was already so identified bythe 2nd century B.C. in the Book of Enoch (I En 54:5-6), which early Jewish and Christianliterature contained as part of the scriptural canon -- still the case for some branches of EasternChristianity, e.g., the Ethiopic Church (see the Summer 1985 issue of Bible Review for F. M.Cross' chart on later exclusion of once canonical books), and for Jewish Falashas. Cf. Jude 15-16, a quotation from I Enoch 1:9, and an allusion to 5:5. The motif is further explicated in theInterpreter's Bible, V (Abingdon, 1956), at Isa 14:12, and the Interpreter's One Volume Commentaryon the Bible (1971). See also the NEB (New English Bible, Oxford Study Edition) note on Rev 9:1stars as angels (1:20), and this fallen star as perhaps Satan the fallen angel (9:11), citing there Isa14:12-16 and Luke 10:18.
Especially in Job, Jude 4-9, Rev 12:7-9, I Enoch 1, 5, 10, 18-21, 54, and Assumption of Moses22
7:1-7, 10:1. Cf. Conrad E. L'Heureux, Rank Among the Canaanite Gods: El, Ba)al, and the Repha)im,Harvard Semitic Monograph 21 (Missoula: Scholars Press, 1979).
Kittel, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, @ diabolos; R. De Vaux, Ancient Israel,23
II:279. In Exodus 15, Psalms 74:13-14, 89:10-13, and Isaiah 27:1, 51:9-11, similar epic parallelsexist for YHWH taking the place of Ba)al in his battle with Yamm, "Sea" (F. M. Cross in BibleReview, VIII/5 [Oct 1992], 28-29).
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.ŒATAN / LUCIFER
As I have suggested, this pattern is well-attested throughout the ancient Near
East, i.e., ‘Athtar is virtually the same in person and function in the pantheon as
Sumerian NER.GAL, or MAŠ.MAŠ, Assyro-Babylonian Nergal, and Amorite-Hebrew
Rešef (Arsuf/Mot), all gods of pestilence, war, death, and the Underworld, who dwelt
in heaven until the time of creation, and who were then cast down for the first time. 24
The reuse of "older material" in Isaiah 14 as a doom oracle on a human oppressor in no
way eliminates the primary meaning, and indeed depends heavily upon that primary
meaning. A motif is valuable, after all, only insofar as its primary meaning is broadly
understood by those receiving the message. Without this being true, satire, metaphor,
simile, allegory, parable, etc., would be impossible.
Moreover, there are other historical connections: Nergal is the name of King Evil-
Merodach (Amel-Marduk) of Babylon before he comes to the throne (560-556 B.C.). 25
The god Nergal chooses Nabonidus to be king over Babylonia while he is yet in his
mother's womb. Between Evil-Merodach and Nabonidus came Nergal-Sharezer,26
brother-in-law to Evil-Merodach, but he reigned only four years (Jeremiah 39:3,13,
mentions him while he was still only a military commander). Stephen Langdon's27
study of this god concluded that the myth of Nergal is clearly recalled in Isa 13 - 14, to
.wit: Like ‘Athtar and Œatan, the lion is his symbol; he plots to destroy mankind; "He
is,..the incarnation of evil, who, like Satan, hates all piety and goodness"; he not only
hates righteousness, and is lord of the earth, but is also judge of the dead and prince of
Arallu/Underworld, the land of no return, though he was originally solar in nature
Encyclopaedia Judaica, 5:390, 1481-82; see Deut 32:24, II Ki 17:30, I Chron 7:25, Hab 3:5, Job24
5:7, Ps 76:4, Songs 8:6; note likewise the opposition of Zoroastrian Ahriman and Ormazd. InMesopotamian accounts it is the Serpent Kur, who comes from the "great below," who isdefeated by Ninurta/Marduk, or another hero (Samuel N. Kramer, Sumerian Mythology, 2nd ed.[Phila.: Univ. of Penn., 1961/1972], 76-79. Cf. Gordon in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th ed.,12:91-96).
Encyclopaedia Judaica, 12:964.25
De Vaux, Ancient Israel, I:100; cf. Jer 1:5.26
J. Bright, A History of Israel, 2 ed., 353.27 nd
7
.ŒATAN / LUCIFER
(known as Irra, Gira, and Enmesharra). Just so the pantheon of each ancient nation28
had its own "satan," whatever the name or title applied.
