he1ididog: What is the position of Judaism on spiritual warfare?
Christianity teaches that there is spiritual warfare unseen around us. Does Judaism believe in spiritual warfare? I really think that with terrible events like the Holocaust; there is an unseen battle raging between God and his angels and Satan and his demons. Thoughts?
Answers and Views:
Answer by Buttercup
Jews believe you don’t have to be Jewish to be a good person. Jews don’t believe in the Christian concepts of Hell and Demons, either. The righteous shall live with God after death. The rest shall remain in the grave.
There is no such thing as a fallen angel in the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh.
It is an aspect of New Testament/Christian doctrine alone.
Judaism has HaSatan ( the adversary) but that does not = the Christian Devil. There is also NO such entity as “Lucifer” at all in either the Hebrew Bible or Judaism, period.
HaSatan is an angel and an adversary to humans, not to God, in the Tanakh.
The word satan appears in the Hebrew Bible when simply meaning the word adversary a couple of times, but when referencing the angel of God, the prefix “ha” meaning *the* always appears. There is a very good web page that Rabbi Federow wrote explaining the difference between the Jewish concept of Satan and the Christian concept of The Devil (or Lucifer )
The word lucifer does NOT appear at all in the Hebrew Bible. It is only in the Christian Bible’s translation from the LATIN. The word lucifer means star or light bearing in Latin. Isaiah wrote in HEBREW. The Hebrew word Isaiah wrote is heylel, meaning star. In the English translation of the Christian Old Testament they make the Latin word lucifer into a proper name ( Lucifer) and then personify the word referring to the planet Venus (known by the ancients in the Levant as the morning star) in a passage that Isaiah slams Nebuchadnezzar for styling himself the god/man representation of Venus (the morning star) on earth. Isaiah is condemning a human for calling himself a god. No reference is made at all to HaSatan OR to any entity known as a devil there. There is no fall of angels in the Hebrew Bible.
Judaism is strictly monotheistic so there can be no entity that rules the underworld in opposition or contradiction to God or battles God (that would give that entity the attributes of a deity )
It will refer you to every instance that refers to HaSatan found in the Tanakh.
I HIGHLY recommend that page to anyone who wishes to understand the difference.
In addition, the Christian concept of hell can also be better understood by reading the rendition of the ancient Myth of Er in Plato’s book, the Republic. You will see that it, too is a construct from a belief system far removed from Judaism and Torah.
Many of the beliefs and concepts of Christianity borrowed WORDS , terminology and outward appearance, from Judaism, but reassigned to those things different meanings, sometimes at complete contradiction to the tenets of faith through Torah.
Judaism teaches that God created everything ( meaning both good and evil ) and gave humans the ability to master our evil inclinations. HaSatan is the adversary to humans, not to God.
Many Jews believe that “the adversary” is simply a personification of our inclinations to evil. Judaism teaches us a path through Torah precept how to overcome the evil incliation. Judaism teaches us how to be accountable for our behaviors, accept responsibility when we do wrong, make amends and choose to do better in our walk with God through Tikkun Olam. ( working as partners with God and fellow humans to repiar and restore the world to righteousness, justice, mercy and harmony)
HaSatan can be thought of as the outward projection and manifestation of the impulse to think for self alone and above all else with immediate gratification, If one believes that you are powerless to master the evil inclination IMHO that would make one an easy target for being led blindly.
Humans are more powerful than HaSatan in the Tanakh, and like all angels, have no ability or authority to do anything other than what God wills.
