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Question

Dear Father Angelo,
I take advantage of your exceptional  availability to ask you a very short question.  I would like to know whether Satan, the one who is mentioned in the book of Job, is the Devil or an angel from the Celestial Court, who plays  the role of the Public Prosecutor, to prove Job’s faith; and in some way, consequently, the defender of God’s reasons against man.
Thank you.
Rossano

The Priest’s answer 


Dear Rossano,
1. As noted in the Jerusalem Bible, the term Satan is preceded here by the article. Here, in fact, term is not yet a proper name as it will be only in the first book of the Chronicles: “Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel” (1Ch 21:1), where according to a more advanced theology what is referred to the Devil is also expressed elsewhere with the term of God’s wrath (cf., BJ, note to 1Ch 21:1).
According to the Hebrew etymology, Satan indicates “the adversary” or “the accuser” (Ps 109.6).
Here, however, the  role he plays  is rather that of a spy.
He is depicted as an ambiguous entity who is distinguished  from the children of God however; he is skeptical about man and aimed at putting him to shame; he is  capable of unleashing all sorts of evils on him and even pushing him to evil, as in 1Ch 21:1.

Even though he is not deliberately hostile to God, he nevertheless questions the outcome of His work concerning the creation of man.
Beyond the cynical Satan, with his cold and malevolent irony, the image of a pessimistic being who takes it out on man because he has reasons to be envious of him emerges.
The reasons for his attitude are not detailed in the text, however. Due to all these features, he can be compared to other prefigurations or representations of the spirit of evil, in particular of the serpent in Gen 3, with which he will ultimately merge to embody the diabolical power (cf. Lk 10,18: “I saw Satan fall from heaven like a thunderbolt “)” (note to Gb 1,6).
2. Therefore the least that can be said is that he is not an angel from the Courts of Heaven. 3. Indeed, the biblical scholar Father Marco Sales writes: “The Hebrew term Satan, that means the adversary, characterizes the work of the prince of demons well”.
He is present as a lying spirit in 1 Kings 22:21-23: “A spirit came forward and presented himself to the Lord and said: “I will deceive him”. “How?” Asked the Lord.
He replied, “I will go and become a spirit of lie on the lips of all his prophets.”
He said to him: “You will deceive him; you will certainly succeed: go and do this”.
Behold, then, the Lord has put a spirit of lies in the mouth of all these your prophets, but the Lord speaks of disaster in your regard. “He too is an angel by nature, but since he has become an enemy of God, he seeks the ruin of men. However, his power depends on God’s will.
He can only do what God allows him to do, and despite his malice, God makes him a servant of the fulfillment of His plans. The Hebrew term Satan is translated with the term the Devil in the LXX” (note to Gb 1:6).
4. Therefore he appears here as the one whom we commonly mean  both by the term the Devil and the term the demon.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says of him: “The power of Satan, however, is not infinite.
He is only a creature, powerful for the fact of being pure spirit, but still a creature: he cannot prevent the building up of the Kingdom of God.
Although Satan acts in the world out of hatred against God and his Kingdom in Christ Jesus, and although his action causes serious harm – of a spiritual nature and indirectly also of a physical nature – for every man and for society, this action is permitted by the divine Providence, which guides the history of man and the world with strength and sweetness.

The divine permission of diabolical activity is a great mystery, but “we know that everything contributes to the good of those who love God” (Rom 8:28) “(CCC 395).
With the hope that he will not do to you all the evil things that he did to Job, I remember you in my prayers and I bless you.
Father Angelo

Translated by: Germana