THE SCENE: Seeking educate a pagan Russian king, a Greek emissary provides a brief overview of the history of Satan’s involvement in human affairs.
THE TEXT: When the foremost of the angels, the chief of the angelic host, beheld these works, he reflected and said, “I shall descend to the earth and seize upon it. I shall then be like to God, and shall establish my throne upon the northern clouds.” But God cast him straightway out of heaven, and in his train fell the tenth order of the angels, who had been subject to him. The name of this adversary was Sathanael, in whose place God set Michael as chief, while Satan, after sinning in his devices and falling from the former glory, is now called the adversary of God.
When the devil saw how God honored man, he hated him. Changing himself into a serpent, he approached Eve and inquired of her, “Why do you not eat of the tree that stands in the middle of Paradise?” The woman made answer to the serpent, “God has said: ‘Ye must not eat of it, or ye shall die the death.’” Then the serpent said, “You shall not die the death. God knew that upon the day when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you shall be as God understanding good and evil.” Now the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, so she ate of it, and gave of it to her husband. They ate and their eyes were opened, so that they realized that they were naked, and plaited for themselves girdles of fig-leaves.
Then God said, “The earth is accursed of your deed, and ye shall live in sorrow all the days of your life. If ye stretch out your hand and pluck the fruit of the three of life, ye will live forever.” So the Lord God drove Adam out of Paradise. He sat opposite the gate of Paradise weeping and tilling the soil, and Satan rejoiced that the earth was accursed. This was the first fall of man, and his bitter punishment, in that he lost the angelic life.
Following the devil’s instruction, [the human race] sacrificed to trees, springs, and rivers, and did not know God. Subsequently, the devil cast mankind into yet greater error, so that they understood to build idols, some of wood, some of brass, others of marble, and still others of gold and silver. They not only worshipped them, but even brought their sons and daughters and killed them before these images, so that all the earth was defiled.
– Tales of Bygone Years, Nestor, 12th Century AD
[Image Credit: Satan Exulting by Richard Westall]