The Jewish belief is that angels were created first, immortal and without free will. Humans were created afterward, mortal and with free will. The human nephesh(soul) contains within it a potential for immortality, but the unrepentant soul dies. These are all different than what Christianity teaches
I have only very recently seen some Christians try to point to a passage in Ezekiel as a place referring to the fall of Satan. However, HaSatan is not mentioned at all in the entire passage. In Ezekiel 28..if one reads the actual book in context go look for yourself..please..it is the King of Tyre that is being spoken to and about..NOT about HaSatan at all. . A paraphrasing and explanation of the section is as follows: Verses 11-19 tell that a lamentation shall be raised over the king of Tyre: the personification of wisdom and beauty. Your covering is studded with the most precious stones as if you were in God’s Garden of Eden. Your craftsmanship in wind instruments is as if it were preserved for the day you were born. Like the outspread cherub, so saintly were you, actually walking amidst stones of fire. You were perfect from the day you were born (*additional note..this affirms tthat original sin wasn’t a concept of Jewish belief but being born pure and having abilities to choose was) until iniquity set in with you. Due to your great business dealings you were filled with violence; you have sinned, and thus, cherub, have you perished from amidst the stones of fire. Your proudness of heart has corrupted your wisdom and your brightness, and like a fire from within you has it burned you up in full view of kings and all all spectators. Whosoever knew you among the nations was shocked; like a wraith were you which is no more forever. ( Read starting with chapter 26 and it’s really clear what is talked about here) LIke the passage of Isaiah..this story is all about condemning the notion of men as gods; the King of Tyre being punished by God for setting himself up as a man/god and Christian dogma tries to take portions out of context to imply they refer to the Christian concept of the Devil as a “fallen” angel. Ezekiel has taken the titles and stories the king of Tyre has styled for himself and insulted and debased him for thinking himself a god.
****There is no “fall” of any angels in the Hebrew Bible. period. I find it interesting that both passages of Tanakh that are linked to a fall of angels in Christian doctrine, in their context in the Hebrew Bible are condemning the notion that men can become gods.*****
The attempts to impose these concepts borrowed from the Hellenized populace and the Romans, depend on mistranslation, sometimes of verb or tense or other aspects of grammar to imply meaning not in context to the story being related.
Bottom line, Satan is an adversary to humans and not to God in the Jewish religion.
Judaism does not teach us to abdicate accountability for our choices onto some demi-god demon of the underworld. No devil in Judaism.
Hi Coretta! I will star this so some of my Jewish friends can answer your question for themselves. The Jewish folks believe that Satan is another angel under God’s direction. In Judaism there is no fallen angel concept from what I understand. Good question though. Blessings to you!Answer by The angels have the Arc Light.
None of those concepts have any place in Judaism.
HaSatan means ‘the adversary’. Think of it like a prosecuting attorney, i.e. he works for G-d.
Answer by CherNot at all. As others have answered, Judaism is strictly monotheistic & identifies God as omnipotent. There is no duality of the nature of God, no adversary or alternate counter entity. (Nor hell.)
It identifies those events as caused by humans. In Judaism one is born good, but has choice in their actions & responsiblity for them. God gave us Torah as a guide, but doesn’t “control” humans. These events are humans not being what they could be. God gave us humanness & knowledge from the tree of good vs. evil (okay we took a bite out of that), & guidance in the form of Torah, & it is our choice from there.
As an extention from there, in Judaism there’s the concept that a messiah potential is born in every generation, but it is up to us (humans) to strive to make the world a better place that’s closer to the messianic age & ready for the messiah. For some in Judaism, this is even an allegorical concept, so that it’s entirely up to us to create that age with a lot of hard work & looking in the mirror.
Answer by Déjà mooNo such thing in Judaism: We do not view Satan in the same light that Christianity does, therefore there is no battle raging between angels.
While there is a good and evil inclination, this is solely an individual based concept. Meaning, that every person has the ability to do both good and bad. Therefore, it is our responsibility to be accountable for our own actions and behaviors in life.
HaSatan literally translates to The Hinderer (or adversary).
Notice that I don’t use the terms: Devil or Lucifer when referencing HaSatan. This is because the Devil is a term formed from Christianity (the Greek word diabolos means slanderer or accuser) and Lucifer is a concept formed from both Christianity and Islam (derived from the Latin words: lux, lucis and ferre, meaning light-bringer). Neither of these two words (Lucifer/Devil) hold any weight in Judaism.
In Judaism, Satan is not a fallen angel. Satan is merely an angel with a dirty job. Satan does not have a rival kingdom. Satan is not in competition with God and Satan does not want followers or worshipers. He’s not even happy when people obey him and sin. This means that Satan is working in accordance with what God wants.
But what does it mean when you are hindering someone?
You are keeping them from doing something.
In Judaism, it is believed that we each hold inclinations — The evil inclination and the good inclination. Satan’s job is to work on preventing us from doing good in this world. He is there to make things difficult for us, so that we can understand what doing good implies.
The angels are spiritual and holy, without any physical or unholy presence and the presence of God’s holiness permeates them entirely.
Angels, unlike humans, do not possess free will, so it would be impossible for an angel to rebel against God. There is holiness everywhere in Creation, everywhere in the universe and angels are made of the same thing.
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