A Father Learning to Love

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Satan: Lifting the Veil - Part 14: The Evil One

The answer is really quite simple, if you think about it. Recall how in the Old Testament examples of Job and Zechariah, Satan filled a role similar to a District Attorney, a CIA agent, or a State Prosecutor. And then recall the examples throughout history where men in similar positions have become overzealous and overstepped their bounds - Viola Liuzzo was gunned down during the Civil Rights movement by an FBI informant, the FBI tried to blackmail Martin Luther King Jr. and had used illegal wiretaps to do so, anti-Vietnam-War groups were infiltrated by the FBI and incited into violence by them, J. Edgar Hoover kept blackmail files on presidents in order to secure his job, and we could go on and on about the dubious activities of groups like the FBI and CIA, which served this investigative/prosecuting function, as did the Accuser of Job who was modelled after the “King’s ear” functionaries of Persia. Over and over again throughout history we see the trustworthy intelligence gatherer / prosecutor becoming overzealous and justifying the means through the end goal.

You may have noticed that up to now, "the Satan" has also been inextricably linked with religion. You might think of it like this - "the Accuser" functions very much like an auto-immune disease. When the human body develops an auto-immune disease, the immune system becomes overactive and attacks the body itself - basically, the body is killing itself because it has become so worried about invasion of foreign substances that it attacks everything. And as we've seen time and time again throughout history that overzealous religion often does the exact same thing.

That's right, kids - Satan loves Metal!

On a more personal note along these lines, one of the first reasons I began to question my culture was music. I grew up in a culture that told me that music which was not “Christian” was evil. Unless, of course, it was old (Classical and Jazz were ok, but once you started getting past the '60’s there was good and bad - anything past '75 was probably evil). And I’ve often thought of how parents, who went through the same struggles to express themselves through their contemporary music without being hassled by the authorities go on to do the very same thing to their own children! How is it that no generation ever seems to learn the lesson that constraining their children in this way only encourages them to break out from under their authorities more?! When authority becomes overbearing, the result is the opposite of what is desired!

The Cultural Influences
Another key to understanding how Satan became evil is to understand Israel’s neighbors - the cultures that surrounded the Jews and influenced their thinking. When you trace the history of conquering cultures, one of the interesting things you will find is that often, the gods of the conquered would start to be incorporated into the religions of the conquerors - at first, as lesser gods. But if the conquered people were not subservient, these gods would start to become evil within the lore - one culture's gods became the conquering culture's demons! It's almost a way of subversively striking out at the culture you despise through coded message. And if you’ve been wondering how Satan’s imagery developed - even though there are absolutely no physical descriptions of this character within the Bible - you can see how this plays out. Satan’s appearance seems to be a mish-mash of characteristics from the gods of other, rival cultures. We’ve already explored how the Zoroastrian concepts of Angra Mainyu contributed, but one can also find similarities to the following:

Humbaba - a Mesopotamian god from the Epic of Gilgamesh, who is described as a giant monster
Mot - Canaanite demon and god of the underworld
Habayu - Canaanite god who has horns and a tail, and is associated with the cult of the dead
Set - an Egyptian god, the demon of death and evil as well as disorder, violence and foreigners; his physical description includes dark red skin and a forked tongue or tail
Hades - Greek god of the underworld who possesses a helmet that makes him invisible, so that he can lurk about unseen (see 1 Pet. 5:8)

Not Satan - Pan

And when you examine pretty much any underworld god, you will find similarities to the descriptions people have used for Satan. One of the stranger examples of this phenomenon of stealing characteristics from other gods is Pan - Pan was not an underworld god, but rather a god of nature. And yet, Satan seems to have inherited his cloven hooves, goat legs, and horns, as well as his mischievous nature, perhaps.

Additionally, Miguel De La Torre and Albert Hernandez write in "The Quest for the Historical Satan" of how one of the names of Satan, Beelzebug, "is believed by scholars to be a corruption of the name Baal Zebul, or literally "lord of the flies," who was believed to cause or cure illnesses across ancient Mesopotamia (note that the Hebrew Bible recounts the story of King Ahaziah of Israel who attempts to consult the oracles of the god Baal Zebub from the city of Ekron: 2 Kgs 1:2). In short, early Christians regarded all other gods as being in fact demons in league with the prince of lies, Satan."

