Satan: A Biography [Paperback]

In contrast to other reviewers, I found the book to be very useful actually.

It's one of those books that does what it says on the tin, and pretty much lists every reference to Satan in the Bible and brings a number of interesting concepts to light.

No, it's not written by a theologian, and if you want one written by a theologian, I'd recommend The Birth of Satan: Tracing the Devil's Biblical Roots by Wray and Mobley.

Some people are a bit snobbish when it comes to theological books because they make a distinction between theologians and 'laymen'. I do too. But that doesn't mean non-theologians books are non-useful. One has to remember that most of the New Testament were written by laymen.

Also, once you've read a number of theologians, you eventually realise "Oh dear...scholars love to contradict each other and disagree."

Personally, I'd recommend this book if you want to have a good overview of the topic of Satan.

I didn't read anything that was contradicted by official theologians, and have found it useful to explain things to others.

So yes, even though I went to seminary, and have studied the official theologians, and have read the writings of the Early Church, and studied Koine Greek, I still think that this book would be very useful, although when I bought it, it was much cheaper!

A strange book; I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. Kelly's premise, and he is quite serious, is that Satan is a badly misunderstood fellow. That the Satan we know today bears little or no resemblance to the Biblical Satan.

As far as I can tell, Kelly is a believer in the Bible and in Satan, and wants to set the record straight. He doesn't appreciate the legends that have sprung up about Satan since the writing of the Bible. Satan, for example, has nothing to do with the serpent in the Garden of Eden; that association began with the early church fathers. He has not yet been thrown out of heaven. He is not evil, and certainly will not be put in charge of punishing the damned in Hell.

Rather, Satan is merely an Accuser, and a useful one at that. Kelly begins with the oldest Biblical books, travels through the Septuagint translation and inter-testamental writings such as 1 Enoch and Jubilees, and wraps up the first half of his book with the Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament. In these writings, we see the picture of Satan remaining largely unchanged: Satan is a functionary of the Divine Government, charged with testing and disciplining mankind. He is suspicious of everyone, including Jesus. He is hostile to Jesus' followers, constantly trying to trip them up and then lodge complaints against them before God. He is God's Chief Tester, at worst a homicidal liar.

Then in the second half, Kelly methodically traverses the next 2,000 years and how Satan's name has been corrupted.

I agree with Kelly that the understanding of Satan/Devil/Lucifer has evolved quite radically. I'm just not sure I agree with his timing. For example, I think Satan had evolved into God's adversary in the minds of most believers before the New Testament was written, and I think the same about Satan's connection with the serpent of Eden. Moreover, different Biblical writers appear to have had different ideas. I just don't think the line is as crisp as Kelly draws. Nevertheless, it's a book to make you think, and though the writing is a bit dry, I did enjoy the discussion, so I'll give it four stars.

This is not for the faint of faith. Kelly's book takes a deep look at the darker side of religion by following the progression of Satan from the earliest origins of deities deemed "evil" or "bad" all the way up to modern day understandings. The preface does a good job of noting that this is not a technical book and is intended to be read by those interested, not those who've studied religion before. There is a bit of a learning curve to it and it might even be worth taking notes as you go. Personally, I find this book very interesting and my college class, "History of Satan," used it as a text book. Satan, Lucifer, Devil, Beast, Baalzebul, Mastema, and many other names are thrown about and discussed as to how they all became the single, patchwork quilt of character we known and love to hate today. Kelly's style is dense. I wouldn't say prior knowledge is required, though it may help.