“Hello, Satan. I believe it’s time to go.”

ENG 233
Response 4
2 November 2010

“Hello, Satan. I believe it’s time to go.”*

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*. “Me and the Devil Blues” by Robert Johnson
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    One of the most confounding characters in the literary narratives of the Bible is that of Satan in the Book of Job, and perhaps the most common—and incorrect—assumption about the character is that this character is synonymous with that of the devil as depicted in the New Testament. When working with only English translations of the text, the two characters could easily be confused. But the texts involved were not written in English, and, indeed, most often English version of the Bible are translations of translations and not chronicled from source materials.

    In Hebrew, the character who appears in the Book of Job is ha-satan, “the Adversary,” from the verb satan, meaning “obstruct” or “oppose.” This titular character is named as such 10 times in the first two chapters of Job. It is only one of three books in the Hebrew Bible where the character is so named (the other two being 1 Chronicles and Zechariah).

    In the New Testament, the name is repeatedly used in connection with “the devil”—“The great dragon, the primeval serpent, known as the devil or Satan, who had led all the world astray” (Rev. 12:9)—and most frequently appears (9 times) in the Book of Revelation. But in the texts written in Greek, the word used to describe the character is diabolos, meaning “slanderer.” A fascinating connection between word and scene appears in Revelation: diabolos stems from the verb diaballein, which means “to hurl across/through,” and these words connect to the scene where “the devil, who led them astray, was hurled into the lake of fire and sulphur” (Rev. 20:10).

    The Adversary’s appearance in Job takes on a more complex and deeper level of potential when disassociated from the diabolical connections the title has in the New Testament. For instance, in his first appearance, it is stated that “one day when the sons of God came to attend on Yahweh, among them came Satan” (Job 1:6). This puts him as one of several characters attending to God, but given prominence by being described by titled name. When, in Job 1:7, God asks Satan where he has been, Satan replies “prowling about on earth … roaming around there,” a phrasing used again in 2:2. Satan then could be seen as an agent of God, prowling around the earth looking for those who might be tempted towards maliciousness and reporting his findings to God. Rather than acting in a contrary manner, this is a being who works in conjunction with God’s will and purposes. The two characters argue over Satan’s reporting about Job, and God is annoyed that Satan keeps mentioning that Job is a candidate for temptation even though, as God asserts, “‘[Job] persists in his integrity still; you achieved nothing by provoking me to ruin him’” (2:3).

    But God allows the ruining of Job, even as Job maintains his faith in the Lord, weathering all temptations Satan lays in toils and snares, and Job praises God throughout his days. But all actions from Satan are given authority and allowance by God. Satan works n agency to god, not a diabolical evil being. He is not, as is repeatedly stated in the New Testament, the Devil; at best, merely the Devil’s Advocate.




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