Paul Carus writes in "The History of the Devil" of how using Satan to explain away similarities between Christianity and other religions actually masked the history of our religion:

The early Christians belonged exclusively to the lower walks of life, and the earliest Church authorities, with few exceptions, were by no means cultured or highly educated persons. Some Christian writers were quite talented men; but few of the Church fathers can be said to have enjoyed more than a mediocre education. Platonic philosophy, for instance, did not enter into Christian minds directly, but only through the channels of Philo’s books. Thus it is natural that Christians were lacking both in knowledge as to the origin of many of their rites and also in critique, and when they were confronted with the same practices and conceptions among non-Christians, they were puzzled and found no other explanation for such remarkable coincidences, than the guiles of Satan. Even the most peculiarly Christian sacrament, the Lord’s Supper, was, according to the testimony of Justin Martyr, celebrated by the Persians in the same way as by the Christians; and Justin is ingenuous enough to attribute this coincidence without the slightest hesitation to the influence of evil spirits. Tertullian is also aware of many similarities between Church institutions and the pagan modes of Mithras worship, which observation prompted him to declare that “Satan imitates the sacraments of God.” The Devil appears to have been very cunning in those days, for if he had not daring spies in heaven, he must himself have anticipated the Lord’s plans; for the pagan institutions spoken of as Satanic imitations, such as the Persian haoma sacrifice, the eating of consecrated cakes in commemoration of the dead for the sake of obtaining life immortal are older than Christianity.

The Chaos Monsters
Of particular importance is the idea of the “Chaos Monster” which plays out in many of Israel’s surrounding cultures. And even the idea of Satan’s physical appearance being a mish-mash of characteristics of other gods plays into this concept, as the gods of chaos were always a mixtures of parts from animals and possibly human parts whom spread chaos and destruction wherever they went.

Leviathan

And an observant reader can find traces of the Chaos Monsters all throughout the Bible. Job mentions sea monsters (Job 7:12), Leviathan (Job 3:8 and 41:1-34), and even turns Rahab into a chaotic goddess of the sea (see Job 26:12-13). In addition to these appearances in Job, these creatures make appearances in the Psalms as well - sea monsters and Leviathan show up in Psalm 74:13-14, and Psalm 89:9-10 also depicts Rahab as a chaotic goddess of the sea. In the prophets, Isaiah 27:1 depicts Leviathan as a serpent/sea dragon, Isaiah 30:7 seems to use Rahab as a representation for the nation of Egypt, in Isaiah 51:9-10 it seems that Rahab may be a dragon as well, and in Ezekiel 29:3-5 it is the Pharaoh of Egypt who is pictured as a monster within the rivers.

The Old Testament scriptures do not seem to have a problem with utilizing the gods of surrounding nations and depicting them as enemies to Yahweh either. The Psalmist writes (Psalm 82:1-8) “You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High. Nevertheless you will die like men and fall like any one of the princes.” The ancient Jews would also depict the gods as a council with Yahweh as the Most High (see Exodus 15:11, Psalm 89:5-10, Psalm 95:3, and Isaiah 24:21). Even in Genesis, we find the ancient myth of the Nephilim, who were half-god half-man (see Genesis 6:1-4).

The interesting factor in this study is that prior to this point, we have mostly examined cases where Satan was an overzealous authority figure who applied the law with a rigid inflexibility. But with the information that he is also an agent of chaos, it seems that the voice of the Accuser may speak the loudest at the extremes of both ends of the spectrum - chaotic lawlessness, and rigid, inflexible authority. The Accuser can be both a voice of those who benefit from the application of the law as well as a voice of those who have been harmed by its application.

In “The Birth of Satan: Tracing the Devil's Biblical Roots”, authors T.J. Mobley and Gregory Wray write, in regards to the chaos theme and Satan:

This is Satan at his most attractive, because sometimes chaos works like a balm on chafed wrists bound by the laws and customs of community and order.
It is Satan as chaos monster that appeals to alienated groups who adopt satanic imagery. Bikers, Goths, heavy metalists: for them satanic emblems function as markers of contrariness, emblems of anarchy, and of their identity as agents of chaos. This may also be the stylish Satan of the Romantic poets and artists of the late eighteenth century, who saw the Devil as a champion of political and artistic freedom, a figure who reappears two centuries later as Mick Jagger’s “man of wealth and taste.”

The irony is that the Satan championed by the counter-culture is only powerful when he is juxtaposed with religious orthodoxy and mainstream values. The occult needs a (mainstream) cult, the magus needs the priest. The grimoires of Neo-Pagans are dangerous and fashionable only if they are opposed by the grammars of traditional faith. Every diabolic symbol is a twisted version, the evil twin, of some orthodox sibling. The pentagram is a reorientation of the Star of David, 666 is an unstable derivative of 777, the Satanic Black Mass is a Eucharist without the poetic transubstantiation of symbolism (actual blood instead of wine, sexual intercourse instead of spiritual communion). To this extent, then, the faithful should take heart. The Satanists need them just as much as the traditionally religious need their Devil.

We are going to take another break at this point, and in my next post, we will examine how the gods became angels and demons.

