In the Jehovah Witness pamphlet “What Does the Bible Really Teach?” (WTBRT), on page 28-31 of chapter 3 ( “What is God’s Purpose for the Earth?”) there is a section titled “The Origin of an Enemy”. In the beginning it reads:
“The first book of the Bible tells us of an opposer of God who showed up in the Garden of Eden. He is described as “the serpent”, but he was not a mere animal. The last book of the Bible identifies him as the “one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth” [unattributed]. He is also called “the original serpent” [Genesis 3:1; Revelation 12:9]. This powerful angel, or invisible spirit creature, used a serpent to speak to Eve, even as a skilled person can make it seem that his voice is coming from a nearby doll or dummy. That spirit person had no doubt been present when God prepared the Earth for humans. – Job 38:4,7.”
To me this reads more like the Cliff Notes for Milton’s “Paradise Lost” than Genesis, and at that, it does not match up very well with the events in the middle and the end. We will stop for a moment here to look at the quote from Job, chapter 38. The first verse from the NWT reads:
1 “And Jehovah proceeded to answer Job [my emphasis] out of the windstorm and say…
4 “Where did you happen to be where I founded the earth?
7 “When the morning stars joyfully cried out together and all the sons of God began shouting in applause?”
On page 29 of WTBRT, the epistle of James is cited as explaining how a perfect spirit creation of God could somehow go bad. “Wrong desire may become very strong. Then if the opportunity presents itself, he may act upon the bad desire that he been thinking about.” - James 1:13-15.
I suggest checking out this passage for yourself to see if this sheds any light on the origin of evil in this world; whether or not it is simply inherent in human nature with which we must struggle, or whether evil resided in eternity waiting to manifest itself in interference between God and man; that one more perfect creature managed to corrupt another in full view of a royal court over which presides an eternal, omnipotent and omniscient God.
Clearly, since its founding, the WTBTS has been of the latter view. With the 1934 Yearbook I attempted a word count of the number of times its author (Joseph Rutherford) used certain words. Beyond its statistical report, most of the yearbook then was set up as a daily meditation: a passage selected from the Bible and then a paragraph selected from the previous year’s WatchTower publications. Almost invariably the WatchTower quotations were variations on the impending Armageddon theme. Judging by word counts for the first six months of daily “meditations”, Rutherford referenced Jesus 184 times and Satan 126. He mentioned “organization” 76 times, but I leave it a matter of speculation whether this was used as a pejorative.
As early as 1921, author Rutherford is quick to connect Satan with passages in the Bible Old Testament. From “The Harp of God”, pages 29-30, chapter 2, “The Creation”:
[Of Lucifer], the prophet Ezekiel says of him that “that he was the anointed cherub that covereth”, which seems to indicate that he had authority over some others. Continuing, the prophet records: “Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou has walked up and down in the midst of stones of fire. Thou was perfect in thy ways from the day that thous wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.” (Ezekiel 28:14,15).
When one actually reads chapter 28 of Ezekiel, it is apparent that Ezekiel is addressing these words to the King of Tyre under siege by the Babylonians.
“Thou has been in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond (Ezekiel 28:13). “ The same thing. This is about the king of Tyre.
Even in 1921 there was a tendency to cite Biblical verses in reverse order to validate an interpretation adapted for contemporary ends. But if you go to verses 11 and 12, you will read the following:
The word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows: son of man, raise a lament for the king of Tyre. Say to him, The Lord Yahweh says this :
You used to be a model of perfection, full of wisdom, perfect in beauty; ( 28:12)
You were in Eden, in the garden of God.
All kinds of gem formed your mantle
It is hard for me to believe that such a Bible moth as Rutherford could be unaware of what he was doing.
Now, having ascertained that Joseph Rutherford refers very frequently to Satan in his writings, often citing Satan where he is not, let us check for how many times the Bible actually mentions the chap.
With an on-line concordance, searching for: Hebrew word “SATAN” in King James version
Old Testament
JOB 1:6 before the LORD, and SATAN came also among them.
JOB 1:7 the LORD said unto SATAN, Whence comest thou? Then
JOB 1:7 Whence comest thou? Then SATAN answered the LORD, and
JOB 1:8 the LORD said unto SATAN, Hast thou considered my
JOB 1:9 Then SATAN answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job
JOB 1:12 the LORD said unto SATAN, Behold, all that he
JOB 1:12 forth thine hand. So SATAN went forth from the
JOB 2:1 before the LORD, and SATAN came also among them
JOB 2:2 the LORD said unto SATAN, From whence comest thou?
