>>772154satan is interesting because he serves different purposes at different points in abrahamic histroy. it was originally a hebrew word meaning adversary or accuser, it starts off in the old testament as a term applied to anyone who antagonizes anyone else. Saul is at points a "satan" to David. Then there is "the satan" who appears in the book of Job gambling with God in heaven over the life and soul of the human Job. Then Yahwism came under Zoroastrian influence, leading to what would evolve into what we now call Judaism. It was in this context that cosmic dualism between God and Satan began to take shape, but in the case of Judaism, God was always meant to be superior, rather than the equal of his adversary. So it was a limited dualism. . In Christianity Satan's role was expanded, he was retconned into the serpent in the Garden, who was originally a separate character entirely, and made into the chief tempter of Satan, and the antagonist of all good things, and the source of evil and sin in the universe. Verses about the king of Babylon poetically refering to him as Lucifer, Son of the Morning (Venus) were retconned into actually being about Satan, in Christian theology. Satan continued to evolve under Islam and other Abrahamic religions. Religion is flexible and keeps changing itself to adapt to new circumstances, rather than being a source of static eternal truths, it is a polymorphic abstract entity that exists as interpretation within living brains.