--------------------------------------

Table of Contents:
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Two Case Studies
Part 3: Serpent = Satan?
Part 4: What is Satan's Real Name?
Part 5: Accuser
Part 6: A Son of God?
Part 7: God's State Prosecutor
Part 8: God’s Sifter
Part 9: Azazel
Part 10: Desert Temptation
Part 11: What Does a Jewish Messiah Look Like?
Part 12: Bow Down to the Domination System
Part 13: Proclaiming Jubilee
Part 14: The Evil One
Part 15: The Angels of the Nations
Part 16: The Gerasene Demoniac
Part 17: Further Lessons on Exorcism in the Bible
Part 18: Driving Satan from Heaven
Part 19: The Unveiling of the Beast of Rome
Part 20: Unveiling the Beast Today
Part 21: Jesus and the Domination System
Part 22: Violence
Part 23: Death
Part 24: The Advocate
Part 25: Conclusions?

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Satan: Lifting the Veil - Part 13: Proclaiming Jubilee

It says in Luke 4:16-17 that he went into the synagogue in his hometown - Nazareth - and he stood up to read. The scroll of Isaiah was given to him, and this is what he read from. Now, it should be noted that the passage he reads - Isaiah 61:1-2 - was actually a popular Jewish passage. It is cited in various Rabbinic literature, as well as in the Dead Sea Scrolls. What made it so popular - especially in that day - was that it was a passage about the Year of Jubilee. This passage expressed hope for Israel’s release from their bondage in captivity, and it is directed especially towards the poor, the sick, the brokenhearted, and the prisoners (see my earlier post on social justice in the Bible for more details).

What follows is an interesting exchange. Jesus declares that the scripture he just read has been fulfilled “today”, “in your hearing” (see verse 21). And then something interesting follows. It says in verse 22 that they were all speaking well of him, but then it also says that they ask “Is this not Joseph’s son?” Knowing how small of a town this was, you’d wonder - don’t they know? And what’s the point of asking, anyways?

And Jesus’ followup makes this even more strange - he gets a bit sarcastic in verses 23 and 24, and says “Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown.”

Didn’t it just say that they were all speaking well of him? Ah, but what’s interesting is that if you check one of the more literal translations (I always check YLT in these situations), you’ll find that instead of saying something about everyone speaking well of Jesus, verse 22 says “and all were bearing testimony to him.” Which is much more neutral - they could be reacting favorably or unfavorably here. And if there is the possibility that they are reacting unfavorably, the question about Jesus’ parentage, and Jesus’ somewhat sarcastic response makes a little more sense.

But still - why? Why would they react unfavorably?

If you move on further in the same passage, Jesus follows up his statement of a prophet being unwelcome in his hometown (verse 24) with stories of Elijah and Elisha helping foreigners (see verses 25-27). And then the story finishes with this passage (verses 28-30):

And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff [*]. But passing through their midst, He went His way.
*[Do you recall the Azazel goat from before?]

What just happened here? How did they become murderously enraged so quickly?

Let’s back it up a bit. When Jesus read from Isaiah 61:1-2, he skipped a part! The original passage followed up the favorable year of the lord with “and the day of vengeance of our God.” And it seems that Jesus’ audience - who hated their Roman oppressors - would have liked to have heard about this day of vengeance. So they respond negatively, and say “hey, isn’t this Joseph’s son?” See, Joseph was a lowly tektōn - so what they were essentially saying was “what business does this nobody’s son have getting up and reading in the Synagogue? And who does he think he is, altering the passage like that?” So in Jesus’ answer, he’s actually defending his omission - by bringing up two stories of prophets who helped not just foreigners, but foreigners who were citizens of the current oppressive regime over Israel at the time, Jesus is saying that the year of Jubilee that was coming did not include wrath towards Israel’s enemies….

In essence, by bringing up these prophets who were kind to Israel’s oppressors, and by proclaiming that he (Jesus) was the fulfillment of the Isaiah passage about Jubilee, he was saying that Jubilee was not just coming for the Jews, but for their enemies as well. He’s saying that God is bringing deliverance and salvation to their enemies - not vengeance. Jesus is basically removing the myth of redemptive violence from the doctrine of God! God is not the way you think - loving those who are in your tribe, and hating the outsiders - God loves all!

As Jesus says elsewhere, in Matthew 5:43-45:

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

With the immediate background of the temptation in the desert, and understanding that this is an archetypal model for Jesus’ ministry and the confrontations within, you can really hear the Accuser’s voice in the people’s reaction to Jesus in the Synagogue. And you can also see how the Maccabean revolt played a part in that as well.

You see, Jesus is confronting the Accuser within his own culture - and they don’t like it! It makes them so mad that Jesus is saying God doesn’t hate the people they hate that they try to push him off a cliff!

Does it make you mad when people try to take the wrathful image of God away from you, and proclaim His forgiveness towards your enemies?

Here we will take another break, and in my next post, we will examine how the Accuser became “the evil one”.

