Sunday Sermonette: Frenemies

The character of Satan as a partial solution to the problem of evil creates many problems. It means, first of all, that Judaism and Christianity are not in fact monotheistic. Christianity isn ' t anyway, because of the Trinity, the goddess Mary, and innumerable demigod saints. But Satan clearly has the full status of a rival God. His existence implies that Yahweh is neither omniscient nor omnipotent. Satan knows things that Yahweh does not, and exercises powers of his own. You can ' t have it both ways.The relationship between the two seems rivalrous, but also cordial if not rather chummy. What we see here is much like the relationship that Bob Dylan presents in All Along the Watchtower, in which God complains that he doesn ' t get enough respect and Satan counsels equanimity, invoking their long relationship in the process. I ' m guessing Dylan was inspired by in his conception by Job.  Note the literary device here of repetition from Chapter 1. Having lost the first bet, Satan makes another, but the setup is the same. It ' s like a musical theme and variation. Oddly, in the footnotes, the translators admit that they have mistranslated two words. I ' m not sure what that ' s all about. Presumably you should substitute the words in the footnotes for the words in the text.2 On another day the angels[a] came to present themselves before theLord, and Satan also came with them to present himself before him.2 And theLord said to Satan, “Where have you come fr...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs