23/07/2024
ELIJAH WRITES:
Is Satan a real person? Where did he come from?
A person can be a Satan but Satan is not just one particular entity. It all depends on context.
There are very few passages in the Bible by which we might identify clearly who or what Satan is. If we take an analytical approach, we may begin to see that the picture presented by the Bible is not the one we were shown at Sunday school.
Human beings like to have a scapegoat and ‘the devil’ provides them with an easily accessible scoundrel to blame for their wayward behavior so we are easily convinced about the popular story that some of God’s own angels are responsible for evil in the world.
The popular story is a crock and here’s why. Satan is a Hebrew word meaning opponent or adversary, no more, no less. It doesn’t appear in the Bible until the book of Numbers (22:22) where it describes God’s angel standing in the way of the wayward prophet Balaam—and we note that the English translators have carefully left it out, leaving no clue as to the original word (remember Hebrew reads right to left).
NASB Numbers 22:22 Then God’s anger was aroused because he went, and the Angel of the Lord took His stand in the way as an adversary against him.
So, Satan in the Old Testament is a common Hebraism, and nothing to do with the popular story adapted for Christian audiences. In Job he is the court prosecutor and we note the antiquity of the adversarial court system we still use today. The Prosecutor speaks as if the defendant is guilty and the Defense Attorney sides with his client, stating the opposite scenario. God says nothing in defense of Job but agrees that ha Satan has a case worthy of testing.
Other passages bear this out but the New Testament develops the theme. Diabolos (Gk false accuser) is translated the devil and used interchangeably with Satan depending on the spoken language of the audience. Jesus develops the idea that Satan is the prosecutor (or opponent, nemesis, antagonist, traducer etc) of all humankind, pointing back to the serpent whom he sees as the figurehead for all our problems with SIN.
So, Jesus is tempted in the wilderness, re-enacting the Eden temptation with a vastly different outcome. Matthew 4 calls him ‘the tempter’ which points us to the serpent of Genesis, the nemesis of every son and daughter of God, reflecting the thoughts that went through Eve’s mind when she ‘saw that (the fruit) was ‘good for food’ etc. The serpent is not the real villain of the story, but the thought process in the human mind.
Genesis 3:6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
So, there in early Genesis we are shown that the real problem is in our thoughts which tend towards selfishness because we sense the latent power in our ability to discern moral issues as God can.
Here, Jesus referred to the desire towards sin in every one of us as Satan but it also applies to those who practice sin against others and persecute those who believe.
Elijah Adjei Boakye, © 2024
Elijah Adjei Boakye is a trained Journalist, writer, and a professional teacher. Elijah is a blogger, and a columnist for several media houses in Ghana including modernghana and ghanaweb.
Blog: www.2plustv.com
Tel. 233245200795
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Column: Elijah Adjei Boakye
