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Comment on How modern is it to have "sympathetic" portrayals of Hell?

The idea of Satan as the embodiment of evil is arguably an early medieval borrowing from Zoroastrianism. In the Book of Job he works in conjunction with God as a tester of souls, and his roles in the garden of Eden and the temptation of Jesus aren’t inconsistent with that. A lot of the popular folklore associated with him originates from morally-ambiguous trickster figures from other traditions that were absorbed into Christianity.

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ogmios@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
It should also be noted that the Gnostic scriptures, an alternate version of early Christianity, doesn’t actually mention Satan at all.

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- AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  The Gnostics associated the Old Testament Jehovah with the Platonic concept of the Demiurge—an imperfect or misguided lesser deity who created the material world but botched it up and included evil as an unintended consequence—as opposed to the New Testament “God” who was the Platonic principle of transcendent Goodness or Unity. So the Gnostics didn’t need a separate Satan, since Jehovah was already covering that role.
  
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- Angry_Autist@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  That’s because he’s the fucking Demiurge in Gnosticism you armchair theist
  
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  - DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    Funnily enough, no, that’s what we call God. Old Testament God is an evil fuckhead in Gnosticism because he’s a fraud.
    
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socsa@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
I would even argue that there is even a distinction to be drawn from the old world ideas of good and evil, and the modern ideas which have almost become "good vs nuance." No ancient religion goes as far as modern Christianity in terms of condemning people for mere non belief. This has led to a rise in literary themes around the idea that such moral absolutism is itself a form of evil, and that to the extent that it suggests that demons are merely the stewards of nuance, that they must be more sympathetic than God.

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- Flax_vert@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  The Epistle to the Romans and other Pauline epistles do seem to show that non-believers do generally go to hell.
  
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  - socsa@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    Right but the classic Catholic interpretation of damnation is that there is a huge layer of purgatory between "hell" and "eternal torture" for those who are not wicked. It is only fairly recently that we've had this "straight to pitchforks and fire" concept of hell.
    
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    Flax_vert@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    No, it’s the opposite. Purgatory is a new thing. It’s not mentioned in the Bible at all and only really came up in the last 1000 years. Not even the Eastern Orthodox believe in purgatory.
    
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Caligvla@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

and his roles in the garden of Eden

Not to mention that the idea of the snake being Satan is a more modern interpretation, for a good while the snake was just a snake.

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Flax_vert@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Satan is very much evil in the Book of Job. He literally kills the dude’s entire family and ruins his life.

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- zbyte64@awful.systems ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  Satan checked with God first to see if it was okay.
  
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  - Flax_vert@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    Not that it was okay, but to challenge God on His confidence in His servant. Satan will be punished for what he did to Job.
    
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