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[Viktor Lazlo]

On Wed, 16 Apr 2003, Doug Barton wrote:

> On Wed, 16 Apr 2003, Terry Lambert wrote:
>
> > Doug Barton wrote:
> > > Your understanding of christian theology is very, very wrong. God and
> > > Satan are not equals in the Bible, Satan is a created being who turned
> > > away from obedience to God and therefore is damned for all eternity.
> >
> > Actually in Job, Satan's more like God's "Attorney General".
>
> That's an interesting way to phrase that. I picked the word "Satan"
> particularly as opposed to "Devil" to try and move away from the demon
> issue. The origin of the word we usually pronounce SAY-tin in english is
> the hebrew word usually pronounced sah-TAHN, which is generally defined as
> "accuser." Jews don't believe in a "devil" the same way most christians
> do, but they also don't believe in Satan as an equal to God. In fact, the
> early christians pretty much adopted the jewish idea of sah-tahn as a
> created, and fallen being; and embellished it a bit.
>

Actually it's devil < Latin diabolus < Greek diabolos that means accuser,
from Greek dia "across/through" and ballein "to throw".  Hebrew satan
(with two long a's) means "the enemy, adversary" from the verbal root
satan (with only the first a long) meaning "to oppose, plot against,
persecute"

Cheers,

Viktor