One should compare the following with Paul's theology of Satan and his transformative abilities (see Paul, Satan, and 2 Corinthians 11:14):
The Masquerades of Satan
In the stories in the Babylonian Talmud and the Tanḥuma Satan masquerades himself as best befits the situation: as an old man face to face with Abraham, as a young man face to face with Isaac (Tanḥuma וירא 22), as a poor man in the story of Pelimo (b. Qidd, 81b/82a) or as a woman to seduce man (b. Qidd. 81a; Yal. Šim’oni ויחי § 161). He also appears as a river (Tanḥuma וירא 22) or a snake (Midr. ‘Aggada on Exod. 4.24). One of the stories collected at the end of tractate Qiddushin reads as follows:
R. ‘Aqibah used to
scoff at transgressors. One day Satan appeared to him as a woman on the top of
a palm tree. Grasping the tree, he went climbing up: but when he reached
half-way up to the tree he [Satan] let him go, saying: “had they not proclaimed
in Heaven, ‘Take heed of R. ‘Aqibah and his learning,’ I would have valued your
life as two ma’ahs.” (b. Qidd. 81a).
No pious man should
be overconfident, as everyone can be seduced by Satan. This warning is
reflected also in the dictum “An arrow in Satan’s eyes!” in the story of Pelimo
that directly follows or in the statement of Ra. Yose: “A man should never speak
in such a way as to give an opening to Satan” (b. Ber. 19a). In this
story Satan disguises himself as a woman. He visualizes carnal desire and can
therefore be equated with the evil inclination. One difference, however, cannot
be ignored: Satan is an independent figure, while the evil inclination is part
of a human being.
Like Satan the evil
inclination is not “evil” in principle. On the one hand it misleads man to do
evil; on the other hand it is indispensable for the existence of humankind and
the world. Without the evil inclination Adam and Eve would live in Gan Eden
without any children (Gen. Rab .9.7; Qoh. Rab. 3.11.3). (Gottfried
Reeg, “The Devil in Rabbinic Literature,” in Ida Frōhlich and Erakki
Koskenniemi, eds., Evil and the Devil [Library of New Testament Studies
481; London: T&T Clark, 2013, 2019], 71-83, here, pp. 78-79)