--------------------------------------

Table of Contents:
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Two Case Studies
Part 3: Serpent = Satan?
Part 4: What is Satan's Real Name?
Part 5: Accuser
Part 6: A Son of God?
Part 7: God's State Prosecutor
Part 8: God’s Sifter
Part 9: Azazel
Part 10: Desert Temptation
Part 11: What Does a Jewish Messiah Look Like?
Part 12: Bow Down to the Domination System
Part 13: Proclaiming Jubilee
Part 14: The Evil One
Part 15: The Angels of the Nations
Part 16: The Gerasene Demoniac
Part 17: Further Lessons on Exorcism in the Bible
Part 18: Driving Satan from Heaven
Part 19: The Unveiling of the Beast of Rome
Part 20: Unveiling the Beast Today
Part 21: Jesus and the Domination System
Part 22: Violence
Part 23: Death
Part 24: The Advocate
Part 25: Conclusions?

Monday, May 5, 2014

Satan: Lifting the Veil - Part 12: Bow Down to the Domination System

In this trial, the Accuser shows Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory” and says: “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” (Mt. 4:8-9 - parallels Lk. 4:5-7).

Once again, if you are observant, you can find this same trial coming from Jesus’ followers in the gospel of John! John 6:15 has them coming with the intention “to come and take Him by force to make Him king.”

You see, if you understand the context of the Maccabean revolt, then you understand that because Judas Maccabeus was understood to be a success, the Jews expected their Messiah to establish a physical “kingdom of God”, and to do this through violent revolution. Israel believed that the messiah was coming to place them over all other kingdoms - as the new and biggest ever empire! Now, the “kingdom of God” was a dominant theme throughout Jesus’ ministry, as I’ve explored elsewhere - but it contrasted the popular view of Israel’s restoration to the status of a physical kingdom.

In Luke’s version of the story of the third temptation, the accuser says that the kingdoms of the world have been “handed over” to him (Luke 4:6) and he gives them to whomever he wishes (you just have to bow down). This language has a very striking parallel that Walter Wink picked up on in “Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination”:

Hence the refrain all through Revelation 13-the Beast "was allowed" to exercise authority (v. 5), "was allowed" to make war on the saints and to conquer them (v. 7), "was given" authority over every tribe and people and language and nation (v. 7). The Second Beast, likewise, "is allowed" to perform miracles (v. 14), and it "was allowed" to make the image of the First Beast speak (v. 15). I am not aware of such a concatenation of permissions stated so repetitively anywhere else in Scripture. Luke's temptation narrative, however, reflects the same concept. Satan boasts (accurately, I believe) that all the kingdoms of the world have "been delivered" to him (Luke 4:6).

War is Hell

The language of the kingdoms of the world being “handed over” to the Accuser is echoed later on in the Gospel of John (see John 14:30 and 16:11, as well as 2 Cor. 4:4 and I John 5:19), but we are told that his days are numbered and he will be driven out! (See John 12:31)

But nevertheless, at this time, the Accuser rules, and promises to give Jesus the kingdoms if he will bow. This may be the most insidious of the three temptations - here, the one in the role of accuser/adversary is offering Jesus all the power of the Domination System itself, if only he will surrender himself to the spirit of that system.

But this was a voice that was repeated by the culture in Jesus’ time repeatedly. So if we realize that Satan is not the voice of pure evil, but is actually repeating the conventional wisdom of the day, and that Jesus had to be tested by this commonly held view and come out on top of it, then we can see how this was a necessary trial for him to overcome before he began his mission! We can see how Jesus had to hear the voice of this temptation and rebuke it - that this was actually the mission he modeled throughout his entire life’s ministry.

You see, Jesus saw that when we engage in accusing behavior - refusing to come alongside those we accuse and admit our own weakness, our own tendencies to err in often the same ways, and/or our own share of the blame in the situation at hand - we assert ourselves over others in a relationship of domination. And that domination relationship acts as a sort of viral infection that spreads - the person we Accuse goes on to take out their pain on others in the role of Accuser. This grows until it infects an entire society, and becomes the Domination System! And so often, there is a voice within the societies of those being dominated that tells them that the only way to get out from under the thumb of the Domination System is to turn violence back on them - but as we saw in the story of the Maccabees, this is a self-defeating method that only seeks to replace one Domination System with another, which eventually turns on itself and crumbles under its own weight!

Gregory Boyd has an interesting way of expressing the power of the third temptation in his book "The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church":

The lesson of history, a lesson the Devil has known all along, is this: The best way to defeat the kingdom of God is to empower the church to rule the kingdom of the world — for then it becomes the kingdom of the world! The best way to get people to lay down the cross is to hand them the sword!

