Why is the devil not emphasized in the earlier parts of the old testament?

Question

Many people presume that the snake was the devil in the garden of Eden, but in Genesis it only says the snake was the craftiest of the wild animals created, not that one snake was being used by the devil. Why would the snake be punished if it was just being used. The devil's name isn't even stated until much later in the old testament. After the snake, there is no explicit mention of a third party tempting people to do bad things in the books of Moses. Original sin and temptation are later concepts that are more fully stated in the new testament.

Answer 1

Perhaps the authors had different purposes in mind... to inspire and to challenge.

Answer 2

Actually, most scholars agree that the earliest book of the Old Testament to reach the form in which we have it today was the book of Job. If you re-read the first two chapters of that book, you will find it has the longest section in the entire Bible on the devil.

And note that he is there trying to get Job away from his faith, and using the same things he does today - sickness, disease, tragedy, suffering and death to try to get Job to turn away from God to sin. Notice that rather then go for the "minor" ones that people usually realize are wrong and will repent from like theft or adultry, he went straight for the worst. Getting Job to curse God and turn away from faith it him. That is the one that cost most people their souls.

Why isn't the devil mentioned much in the rest of the Old Testament? Because at that time God was still working just to get the information about Himself out. He didn't need to be talking about satan yet. You don't give high school lectures to first graders. He was still on step one - revealing himself.

The Bible is a series of progressive revelations. For instance, Abraham did not understand the laws of how to care for the tabernacle because it was not build yet. Moses did not understand the concept of original sin, it had not been fully explained yet. God had to take them through one step at a time.

So of course there are "later concepts" as you go through the scriptures. It grows as he reveals more and more about himself. If God could have explained it all at one time, the whole Bible would only need to be a page long. You will notice that it is not. What it has to reveal is so complex and so far beyond most human understanding that it took God thousands of years to get everything revealed.

One of the ones that he apparently did not think people need to know first was that satan also existed. They needed to know about God and his power first.

Answer 3

Evolution of understanding takes time. People had to deal with the dragons for a while and then they got to thinking, what caused all this stuff? Then they made the story fit ...or somewhere near. We are all being used. So why would anyone be punished?