Shawna Dolansky, Biblical Archaeology Society, 4/18/21; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly
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| I didn't even exist yet, but already I got the blame for the downfall of this iteration of humans! |
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Adam, Eve, and the Serpent in the Garden
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| Christians believe a greedy Eve is all to blame. |
Satan does not make an appearance in Genesis 2–3 of the Bible, for the simple reason that when the story was written, the concept of the devil had not yet been invented (biblicalarchaeology.org).
Explaining the serpent in the Garden of Eden as Satan would have been as foreign a concept to the ancient authors of the text as referring to Ezekiel’s vision as a UFO (but Google “Ezekiel’s vision” now, and you’ll see that plenty of people today have made that connection!)
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Serpent, Eve, Adam, cherubim, a father God, and angels in the Garden of Eden (Domenichino’s "The Rebuke of Adam and Eve," 1626 (Patrons’ Permanent Fund, National Gallery of Art). |
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In fact, while the word satan appears elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, which Christians call the Old Testament, it is never a proper name.
This is because there is no devil in ancient Israel’s worldview, so there can’t yet have been a proper name for such a creature.
The noun satan, Hebrew for “adversary” or “accuser,” occurs nine times in the Hebrew Bible -- five times to describe a human military, political or legal opponent, and four times with reference to a divine being.
In another part of the Bible (Numbers 22), the prophet Balaam, who was hired to curse the Israelites, is stopped by a messenger from Israel’s God YHWH, described as “the satan,” acting on God’s behalf.
In Job, “the satan” is a member of God’s heavenly council — one of the divine beings, whose role in Job’s story is to be an “accuser,” a status acquired by people in ancient Israel and Mesopotamia for the purposes of particular legal proceedings. More
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