The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity. Jeffrey Burton Russell.

Cornell University Press, 1977

Footnote on p 26 mentions a book: The Devil, Richard Woods, Chicago 1974.

Mazdaism undeniably influenced Jewish and Christian thought, but the degree of the influence is uncertain. For one thing, the greatest period of Zoroastrian theology was the Sassanian period, which began two hundred years after Christ. Of course Mazdaist ideas had been current for centuries before, but it is difficult to establish the extent to which they might have been known to Christians. The many similarities in the Iranian and Judeo-Christian notions of the evil one, of hell, and of resurrection probably indicate a high degree of cultural diffusion. Iranian influence seems undeniable upon the Essenes (especially in the Manual of Discipline) and upon the Gnostics (Ialdabaoths similarities to Ahriman are striking). The vectors established in Iranian religion move the concept of the Devil strongly away from the more ambiguous realms of monism into the sharp distinctions of the dualist opposition of good and evil. P121.

Of all the ouranic gods Hermes was closest to the chthonic. In myth he wings his way through the skies as messenger of the heavenly court, but his cult was chthonic, his preferred symbol the phallus, and as Hermes Psychopompos he was the god who led the dead to the underworld. Hermes preserved the primitive characteristics of the Trickster, as in the famous prank where he stole the cattle of the sun from Apollo. It is from Hermes Psychopompos, who had wings on his legs symbolising his position as messenger of the gods, that the medieval tradition of portraying the Devil with leg wings arose. The son of Hermes was Pan, who was born hairy and goat-like, with horns and cloven hooves. A phallic deity like his father, he represented sexual desire, which can be both creative and destructive. The iconographic influence of Pan upon the Devil is enormous. What in the tradition made it possible for the image of Pan to be joined with that of Satan? Medieval tradition frequently speaks of the hairiness of the Devil, sometimes of his horns, and occasionally of his cloven feet. The Devil is frequently described as taking animal forms, most commonly that of the goat. The root of the similarity is the association of the Devil with chthonic fertility deities, who were rejected by the Christians as demons along with the other pagan gods and who were particularly feared because of their association with the wilderness and with sexual frenzy. Sexual passion, which suspends reason and easily leads to excess, was alien both to the rationalism of the Greeks and to the asceticism of the Christians; a god of sexuality could easily be assimilated to the principle of evil. The association of the chthonic with both sex and the underworld, and hence with death, sealed the union. P126.

As society becomes more settled, virtues and vices, rather than remaining peculiar to a class, become generalized: there are now general human standards for what is good and what is evil. As they become generalized, these standards begin to apply to the gods as well, for if standards are universal, the gods are felt to be responsible for upholding them. This is the beginning of a moral good and evil and of a general conception of justice p132 [this about views of the morality of the gods in early, and then later, classical literature. Interesting comparison to Jewish views of God.]

Also idea of the place of pollution in Greek literature miasma (pollution) could be contracted by a number of acts ranging from the morally evil to the morally neutral, such as homicide, inhospitality, repugnant disease, childbirth, physical contact with corpses, and bad dreams. If not dispelled, miasma could destroy a person as surely as could nemesis. The remedy for miasma was neither placation of the angry gods nor moral reform, but ritual lustrations, often with pigs blood or with sea water, salt being a traditional repellant [sic] of evil in the ancient world.p133.

The story of Prometheus was important in forming the image of the Devil in the heroic mold as he appears in Milton. P137

Mithraism Ahriman, envious of the glory of the heavenly king, Ohrmazd/Jupiter, attempts to storm heaven. Ohrmazd defeats him and casts him and his demons down into the underworld. Some of them escape, however, and wander through the world seeking the ruin and destruction of mankind.p153 Mithraism and Christianity appearead at about the same time, and one may postulate a mutual influence of their ideas one upon the other, at least at a popular level. Their similarity mainly arises from their common dualist background in Orphic and Iranian thought.p154

interesting discussion, passim, of theodicy (Greek Classical and other theological) Pothen ton kakon? Whence does evil come.

Isaiah 45:7 I create the light; I create the darkness.

In pre-exilic Hebrew religion Yahweh made all that was in heaven and earth, both of good and of evil. The Devil did not exist. The Hebrew concept of the Devil developed gradually, arising from certain tensions within the concept of Yahweh. Since Judaism and Christianity are live oppositions for many of us, it is more difficult here than elsewhere to avoid a confusion between the metaphysical and the historical. What I intend is a discussion of the historical development of the concept rather than a metaphysical statement. P174

The Old Testament was compiled over a long period from about 900 BC to about 100 BC. Most of its books were written down in their present form during and after the period of the Babylonian Captivity (586-538) and show traces of Canaanite, Babylonian, Iranian, and Hellenistic influence. Neither the dates nor the sources of most Old Testament books are firmly established. [footnote points out that the Hexateuch is based on four major sources: the Yahwist, c900bc, the Elohist c800, the Deuteronomic c680 and the priestly 450-400. but assignation of these sources is tentative.]

The Apocrypha are scriptures excluded from the Hebrew canon of the Old Testament. Debates as to which of the many alleged holy books extant were truly inspired arose as early as the fourth

century BC, and the final form of the Hebrew canon was not established until the first century AD. In the meantime, the scriptures were translated into Greek about 250BC. This work, the Septuagint, was expanded over the centuries to contain a number of books that were ultimately rejected from the Hebrew canon. These books, many of which reflect the misery of the Jews under Syrian and Roman oppression, were written from about 200BC to about 150 AD, and though they were excluded from the canon, they had great influence. The suffering of the Jewish people in this period also produced a variety of literature generally described as Apocalyptic. These writings, a few of which were deemed canonical, consisted largely of visions in which the end of this world was prominent. Some of these works expressed the view that the oppression of the Jews indicated that the world was now in the power of the Devil. In the old days, patriarchs and kings had ruled, but in the latter days the Devil had established his rule over the earth. Soon, however, the kingdom of the Devil (the old eon) would perish before the time of the Messiah, who would bring a new eon, a reign of justice and light. Into the mouths of ancient patriarchs or prophets the Apocalyptic authors placed their own prophecies of the ruin and regeneration to come. As these prophecies were based upon events that had already occurred in the time of the real authors, they had of course already partly come true and so gained further validation in the minds of those who heard them. In opposition to Apocalyptic literature, that of the rabbis was little concerned with demonology, which accounts for the fact that the Devil has been much less important in modern Jewish thought than in Christianp175-176.