Week 4 Extra Credit Reading: Adam and Eve

For this week's extra credit reading, I read through the Biblical Unit of Adam and Eve. The specific story that I read was called The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg (1909). The chapter that caught my attention the most was the Fall of Satan.

The Fall of Satan

In this chapter, God created Adam and asked for all the angels to pay God's new creation reverence and homage. Satan, God's greatest angels with magnificent wings, refused to give respect to Adam. Satan felt insulted that he, an almighty angel, had to pay heed to a naked creature made out of dust. To Satan, there was no reason for God to create man when he had so many angels surrounding Him. God demanded Satan to pay respect to Adam because Adam had more wisdom than Satan. I thought this next part was interesting. In order to test this theory, Satan challenge Adam into a contest of naming God's animals. Satan couldn't remember the names of the ox, cow, camel, and donkey. Adam, on the other hand, was given clues by God by hinting the first letter of the animal's name. In the end, Adam won. Satan was outraged and still refused to pay heed to Adam. He broke his promise, but God wouldn't have it. God forced Satan to acknowledge man's superiority over the angels. Satan lashed out on God in which God threw Satan out of the heaves, making Satan the fallen angel. From that point on marked the eternal battle between Satan and man.

God exiling Satan from heaven. Source.