How in the world did Christians extract the mythological stories of Satan from the bible?

Question

The bible evidence which accompanies Christian's colorful descriptions and stories of Lucifer, hell and Satan aren't very convincing.

If anyone has some Satan stories they have committed to memory they would like to share, go ahead, and can you please support this with evidence or reference to where you got it from?

Answer 1

Most of it comes from mythology that is based on the pagan religions. The common ideas about the devil come primarily from Paradise Lost, a fictional work.

When Christianity was new, it was having trouble finding followers who enjoyed their old religion. In an effort to find converts, Christian leaders placed holy days on pagan holy days (Christmas being Saturnalia and Easter being the fertility festival). Jesus could not have been born in winter, as the shepherds would not have been in their fields in winter, but Christmas is celebrated on December 24 anyway, which just so happened to be the pagan celebration Saturnalia (generally celebrated with sacrifices, wine, and orgies).

Early Chrisitans easily converted the idea of evil or uncaring/unust gods into Satan. If you look at typical images of Satan, you can clearly see the pagan influences.

In later periods, the Catholic church used Satan and Hell to frighten people into doing as the church wanted. During that time, the church owned a lot of land and was powerful governmentally. This is also the period of time when priests were forbidden to get married, so that when they died, the church lands they owned could not be passed on to family, but rather stay under the ownership of the church. No, it had nothing whatsoever to do with staying "pure."

Many, if not most of the modern Christian traditions were born out of deceit and lies. If Christians looked further into their religion's history than what their priests, pastors and ministers taught them, they might re-think which lessons are truly divine, and which are inventions of mankind developed to control others. But the fact of the matter is, most people wouldn't know how to question authority if it were on the other end of a knock-knock joke.

Answer 2

I discover that it is not more often than not an complete congregational denomination which does not recognise what the Bible says, I located that there have been continuously folks who did recognise the Bible lovely good. The obstacle more often than not arises with the translation of the ones reports, and / or the conclusions they draw from them. I have even located Roman Catholics who knew the Bible reports as a substitute good, however in which they emphasize the instructing, or how they emphasize the instructing is oftentimes outrageously screwy, IMHO. What you assert approximately the only refusing to suppose Jesus grew to become water into wine (in John two), it is almost always a legalistic take at the scriptures which lead a few Christians to suppose that Jesus might certainly not make some thing which would make any one under the influence of alcohol; i.e. non alcoholic Jesus altogether. I might no longer consider that ideology, alcoholic wine used to be an emblem of pleasure to the Jewish individuals's traditions.

Answer 3

Very good observation. Much of what we know about Satan does not come from the canonical Bible (that is the books that were authorized by early church councils as true and inspired words of God). The Satan story you will find in a collection of works outside the canon called the pseudepigrapha.

One book in particular, the Book of Enoch, has a lot of the story. I'll post a link to it below.

You would enjoy reading Eileen Pagel's The Origin of Satan. She trances the path of Satan as he takes on the identity of the Devil.

For example, in the Old Testament, the word "satan" is almost always preceded by a definite article: "The satan."

The satan was a member of the heavenly court and he worked for God as a "blocker" or "obstacle" -- it is only as time goes by that we see Satan becoming a proper noun for a demonic figure.

Answer 4

The only thing I saw from reading was that Satan and Archangel michael argued over MOses' body and Jesus called Peter satan. But noone ever said a bad word about him but us. So, hmmm. I dont know where it comes from.
Im not the judge of such things and I feel we should concentrate on the good and leave the bad to itself.

Answer 5

There is no such thing as Satan or hell. It just that people are trying to explain some unrealistic phenomena's. I don't believe there will be someone to explain and share stories about Satan and hell because there aren't any.

Answer 6

yeah i wanna know too ..