JOB 2:2 whence comest thou? And SATAN answered the LORD, and
JOB 2:3 the LORD said unto SATAN, Hast thou considered my
JOB 2:4 And SATAN answered the LORD, and said, Skin for
JOB 2:6 the LORD said unto SATAN, Behold, he is in
JOB 2:7 So went SATAN forth from the presence of the (14)
[ According to NWT Appendix written by Moses in 1473 BC in parallel with Numbers and Deuteronomy]
PSALM 109:6 over him: and let SATAN stand at his right [accuser?] (1)
ZECHARIAH 3:1 of the LORD, and SATAN standing at his right [Joshua] to accuse him
ZECHARIAH 3:2 the LORD said unto SATAN, The LORD rebuke thee,
ZECHARIAH 3:2 LORD rebuke thee, O SATAN; even the LORD that (3)
[1 st chapters circa 520-517BC, later chapters 200 years later]
1 CHRONICLES 21:1 And SATAN stood up against Israel, and provoked David (1)
[ According to NWT Appendix, written by Ezra sometime in the mid 5 th century]
New Testament –Gospels & Acts
MATTHEW 4:10 him, Get thee hence, SATAN: for it is written,
MATTHEW 12:26 And if SATAN cast out SATAN, he is divided
MATTHEW 12:26 if SATAN cast out SATAN, he is divided against
MATTHEW 16:23 Get thee behind me, SATAN: thou art an offense
MARK 1:13 forty days, tempted of SATAN; and was with the
MARK 3:23 them in parables, How can SATAN cast out SATAN?
MARK 3:23 them in parables, How can SATAN cast out SATAN?
MARK 3:26 And if SATAN rise up against himself, and be
MARK 4:15 when they have heard, SATAN cometh immediately, and taketh
MARK 8:33 Get thee behind me, SATAN: for thou savourest not
LUKE 4:8 Get thee behind me, SATAN: for it is written,
LUKE 10:18 unto them, I beheld SATAN as lightning fall from
LUKE 11:18 If SATAN also be divided against himself, how shall
LUKE 13:16 daughter of Abraham, whom SATAN hath bound, lo, these
LUKE 22:3 Then entered SATAN into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of
LUKE 22:31 said, Simon, Simon, behold, SATAN hath desired to have
JOHN 13:27 And after the sop SATAN entered into him. Then
ACTS 5:3 said, Ananias, why hath SATAN filled thine heart to
ACTS 26:18 from the power of SATAN unto God, that they
New Testament Epistles
ROMANS 16:20 of peace shall bruise SATAN under your feet shortly.
1 CORINTHIANS 5:5 such an one unto SATAN for the destruction of
1 CORINTHIANS 7:5 come together again, that SATAN tempt you not for
2 CORINTHIANS 2:11 Lest SATAN should get an advantage of us: for
2 CORINTHIANS 11:14 And no marvel; for SATAN himself is transformed into
2 CORINTHIANS 12:7 flesh, the messenger of SATAN to buffet me, lest
1 THESSALONIANS 2:18 I Paul, once and again; but SATAN hindered us.
2 THESSALONIANS 2:9 after the working of SATAN with all power and
1 TIMOTHY 1:20 I have delivered unto SATAN, that they may learn
1 TIMOTHY 5:15 For some are already turned aside after SATAN.
Revelations
REVELATION 2:9 and are not, but are the synagogue of SATAN.
REVELATION 2:13 thou dwellest, even where SATAN's seat is: and thou
REVELATION 2:13 martyr, who was slain among you, where SATAN dwelleth.
REVELATION 2:24 known the depths of SATAN, as they speak; I
REVELATION 3:9 of the synagogue of SATAN, which say they are
REVELATION 12:9 called the Devil, and SATAN, which deceiveth the whole
REVELATION 20:2 is the Devil, and SATAN, and bound him a
REVELATION 20:7 thousand years are expired, SATAN shall be loosed out
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To give credit where credit is due, I would not be writing this post right now if I had not been reading WTBRT under the direction of an Elder and his assistants who visited me each Saturday a couple of winters ago. I would not have reviewed what is actually said at Genesis 3:1, nor would I have connected it with what else is said in the Bible in the manner indicated above. What happened was that I was shocked to my core by what I saw – and it was entirely different than what the Elder and the Brothers were trying to lead me to believe.
When I looked at what was said in the Bible and what I have just excerpted in part from the pamphlet WTBRT, I was amazed by the deceit in behalf of attempting to prove the devil's existence, a rather contrarian enterprise, if I do say so myself.
