Saturday, December 18, 2021

Tovia Singer on "Satan" in Job 1 being a Member of God's Court in Judaism

  

Is Satan a Servant of God, or Is he God’s Arch Enemy?

 

According to Jewish teachings, Satan is an agent of God and has no independent agency or autonomy. God created Satan in His wisdom and for His purpose, to test man’s faith. . . . Jewish and Christian teachings on the person, nature, and function of Satan are diametrically different.

 

In the instances where Satan is discussed in the Jewish Scriptures, Satan is consistently described as a loyal servant of God, rather than a disobedient angel. . . . at the beginning of the Book of Job, Satan is an angelic member of the divine council, the “sons of God” who are subservient to God. . . . Judaism teaches that Satan is an angel who faithfully serves God as a prosecuting attorney, one who accuses men of wickedness and impiety. (Tovia Singer, Let’s Get Biblical: Why Doesn’t Judaism Accept the Christian Messiah? 2 vols. [Forest Hills, N.Y.: Outreach Judaism, 2014], 1:348, 349)