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Giraffe
05-08-2011, 10:25 PM
Lately I came to realize that the only alternative explantion I am aware of about how Satan got his name is in Anne Rice's Memnoch.

In her book, Memnoch accuses God of abandoning humanity and gains the name Satan. I think that in any literature, a character with a nick-name usually comes with a backgorund story about the nick-name but not in the bible.

So I am curious to the possibilty of other alternative explanations.

daecon
05-14-2011, 01:55 AM
"Satan" means "adversary." The implication is that Satan is the enemy of humankind, if not God, Himself. In the Bible, He functions as God's prosecuting attorney, testing mortals to determine if their faith was genuine. The most complete example was the Book of Job, where He is given the authority to inflict a series of misfortunes on a righteous mortal.

In Luke 4, He appears to Jesus in the desert. He tempts Jesus three times to use His divine abilities for His own selfish purposes (to satisfy hunger, to acquire political power and to impress the general populace with a flashy, public miracle.) Jesus naturally refuses, proving He is worthy to become the Messiah.