Note 1793 — Chapter IX

Zech. iii; Job i, ii; 1 Chron. xxi, 1, contrasted with 2 Sam. xxiv, 1; Enoch xl, 7; liii, 3, etc.; Secrets of Enoch (Slavonic Enoch), xxix, 4, 5; xxxi, 3, 4. The word Satan means 'adversary,' and, as legal adversary, 'accuser.' The germ of the conception is to be sought in the apparatus of spirits controlled by Yahweh, and sometimes employed by him as agents to harm men (1 Kings xxii, 19-23). The idea of an accusing spirit seems to have arisen from the necessity of explaining the misfortunes of the nation (Zech. iii); it was expanded under native and foreign influences.