Jesus’ entire life models the rejection of these three temptations:

The people of God must be able to deny their physical needs in order to serve, and must live in a spiritual manner, nourishing the rest of the world through the outpouring of their living water (see John 7:38)
The word of God is not a constitution that we use like a lawyer would - taking phrases out of context in order to assert our own authority and superiority over others. Rather, it is a way of life that makes room for others and redeems the sinner through radical, inclusive love.
The kingdom of God is not a model of exclusive, authoritative, tyrannical power whereby the people of God are held in a position of superiority and exclusivity, but are rather to be exalted through servanthood (the way up is the way down. Or as Jesus put it: the first will be last and the last will be first: Mt. 19:30, Mt. 20:16, Mk. 10:31).

So the three temptations are actually an archetypal model of Jesus’ ministry. The story serves not to introduce new problems into the mix - rather, it is a revelation. It is an unmasking of the systemic issues within that culture’s paradigm. And one of the hard things to understand is that in many ways, these temptations were not actually evil - they were more accurately yesterday’s conventional wisdom, which at the time of their origination served the community well. At one time, Israel was a physical kingdom, and it was glorious! It was the envy of the world in Solomon’s days - kings from all around would come to visit and pay homage to the glory of the temple as well as learn from Solomon’s wisdom. So the temptation is often a desire for regression - to go back to the ways that once were, which at one time in history served the community quite well.

One of the hard lessons that I think is missed from the three temptations is found in the way the Accuser role points scripture at Jesus like a lawyer. Throughout Jesus’ life, we see the Pharisees doing the same thing even to the point of calling Jesus a blasphemer for forgiving sins (see Mark 2:6-7 and Luke 5:21). They said he was a lawbreaker (Matt. 15:1-3, Luke 6:1-4), crazy (Mark 3:21), and accused him of being in league with the devil himself (Matthew 12:24). Did you catch the irony of that last one? They accused him of being in league with the Accuser.

All too often we miss the irony of these accusations when we legalistically accuse others of these same things today, rather than finding Jesus within the “least of these”. This highlights a particularly perplexing problem - not only does evil disguise itself as divine, but the divine disguises itself as "evil" (or to put it another way: the divine becomes what we thought was evil). William Blake summarized this concept with the following quote:

Every Religion that Preaches Vengeance for Sin is the Religion of the Enemy and Avenger and not the Forgiver of Sin, and their God is Satan, named by the Divine Name.

Blake is not talking about Satanism here, but about a legalistic version of Christianity that behaves satanically under the banner of the cross.

In contrast to the legalism of the pharisees, we find that Jesus’ model of life is not a rigid, lifeless idol of legalistic concepts, but is rather very fluid. I think Richard Rohr sums this up quite nicely in his book “Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life”:

If there is such a thing as human perfection, it seems to emerge precisely from how we handle the imperfection that is everywhere, especially our own. What a clever place for God to hide holiness, so that only the humble and earnest find it! A “perfect” person ends up being one who can consciously forgive and include imperfection rather than one who thinks he or she is totally above and beyond imperfection.

The irony of turning Satan from a servant of God who serves a function as sifter into pure evil is that we end up playing that very accusing role ourselves! And when we do this, Satan almost ceases to be under God, but becomes a sort of rival deity with godlike powers himself. But this causes huge logical problems for us if we believe that Satan was created by God, and God predestined his mission - how does this fail to make God the author of evil?

Another ironic effect of the legalistic version of God is that Satan and Satanism become more alluring - it is not so much that the Satanist is rejecting the idea of God, but rather that he or she hates this legalistic God, who very well may deserve it! Remember the story of Matthew Murray from an earlier section of this series?

The Weakness of Rules
In his brilliant book “David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants”, Malcolm Gladwell tells the story of Vivek Ranadivé - who had decided to coach his daughter Anjali’s basketball team. Ranadivé had decided on two principles - the first that he would never raise his voice. The second had to do with strategy. Gladwell wrote that “Ranadivé was puzzled by the way Americans played basketball”, and goes on to write:

He would never forget the first time he saw a basketball game. He thought it was mindless. Team A would score and then immediately retreat to its own end of the court. Team B would pass the ball in from the sidelines and dribble it into Team A’s end, where Team A was patiently waiting. Then the process would reverse itself.

Ranadivé noticed that sometimes, a team would use what is called a “full court press” - that is, after scoring, the team would pressure the other team for the entire length of the court. And he noticed that there was no rule against using this method all the time. Ranadivé realized that the fact that teams did not use this method only widened the gap between teams with tall players who were good at shooting, and teams with what seemed like weaker players - girls who were not as tall and couldn’t shoot as well. So, Ranadivé wondered, why did the “weak” teams play in a way that gave the “good” teams an advantage?

By training his team to have the endurance to be able to use a “full court press” all the time, every time, Ranadivé was able to advance all the way to the National Championships, where they lost because an overzealous referee started calling Ranadivé’s team for every touch they made, and Ranadivé was forced to tell them to stop using the full court press.

