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As earlier posts illustrated, from sixth century BCE Israelite storytellers occasionally made reference to a supernatural entity they regarded as an opponent or adversary . However, the satan was still a term that designated a particular function, it had yet to become a proper name. In both the book of Job and in chapter three of Zechariah this figure is a divine prosecuting counsel.
As has also been noted, following the return of the Babylonian exiles the situation in Judah was somewhat fraught, with different groups vying for control, and it is around the mid to late sixth century BCE that the satan starts take on more antagonistic, possibly malign, attributes.
In the opening verses of Genesis chapter six there is short narrative about the sons of God who, attracted to mortal women, decide to take wives from among them. The results of these unions are the Nephilim who “were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.”
The deity decrees that these offspring cannot live for more than 120 years and thereby removes the Nephilim from the divine realm of eternal life.
It would appear that immortality and a knowledge of good and evil marked the boundary between the divine and the mortal. Humankind had already gained the latter and in Genesis chapter three the chief deity expresses concern that humans may gain the former when it speaks to its fellow deities, “See, the humans have become like one of us, knowing good and evil, and now they might reach out their hands and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever”.
The opening verses of Genesis chapter six have no apparent negative aspects in and of themselves. However, they appear in a narrative that leads directly to the deity being concerned with humankind’s sin. It is therefore possible to read the entire chapter as an assault upon the natural order. Divine beings consummating their relationships with mortals and producing offspring being a sin and thereby providing justification for the flood.
This theme is taken up in both 1 Enoch and Jubilees where some of those divine beings, the “sons of God” violated the divine and natural order by mating with human women. In Genesis six the juxtaposition of the story of the Nephilim and the flood only hint at a possible connection between the two, whereas in Jubilees there is a direct causal relationship. The actions of these “sons of God” otherwise known as “Watchers” or “angels” is made quite clear in Jubilees chapter five verse six:
A decision that carries distinct echoes of Greek mythology and the treatment meted out to the Titans, the pre-Olympian deities.
A few verses later, Yahweh decides to destroy everything:
A second group of stories taking their starting point from verses twelve to fourteen in Isaiah chapter fourteen to fourteen and the reference to the “Son of Dawn” suggest that a highly placed angelic figure was cast out of heaven for insubordination and/or challenging the divine order. This “Son of Dawn” is linked in the LXX with Hesiod's, Heōsphoros son of Heōs, and in the Latin vulgate as Lucifer who rose in the morning, “qui mane oriebaris”.
As has also been noted, following the return of the Babylonian exiles the situation in Judah was somewhat fraught, with different groups vying for control, and it is around the mid to late sixth century BCE that the satan starts take on more antagonistic, possibly malign, attributes.
In the opening verses of Genesis chapter six there is short narrative about the sons of God who, attracted to mortal women, decide to take wives from among them. The results of these unions are the Nephilim who “were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.”
The deity decrees that these offspring cannot live for more than 120 years and thereby removes the Nephilim from the divine realm of eternal life.
It would appear that immortality and a knowledge of good and evil marked the boundary between the divine and the mortal. Humankind had already gained the latter and in Genesis chapter three the chief deity expresses concern that humans may gain the former when it speaks to its fellow deities, “See, the humans have become like one of us, knowing good and evil, and now they might reach out their hands and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever”.
The opening verses of Genesis chapter six have no apparent negative aspects in and of themselves. However, they appear in a narrative that leads directly to the deity being concerned with humankind’s sin. It is therefore possible to read the entire chapter as an assault upon the natural order. Divine beings consummating their relationships with mortals and producing offspring being a sin and thereby providing justification for the flood.
This theme is taken up in both 1 Enoch and Jubilees where some of those divine beings, the “sons of God” violated the divine and natural order by mating with human women. In Genesis six the juxtaposition of the story of the Nephilim and the flood only hint at a possible connection between the two, whereas in Jubilees there is a direct causal relationship. The actions of these “sons of God” otherwise known as “Watchers” or “angels” is made quite clear in Jubilees chapter five verse six:
...And against the angels whom He had sent upon the earth, He was exceedingly wroth, and He gave commandments to root them out of all their dominion, and He bade us bind them in the depths of the earth.
A decision that carries distinct echoes of Greek mythology and the treatment meted out to the Titans, the pre-Olympian deities.
A few verses later, Yahweh decides to destroy everything:
And the Lord said that he would destroy everything which was upon the earth.
A second group of stories taking their starting point from verses twelve to fourteen in Isaiah chapter fourteen to fourteen and the reference to the “Son of Dawn” suggest that a highly placed angelic figure was cast out of heaven for insubordination and/or challenging the divine order. This “Son of Dawn” is linked in the LXX with Hesiod's, Heōsphoros son of Heōs, and in the Latin vulgate as Lucifer who rose in the morning, “qui mane oriebaris”.
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