In my opinion, sometimes I think that people look too deep for God's motivations. I'm new here, so I don't know if the majority (or if any) people still believe in god at all, but as for me, I do not. To me, both the new and old testament is just a story. A really great story, but nothing more. In mythology, there is almost always a figure that represents the anti-thesis of god, except for the more primitive religions, where the "bad" figures, as it were, are more tricksters than the ultimate evil. The reason there being that there usually wasn't an ultimate god, but more of a series of smaller, nature based deities. What we have to remember, is that sometimes the connections between the books of the Bible are lost, or not even there, as they were written over a long time span, and by many different authors. Sometimes, I see people try to make connections between the new and old testament, and it just seems silly to me. The old testament was written by the Jews, who had no connection to the new testament and the introduction of Jesus as a deity figure. There are many who refer back to... Isaiah, I think, when the author says "Surely he has borne out infirmaties/and carries our diseases...upon him was the punishment that left us whole..." Many take that as a prophecy of Jesus and his eventual suffering and death, when in fact, I believe that it was simply the Jews talking about their suffering at the hands of their captors. The people back then believed that even though they were being treated unfairly, that they were god's chosen people and their suffering saved the world. I guess what I'm saying is that sometimes we must view the books of the Bible as separate, not parts of a whole. How this relates back to Satan: as I said, there is almost always a figure created as an antagonist of God. One interesting coincidence I read: When the Buddha was being enlightened under the Bodhi tree, the evil one Mara came down to tempt him into surrendering straight into Nirvana, but Buddha would not have it. Sounds like the temptations of Christ, kinda doesn't it? Sorry, kinda went off on a tangent. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say.