Often throughout the development of religion with culture, we have expanded the concept of the devil in a historical framework of Christianity. It is not to be repeated the endless amount of academic articles in linguistics and Jewish eschatology. It is common knowledge among those that study Judaism, the Bible, and early Christianity that the devil, often called Satan, the adversary was not a single character, but a culmination of multiple points. In the fictional story of Job, the adversary is relived as a gambler that allows mankind to walk the path towards the angelic state. Yet often, beyond all these characteristics, the devil remains beyond the character as a substance of adversary and evil as present among us. The devil serves as the ultimate conceptualization of the problem of evil that walks among us.
The Harmonies
Evil is something that consumes the human mind and heart. It transforms the being into something corrupting that is eroding and dying slowly. It reminds us of the story of Tolkien’s creation of the Orcs in Lord of the Rings. In this world, Sauron knew that he couldn’t corrupt the harmonies, so after the supreme deity of the world created the elves (which among the human reclected the perfection of the harmonies in creation), Sauron, tricked elves into his dominions and with experiment corrupted them. The same allegorical frameworks exist among humanity, the devil, in this case, presented in the allegorical frameworks of the serpent. The serpent serves as the adversary against the harmonies of God’s creation. When God created anything, He saw them as good, on the other hand, the serpent saw an opportunity. The corruption of humankind is then corruption of the divine essence that inhabits humankind, but such corruption can only be dealt with in the aftermath of the creation.
The Harmonies is a concept that can be found across cultures and thoughts. Plato explains in Timeaus that the perfect number in which all harmonies exist is related to the divine number seven. Such number reflects even across the Jewish’s astrology in which seven was associated with God, the Divine. Such coincides of containing the number seven as the perfect harmony and the divine number to describe God it’s not a mistake but rather a result of ancient astrology and astronomy. With such not separated yet in those times the allegorical combination of number and heavenly bodies occur. Seven was associated with the seven known heavenly bodies: Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter which are created to dance in harmony around the Earth.
The Devil in Rome
The Devil then is a manifestation of the difficult norms in which society drives itself into. The adversaries of history that oppose the greater good of Israel and then of the Church become emotes of the corruption of harmony. The devil is then manifested as external deities, kings, the so-called false prophets. All of them, in the mind of the authors of scripture, serve to encapsulate the diminishing of the Divine Goodness. Of course, from the author's perspective that which its good contributes to the restoration of the human world into the essence of God. The narration of the harmony thus indicates a fallen state in the genesis with a direct plan of redemption of Israel. Anything else would be considered an adversary to the plan.
It is then not to amaze us of the dichotomy which exists in the book of Revelations. On one hand, a prophetic reading in which inspiration contains no time, an infinite prophecy in a finite world. The second reading is a political narration against the Roman Empire and Nero Caesar. Revelation then incorporates a similar narrative as Daniel does. With the incorporation of critiquing a government in a spiritual narrative, the government then becomes the narrative against the greater good. In this then the devil is appropriated to the form of the antichrist and given to Nero. Contrary to Christ, Nero saw the sword and the death of the mission. All biblical scholars agree that the Antichrist is a play in numerology to describe Nero while showing Rome as the description of the corrupted hell and Earth. Thus, the author’s one again reflects the devil upon a human figure.
Among Us
The devil then taking into a narrative of evil is seen not as an individual figure as the medieval have interpreted. Concepts of devils and demons develop, in The Clouds by Aristophanes the reflection of what a demon entails. In the ancient world, a demon would signify either an angel or a corrupted angel (modern view of demons). In this same concept, the devil, throughout time plays a factor in the playing of society. The devil is seen as the current leaders, professors, anyone who deviates from the common good to promote a corruption of the harmonies and essence. In this matter, each of us, when we sin, when we cause evil, we become incorporated of the devil.