Why did Satan get such a bad reputation? I'm not suggesting he doesn't deserve it, but I am suggesting it's an important question. The reason is not just that 'it's obvious because he's the chief bad guy'. The reason, in my opinion is because the new testament's attitude towards the cosmic bad guy is rather unexpected, and is most clearly revealed in the war in heaven. (Rev. 12 7-13)
In order to appreciate this, it's necessary to think hard about what's new and unusual in the story in Revelation.
In order to appreciate this, it's necessary to think hard about what's new and unusual in the story in Revelation.
...there was no longer any place for them in heaven
That phrase in verse 8 got me interested in this passage. It really seems to remind me of Girard's ideas about myths. Verses 7 and 8 look like a classic example of (part of ) a myth in Girard's system. The dragon committed some crime (or at least was accused of committing the crime) but after the defeat of the dragon and his angels, all the angels are driven from heaven due to some collective association with the dragon's crime. Girard would say that this story started in a real event, where someone committed the crime (or was accused), and his clan was driven from the community as a result.
But what was the crime? Looking only at verses 7 and 8 (I'll explain why in a minute), there's only 1 clue, in Michael's name. It means 'Who is like God?' So the dragon is (accused of) claiming to be God's equal, but no-one can be God's equal. This idea that the dragon's crime was to claim equality with God seems to have entered our conciousness, but I've been struggling to find any references (beyond Michael's name) as to where it comes from; I've certainly heard it before but can't remember precisely where. Anyway, it sounds all too plausible a real event for a myth to be based on; one of a king's senior advisers is accused of trying to usurp the king, so must be removed. But society needs a broader scapegoat than that so the entire clan is expelled. The event has such a cohesive power that it becomes a myth. But a few odd phrases tend to remain, clues to the scapegoating, such as 'there was no longer any place for them in heaven'.
But what was the crime? Looking only at verses 7 and 8 (I'll explain why in a minute), there's only 1 clue, in Michael's name. It means 'Who is like God?' So the dragon is (accused of) claiming to be God's equal, but no-one can be God's equal. This idea that the dragon's crime was to claim equality with God seems to have entered our conciousness, but I've been struggling to find any references (beyond Michael's name) as to where it comes from; I've certainly heard it before but can't remember precisely where. Anyway, it sounds all too plausible a real event for a myth to be based on; one of a king's senior advisers is accused of trying to usurp the king, so must be removed. But society needs a broader scapegoat than that so the entire clan is expelled. The event has such a cohesive power that it becomes a myth. But a few odd phrases tend to remain, clues to the scapegoating, such as 'there was no longer any place for them in heaven'.
The name of the dragon.
Fans of Girard would be slightly horrified to find any girardian myth in the new testement, but it's all OK. What John of Patmos has done is to take an old familiar story about how the dragon was defeated and twisted it round into a parody of the original that gives a completely different message. Verses 7 and 8 are there to remind the listeners of the original story, but verse 9 is the punchline, the verse that takes this story in a completely new direction. It continues to lull you into a false sense of security talking about the great dragon being thrown down, but then throws in the surprise; the dragon is Satan.
In the Old Testament, Satan isn't the cosmic bad guy. The most famous appearance where he's actually named is in the book of Job, where he seems to be God's gambling partner. I'm told that in the talmud, the jewish tradition is that Satan (the accuser) is essentially considered an aspect of God. So what's going on here is that a benign being, an essential aspect of God's justice, the accuser of those who transgress the law, is being elevated to the cosmic bad guy. I'm reminded a bit of Scooby Doo here; in every episode of Scooby Doo, at the end some monster's head is pulled off and the monster is revealed to be a kindly old man in a costume. Here the dragon is revealed as God's gambling partner and (what was thought of as) an important aspect of divine justice.
I see Satan fall like lightning
I keep using this phrase 'cosmic bad guy'. Why such a clunky expression? The reason is because the normal words like 'devil' are totally linked to Satan; Satan is Hebrew for 'the accuser', and Devil is a corruption of Diabolos, the Greek word for Accuser. To say 'Satan is the devil' is a tautology; the accuser is the accuser. This gives me a linguistic problem - I reckon that by saying Satan is the cosmic bad guy, you're asking people to see the world very differently. And unless you see this as a novel innovation, you're going to miss something important in the New Testament.
We all like to divide the world into the good guys and the bad guys. Us lot are in league with the cosmic good guy, so we accuse those different people over there of being in league with the bad guy. So they're fair game for persecution. How can this new religion of radical peace undermine this impulse? By throwing a spanner in the works of the myth of the cosmic good guy and the cosmic bad guy, warping the myth so it becomes a condemnation of persecution, not a justification for it. The spanner is to make Satan be the dragon.
You are accused of the crime of...accusation
So, Satan, the accuser, is the ultimate bad guy. Doesn't that make Accusation the ultimate crime? This could be looked at in 2 ways. One is that the story is now an attack on any form of scapegoating or persecution. The other is that it's setting up a deliberately unworkable (and hence profoundly and deliberately self-defeating) structure of persecution. If we want to persecute people, we need to accuse them of the ultimate crime. But that is impossible without committing the ultimate crime so the whole thing should fall apart. Indeed, the only way people have found to keep persecuting is to forget about this whole thing and treat Satan's name as a synonym for the cosmic bad guy.
And all is certainly not sweetness and light in this new world. Unlike in Scooby Doo, pulling the dragon's mask off makes things more unsettling and scary. We know what to do about dragons - you send in a hero to fight them. If the great evil is something we all do from time to time, that's more unsettling.
And all is certainly not sweetness and light in this new world. Unlike in Scooby Doo, pulling the dragon's mask off makes things more unsettling and scary. We know what to do about dragons - you send in a hero to fight them. If the great evil is something we all do from time to time, that's more unsettling.
Tidying up - who is like God, and how much space there is in heaven.
A few odd phrases need further comment. One is Michael's name. What's its significance. It could just be left over from the original story; Michael also features in the version of the story in Enoch. The possible, more exciting, option is that John of Patmos is giving a different answer to the question. Who is like God? The original story says 'no-one'. This version says 'the one who does not accuse'.
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