Thursday, August 8, 2024

Paolo Sacchi on Satan in 1 Chronicles 21:1 and the parallel text in 2 Samuel 24:1

  

Toward the end of the Persian period his figure reappears in 1 Chron. 21.1, where ‘satan’ has become a proper name. The article has been dropped and he has become Satan with a capital ‘S’. A comparison between the text as it appears in the Chronicles and its source in the books of Samuel (2 Sam. 24.1) shows us just which problems led some Jews to use this figure. In the older text, that of the source, we read, ‘Again the anger of Yhwh was kindled against Israel...’, in a context where no motivation for God’s anger is given. Apparently the idea that God could get angry with no apparent reason and put sinful ideas into someone’s heart (in this case David’s) must have been repugnant to the religious sensibilities of the fourth century BCE. The Chronicler’s text becomes, ‘Satan stood up against Israel...’

 

Without the comparison to its source, the text in Chronicles would seem to refer to the devil. In comparison to the source, though, we see that it was simply a way of expressing an embarrassing idea, that God could desire someone’s harm, just as in the most ancient tradition. In any case, in this book Satan is an ambiguous figure, because it is not clear just how much freedom of action he has at the heavenly court and up to just what point he can harm humankind. In this way the satan and the devil (whether Asael or Semeyaza) grow strangely closer until, as we have seen, Satan becomes without a doubt the name of the devil in the book of Jubilees. He no longer belongs to the heavenly court, but is ruler of his own kingdom. (Paolo Sacchi, The History of the Second Temple Period [Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, Press, 2000], 350)

 

  

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