A Demon at Work
Letting Benevolence Slip
Rather than defining God as essentially good, one can attribute a flawed character to the supreme being. Two biblical stories reflect this approach to theodicy, describing YHWH, the special name for Israel’s God, as demonic. In Gen 22:1–19 God asks Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac on a distant mountain, and in Job 1–2 God wrecks human lives through a heavenly agent, the Satan, without cause (khinnam). Other harrowing tales in the Bible describe objectionable divine conduct best viewed as demonic.
Keywords: demonic, flaw, YHWH, Genesis, Abraham, sacrifice, Isaac, Satan, Job, good
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .