chosen
nation is itself divided; some are “blind sheep,” and others have
their eyes open. When the day of judgment comes, he warns,
God will destroy the errant Jews, these “blind sheep,” along
with Israel’s traditional enemies. Furthermore, God will finally
gather into his eternal home not only Israel’s righteous but also
the righteous from the nations (although these will remain
forever secondary to Israel).
A third anonymous writer whose work is included in the First
Book of Enoch is so preoccupied with internal division that he
virtually ignores Israel’s alien enemies. This author has Enoch
predict the rise of “a perverse generation,” warning that “all its
THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF SATAN / 53
deeds shall be apostate” (7 Enoch 93:9). Castigating many of his
contemporaries, this author, as George Nickelsburg points out,
like several biblical prophets, speaks for the poor, and denounces
the rich and powerful, predicting their destruction.28 He even
insists that slavery, along with other social and economic
inequities, is not divinely ordained, as others argue, but “arose
from oppression” (1 Enoch 98:5b)—that is, human sin.29
The story of the watchers, then, in some of its many
transformations, suggested a change in the traditional lines
separating Jew from Gentile. The latest section of the First Book
of Enoch ,the “Similitudes,” written about the time of Jesus,
simply contrasts those who are righteous, who stand on the side
of the angels, with those, both Jews and Gentiles, seduced by
the satans . Accounts like this would open the way for Christians
eventually to leave ethnic identity aside, and to redefine the
human community instead in terms of the moral quality, or
membership in the elect community, of each individual.
Another devout patriot, writing around 160 B.C.E., also siding
with the early Maccabean party, wrote an extraordinary
apocryphal book called Jubilees to urge his people to maintain
their separateness from Gentile ways. What troubles this author
is this: How can so many Israelites, God's own people, have
become apostates? How can so many Jews be “walking in the
ways of the Gentiles” ( Jub . 1:9)? While the author takes for
granted the traditional antithesis between the Israelites and
“their enemies, the Gentiles” ( Jub . 1:19), here again this conflict
recedes into the background. The author of Jubilees is concerned
instead with the conflicts over assimilation that divide Jewish
communities internally, and he attributes these conflicts to that
most intimate of enemies, whom he calls by many names, but
most often calls Mastema (“hatred”), Satan, or Belial.
The story of the angels’ fall in Jubilees , like that in the First
Book of Enoch, gives a moral warning: if even angels, when they
sin, bring God's wrath and destruction upon themselves, how
can mere human beings expect to be spared? Jubilees insists that
every creature, whether angel or human, Israelite or Gentile,
shall be judged according to deeds, that is, ethically.
54 / THE ORIGIN OF SATAN
According to Jubilees , the angels’ tall spawned the giants, who
sow violence and evil, and evil spirits, “who are cruel, and
created to destroy” ( Jub . 10:6). Ever since, their presence has
dominated this world like a dark shadow, and suggests the moral
ambivalence and vulnerability of every human being. Like
certain of the prophets, this author warns that election offers no
safety, certainly no immunity; Israel's destiny depends not
simply on election but on moral action or, failing this, on
repentance and divine forgiveness.
Yet Jews and Gentiles do not confront demonic malevolence
on equal footing. Jubilees says that God assigned to each of the
nations a ruling angel or spirit “so that they might lead them
astray” Jub. 15:31); hence the nations worship demons (whom
Jubilees identifies with foreign gods).30 But God himself rules
over Israel,
nation is itself divided; some are “blind sheep,” and others have
their eyes open. When the day of judgment comes, he warns,
God will destroy the errant Jews, these “blind sheep,” along
with Israel’s traditional enemies. Furthermore, God will finally
gather into his eternal home not only Israel’s righteous but also
the righteous from the nations (although these will remain
forever secondary to Israel).
A third anonymous writer whose work is included in the First
Book of Enoch is so preoccupied with internal division that he
virtually ignores Israel’s alien enemies. This author has Enoch
predict the rise of “a perverse generation,” warning that “all its
THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF SATAN / 53
deeds shall be apostate” (7 Enoch 93:9). Castigating many of his
contemporaries, this author, as George Nickelsburg points out,
like several biblical prophets, speaks for the poor, and denounces
the rich and powerful, predicting their destruction.28 He even
insists that slavery, along with other social and economic
inequities, is not divinely ordained, as others argue, but “arose
from oppression” (1 Enoch 98:5b)—that is, human sin.29
The story of the watchers, then, in some of its many
transformations, suggested a change in the traditional lines
separating Jew from Gentile. The latest section of the First Book
of Enoch ,the “Similitudes,” written about the time of Jesus,
simply contrasts those who are righteous, who stand on the side
of the angels, with those, both Jews and Gentiles, seduced by
the satans . Accounts like this would open the way for Christians
eventually to leave ethnic identity aside, and to redefine the
human community instead in terms of the moral quality, or
membership in the elect community, of each individual.
Another devout patriot, writing around 160 B.C.E., also siding
with the early Maccabean party, wrote an extraordinary
apocryphal book called Jubilees to urge his people to maintain
their separateness from Gentile ways. What troubles this author
is this: How can so many Israelites, God's own people, have
become apostates? How can so many Jews be “walking in the
ways of the Gentiles” ( Jub . 1:9)? While the author takes for
granted the traditional antithesis between the Israelites and
“their enemies, the Gentiles” ( Jub . 1:19), here again this conflict
recedes into the background. The author of Jubilees is concerned
instead with the conflicts over assimilation that divide Jewish
communities internally, and he attributes these conflicts to that
most intimate of enemies, whom he calls by many names, but
most often calls Mastema (“hatred”), Satan, or Belial.
The story of the angels’ fall in Jubilees , like that in the First
Book of Enoch, gives a moral warning: if even angels, when they
sin, bring God's wrath and destruction upon themselves, how
can mere human beings expect to be spared? Jubilees insists that
every creature, whether angel or human, Israelite or Gentile,
shall be judged according to deeds, that is, ethically.
54 / THE ORIGIN OF SATAN
According to Jubilees , the angels’ tall spawned the giants, who
sow violence and evil, and evil spirits, “who are cruel, and
created to destroy” ( Jub . 10:6). Ever since, their presence has
dominated this world like a dark shadow, and suggests the moral
ambivalence and vulnerability of every human being. Like
certain of the prophets, this author warns that election offers no
safety, certainly no immunity; Israel's destiny depends not
simply on election but on moral action or, failing this, on
repentance and divine forgiveness.
Yet Jews and Gentiles do not confront demonic malevolence
on equal footing. Jubilees says that God assigned to each of the
nations a ruling angel or spirit “so that they might lead them
astray” Jub. 15:31); hence the nations worship demons (whom
Jubilees identifies with foreign gods).30 But God himself rules
over Israel,
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