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	<title>He is Sufficient &#187; literature</title>
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	<description>worshiping in a wilderness of words</description>
	<pubDate>Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:31:50 +0000</pubDate>
	
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		<title>Satan, Job and Goethe</title>
		<link>http://heissufficient.com/2008/04/05/satan-job-and-goethe/</link>
		<comments>http://heissufficient.com/2008/04/05/satan-job-and-goethe/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:04:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ElShaddai Edwards</dc:creator>
		
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		<description><![CDATA[Peter Kirk has commented on a post by Tyler Williams on whether and how &#8220;Satan&#8221; appears in the book of Job. Peter writes:
Formally, in Job chapters 1 and 2 there is no proper name “Satan”, but only several occurrences of a common noun with the definite article, ha-satan meaning “the adversary”. (In Hebrew, as in [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.qaya.org/blog/?p=455" target="_blank">Peter Kirk has commented</a> on a post by <a href="http://biblical-studies.ca/blog/wp/2008/03/26/the-mysterious-appearance-of-satan-in-english-translations-of-the-book-of-job/" target="_blank">Tyler Williams</a> on whether and how &#8220;Satan&#8221; appears in the book of Job. Peter writes:</p>
<blockquote><p>Formally, in Job chapters 1 and 2 there is no proper name “Satan”, but only several occurrences of a common noun with the definite article, <em>ha-satan</em> meaning “the adversary”. (In Hebrew, as in English but not Greek, proper nouns never take the definite article.) In the Hebrew Bible only in 1 Chronicles 21:1 does the proper noun <em>satan</em>, the name “Satan”, appear.</p>
<p>[W]ho is “the adversary” referred to in Job, and similarly in Zechariah 3:1-2, if he is not in fact the one we know of as Satan or the Devil? [...] In Jewish writings later than the Hebrew Bible, for example Wisdom of Solomon 2:24, and then in the New Testament and other Christian works, this figure becomes identified with the tempter in the Garden of Eden and with the prince of demons.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;Yes, it might be better to put &#8216;the adversary&#8217; rather than &#8216;Satan&#8217; in translations of Job [because] it is good translation practice to render a common noun as a common noun, not as a name.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>I agree with Peter&#8217;s conclusion, though I&#8217;ll note that in the face of Christian theological tradition, this starts to become a &#8220;tissue paper&#8221; vs. &#8220;kleenex&#8221; issue, an issue that can only be kept clean by steadfastly preserving the original context of the text and keeping later interpretation, as Peter suggests, in a footnote:</p>
<blockquote><p>But I would expect to see a footnote something like &#8220;Hebrew <em>ha-satan</em>, understood as referring to Satan.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>To all of Peter&#8217;s discussion, I can only add that by the time the story of Job had made its way to the days of Goethe, the poet separated <em>ha-satan</em>, the adversary, the spirit of negation, the Devil, from the serpent:</p>
<blockquote><p><em>Mephistopheles</em>. Dust shall he eat, and that with zest,<br />
As did the famous snake, my near relation.†</p></blockquote>
<p>Though, in turn, Goethe has made God sympathetic to Mephistopheles:<em></em></p>
<blockquote><p><em>The Lord</em>. In that too you may play your part quite free;<br />
Your kind I never did detest.<br />
Of all the spirits of negation<br />
The wag weighs least of all on me.<br />
Mankind&#8217;s activity can languish all to easily,<br />
A man soon loves unhampered rest;<br />
Hence, gladly I give him a comrade such as you,<br />
Who stirs and works and must, as devil, do.</p></blockquote>
<p>And likewise, Mephistopheles is sympathetic to God:</p>
<blockquote><p><em>Mephistopheles</em>. I like to see the Old Man not infrequently,<br />
And I forbear to break with Him or be uncivil;<br />
It&#8217;s very pretty in so great a Lord as He<br />
To talk so like a man even with the Devil.</p></blockquote>
<p>† All quotes taken from &#8220;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goethe%27s_Faust" target="_blank">Faust, Parts One and Two</a>&#8221; by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goethe" target="_blank">Johann Wolfgang von Goethe</a> (translated by George Madison Priest), published by Encyclopedia Britannica (1952) as &#8220;Volume 47. Goethe&#8221; of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books_of_the_Western_World" target="_blank">Great Books of the Western World</a>.</p>
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