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"Origen says, 'Lucifer is said to have fallen from Heaven,'" Kelly explained. Originally written in ancient Hebrew, the passage, on face value, refers to the tyrannical Babylonian king who boasts of his conquests but who is "about to be cast to the ground." Kelly insists there's nothing more to the reference than an apt use of metaphor, but the third-century Christian philosopher Origen of Alexandria argued in his best known work, "On First Things," that the reference applied to Satan. "'Lucifer' is Latin for light-bearer," he said, and was the name given to the morning star, or the planet Venus.
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In the Bible's first reference to Lucifer, for instance, Satan doesn't appear - even by implication, Kelly points out. Perhaps most surprising is not the figure Satan cuts, but his notable absences in the Old Testament. "His job is to test people's virtue and to report their failures," Kelly said. On each occasion, Satan is still firmly part of what Kelly calls "God's administration," and his activities are done at the behest of "the Big Guy." But his actions aren't evil so much as consistent with the translation of "devil" and "satan," which literally mean "adversary" in Greek and Hebrew, respectively. By Kelly's count, Satan only appears three times in the 45 books that make up the pre-Christian scriptures, the best known being in the Book of Job. When it comes to the Old Testament, Kelly insists that Satan's profile is considerably lower than commonly thought and significantly less menacing. "Satan: A Biography" is the culmination of more than 40 years of research into the devil and religious and cultural traditions that have grown up around him.
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"It was at that time that I started my campaign to rehabilitate the devil - to deliver him from evil, as it were," Kelly said. Kelly started his academic career at a Jesuit seminary and was ordained in four of the seven holy orders on the way to the priesthood, including the order of exorcist. Still, if Kelly could be considered scandalous, it's not because he doesn't know any better. After digging deep into the history of Valentine's Day, he pronounced 20 years ago that he had not only uncovered the holiday's origins but that it should be celebrated in May, not February. "What I'm saying will be scandalous to some people."īut what would you expect of someone's whose 72nd birthday fell this year on June 6 (06-06-06) and who felt disappointed when nothing momentous occurred that day? Actually, Kelly is no stranger to bubble-bursting. "If Satan isn't really in opposition to God and he isn't really evil, then that means the fight between good and evil isn't an authentic part of Christianity," Kelly said. The view runs in opposition to the beliefs held by many Christians and others about key religious concepts like original sin and the nature of good and evil. But he's still part of God's administration." Satan's basic intention is to uncover wrongdoing and treachery, however overzealous and unscrupulous the means. "He's not so much the proud and angry figure who turns away from God as a Joseph McCarthy or J. "A strict reading of the Bible shows Satan to be less like Darth Vader and more and more like an overzealous prosecutor," said Kelly, a UCLA professor emeritus of English and the former director of the university's Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. In "Satan: A Biography" (Cambridge Press), Henry Ansgar Kelly puts forth the most comprehensive case ever made for sympathy for the devil, arguing that the Bible actually provides a kinder, gentler version of the infamous antagonist than typically thought. "There's little or no evidence in the Bible for most of the characteristics and deeds commonly attributed to Satan," insists a UCLA professor with four decades in what he describes as "the devil business."