You see, the lesson Vivek Ranadivé teaches us is that “outsiders” are able to see the weakness of playing the game the conventional way. Outsiders see that some of the “rules” are not really rules at all, but unspoken agreements which do not need to be followed, and actually create weaknesses.

Gladwell writes in one place:

Vivek Ranadivé stood on the sidelines as the opposing teams’ parents and coaches heaped abuse on him. Most people would have shrunk in the face of that kind of criticism. Not Ranadivé. [Said his daughter, Anjali:] It was really random. I mean, my father had never played basketball before. Why should he care what the world of basketball thought of him? Ranadivé coached a team of girls who had no talent in a sport he knew nothing about. He was an underdog and a misfit, and that gave him the freedom to try things no one else even dreamt of.

Jesus’ response to the trials of the Accuser - and the way he conducted his entire ministry - shows us that he had also noticed the weaknesses in the legalistic, conventional wisdom of his day, and as an “outsider”, he had found an unconventional way to play the game.

Mara and Satan

Perhaps one of the greatest issues with taking the story of Jesus’ temptation in the desert literally is the striking parallel that can be found in a Buddhist text:

Then Mara the evil one drew near to him, and said: “Let the Exalted One exercise governance, let the Blessed One rule.”

“Now what, O evil one, do you have in view, that you speak this way to me?”

“If the Exalted One were to wish the Himalayas, king of the mountains, to be gold, he might determine it to be so, and the mountains would become a mass of gold.”

The Exalted One responded: “Were the mountains all of shimmering gold, it would still not be enough for one man’s wants. He that has seen suffering—how should that man succumb to desires?”

Then Mara the evil one thought: “The Exalted One knows me! The Blessed One knows me!” And sad and sorrowful he vanished then and there.
Samyutta Nikaya 4.2.10

The striking similarity between this passage and the story of Jesus’ trials in the desert might cause some discomfort for people who take the story literally. But if it is taken as a mythical story which uses symbolism to convey spiritual truths, one will not be surprised at all that a completely separate culture stumbled onto the same truths and wrote about them in similar words.

In science, we use mathematical formulas to express physical truths. One must wonder - if we were to discover another culture on the far side of the galaxy that had arrived at a similar scientific understanding, would their formulas resemble ours, though slightly different?

And why would it be so surprising that another religion had discovered truth?

Perhaps because the accusing voices within have tried to put us in a relationship of domination over all other cultures, believing that we hold the monopoly on truth and righteousness, while they hold a monopoly on ignorance and stupidity, sin and evil?

Paul Carus, a scholar of religion and philosphy who lived from 1852-1919, has something of interest to say about the similarities between Satan and Mara in his book "The History of the Devil":

Mara is also called Papiyan the Wicked One or the Evil One, the Murderer, the Tempter. In addition he is said to be Varsavarti, meaning “he who fulfils desires.” Varsavarti, indeed, is one of his favorite names. In his capacity as Varsavarti, Mara personifies the fulfilment of desire or the triple thirst, viz., the thirst for existence, the thirst for pleasure, the thirst for power. He is the king of the Heaven of sensual delight.

There is a deep truth in this conception of Mara as Varsavarti. It means that the selfishness of man is Satan and the actual satisfaction of selfishness is Hell.

This reminds us of one of Leander’s Märchen, in which we are told that once a man died and awoke in the other world. There St. Peter appeared before him and asked him what he wanted. He then ordered breakfast, the daily papers, and all the comforts he was accustomed to in life, and this kind of life lasted for many centuries until he got sick of it and began to swear at St. Peter and to complain of how monotonous it was in Heaven, whereupon St. Peter informed him that he was in Hell, for hell is where everybody has his own sweet will, and heaven is where everybody follows God’s will alone. Similarly, according to the Buddhist conception, the heaven of sensual delight is hell, the habitation of the Evil One.

In my next post, we will explore how Jesus’ first sermon answered the accusing voices within the Domination System of his day, as well as exploring “Satan’s” development further.

--------------------------------------

Table of Contents:
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Two Case Studies
Part 3: Serpent = Satan?
Part 4: What is Satan's Real Name?
Part 5: Accuser
Part 6: A Son of God?
Part 7: God's State Prosecutor
Part 8: God’s Sifter
Part 9: Azazel
Part 10: Desert Temptation
Part 11: What Does a Jewish Messiah Look Like?
Part 12: Bow Down to the Domination System
Part 13: Proclaiming Jubilee
Part 14: The Evil One
Part 15: The Angels of the Nations
Part 16: The Gerasene Demoniac
Part 17: Further Lessons on Exorcism in the Bible
Part 18: Driving Satan from Heaven
Part 19: The Unveiling of the Beast of Rome
Part 20: Unveiling the Beast Today
Part 21: Jesus and the Domination System
Part 22: Violence
Part 23: Death
Part 24: The Advocate
Part 25: Conclusions?