As Assyriologist Simo Parpola pointed out recently, the defeat of the seven-
headed Dragon and his angelic retinue by Michael and his angels in Revelation 12:1-9 is
actually part of "an enduring tradition of Near Eastern religious beliefs and symbols,"
i.e., Sumerian muš sag-imin is the same seven-headed Serpent who is slain by the
savior-god Nin-urta/Nimrod, son of Ellil/Enlil.29
The Divine Council
Biblically, as elsewhere, Satan is cast down not once but several times (Gen 3,
Dan 11:21-45, I En 40:7, Lk 10:18, Jn 12:31, Rev 12:4), yet remains on the Earth while the
Anti-Christ serves him, is then bound, released, and finally cast into a lake of fire at the
absolute and final judgment (II Thess 2:9-10, Rev 12:9,12, 13:2). If Jesus is the Advocate
and Defender before the Father (Job 19:25, I Jn 2:1), so Satan is the Prosecutor (Job 1:6 -
2:7), both in the heavenly court. But what is this heavenly court? Who is involved? 30
When and where does the court meet?
The heavenly court motif is recognized by modern scholarship as being the
Assembly of the Gods (Isa 40:25-26, Ps 82), and it is interchangeable with the "banquet31
Langdon in Mythology of All Races, V:137-147,163-164,342, 351,400. Cf. N. J. Tromp,28
Primitive Conceptions of Death and the Netherworld in the Old Testament, BiOr 12 (Rome: PontificalBiblical Institute, 1969).
Simo Parpola, "From Whence the Beast?" Bible Review, XV/6 (Dec 1999), 24, comparing Ps29
74 (defeat of Leviathan); see the Sumerian Epics of Lugal-e and An-gim, as well as theBabylonian versions of the Epic of Anzum. Parpola deals with other Mesopotamian roots ofJudeo-Christian tradition in "Sons of God," Archaeology Odyssey, II/5 (Nov-Dec 1999), 16-27, 61.
Cf. P. L. Day, An Adversary in Heaven: Satan in the Hebrew Bible, Harvard Semitic30
Monograph (Harvard Semitic Museum, 1988).
E. Theodore Mullen, Jr., The Assembly of the Gods: The Divine Council in Canaanite and Early31
Hebrew Literature, Harvard Semitic Monograph 24 (Chico: Scholars Press, 1980). R. N.Whybray, The Heavenly Counsellor in Isaiah xl 13-14 (Cambridge Univ., 1971) [cf. UT 77:45-47];
8
.ŒATAN / LUCIFER
of salvation on the World Mountain." In Hebrew it is termed )Adat (El (Ps 82:1), or32
Sod, "Heavenly Council; Decision of Council; counsel, secret, mystery" (= Essene/
Qumran raz = Iranian/Persian raza = Pauline mysterion), and is the direct corollary of
Ugaritic )dt.ilm, Ph.r.ilm, Ph.r.m)d, "The Divine Parliament; The Group of the Assembly
(of Gods)" (= Sumerian UKKIN = Akkadian Puh.rum). It is likely that that divine
assembly included pre-existent man, along with Seraphim, Cherubim, and other33 34
M. Tsevat, "God and the Gods in Assembly; An Interpretation of Psalm 82," Hebrew UnionCollege Annual, 40-41 (1969-1970), 123-137; cf. R. F. Smith in Dialogue, 6/1 (Spring 1971), 102, onIsa 53 and Job 19:25.
J. Jeremias in Jesu Mission für die Volker, Franz Delitzsch-Vorlesungen, 1953 (Stuttgart,32
1956), citing Matt 8:11-12, Lk 13:28-29, 14:15-24 (cf. Matt 22:1-14), 22:30, Rev 19:9, and I Enoch62:14 (cf. Isa 25:6-8, Ezk 34:14-16, 40:2, 47:1-12), as instances of this gathering; B. Margulis,"Weltbaum and Weltberg in Ugaritic Literature," Zeitschrift für die alttestamentlisscheWissenschaft, 86 (1974), 1-23; R. J. Clifford, The Cosmic Mountain in Canaan and in the OldTestament (1972); Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 33 (1971), 221-227; cf. Albright in Proceedings of theAmerican Philosophical Society, 116:234-235; Gordon, Ugaritic Textbook, ##1397, 1512, and UT 137;R. De Vaux, Ancient Israel, II:279-281.
