together with a phalanx of angels and spirits assigned
to guard and bless them.
What, then, does God’s election of his people mean? The
author of Jubilees , echoing the warnings of Isaiah and other
prophets, suggests that belonging to the people of Israel does not
guarantee deliverance from evil. It conveys a legacy of moral
struggle, but ensures divine help in that struggle.
Jubilees depicts Mastema testing Abraham himself to the
breaking point. For according to this revisionist writer, it is
Mastema—not the Lord—who commands Abraham to kill his
son, Isaac. Later Abraham expresses anxiety lest he be enslaved
by evil spirits, “who have dominion over the thoughts of human
hearts”; he pleads with God, “Deliver me from the hands of evil
spirits, and do not let them lead me astray from my God” Jub.
12:20). Moses, too, knows that he and his people are vulnerable.
When he prays that God deliver Israel from their external
enemies, “the Gentiles” Jub . 1:19), he also prays that God may
deliver them from the intimate enemy that threatens to take over
his people internally and destroy them: “Do not let the spirit of
Belial rule over them” Jub. 1:20). This sense of ominous and
omnipresent danger in Jubilees shows the extent to which the
author regards his people as corruptible and, to a considerable
extent, already corrupted. Like the Book of the Watchers , Jubilees
THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF SATAN / 55
warns that those who neglect God’s covenant are being seduced
by the powers of evil, fallen angels.
Despite these warnings, the majority of Jews, from the second
century B.C.E. to the present, reject sectarianism, as well as the
universalism that, among most Christians, would finally
supersede ethnic distinction. The Jewish majority, including
those who sided with the Maccabees against the assimilationists,
has always identified with Israel as a whole.
The author of the biblical book of Daniel, for example, who
wrote during the crisis surrounding the Maccabean war, also
sides with the Maccabees, and wants Jews to shun contamination
incurred by eating with Gentiles, marrying them, or worshiping
their gods. To encourage Jews to maintain their loyalty to Israel,
the book opens with the famous story of the prophet Daniel,
sentenced to death by the Babylonian king for faithfully praying
to his God. Thrown into a den of lions to be torn apart, Daniel is
divinely delivered; “the Lord sent an angel to shut the lions'
mouths,” so that the courageous prophet emerges unharmed.
Like the authors of Jubilees and Watchers , the author of
Daniel, too, sees moral division within Israel, and warns that
some people “violate the covenant; but the people who know
their God shall stand firm and take action” (Dan. 11:32). Though
concerned with moral issues, he never forgets ethnic identity:
what concerns him above all is Israel’s moral destiny as a whole.
Unlike the writers of the Book of the Watchers and Jubilees , the
author of Daniel envisions no sectarian enemy, either human or
divine. Grieved as he is at Israel’s sins, he never condemns many,
much less the majority, of his people as apostate; consequently,
he never speaks of Satan, Semihazah, Azazel, Mastema, Belial, or
fallen angels of any kind.
Although there are no devils in Daniel’s world, there are
angels, and there are enemies. The author presents the alien
enemies, rulers of the Persian, Medean, and Hellenistic empires,
in traditional visionary imagery, as monstrous beasts. In one
vision, the first beast is “like a lion with eagles’ wings”; the
second “like a bear,” ferociously devouring its prey; the third
like a leopard “with four wings of a bird on its back and four
heads”; and “a
56 / THE ORIGIN OF SATAN
fourth beast (is] terrible and dreadful and exceedingly strong;
and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and broke in pieces, and
stamped the residue with its feet.” In another
to guard and bless them.
What, then, does God’s election of his people mean? The
author of Jubilees , echoing the warnings of Isaiah and other
prophets, suggests that belonging to the people of Israel does not
guarantee deliverance from evil. It conveys a legacy of moral
struggle, but ensures divine help in that struggle.
Jubilees depicts Mastema testing Abraham himself to the
breaking point. For according to this revisionist writer, it is
Mastema—not the Lord—who commands Abraham to kill his
son, Isaac. Later Abraham expresses anxiety lest he be enslaved
by evil spirits, “who have dominion over the thoughts of human
hearts”; he pleads with God, “Deliver me from the hands of evil
spirits, and do not let them lead me astray from my God” Jub.
12:20). Moses, too, knows that he and his people are vulnerable.
When he prays that God deliver Israel from their external
enemies, “the Gentiles” Jub . 1:19), he also prays that God may
deliver them from the intimate enemy that threatens to take over
his people internally and destroy them: “Do not let the spirit of
Belial rule over them” Jub. 1:20). This sense of ominous and
omnipresent danger in Jubilees shows the extent to which the
author regards his people as corruptible and, to a considerable
extent, already corrupted. Like the Book of the Watchers , Jubilees
THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF SATAN / 55
warns that those who neglect God’s covenant are being seduced
by the powers of evil, fallen angels.
Despite these warnings, the majority of Jews, from the second
century B.C.E. to the present, reject sectarianism, as well as the
universalism that, among most Christians, would finally
supersede ethnic distinction. The Jewish majority, including
those who sided with the Maccabees against the assimilationists,
has always identified with Israel as a whole.
The author of the biblical book of Daniel, for example, who
wrote during the crisis surrounding the Maccabean war, also
sides with the Maccabees, and wants Jews to shun contamination
incurred by eating with Gentiles, marrying them, or worshiping
their gods. To encourage Jews to maintain their loyalty to Israel,
the book opens with the famous story of the prophet Daniel,
sentenced to death by the Babylonian king for faithfully praying
to his God. Thrown into a den of lions to be torn apart, Daniel is
divinely delivered; “the Lord sent an angel to shut the lions'
mouths,” so that the courageous prophet emerges unharmed.
Like the authors of Jubilees and Watchers , the author of
Daniel, too, sees moral division within Israel, and warns that
some people “violate the covenant; but the people who know
their God shall stand firm and take action” (Dan. 11:32). Though
concerned with moral issues, he never forgets ethnic identity:
what concerns him above all is Israel’s moral destiny as a whole.
Unlike the writers of the Book of the Watchers and Jubilees , the
author of Daniel envisions no sectarian enemy, either human or
divine. Grieved as he is at Israel’s sins, he never condemns many,
much less the majority, of his people as apostate; consequently,
he never speaks of Satan, Semihazah, Azazel, Mastema, Belial, or
fallen angels of any kind.
Although there are no devils in Daniel’s world, there are
angels, and there are enemies. The author presents the alien
enemies, rulers of the Persian, Medean, and Hellenistic empires,
in traditional visionary imagery, as monstrous beasts. In one
vision, the first beast is “like a lion with eagles’ wings”; the
second “like a bear,” ferociously devouring its prey; the third
like a leopard “with four wings of a bird on its back and four
heads”; and “a
56 / THE ORIGIN OF SATAN
fourth beast (is] terrible and dreadful and exceedingly strong;
and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and broke in pieces, and
stamped the residue with its feet.” In another
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