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Satan: Lifting the Veil - Part 11: What Does a Jewish Messiah Look Like?

Table of Contents:
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Two Case Studies
Part 3: Serpent = Satan?
Part 4: What is Satan's Real Name?
Part 5: Accuser
Part 6: A Son of God?
Part 7: God's State Prosecutor
Part 8: God’s Sifter
Part 9: Azazel
Part 10: Desert Temptation
Part 11: What Does a Jewish Messiah Look Like?
Part 12: Bow Down to the Domination System
Part 13: Proclaiming Jubilee
Part 14: The Evil One
Part 15: The Angels of the Nations
Part 16: The Gerasene Demoniac
Part 17: Further Lessons on Exorcism in the Bible
Part 18: Driving Satan from Heaven
Part 19: The Unveiling of the Beast of Rome
Part 20: Unveiling the Beast Today
Part 21: Jesus and the Domination System
Part 22: Violence
Part 23: Death
Part 24: The Advocate
Part 25: Conclusions?

--------------------------------------

What Does a Jewish Messiah Look Like?
In the last post, we explored the first two temptations of Jesus in the desert. I introduced the idea that these trials were not coming from a being of pure evil, but were in fact the conventional wisdom of the day on what a Messiah should look like - and Jesus had to wrestle with this ethos and counter it throughout his entire ministry.

Before we examine the third and final of Jesus’ trials in the desert, I think it would benefit us to examine what would have been a very well known and popular story of another figure who would have been considered a model for a successful Jewish messiah in many ways. You see, as I’ve pointed out before, the Jews expected their messiah to establish a physical kingdom - the “kingdom of God”, which would have been a restoration of Israel to her former glory - and if this did not happen within a messiah claimant’s life, his followers scattered after his death: a dead messiah was a failed messiah.

But Jesus breaks this mold.

Maccabean revolt

But in order to understand why it was so hard for Jesus to do so, we must understand a very popular Jewish image - Judas Maccabeus. It is rather unfortunate that the two books of Maccabees have been removed from the canon, as they provide a context to Jesus’ ministry that enlightens us to many of the messianic misconceptions that he was contradicting throughout his ministry.

The first book of Maccabees tells the story of a revolt led by the sons of Mattathias - especially focusing on Judas Maccabeus as the main protagonist. This book has become known especially as the origin story of the feast of Chanukah. The story is set during the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes - ruler of the Seleucid Empire. Previously, Judea had been under the reign of Alexander the Great, and had been affected by the Hellenization of their culture, begun by Alexander himself.

The story told in this book is one that could work very well as a modern action adventure movie - full of testosterone and manly feats of military might. But there is one element that is surprisingly absent from this Jewish story - the presence of God.

First Maccabees starts with a summary of the period between the Persian conquest of Alexander the Great to the date when Antiochus took the throne, 137 years later. During this period, Alexander’s kingdom had become divided into two - the Seleucid Empire in which this story is set, and the Ptolomies. But this is covered in a very small section in the beginning - the immediate issue at hand in the beginning of the story is what can be described as a culture war - between the Jews who wished to accommodate to the Hellenization, and those who felt that this was a sellout of the purity codes of torah. John J. Collins writes that the Hellenizers "undoubtedly saw their actions as a liberalization and updating of Judaism. Throughout the Hellenistic world the Jews were regarded as strange and inhospitable because of the exclusivity of their religion." (Quote taken from "Unveiling Empire: Reading Revelation Then and Now")

The writer of First Maccabees, as well as the protagonists of the story, belong to the first camp of the Jews - the purists. The Hellenizer camp are portrayed in the story as ones who came out as a “wicked root”, and who “sold themselves to do evil” (1 Macc. 1:11, 16). The main symbol of sellout that bothered this camp at the time of the story was the desire to build a gymnasium - where naked athletes would compete, giving rise to the desire of the Jews to cover up their now-visible difference: the circumcised penis. This would have been accomplished by a very painful procedure called an epispasm, which would involve stretching the existing skin over the head in order to resemble a foreskin. This symbolically shows how the Jews, in their captivity, desired to accommodate the current domination system so badly that the physical pain of this procedure was preferable to the psychological pain of being different.

The narration of 1 Maccabees continues by painting a picture of Antiochus as a double-talking tyrant who made deceitful attempts to make peace with Israel, only to turn around and show his true colors by attacking and plundering the city, setting fires within, destroying houses and walls, kidnapping women and children and stealing livestock (1 Macc. 1:30-32). He then proceeded to outlaw the traditional Jewish practices of sacrifice, commanding them to offer pagan sacrifices in their place under the threat of death (1 Macc. 1:45-50). He also outlawed the possession of copies of the torah, and anyone who was found with one would be put to death (1 Macc. 1:56-57). And if that weren’t enough, he outlawed circumcision, and sons who were found to be circumcised would be killed along with their families (1 Macc. 1:60-61). All of this was done under the seemingly benevolent desire to make his empire “one people” (I Macc. 1:41).

