tladatsi AT charter.net wrote:It might be interesting to look at Arabic traditions, Islamic and probably pre-Islamic. The name Azazil was used as a name of Satan, not in the Qur'an but in the later Hadith. See http://answering-islam.org.uk/Silas/pagansources.htm, http://www.humanists.net/alisina/zulqaranain.htm, http://www.truthnet.org/islam/src-chp5.htm (search for "Azazil" on these pages - I am not endorsing these sites in any other way). Interestingly, Brewer suggested that the same story is found in Milton's Paradise Lost: http://ppcl.chungnam.ac.kr/my/references/phrase/data/79.html (but I think Brewer is wrong in suggesting that this name is in the Qur'an - and his new name Eblis or Iblis, meaning "devil", is probably derived from Greek DIABOLOS); but http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/pl/book_1/index.shtml (line 534) uses the Hebrew spelling Azazel and notes "According to some Cabbalistic writers, one of the four standard bearers of Satan's army."
Are there any thoughts on azazel?
I haven't really looked at this stuff in a while (not since the movie "Fallen" came out, which, BTW, is kind of a lame movie IMO). But I think the Azazel in Enoch probably represents a tradition that understands it in Leviticus as some sort of a wilderness spirit. As you say, the parallel structure tends to favor this reading. On the whole, I think it's certainly a viable option.
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