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Who Is Satan?
Question:
Dear Rabbi Singer:
When you were in Buffalo, NY in November of ‘96, during the
extended question and answer time, you were asked your view on
angels and specifically about Satan. I was astounded at your
answer and was more astounded that the other rabbis present
did not step into the discussion.
In your explanation of Satan and other fallen angels you
attributed the creation of evil to G-d thus making Him
responsible for evil. There are at least 87 references to
G-d’s holiness in Leviticus alone! In 11:44 G-d says, “I AM
HOLY.” Is not holiness the absence of sin? There are many
scriptures to prove that G-d hates sin (evil), that He cannot
tolerate evil in His presence. How, then, can you attribute
evil to G-d? I am interested in the Biblical support for your
statement.
I have a fair understanding of Judaism and have found nothing
in all of my reading to support your view as traditional.
Awaiting your reply.
A seeker after truth
Answer:
The rabbis to whom you made reference have spent their entire
lives immersed in the study of the Jewish scriptures as well
as other sacred Jewish literature and were, therefore, not
“astounded” by the Judaism that was taught in Buffalo that
evening, as you were.
Why weren’t the rabbis stunned by these Jewish teachings on
Satan? Because the Hebrew scriptures explicitly declare that
the Almighty Himself places both the good and the evil that He
created before mankind in order to provide His prime creation
with free will. Deuteronomy 30:15 states,
See, I [God] have set before thee this day life and good, and
death and evil.
In Isaiah 45:7, the prophet describes God’s creation plan when
he reports that,
I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and
create evil; I the Lord do all these things.
I did not invent these verses, nor did I tamper with them.In
fact, the Bible I used in the above quotations is the King
James Version, which is a translation that could hardly be
construed as friendly to the Jewish faith.
These edifying verses underscore the fundamental biblical
teaching that it is the perfect spiritual balance of good and
evil in the world that confronts every searching soul. This
is the Almighty’s divine sovereign plan for creation: It is
through man’s personal decision to turn away from evil and
choose good that virtue can be attained.
Isaiah 45:7 and Deuteronomy 30:15, however, pose a serious
theological problem for Christians who maintain that God did
not create Satan, the angel of evil. According to Christian
doctrine, Satan was the highest-ranking angel who, through his
own act of spiritual defiance and outright disobedience,
became the chief adversary and slanderer of God and the
embodiment of evil in this world. In Christian theology God
never created evil; He is only the author of righteousness and
perfection, as you maintained in your question. Therefore,
God could never create something as sinister as the devil
himself. Rather, Satan’s unyielding wickedness is the result
of his own spiritual rebellion.
Although this well-known Christian doctrine has much in common
with the pagan Zoroastrian Persian dualism out of which it was
born, it is completely alien to the teachings of the Jewish
faith and the words of the Jewish scriptures. In fact, the
Christian teaching that Satan was originally intended by God
to be a good angel but, in an act of outright defiance,ceased
to function as God had intended him to, suggests that God
created something imperfect or defective.
For the Jewish faith, Satan’s purpose in seducing man away
from God poses no problem because Satan is only an agent of
God. As a servant of the Almighty, Satan faithfully carries
out the divine will of his Creator as he does in all his tasks.
Satan is one of the many angels mentioned in the Bible. It is
worth noting that the Hebrew word for angel is malach,meaning
“messenger.” The same is true for the English word angel,
derived from the Greek word angelos, which also means
“messenger.” Throughout the Bible, an angel is a messenger of
God who carries out the divine will of the Almighty.There is
not one example in the Jewish scriptures where any angel,
Satan included, opposes God’s will.
In no part of the Bible is this more evident than in the Book
of Job. In the first chapter of Job, Satan appears with other
angels before God and suggests that Job’s steadfast
faithfulness would not withstand personal pain and utter
destitution. Satan then requests from God the chance to test
Job’s virtue. The Almighty grants this request, but He
meticulously outlines for Satan what he may and may not do
when putting Job to the test. Satan obediently follows his
Creator’s instructions. Job is immediately put to the test
and, by the third chapter, begins to struggle. He questions
his Maker as to why he was created and, in a moment of
despair, wishes aloud that he had perished in his mother’s
womb. Still, by the end of this unparalleled biblical
narrative, Job’s virtue prevails over Satan’s unyielding
torment.
While in Christian terms Job’s personal spiritual triumph is a
theological impossibility, in Jewish terms it stands out as
the embodiment of God’s salvation program for mankind. In
Deuteronomy 30:15, the Torah attests to this principle and in
Isaiah 45:7, the prophet echoes this message when he declares
that the Almighty Himself creates evil.
This biblical principle, however, was apparently too
problematic for the Christian translators of the NIV Bible
(New International Version). They clearly recognized that a
Bible which asserts that God creates evil calls into question
one of Christendom’s most cherished teachings on salvation.
How can the church insist that man is totally depraved when
his God placed him in a world where he is free to choose good
over evil? How can the church hold to a doctrine of election
or predestination when free will is man’s to express? How can
Christians maintain that God did not create evil when the
Jewish scriptures clearly state otherwise?
Understandably, the NIV translators saw fit to alter the
prophet’s words by rendering the offensive Hebrew word rah as
“disaster” instead of correctly translating it as “bad” or
“evil.” The NIV Bible therefore mistranslates Isaiah 45:7 to
read,
I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and
create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.
The word “disaster” inserted by the NIV is so ambiguous that
the uninformed reader would easily come to the conclusion that
it refers to such things as earthquakes and hurricanes. This
skewed understanding created by the NIV mistranslation
effectively conceals Isaiah’s original message. As mentioned
above, the KJV (King James Version) does correctly translate
this verse and render the Hebrew word rah as “evil.”
One final point is in order here. Christians often point to
Isaiah 14:12 as a biblical reference to support their
teachings of the final and complete downfall of Satan which
brings to an end the long and otherwise successful career of
this fallen angel. They argue that Isaiah’s mention of the
fallen “morning star” refers to Satan’s ultimate demise at the
end of time when Satan will finally be cast into a lake of
fire as articulated in the twentieth chapter of the Book of
Revelation.
There are, however, two serious problems with this assertion.
First, if Christians maintain that the “morning star” is a
reference to Satan, how do they explain Revelation 22:16 where
Jesus is called the “morning star” as well? Secondly, a
cursory reading of the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah reveals
that the “morning star” spoken of in Isaiah 14:12 is referring
to Nebuchadnessar, the wicked King of Babylon, and not to
Satan. In 14:4 the prophet explicitly names the king of
Babylon as the subject of the prophecy.
That thou shall take up this proverb against the king of
Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased, the golden
city ceased!
Throughout this chapter and the preceding chapter of Isaiah,
the prophet foretells the rise and fall of this arrogant king
who would use his unbridled power to plunder Jerusalem and
destroy its Temple but, at the end, would suffer a cataclysmic
downfall. In 14:12 Nebuchadnezzar is compared to the planet
Venus whose light is still visible in the morning yet vanishes
with the rise of the sun. Like the light of Venus,
Nebuchadnezzar’s reign shone brilliantly for a short time,
yet, as the prophets foretold, was eventually overshadowed by
the nation of Israel whose light endured and outlived this
arrogant nation who tormented and exiled her.
Yours,
Rabbi Tovia Singer
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