But there were many who resolved not to accomodate this Domination System - despite all they had endured and regardless of the threat of death (1 Macc. 1:62-63). It is in the midst of this setting that the sons of Mattathias - including Judas Maccabeus - are introduced. After their introduction in 1 Macc. 2:1-14, the king’s officers come to the town of Modein, where Mattathias and his sons live, to enforce the king’s decrees. The officers address Mattathias directly and encourage him to set an example by obeying the king’s orders. But Mattathias’ reply is a bold statement of defiance, where he declares that even if everyone else obey’s the king’s command, he and his family will continue to live by torah (1 Macc. 2:19-22).

Mattathias

After saying this, one Jew comes forward to offer the pagan sacrifice and comply with the king’s decree. When Mattathias sees this, he “burned with zeal”, “gave way to his righteous anger”, and proceeds to kill this Jew as well as the king’s officers (1 Macc. 2:24-26).

Now, we might ask:
Was this God’s will, or just Mattathias’ anger?

But as I’ve mentioned before, God seems curiously absent from the story, and it plows right ahead with Mattathias assembling a guerilla army and hiding out in the hills (1 Macc. 2:28). A group of Mattathias’ followers has also fled to the desert, and is pursued by the king’s men and killed on the Sabbath (1 Macc. 2:29-38). Mattathias and his men mourn this turn of events, and in the deliberation that follows, they decide that if they continue to observe the law of the Sabbath, they will all be killed (1 Macc. 2:39-41). So the logical - though ironic - course of action is that the Sabbath must be broken in order to save it, and they quickly organize a counterattack, in which they go around “tearing down the altars to other gods”, “forcibly circumcis[ing]” the uncircumcised boys they find along the way, and “hunt[ing] down arrogant people” (1 Macc. 2:42-47). The story concludes with this line in verse 48:

They rescued the Law from the power of the Gentiles and kings, and they never let the sinner regain power.

Hooray - violence wins the day! Right? And we didn't compromise in the ways of torah at all! Well...we broke the Sabbath when that became convenient...but we won, and that's all that matters, right?

Except that this is not the end of the story. What comes next is the death of Mattathias (presumably of old age), and on his deathbed he encourages his sons in verses 67 and 68 to:

Rally around yourselves all who observe the Law, and avenge wrong done to your people. Pay the Gentiles back in full, and obey what the Law commands.

This is exactly what Mattathias’ sons do, with Judas Maccabeus in the lead. Judas is portrayed as a new Joshua, marching through the land and conquering territory after territory, and winning back the land for Israel. The author revels in these victories, and you can feel the testosterone surging through your body as you read his descriptions of these acts of courage and might.

Oh yeah, and there's elephant battles...

And yet, nowhere is God mentioned in this account - it is as if, rather than standing up for God, the Maccabees were standing up for culture. YHWH is never mentioned - not once - in the entire book! And no one seems to ask if there was a better way to go about this quest - rather than resorting to violence! And while the result of the conquest is that Israel has her own kingdom for a while, it doesn’t last long before there is a civil war, which ends in 63 B.C. when the Roman general Pompeus intervenes and turns Israel into a client kingdom of the new empire of Rome. It’s almost as if the idea that violence can solve our problems was an infection which grew within the kingdom of the Maccabees and festered until it erupted into full blown sepsis.

So one might ask - how much good did this violent revolt actually accomplish? Or what if it didn’t really accomplish any good at all, but just replaced one Domination System with another, which would only fall to another system of the same kind later on?

We’re going to take another break, and in the next post I’ll explore Jesus’ third, and final temptation in the desert.

--------------------------------------

Table of Contents:
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Two Case Studies
Part 3: Serpent = Satan?
Part 4: What is Satan's Real Name?
Part 5: Accuser
Part 6: A Son of God?
Part 7: God's State Prosecutor
Part 8: God’s Sifter
Part 9: Azazel
Part 10: Desert Temptation
Part 11: What Does a Jewish Messiah Look Like?
Part 12: Bow Down to the Domination System
Part 13: Proclaiming Jubilee
Part 14: The Evil One
Part 15: The Angels of the Nations
Part 16: The Gerasene Demoniac
Part 17: Further Lessons on Exorcism in the Bible
Part 18: Driving Satan from Heaven
Part 19: The Unveiling of the Beast of Rome
Part 20: Unveiling the Beast Today
Part 21: Jesus and the Domination System
Part 22: Violence
Part 23: Death
Part 24: The Advocate
Part 25: Conclusions?