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  • From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Evil & God
  • Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 18:49:28 -0500

Dear Pawel,

> Just so you know - Judaism does not teach that Satan "fell", that is
a Christian idea.

Well, isn't it rather a judeo-christian idea?
You can hardly find any official teaching of judaism
about the origin of evil or about Satan which would
be obligatory for every Jew. Is there any?

HH: The idea is that God is good and creates what is good (Genesis 1). So God would not create an evil being, so the angel called the devil must have fallen.

On the other hand, the Catholic Church firmly
states that the evil spirit exists and tries
to tempt human beings - that's it. There is no
official doctrine about "falling". The idea
of the fall, to the best of my belief, comes
from literature like The Paradise Lost by John
Milton.

HH: More than once there is mention of the devil falling in the NT, although there is debate as to the nature of the fall (perhaps it is eschatological).

There is another question which has been disquieting
me for a some time. Adam and Eve in the Paradise
were perfect and free from the "jecer ha-ra'".
They had given them by God the "jecer ha-tov".
Consequently, they did not have to put any effort
to obeying God's micwot, as they had the natural
inclination to do so. But they had to take pains
to commit a sin, which was opposite to their natural
inclination. How come they commited the sin anyway?

HH: I don't believe there is mention of a "jecer ha-tov" in the Bible, so that may be a mistaken assumption, at least in the context of Adam and Eve. Another thought is that the tree of knowledge of good and evil was a character test. if Adam and Eve had passed the test, they might have been confirmed in holiness.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard




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