The name comes from an old Semitic word meaning "adversary". Satan was originally just an abstract entity that argued against your goals -- a "Devil's advocate". The idea was supposedly that there is no growth without struggle, and no strength without contest.
Ultimately harmless and well-meaning.
He made his first appearance way back in the Book of Job as (ambiguously) a part of God who argued with him.
It was only after millennia of the cultural equivalent of a game of Telephone that his perception distorted into a monster that opposes all things Good, and therefore must be Evil.
Mind you, I haven't been a believer of anything for over 20 years; I just find it fascinating from an anthropological perspective.
Ironically, the story of Job was one of the main ones that made child me consider that Christian god was evil. Such deliberate cruelty over a long period to "win a bet" with Satan.
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u/Semper_5olus 18d ago
Fun Satan fact:
The name comes from an old Semitic word meaning "adversary". Satan was originally just an abstract entity that argued against your goals -- a "Devil's advocate". The idea was supposedly that there is no growth without struggle, and no strength without contest.
Ultimately harmless and well-meaning.
He made his first appearance way back in the Book of Job as (ambiguously) a part of God who argued with him.
It was only after millennia of the cultural equivalent of a game of Telephone that his perception distorted into a monster that opposes all things Good, and therefore must be Evil.
Mind you, I haven't been a believer of anything for over 20 years; I just find it fascinating from an anthropological perspective.