The truth about Satan, which was difficult to find, is discovered in the history of acceptance!
A book that shows the right path for believers to take toward Satan!

'Is Satan a creature created by God?' 'If so, could God not be good?' 'If not, then isn't Satan a creature created by God?' 'Then, are there beings that God did not create?' These are difficult questions that no one has been able to answer with complete certainty.
The Bible does not provide any explanation as to the origin of the being called Satan.
However, humanity has been trying for a long time to understand its existence, and the result of that effort can be seen as the form of Satan that we understand today.
What concerns did humanity face? What process of acceptance did it undergo? This book seeks to answer these questions.
Meanwhile, how did people treat Satan in the distant past, when each person understood him in their own way? Did they simply acknowledge his existence? Or did they expel him with "exorcisms"? Should we today also choose "exorcisms" as our way of opposing him? This book offers an intriguing and surprising approach to this question.

Therefore, in this book, we will examine the Old Testament and intertestamental Jewish literature, which are highly authoritative texts within both religions, to compare the reception of the concept of Satan in early Christianity and Judaism.
Chapter 1 examines the development of the concept of Satan as a person by examining the Old Testament books of Zechariah, Job, and 1 Chronicles.
However, the Old Testament contains little information about Satan's origins, specific functions, good and evil in existence, and his influence on humans.
The New Testament and the early church fathers, which will be discussed later in this book, recognize Satan as an opponent of God, an evil being, and a being who exerts a negative influence on humanity.
This is the result of accepting the view of Satan that developed in the middle period.

---From the "Introduction"

The first mention of Satan as a spiritual being in the Old Testament is in the book of Zechariah, which deals with the situation in the 6th century BC.
Here, Satan is expressed as a common noun with an article.
Zechariah sees Satan standing on the right side of Joshua the High Priest, and Jehovah rebuking Satan.
Satan is being rebuked, although we do not know what he was trying to accuse because his actions are not explained.
Who is Satan in this passage? Dominic Rudman suggests focusing on the word "rebuke."
This word was used in the Old Testament when God rebuked 'water', which was a symbol of chaos (Psalm 106:9; Nahum 1:4).
God chose Joshua to bring new order to the new community, and Satan's attempts to stop him were seen as creating chaos.
On the one hand, Hanson (P.
D. Hanson) presents a social context perspective.
This text is about a conflict within the returnee community around 520 BC regarding the recognition of Joshua as high priest.
He claims that Zechariah, through a vision, borrowed the form of the heavenly council and saw that it was God's will for Joshua to become the high priest, and that Satan, who was on the other side, was a force opposing Joshua's appointment as high priest.
Allen (N.
Allan) suggests that Satan is the Samaritans who remained in Israel or the priests who were not taken captive and were still performing their duties.
If they were priests, they would have been at least a person or group with the power or ability to oppose the chosen high priesthood.
---From "Is Satan a Personal Being? 1) Understanding Satan in the Old Testament"

In the text, Satan, called Satanael, is identified with the serpent.
Although the exact date of 3 Baruch cannot be established, we can see that over time the serpent tends to be identified with Satan.
This becomes even clearer in the era of the Church Fathers.
Joannes Chrisostomus (344/354–407) in his Homiliae in Genesim, written in 385, connects the tradition of fallen angels with the serpent of Genesis 3.
The originator of evil was cast out of heaven, and he used the serpent to corrupt mankind.
These contents could already be found in ancient Jewish literature, and Chrysostom accepted them.

---From "Appendix: Is the Serpent Satan?"

Satan, who appeared as a personification in the Old Testament, became more closely associated with evil and dualistic concepts in intertestamental Jewish literature.
Authors of intermediate Jewish literature attempted to understand the origins of evil in the world.
Among these, literature such as 1 Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs used the motif of the fall of the Watchers.
Additionally, he utilized dualism to attribute the cause of evil to Satan and explained the ongoing war between good and evil.
The authors of the Intermediate Jewish literature, who experienced a great crisis under Hellenism, regarded their suffering as an evil.
But they did not stop at explaining evil; they tried to overcome the current crisis they and their people were facing together and to give the people a message of hope.
He declared that the current crisis would end with a message that Satan would one day be destroyed, even though he appeared to be in power.
Although they used dualism, they did not abandon monism, which had been in place since the Old Testament.
So, Satan was still understood as a being trapped in monism.

---From "Conclusion: Show your faith by your actions (James 2:18)"