Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Supposing we limit ourselves to Job and Zechariah, though, I think the three differences you mention can be somewhat reconciled: 1 The term "sons of God" in Job though technically not used of the Adversary, as it just says he was with them doesn't necessarily denote an eternal being.
Improve this answer. Soldarnal Soldarnal 35k 59 59 gold badges silver badges bronze badges. From a theoretical standpoint, I agree with this. However, looking at all this through my doctrine, I believe that they are one and the same. Otherwise, we would have to accept that there are multiple agents actively working against God. From a doctrinal stance, I believe that it's a dichotomy--God vs Satan.
And while Satan has agents of his own, it's his initiative, control, and authority that these things are being done. These two instances specifically are Satan himself, in different forms. Richard Just curious: would you also link the deceiving spirit in 2 Chronicles ? I do agree with you that they are one person, by the way. And I'm curious about the parallel story in 2 Samuel 24 , which says God " incited David" rather than Satan.
But that's a whole separate question. Soldarnal Tough call. I haven't really researched the idea of God deceiving before. However, I did find an excellent blog post about God deceiving. Also, here are verses that seem to indicate that God does deceive on occasion.
Let me propose the hypotheses Satan Satan is a position, not a person. Those who hold the position are loyal and faithful agents of the Most High. The serpent In my view, the introduction of sin was not only a necessity, but it would be a great disappointment and failure to our Creator if Adam and Hawah had not sinned. Conclusion The above hypotheses by themselves would have no bearings to being an answer to the question. Cynthia Avishegnath Cynthia Avishegnath 1, 12 12 silver badges 23 23 bronze badges.
Also names were changed to reflect a new or future character eg Abram becomes Abraham, Jacob becomes Israel and fulfillment of a promise Is Gentiles given a new name. You might want to consider that someone in a position would be given a new name consistent with the position especially if their functioning as the position holder reflects their essential or true character. So even if Satan is a position it is entirely consistent within Scripture that Satan could also be a name and the one given the name could retain both names.
And if it is a position filled by others as well, the the chief position holder, or the one who best reflects the position would "the satan" or ha-satan. If there is no evidence of it in the Hebrew scriptures, well Quran could say the same thing that Mohammed is a new legit phenomenon. Or Joseph Smith. Then anybody can append a new book after Malakhi and say, well we changed the name legit'ly. Yes, the adversary and the serpent are generally accepted by Christians to be the same being.
Richard Richard 9, 19 19 gold badges 52 52 silver badges 91 91 bronze badges. From a Christian perspective, your 3rd and 4th options make sense as a sort of "anti-Incarnation.
I'm not claiming that any of these perspectives are from any given doctrine Christian, Jewish, Luciferian Christianity , etc. I'm just giving a few examples of how some ideas might reconcile these concepts, rather than trying to address the doctrine behind the concepts. Ultimately, the correct answer to this question would be more of a doctrinal answer than an exegetical answer.
I'm just completely sidestepping that by throwing a few theoretical doctrines out there. My comment was putting two of your exegetical suggestions in a particular doctrinal context.
My own. I think that's fair, but it's not the whole story. And perhaps the texts don't address my question at all. That seems likely if the authors of Job and Genesis didn't know the other text. A fifth option is that the Adversary is not to be taken literally. Milton's Paradise Lost, describes the fourth option in some depth.
Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. He has both minions Job , 17 and powers , 19 that do his bidding. He sends evil men to steal and to kill, and he employs the lightning 16 and the wind to destroy. He also uses timing. Satan uses means that God has created so that he can do his evil while he lets God take the blame—and God allows it to see if His people will truly trust Him even in their calamity and pain.
Satan has Goals. He wants to steal, kill, and destroy. Satan has Limits. Satan is a spiritual being whose limits appear clearly in the story. Christians believe that humans are born stained with sin.
Jews do not believe that humans are born inherently sinful, but with a choice. Christians believe that only through the Messiah and his crucifixion can we be free from sin. Jews believe that redemption can come from true repentance, prayer and acts of charity. For Jews, the Messiah will come to deliver redemption in some eschatological end of time event but not necessarily in terms of exclusive salvation for Jews for those outside the faith need to observe seven simple Noachide Laws to stay on the straight and narrow.
Ultimately, these differences led to irreconcilable schism and two thousand years of embittered relations. Christianity's traditional theology focuses on an exclusive mode of salvation, and, therefore the authorities soon categorised the world into the saved and the damned: those who followed the 'true path' of Christianity were saved and the rest damned. Pluralism was not tolerated.
Hence, the Middle Ages saw burnings of Christian heretics, a simple way to purge wrongful beliefs. Jews were already portrayed as beyond the pale or worse: some Christian theologians saw them as blind to the "coming of the messiah", whilst others quite literally demonized them. Medieval European cathedrals today still have statues of the fallen and blindfolded Synagoga standing beside a triumphant Ecclesia. St Augustine believed that Jews had been left to wander the earth as a "damned people" and later Christian rulers promoted anti-Judaic measures such as ghettoes, the wearing of special clothing and the banning of Jews from trades and from time-to-time Jews were butchered.
The notion that a person born into one group would be good and one born into another bad does not lend itself to a rationalist approach and robs the individual of responsibility of their actions.
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