Wray T. J. - The birth of Satan : tracing the devils biblical roots

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Contents

For Rob and Page and our six little devils

Together, we would like to thank our family, friends, and colleagues for their encouragement and support in this project. Special thanks to the absolute best literary agent on the planet, Rob McQuilkin, of Lippincott Massie McQuilkin. We would like to also say thanks to our editor, Amanda Johnson, for her enthusiasm, dedication, and editorial expertise. Finally, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to the faculty, staff, and, especially, the wonderful students at Salve Regina University and Andover Newton Theological School for their continued affirmation and prayerful support.

Speak of the Devil and he appears.

Italian proverb

Satan, also known as the Devil, Lucifer, Mephistopheles, and by a legion of discarded names and epithets drawn from the Index of Dead Gods, is the archvillain of world culture. All incarnations of this Devil, the supreme opponent of God in the monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), can be traced to a character in the Bible and to stories and lore in early Jewish and Christian writings not found in the Bible. The purpose of this book is to explore the biblical roots beneath the tangled jungle of Satanic lore and demonic conspiracy theories that cover vast acres of our imaginative, narrative, artistic, and cinematic landscape.

Most references to Satan or satanic characters and symbols in popular music, movies, fiction, occult and orthodox religions have evolved from this biblical matrix and virtually all modern conspiracy theories, whether they speak of the Devil or not, can be traced to the primal story of Satan in the Bible (and other Jewish and Christian writings from the biblical period).

The cosmic conspiracy theory first composed by Jewish writers in the final centuries before the Common Era (ca. 200 B.C.E.zero C.E) is the template for thousands of stories. These ancient Jewish thinkers told the story about an invisible, universal plot dedicated to world conquest in the name of Death, led by an arch criminal mastermind, Satan, and his network of demons. This dramatic story has been retold countless times ever since, though the cast changes in every generation and place.

Most recently, in Dan Browns The Da Vinci Code, the conspirators are not Satan and his underworld demons but certain subterranean cells of Roman Catholic clerics dedicated to suppression of the Divine Feminine. Members of white supremacist groups imagine a confederation of the Elders of Zion controlling the fortunes of the world behind, in one era, European banking houses, and in another, the Jewish magnates of Hollywood and Manhattan media empires. Right-wing survivalists and left-wing paranoiacs substitute cabals hidden within the legitimate governments of the world, whether they are Communists, atheists, or military-industrialists, for the demonic villains of ancient versions. In a surprising but predictable development, given the scientific cast of modern culture, aliens have replaced demons in many stories, without affecting the plot: the demons possessed souls, the aliens invade and snatch bodies; demonic incubi and succubae sexually assaulted medieval Europeans in their sleep, the gray men take humans aboard their flying saucers to violate them. The legitimate fears of terrorist attacks in light of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon show every sign of mutating into a narrative of a worldwide network presided by a satanic Bin Laden who controls a demonic army of Muslim terrorists.

So Satan, by many names, remains alive and well on the Planet Earth, and this book sketches the process by which the Devil first emerged in the Bible. As we trace this character through the books of the Bible, we will also observe the ways in which virtually every contemporary idea and image of Satan has evolved from ideas and images of the ancient Jews and Christians who first told Satans story. But first, we will begin by exercising (or exorcising?) our authorial prerogative, telling our own stories about childhood encounters with the Devil.

T. J. Wrays Encounter with Satan

The incarnation of evil who terrorized me as a child returns now for a rematch. Banished for many years and relegated to the ranks of superstitious mythology, Satan is back and demanding his say. I have spent the better part of three years thinking about him and carefully tracing his complex origins. But, despite all my scholarly detective work, vestiges of my childhood fears still linger and, truth be told, I still will not sleep with my back facing the door.

As I grew up Catholic in the 1960s, Satan was as much a part of my childhood as God. But, unlike the wispy image of God I held only in my minds eye, I had actually seen the Devil a few times. Once, just moments after teasing my little sister until she cried, I saw his shadow pass from behind the laundry room door in our basement into the family room. I remember bolting up the stairs and slamming the cellar door, terrified and breathless. What on earth is wrong with you? my mother asked. I saw a spider, I lied, adding yet another bead to the necklace of naughtiness I had been fashioning for myself for years.

On more than one occasion I had seen Satan scurrying through the thin trees beyond our back fence. I was convinced he was spying on me as I sloppily raked leaves or deposited the trash in the rubbish bin, leaving the lid off out of pure laziness. Indeed, there were days when I was too terrified to venture into my own backyard for fear that the Devil and his minions were lying in wait for me, eager to include yet another bad little girl to their fold.

But perhaps my scariest Satan sighting of all happened at one of the most unlikely places of allchurch. One Friday afternoon during Lent, as I exited St. Frances de Chantel Holy Roman Catholic Church after my weekly confession, I was sure I saw him lurking just outside the heavy glass doors of our church. Father Anthony had prodded me to search my ten-year-old conscience for graver sins than swearing and punching my sisters. Honest, Father, I had stonewalled, I havent done anything else that I can think of. I neglected to tell him, of course, that I often skipped Mass, regularly ate meat on Fridays (even during Lent), frequently took the Lords name in vain, and, oh yes, lied to priests.

As I rushed down the church steps that afternoon, skipping out halfway through my ponderous penance, I was certain the Devil was hot on my heels. Hunched in the back of my parents old Plymouth station wagon, I fended off terrifying images of Satans bony red fingers clutching my ankles and dragging me into his fiery pit. At the ripe old age of ten I was convinced that, as in Dantes famous inscription, I should abandon all hope. Im going to hell, I thought miserably.

Satan also appeared in my dreams occasionallyhis face red, his teeth pointy and yellowed, sneering and breathing long streams of gray smoke through hideously engorged nostrils. He had a twisted horn on either side of his head and a scruffy-looking black goatee. Most frightening of all, he carried a pitchfork, his personal instrument of terror, used to spear bad children like shrimp on a cocktail fork. Petrified for weeks after one of these Satan sightings, I learned to never, ever sleep with my back to the bedroom door for fear that the Devil might catch me unawares.