Satana e satani nell'ebraismo antico

This essay outlines the evolution of Satan / the Devil as a character in the literature of ancient Israel (the Bible, the Pseudepigrapha, and the Dead Sea Scrolls). In some books of the Hebrew Bible (Zechariah, Job) the satan (still a noun, not a name) is one of the angels of the divine court, where he acts as public prosecutor against men, tempting God’s will to their detriment. In other Biblical books he appears as a deceitful accuser of men, then as the deceiver par excellence (as in 1Kings ), and as a rebel against God out of envy for the latter’s predilection towards Adam (as in the Life of Adam and Eve, henceforth his representation as Iblis in the Qur’an). This literary character was eventually named Satan and gradually developed into a Spirit of Evil or «Angel of Darkness», completely independent from God’s will and power, engaging him in a cosmic war that would only end at the very end of times (as depicted in the New Testament and in the Community Rule and the War Scroll from Qumran).