Jewish and Christian disagreement about Satan Christians believe he was a fallen angel, an enemy of God. Jews believe he was an obedient agent of God

Jewish approach. In 1 Chronicles 21:1, it states, “Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel.”

However, another passage in the Jewish Bible, 2 Samuel 24:1, states that God caused King David to count the Jewish people. “The anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He incited David against them to say, ‘Go number Israel…’”

So, who made David number Israel – Satan or God? The confusion is based on a misunderstanding of the word, “Satan.”

Unlike Christianity, Jewish Scriptures do not teach that Satan is a “fallen and rebellious angel.” In fact, the first time that Satan appears in the Jewish Bible, the word refers to an angel sent by God to prevent Balaam, the non-Jewish prophet, from cursing the Jewish people. In fact, Balaam winds up blessing them. Definitely not a mission for an evil Satan!

The Jewish Bible states, “God was very angry when he (Balaam) went, and the angel (מאלך) of the Lord stood in the road to oppose (לשטן) him…” [Numbers 22:22] In this verse, the Hebrew word for “oppose” is “l’satan” and it is clearly not referring to an angel who is rebelling against God’s will. Rather, it refers to a messenger designated to carry out His will. The literal meaning of the Hebrew word “malach – מאלך” is “messenger” although it is usually translated as “angel.”

This interpretation is also consistent with the biblical account of Satan found in the book of Job. There we see that Satan has no free will of his own and is given permission by God to torment Job to test his loyalty to Him.

Thus, we see that Satan is a force, an angel, used by God to test mankind. Furthermore, we can understand the purpose of evil in this world and why the Jewish prophet Isaiah 45:7 states that God, “makes peace and creates evil (רע).” Contrary to Christianity’s viewpoint, which is similar to the one inherent in Greek mythology, Judaism does not regard Satan as a separate force that exists to oppose God.

The fallen angel concept is based on a mistranslation of Isaiah 14:12 – first introduced by Saint Jerome in his Latin Vulgate – where the words “morning star” (Venus) are mistranslated to “Lucifer” (the devil). The Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar was associated with the deity Ishtar/Venus and he was metaphorically thrown from heaven for his evil role in destroying Jerusalem. The word Lucifer is related to the words “lucent” and “lux” which mean shining light.