For too long, the concept of a cosmic Satan has been inflated into something it was never intended to be. The Western theological portrayal of Satan as an all-powerful nemesis locked in eternal war with the God of Israel, is, to me, a doctrinal exaggeration, far removed from the ancient Hebrew worldview. My study of the Scriptures, coupled with credible scholarship and historical context, leads me to a different conclusion. The biblical texts, when examined within their cultural and literary backdrop, present adversarial figures yes, but not the horned overlord of Hell that Western religion has sold to the masses.

The Hebrew Bible (which includes the Brit Chadasha) never introduces Satan as a proper name or a rival deity. The word satan simply means “adversary” or “accuser.” In Job, the satan appears not as a rogue enemy but as part of God’s court a challenger within the divine administration, not a rebel outside of it. Similarly, the serpent in Eden is not depicted as a demonic figure. It is presented as “more cunning than any of the beasts of the field which the Lord GOD had made.” There is no mention of the devil, no hint of a supernatural fall. These interpretations were grafted onto the text centuries later, driven by evolving theologies. I’ve long found support for this view in James R. Brayshaw’s Imagine No Satan series, which I’ve read and found both liberating and intellectually honest. (I have read other materials that are ridiculous!

But I go a step further. It is my contention that the serpent in the garden is a metaphor one deeply rooted in ancient symbolic language. I believe it represents a powerful chaos being, much like the serpentine enemies found in other ancient Near Eastern texts. This “serpent” could easily be a literary stand-in for a rival king or regional ruler, a sort of caliphate leader who rises up in opposition to Adam’s commission to “guard” and “serve” the garden-temple. In this view, Adam is not simply a man picking fruit; he is a priest-king tasked with overseeing sacred space. The serpent, then, is not a sneaky animal, but a personification of political and spiritual rebellion a disruptor of divine order, much like the chaos monsters (Leviathan, Rahab, Tannin) found in other Hebrew texts and their regional counterparts.

This interpretation is powerfully supported by the work of my friend and scholar, Dr. Dinah Dye, whose three-book series, The Temple Revealed in the Garden, The Temple Revealed in Creation, and The Temple Revealed in Noah’s Ark offers a deeply rational and historically grounded understanding of how the ancient world would have read Genesis. Dr. Dye’s work reveals the temple imagery woven throughout the biblical narrative and illuminates the priest-king role of Adam, underscoring that the garden was not just a paradise, but a sacred temple space under human stewardship. I have had the privilege of co-hosting a podcast with Dr. Dye, and her insights have profoundly shaped my own thinking. Her research supports the idea that the serpent represents a chaos being an adversary who challenges the sacred order that the garden-temple requires.

Biblical scholar Shawna Dolansky echoes this de-mythologized view in her article “How the Serpent in the Garden Became Satan.” She underscores that Genesis presents the serpent as “the most clever of all the beasts of the field that YHWH GOD had made,” with no hint of supernatural evil. Dolansky points out that the Hebrew term satan appears as a title, not a name, and that ideas of a personal devil didn’t arise until centuries later, influenced by external cultures like Persia. What later became “Satan” was essentially a theological retrofit, not a feature of the original Hebrew worldview (biblicalarchaeology.org). See also Zoroastrianism of ancient Persia

Over the last 1500 years, particularly through Catholic and Protestant dogma, the notion of Satan as a cosmic being with supernatural autonomy has taken root so deeply that to question it is seen as heretical, trust me. When I started challenging western attitudes about a satan being I may as well have ripped the Christian Jesus from the cross! This narrative, however, does not emerge from the Hebrew Scriptures it’s layered on top of them. The fruit of that tradition is theological confusion. What began as metaphor, symbol, or political warning has become an reimagined evil force that serves institutions, but it doesn’t serve truth.

The true danger is not Satan, but the myth of Satan. This myth has provided the perfect theological scapegoat, blame the devil, avoid accountability. But the Hebrew text does not let us off the hook. Cain is told “sin crouches at your door, but you must master it.” No mention of a devil, just moral choice. Ezekiel says the soul who sins shall die not because of outside temptation, but because of personal rebellion. Evil in Scripture is not the work of a mythic being lurking in shadows or hiding in personal sin. It’s the result of human ego, injustice, and pride. James R. Brayshaw, like many of us who read carefully and historically, drives this point home: the real “satan” is often us, our adversarial nature, our inner chaos, our refusal to submit to divine wisdom. I interviewed James Brayshaw. I thought his work was an honest effort to challenge the last 1500 years of misinterpretation and or theory that is not supported academically.

So yes, I reject the idea of a cosmic Satan. But I do acknowledge the enduring power of what the serpent represented: disorder, opposition, disruption of holy order. The chaos being whether embodied in a king, a nation, or an ideology, still confronts us today. But the biblical answer is never fear or superstition. The answer is responsibility, repentance, justice, and faithfulness. The God of Israel does not require us to fear a cosmic villain. He calls us to master the chaos within and around us and to do so with courage and covenantal clarity. I will continue to beat this drum as I return to what the ancient world would have understood.

I began seriously challenging Western dogma about “Satan” when I started drawing connections between Paul or Shaul and his efforts to reach Hellenized Jews, many of whom had undergone forced cultural and religious conversion for well over two centuries under the Seleucid Empire. I started to see that much of what the New Testament attributed to a cosmic enemy might be better understood through historical and political lenses. At the same time, I couldn’t shake the narrative of Balaam in Numbers 22. Verse 31 reads, “Then the LORD opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand; so he bowed low and fell facedown.” But in the Torah scroll, this “angel of the LORD” is described as haSatan the adversary. That one detail kept me awake many nights. Why would the Torah refer to a divine messenger as haSatan? It was a breakthrough moment for me realizing that satan was a role, not a name. That discovery cracked open the door to understanding the serpent, the accuser, and the so-called devil in a completely different light.