Kimberly Stratton interviewed about Satan

PROFESSOR KIMBERLY STRATTON is interviewed about Satan:

Getting reacquainted with Satan

By Jennifer Green, The Ottawa Citizen September 25, 2010 1:02

Kimberly Stratton teaches a new Carleton University course on the history of Satan, looking at early Biblical references all the way up to Hollywood movies, with an emphasis that man’s ideas of God and goodness, evil and misfortune, are shaped by history.
Photograph by: Bruno Schlumberger, The Ottawa Citizen

The devil is not who we think he is. In fact, for much of ancient history, he wasn’t even a “he,” says Kimberly Stratton, who is teaching a new Carleton University course on the history of Satan.

The earliest Biblical references use “satan” as a verb, meaning to block or prevent something.

In the Book of Numbers, an angel blocks or “satans” Balaam from cursing the Israelites. “In the original Hebrew, the verb is to ‘satan’ him,” says Stratton. “The angel himself was a normal angel of God.”

In the Book of Job, “satan” is a job title, something like a Crown prosecutor who seeks sinners and brings them to justice.

“He is still an angel in God’s court. There is no indication that he is an opponent of God. He just seems to be an angel doing his job. If anything, he has a higher-ranking position in heaven.”

Even in the New Testament’s Gospel of Matthew, the Devil tests Jesus in the desert, but then he disappears, and ministering angels come in. “So it’s not clear there that he isn’t still part of God’s entourage. … acting somehow as the Crown attorney.”

Stratton outlines in her course how man’s ideas of God and goodness, evil and misfortune, are shaped by history.

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Sounds like a good course.