Talk:Examples of Satan personally killing people
Job's children are the only example that come to mind off hand.--Bob_M (talk) 08:52, 20 July 2007 (CDT)
I thought God killed them. MiddleMan 09:19, 20 July 2007 (CDT)
- Nope. He gave Satan a free hand to do whatever he liked. He could do anything apart from Kill Job. Now I think about it, I think he killed Job's servants as well. Ha well - back to the "Good Book" to review my memory.--Bob_M (talk) 10:40, 20 July 2007 (CDT)
- Definitely Satan. God and Satan make the bet and in Job 1:11 God tells Satan he can do what he likes but not to touch Job himself. Then in quick order we have 1:15 A messenger tells Job that the Sabeans have attacked and killed servants who were ploughing the fields. 1:16 Another messenger arrives to say that fire from heaven has killed his sheep and servants. 1:19 While that one is speaking another one arrives to say that his children (five sons and three daughters) were killed when the house they were in collapsed because of a great wind from the desert.--Bob_M (talk) 11:18, 20 July 2007 (CDT)
Varo Borja from The Dumas Club! (As far as I recall, anyway). --AKjeldsenGodspeed! 11:27, 20 July 2007 (CDT)
- Yes. Indeed. Perhaps we should put "biblical" somewhere in the title?.--Bob_M (talk) 12:37, 20 July 2007 (CDT)
[edit] Remit
Satan's remit can't include killing people, since he benefits from such actions, and would thus tend to go overboard in order to fill out his circles of hell. Even when he killed Job's children, he first had to get permission from the big white guy. Got to have separation of powers, donchya know. --98.226.7.253 10:41, 5 August 2008 (EDT)
- At the risk of giving substance to these fables; why shouldn't his remit include killing people? It wouldn't make that much difference to hell - everybody dies sooner or later.--Bobbing up 11:37, 5 August 2008 (EDT)
[edit] The Plaque
When David following god's command counted his people God punished him with a plaque, but in one version of the story it was Satan who gave David the command to do it. --91.63.65.12 (talk) 13:55, 21 July 2011 (UTC)
[edit] Common view?
We presently have:
- It should be noted here that many theologians don't even identify the Adversary from the Book of Job with Satan - the grammar of the Hebrew lacks the preceding article that would ordinarily identify him as The Adversary - and instead the common view is that the villain of Job is another deity, a holdover from polytheistic times.
I think that we need to identify by whom this "common view" is held. It's certainly not the view of the common or garden reader of the bible, and it's equally not the view of Christian fundamentalists - or presumably any Christians who would hardly hold to the idea of additional rival Gods. It could conceivably be the view of some specialised biblical historians but in that case it probably should be clearer.--BobSpring is sprung! 11:25, 4 September 2011 (UTC)
- Well, a common view among biblical scholars (baring the more conservative ones) is that "Satan" in Job predates the full development of the figure of Satan in later Judaism, and that in this case rather than some evil being or fallen angel, in Job was originally meant as a functionary of the divine court, one not inherently evil, although maybe not the most pleasant for humans. (Like the prosecutor in the divine courts of justice.) As to this view linking him to another deity, well I am sure some scholars think that, but I don't think that particular element is common enough to be labelled the "common view". Zack Martin
11:45, 4 September 2011 (UTC)