Genesis never identifies the serpent as Satan or the devil. Satan in the book of Job could be a proper name – or more likely, a title to a prosecutorial presence in a conventional court of an earthly monarch transposed to a celestial realm. There is no evidence for authorship by Moses and the dates ascribed to such authorship are preposterous archeologically even if Moses had written anything himself at all. Anachronisms such as camel caravans abound – and the structure of the book is a poem embedded in a surrounding narrative drawing differing conclusions. This suggests at least two authors.
Satan as a name for the devil is just as semantically slippery as saying “Judge” is Rutherford’s first name. For in the other instances that ha satan appears in the Hebrew text of the OT, save one, it could just as easily be an accuser in a trial ( Zechariah or Psalms) and has sometimes been translated as such. If all letters are capital, then proper nouns and common nouns can only be determined by context. And even then, XEROX could represent a corporate enterprise or a paper copy.
The account in 1 Chronicles is the most problematic. In the 21 st chapter, almost out of nowhere, this 5 th century record proclaims that the “the devil made David do it”. King David did a lot of regrettable things as the earlier books of Samuel and Kings recount. But of all the evil, or treacherous things that are attributed to David, this particular incident was so terrible that it provoked one of three severe punishments from God - David's choice (3 years of famine, 3 months at the hands of thy enemies or 3 days of Yahweh’s sword – an epidemic 21:12-13). Remarkably, o nly a few chapters before is related the contrasting promise the Lord had made to the people of Israel via the prophet Nathan ( I Chronicles 17:9-10). David selects the last of the choices in which 70,000 reportedly succumb to plague.
What was at the base of this issue? King David had ordered a census.
Has anyone really ever sorted out the inherent iniquity of this deed? Each decade the United States engages in a nationwide tally. The Gospels record a census in connection with Christ’s birth. And the Watchtower’s annual collection of data about itself could hardly be described as anything else.
The only thing that is clear here is that the author of the Chronicles, perhaps Ezra the representative of the Persian monarch, assumes that the reader knows what he is talking about when he says that Satan urged King David to compile a census. Nothing earlier in the Old Testament gives us any clues. Genesis tells us nothing about the serpent’s connection to God’s court – or even if God presides over one. God’s behavior and description are inconsistent in chapters one and two. And his ability to foresee the consequences of events on Earth is not consistent (e.g, reporting second thoughts about appointing Saul as King). When he speaks in the Old Testament about relations with his people, the Covenant, it is described without any reference to events in the Garden of Eden at all. While some can derive order in these tales, one could just as well conclude there is chaos from which the notion of Satan could arise.
Yet in the New Testament, we find that Satan has a complete identity as an evil spirit. In the Synoptic Gospels his minions appear to lurk behind every tree. In the quotes from the Gospels above, it is even said of Satan, “It is written…” Where? As well as I can tell within the framework of the Bible itself, initially in the Epistles of Paul.
In the Gospel of John we have one reference to Satan as Satan, but in Revelations we have eight. By definition, we speak of the author of this Gospel as John, but do we know who John of Patmos really is? The John of the Gospel speaks of a divine Christ who was on the Earth and John Patmos speaks of a Christ who appears in symbolic visions. The Gospel of John speaks less of demons than the Synoptic Gospels. In chapter 8, Christ accuses Pharisees of being spawn of the devil for their beliefs; in chapter 10, skeptics claim he is possessed of the devil for beliefs of his own. I am unaware of miracles in John related to casting out of demons. Revelations, despite much mention of Satan, speaks only three times of demons: worshiping demons ( 9:20), demonic spirits ( 16:14) and a dwelling of demons ( 18:2).
In seeking an answer to these questions, I have noted what Jewish commentators say about their Scriptures. The Devil is not inherent within it. One has gone so far as to say that the reason the serpent in the garden is the serpent is because at that writing “the devil had not been invented yet”.
But this is not to dismiss the presence of evil in the world.
We know evil when we see it, but we know nothing for sure when we are simply afraid of the dark. If we are called as jurors to judge a crime, for the most part, we have a choice of considering that an individual is guilty or innocent; but sometimes we are allowed to take into consideration the expert testimony of those who argue for “not guilty by reason of insanity”: crimes which make no sense in terms of gain, jealousy or anger; crimes sometimes where people have driven off an edge of despair or make no sense at all. There is provision for hate crimes and heinous crimes, but none for demonic possession.
Are crimes committed under the influence of drugs or alcohol the result of the individual neglect or the work of the devil? Are crimes done in the name of ideology or zealotry the fault of the devil or should we attribute blame to human agents? Are evil ideas at loose in an era the responsibility of those who are alive on Earth or an invisible agent sprinkling them down on us like salt? If a person spontaneously spouts obscenities and blasphemies, do we attribute it to the devil or a neural disease? How about seizures?
But back to the book WTBRT.
