In biblical sources the Hebrew term the satan describes an adversarial role. It is not the name of a particular character.® Although Hebrew storytellers as early as the sixth century B.C.E. occasionally introduced a supernatural character whom they called the satan, what they meant was any one of the angels sent by God for the specific purpose of blocking or obstructing human activity. The root ftn means "one who opposes, obstructs, or acts as adversary." (The Greek term diabolos, later translated "devil," literally means "one who throws something across one's path.") 39

69-74 The Gospels, The Gospel of Thomas

75-76 The Gospel Matthew

77 Virgin birth

84 Cosmic war

102 Judas a devil

103-104 the Jews

126-130; 142 Marcus Aurelius

131-135 Tatian

135-140 Origen

138- Celsus

What makes the Christians' message dangerous, Celsus writes, is not that they believe in one God, but that they deviate from monotheism by their "blasphemous" belief in the devil. For all the "impious errors" the Christians commit, Celsus says, they show their greatest ignorance in "making up a being opposed to God, and calling him 'devil,' or, in the Hebrew language, 'Satan.' " All such ideas, Celsus declares, are nothing but human inventions, sacrilegious even to repeat: "it is blasphemy to say that the greatest God has an adversary who constrains his capacity to do good." Celsus is outraged that the Christians, who claim to worship one God, "impiously divide the kingdom of God, creating a rebellion in it, as if there were opposing factions within the divine, including one that is hostile to God!"92 Celsus accuses Christians of "inventing a rebellion" (stasis, meaning "sedition") in heaven to justify rebellion here on earth. He accuses them of making a "statement of rebellion" by refusing to worship the gods but, he says, such rebellion is to be expected "of those who have cut themselves off from the rest of civilization. For in saying this, they are really projecting their oWn feelings onto God."93 Celsus ridicules Paul's warning that Christians must not eat food offered to the gods, lest they "participate in communion with daimones" (1 Cor. 10:20-22). Since daimones are the forces that energize all natural processes, Celsus argues, Christians really cannot eat anything at all-or even survive-without participating in communion with daimones. Cel
sus declares that

whenever they eat bread, or drink wine, or touch fruit, do they not receive these things-as well as the water they drink and the air they breathe--from certain various elements of nature?94 143

151

As New Testament scholar David Balch has shown, these letters cast Peter and Paul in the unlikely role of urging believers to emulate conventional Roman behavior.3 181