Was Satan really an angel?

[logician]

How could one believe that an omnipotent god would allow the existence of the Christianized idea of satan?

 

[Truid]

In case anyone cares . . .

1. Isaiah 66:1
   Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool:
   
2. Acts 7:49
   Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool:

 

[linwood]

That was the first lie ever spoken.

I disagree.
My numerous readings of the text support my interpretation that the Serpent spoke the truth.
Eve did indeed hold a godlike power after eating the fruit.
Gods reaction and Eves enlightenment are the evidence.

Telling it made that angel a slanderer. He also became an opposer of God. The Bible thus identifies this enemy of God as “the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan.”—Revelation 12:9.

Revelation has no bearing on the contextual consistency of Genesis.
No where within the book of Genesis will you find a reference to the serpent as any angel, satan, lucifer, devil or otherwise.

The Hebrews had no devil concept at the time Genesis was first told.
At least not within the text of Genesis.

Revelations was written 2000 years after the story of the garden.
Anything the author wrote couldn`t have been from the point of understanding what the tellers of the Tanakh intended.

 

[Zardoz]

Umm.... I dont know who Rashi is. Should I care?

The text still does not say they presented themselves in heaven.

Rashi is the most referenced Jewish commentator on the Jewish scriptures, mostly he clarifies vague Hebrew terms and phrases. If you want to understand the Jewish Tanach in the language of the authors then you should care. If you are satisfied with an incorrect mistranslated 'bible' then no, you won't care. Yes, they always present themselves in heaven, and it was on Rosh Hashanah. THE day, not just any old day.

Satan is a misinterpretation by Christian scholars of a hebrew concept.

The term "satan" means "adversary".
I don`t believe it is ever used in Hebrew scritpture to denote any one singe being.

In Numbers 22;22 the "adversary" standing in the path of Balam is "satan" yet he is there on a mission from God.

Yes. Some Angels can have any type of mission. The same angels who announce to Abraham & Sarah they will have a son go on to destroy Sodom & Gomorrah.

When Jews speak of HaSatan then you know we mean the actual angel who has this as his main mission. We might not like his mission, but we could not be who we are without him. Everything would be black or white, no shades of grey at all.

By the way, all Jews understand that he is 'Adversary' to Man, not 'Adversary' to G-d.