“The first book of the Bible tells us of an opposer of God who showed up in the Garden of Eden. He is described as “the serpent”, but he was not a mere animal. The last book of the Bible identifies him as the “one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth” [unattributed]. He is also called “the original serpent” [Genesis 3:1; Revelation 12:9]. This powerful angel, or invisible spirit creature, used a serpent to speak to Eve, even as a skilled person can make it seem that his voice is coming from a nearby doll or dummy. That spirit person had no doubt been present when God prepared the Earth for humans. – Job 38:4,7.”
This paragraph and subsequent paragraphs are filled with assertions which examination does not support. The first book of the Bible does not tell us that an opposer of God showed up in the garden. T he narrator says that the snake had been around long enough to gather a reputation as clever or subtle – but that’s more like Aesop’s fables than an exposition on an eternal being capable of tripping up the work of the Creator. If it did, then there is more duality in the creation and rule of the world than the first chapter of the book suggests. It is Revelation that says “original serpent”; not Genesis. And Genesis says nothing about marionettes, puppetry or ventriloquism. But we are told on page 29:
“This happened in the case of Satan the Devil. He apparently heard God tell Adam and Eve to have children and to fill the earth with their offspring. ‘Why all these humans could worship me rather than God!’ Satan evidently thought. So a wrong desire built up in his heart.”
This is a lot of supposition since we are only to Genesis chapter three. This is supposition derived from perspectives that are shared with us in the Bible only after Romans – and after the Apostle Paul had given his world view reconsideration during events related in Acts. Since Paul’s writings precede the Gospels chronologically, it is hard for us to tell if and when anyone looked at things this way before Paul wrote of them himself.
But as for Satan “apparently heard God tell Adam and Eve” or “Satan evidently thought” … based on
3:1 Now the snake was the most subtle of all the wild animalsthat Yahweh God had made. It asked the woman…
The text specifically says that the snake was an animal. Who is deceiving whom and how?
If “it is written”, then the written tradition is outside of the Old Testament canon and there are several candidates to consider. Zoroastrian documents provide earlier and more detailed discussion of eternal conflict between good and evil, or “truth and lies”. The book of Enoch, alluded to in the epistle of Jude, resembles Zoroastrian writings more than anything else in the Old Testament. My conclusion, based on what evidence I have in hand, is that notions of Satan and the devil grew up after the return from the Captivity and that they are more reflective of Persian Zoroastrian thought. Consider that the second chapter of the first book of the New Testament is about the visit of the Magi.
Magi are Zoroastrian priests.
The first Persian monarch acknowledged as a Zoroastrian follower, a worshiper of Ahura Mazda, was Darius I.
Another couple of quotes from Zechariah.
Zechariah 1:7
On the 24 th day of the 11 th month ( Shebat) , in the 2 nd year of Darius, the word of Yahweh was addressed to the prophet Zechariah as follows, “I had a vision during the night. There was a man riding a red horse standing among the deep rooted myrtles…
1:12 The angel of Yahweh then spoke and said, “Yahweh Sabaoth, how long will you wait before taking pity on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, on which you have inflicted your anger for the past 70 years?
The NWT appendix indicates that Zechariah wrote in 518 BC of events from 520 to 518 BC.
An inconsistency, is it not? As are many of the other matters that were discussed above: Genesis 1 describes creation differently than Genesis 2; sometimes Israel’s covenant with God is in force and his people are to remain on the lands in peace, at others it is not.
Most of what WTBTS says about events in the garden sounds much like the abbreviated guide to Milton’s Paradise Lost, which seems to have borrowed extensively from the book of Enoch to which, mysteriously, there seems no recourse anywhere in 17 th century England. But Milton and the Watch Tower differ on several important details after the Garden. Lucifer by Milton’s reckoning was thrown out of heaven long before the Witness observance - if one can be a witness to an invisible event.
But I have noticed where the WTBTS remains on message: Satan is important.
In truth I do not know the answers to all the questions I have posed – and certainly will need help in search of answers from people outside of the organization that brought these things to my attention.
But if Satan in 1914 weren’t thrown to the Earth which he already “owned”, and if all alive who do not believe as the WatchTower says to believe, or all who lived and died before the Watchtower came to be did not believe as the Watchtower said to believe yesterday, today or tomorrow… If they are not destroyed along with the evil one after re-enacting a variant of“Paradise Lost”, which Satan inexplicably has never read… If more than simply friends and relatives who were publishers and pioneers will remain here on Paradise Earth forever, or bodily confinement to Paradise Earth is not to be eternal fate, but perhaps transcendence as Christ’s words in Mark 12:24 imply ...where would the WTBTS be?
Diminished.