Thursday, September 13, 2012

Why the Devil is Lucifer always portrayed as a goat man?

What do you get if you cross Darth Maul with Mr Tumnus?






Apparently, you get the Devil.

Some students asked me the other day why the Devil is so often represented with goat legs.  They told me that they were watching some horror movie, which was quite frightening, until the evil being revealed itself, and it was goat legged and a little ridiculous.

First off, the Bible does not tell you what the Devil looks like, and neither does the Catholic Church.  I think a lot of times the reason people reject the belief in something like the Devil is because when we were kids we saw him in Bugs Bunny, and we assume that how he is portrayed in Bugs Bunny is how he actually looks and what Christians believe in.  We know that he is a fallen angel, and that he was called "Lucifer", meaning "Bearer of light".  In the Bible he is portrayed as a talking serpent at one point and as a dragon at another point.  It's possible that before he was made to crawl on his belly, the serpent was a dragon.  Whatever the case, I don't think anyone believes that the Devil is literally a talking snake. People who think he has goat legs probably don't know much about Christianity either!

The reason that he is portrayed the way that he is is actually because he is a form of the Greek god Pan.  Pan was a pagan God of the Shepherds, who was usually worshipped in caves.  He could inspire 'panic', and so his name is the root of the word.  In Jesus' day, people worshipped Pan at Caesaria Philippi, which is where in Matt 16 Jesus makes Peter the first Pope, and he refers to the cave where they worshipped Pan as the "Gates of Hades". 

When Christianity spread to pagan places, it was not unusual for them to incorporate pagan ideas to better illustrate their points. So Paul told the people in Athens that the unknown god they worshipped was actually the true God, and Christmas was originally the celebration of the Winter Solstice, and was made Christian when we said "You celebrate that light is increasing in the world (Days are getting longer), well the light of the world is Jesus, so let's celebrate his birth."

So pagan symbols would become associated with the Devil, in some cases the pagan Gods would even be seen as demons. Jesus himself seems to have started the trend by referring to Satan as Beelzebub (Matt 12:25-28), who was actually a Philistine god. Interestingly, though, portraying Satan as being like Pan or a Faun dates back only to the 19th century, when Neo-Paganism was all the rage.

All of this begs a question, though.  Most people will have no difficulty accepting that our view of what Satan looks like is probably inaccurate and informed by paganism.  But I wonder if the same thing can be extended to our idea of Heaven, or of Hell?  When we picture Heaven, are we picturing the same thing that Jesus pictured?  I suspect that it would be a fascinating study to try to figure out what Jesus, and the Church, actually means by those words, and how much of it is just our presupposed notions.

41 comments:

  1. Thank you, it was very educational.

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  2. This is beautiful. I myself am jewish and i enjoy reading through other religeon's holy books and scriptures. I believe that having an open mind about everything anyone says makes my life easier and more enjoyable. After all noone does anything they believe to be bad or unjustified. It is my understanding that the unerversal rule of "dont be malicious" is something everyone knows. So it makes sense that if someone says something that seems "off" they usually didnt mean it maliciously. I find it also helps to have an understanding of that persons faith from their side. However it begs the question "is what is being said litteral, or metaphorical?" Which is one of the many things i love about the Torah: pretty much everything can be taken multiple ways. This particular post also helps show that alot of modern customs and beliefs are influenced by older and misunderstood or misdirected statments/ scriptures.

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    1. That's funny considering Jewish people misunderstand their own scriptures. Jesus fulfills over 50 messianic prophices in the Old Testament. Isaiah makes it pretty simple. Didn't mean that offensively, but you should definitely read the Red Letter Bible's Gospel of John to see where the Spirit leads you.

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    2. That's funny, considering that Jews WROTE the Jewish Bible, and Christians have the chutzpa to claim that only they understand it properly. LOL!

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    3. But weren’t the original Christians Jewish too? Wouldn’t they have known a lot about the Jewish Bible too? Also, God’s grace and salvation is extended beyond the Jewish to the gentiles. Also I just learned that “gospel” means the good news in which is we declare victory and by the Gospel we have victory over death in Christ Jesus ❤️

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  3. Amenadiel and Mazikeen brought me here

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  4. Saint Lucifer brought me here :)

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  5. Yup...totally here because of the show...lol

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  6. Yep lucifer brought me here too

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  7. Yep lucifer brought me here too

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  8. Saint Lucifer (TV show Lucifer)

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  9. the name Lucifer is a scam a lie which early christian want to use to control people there is no record of any being call Lucifer (SAMAEL)even the in the bible genesis never said any about Lucifer (genesis state the serpent was the most corniest animal in the garden when Isaiah said oh morning star why have thou fallen he was referring to Babylon not some being don't be deceive my story made by christian am a christian but i don't and i don't believe in lies believe.

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  10. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  12. Yup...lucifer bring me here... :D
    Dont know about lucifer but is islam it says that GOD'S favt angel named IBLEES denied to bow down in front of first human GOD made 'ADAM' because je was GOD'S fvt angel and made of fire and human was made of soil....so GOD sent him to rule hell forever...

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  13. This explanation was really eye opening.. thank you

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  14. It's very similar to Angels having Halos, which was taken from Egyptians.

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  15. Amenadiel and Mazekien got me here..on the run.. LoL 😃

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  16. Satan is often portrayed with goat legs and that shows his disobediance and hatred towards God. That's because goats do not have same knees as humans do. They have these things calles hocks which are joints that move in a way so goats can't actually kneel. That would mean that Satan can't kneel and people wanted to portray that Satan doesn't kneel to anyone, especially God and His creation.

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