Cf. M. Dahood, Psalms, Anchor Bible, III:285,295, on Ps 139:15, implying pre-existence -- as33
in Gen 2:7, 3:19, Ps 90:3, Eccles 3:20, 5:14, 12:7, Ecclus 40:1, Job 1:21.
The New Jerusalem Bible (N.Y.: Doubleday, 1985), note i at Ex 25:18, defines cherubim34
(griffin) as follows:
The word corresponds to the Babylonian karibu, half-human, half-animalspirits guarding the gates of temples and palaces. In Biblical descriptions andMiddle Eastern iconography, the great winged creatures were winged sphinxes. Winged creatures played no part in the cult in the desert, and do not seem tooccur in the cult of Yahweh earlier than the stay of the ark at Shiloh, whereYahweh was entitled "He who is enthroned on the great winged creatures," 1 S4:4, 2 S 6:2; see 2 K 19:15; Ps 80:1; 99:1, and is said to "ride on the wingedcreatures," 2 S 22:11; see Ps 18:10. In Solomon's Temple, they formed a frame forthe ark and disappeared when the ark disappeared. In the post-exilic Temple,two little figures of winged creatures were attached to the mercy seat. seepreceding note. In Ezk 1 and 10, God's chariot is drawn by winged creatures.
Cf. Ezk 1:4 - 2:8, 10; 4Q405 20, 2:21-22; I En 14:16-17, II En 21:1.
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.ŒATAN / LUCIFER
angelic creatures (but see D&C 77:2-4, Rev 4:6-8). Certainly Garr and Mettinger
emphasize the plurality of the divine world in Gen 1 - 3.35
Old Israelite Ritual Drama
Time and again the motif is reenacted, and each time is just as valid for the
immediate observers/participants, whether an instance of Yahweh defeating Ba‘al on
Mount Carm-’El, "Vineyard-of-God" (I Ki 18:20-48), a meeting/council on the Mount of
Transfiguration (Matt 17:1ff), or even the confrontation on the Mount of Temptation (Lk
4:5ff). To ignore the pattern is to take scripture out of context. Moreover, the pattern36
can be ritual drama, as explained by F. M. Cross in his 1973 magnum opus:37
Israel's religion emerged from a mythopoeic past under the impact of
certain historical experiences which stimulated the creation of an epic
cycle and its associated covenant rites of the early time. Thus epic, rather
than the Canaanite cosmogonic myth, was featured in the ritual drama of
the old Israelite cultus. At the same time the epic events and their
interpretation were shaped strongly by inherited mythic patterns and
language, so that they gained a vertical dimension in addition to their
horizontal, historical stance. In this tension between mythic and historical
elements the meaning of Israel's history became transparent.
Tryggve Mettinger, The Eden Narrative: A Religio-Historical Study of Genesis 2-335
(Eisenbrauns, 2007), 55, citing Randall Garr, In His Own Image and Likeness (Leiden: Brill, 2003),17-92.
On reenactments of expulsion of evil and the devil, see J. G. Frazer and T. H. Gaster, The36
New Golden Bough (N.Y.: Criterion, 1959), §§444-470.
Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic (Harvard Univ., 1973), Preface, quoted by Cross in37
Bible Review, VIII/5 (Oct 1992), 29.
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.ŒATAN / LUCIFER
Bibliography
Albright, William F., and C. S. Mann, Matthew, Anchor Bible 26 (Doubleday, 1971).
Albright, William F., "Neglected Factors in the Greek Intellectual Revolution,"
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 116/3 (June 1972), 225-242.
Albright, William F., Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan: A Historical Analysis of Two
Contrasting Faiths, 1965 Jordan Lectures (N.Y.: Doubleday, 1968).
Avalos, Hector, “Zaphon, Mount,” in D. N. Freedman, Anchor Bible Dictionary (N.Y.:
Doubleday, 1992), VI:1040-1041.
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reprint 2006).
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allure and subversive nature of Satan and by closely examining biblical and other
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Ancient Research and Mormon Studies/Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1986-2010).
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15
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