This idea hasn’t been completely thought through to its logical conclusion, so feel free to critique if you find it lacking.

Judaism does not really have a Satan¹, which is to say that there is no evil force which opposes god. Instead we have the yetzer hatov and the yetzer harah – the good and evil inclinations which are present in all of us. Fundamentally we believe that god created everything – both the good and the evil.² This is the reason that we are required to bless god both for the good and the bad. Christianity on the other hand has a very clearly defined Satan who functions as an independent force which is opposed to god.³ Since Judaism believes that god is the one source for all forces in the universe, evil had to stem from god too. Jewish theology would seem to oppose any force in the universe that was greater than, equal to, or not originating from god.

Why did Christianity redefine evil as stemming from an independent force rather than stemming from god? Perhaps the reason is that Christianity was trying to humanize god. (For obvious reasons). Christianity has a god that more people can relate to⁴. A more human god means a god which can be opposed, just as a human being can. In this case it means that (depending on your point of view) either god has been demoted to the same level as evil, or evil has been promoted to the same level as god, in order to make god more approachable by humans.

1 – Someone is going to bring up Iyov (Job in English) to show that there is a Satan. I’ll admit that Iyov would seem to throw a monkey wrench in my initial premise, but I think it’s evident that the theology of evil presented in Iyov is in a great minority when it comes to the biblical and post biblical literature. The talmud in fact (Bava Batra 15a) questions whether or not Iyov was actually a real person or just an allegory, a view which is supported by the Rambam. Whether or not it is literal, Satan has not developed as an independent force in Jewish thought. The majority of the talmudic literature which discusses bad occurrences refers to them as an occurrence of god and not Satan. Further, Satan, even in Iyov, does not appear capable of independent action without the permission of god. (See the Jewish Encyclopedia article for more).

2 – As a side note, the talmud goes so far to prove this point (very likely as a guard against dualism), that one who repeats the word modim (we thank you) twice during prayer is assumed to be a heretic and removed from the synagogue.

3 – I’m no expert on the NT, but the Jewish Encyclopedia tells me that Satan even tried to seduce Jesus/god. The idea that Satan could override or even corrupt god (even if he didn’t succeed) should show how different the two views are.

4 – http://www.jesusismyhomeboy.com/

This entry was posted on Monday, January 12th, 2009 at 9:57 pm by Ari and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.