On Sammael

[Erika The Magi of Time]

Samael or Sammael aka Ha-Satan


Scarlet King
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Samael (Hebrew: סַמָּאֵל, Sammāʾēl, "Venom/Poison of God";[1] Arabic: سمسمائيل, Samsama'il or سمائل, Samail; alternatively Smal, Smil, Samil, or Samiel)[2][3][4] is an archangel in Talmudic and post-Talmudic lore; a figure who is the accuser or adversary (Satan as mentioned in the Book of Job), seducer, and destroyer (Mashhit as mentioned in the Book of Exodus).

Although many of his functions resemble the Christian notion of Satan, to the point of being sometimes identified as a fallen angel,[5][6][7]: 257–60  he is not necessarily evil, since his functions are also regarded as resulting in good, such as destroying sinners.[3]

He is considered in Midrashic texts to be a member of the heavenly host with often grim and destructive duties. One of Samael's greatest roles in Jewish lore is that of the main angel of death and the head of satans. Although he condones the sins of man, he remains one of God's servants. He appears frequently in the story of Garden of Eden and engineered the fall of Adam and Eve with a snake in writings during the Second Temple period.[5] However, the serpent is not a form of Samael, but a beast he rode like a camel.[8] In a single account he is also believed to be the father of Cain,[6][9] as well as the partner of Lilith. In early Talmudic and Midrashic literature he is not identified with Satan yet. Only in later Midrashim he is entitled "head of all the satans".[10]

As guardian angel and prince of Rome, he is the archenemy of Israel. By the beginning of Jewish culture in Europe, Samael had been established as a representative of Christianity, due to his identification with Rome.[11][7]: 263 

In some Gnostic cosmologies, Samael's role as source of evil became identified with the Demiurge, the creator of the material world. Although probably both accounts originate from the same source, the Gnostic development differs from the Jewish development of Samael, in which Samael is merely an angel and servant of God.

In the Midrash Konen, he is the ruler of the third hell. Several sources, such as Yalkut Shimoni (I, 110) describe him as the guardian angel of Esau relating him to Rome, the one who wrestled with Jacob, the angel who ordered Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, and a patron of Edom.[2][20]

In Kabbalah (A. E. Waite, 255), Samael is described as the "severity of God," and is listed as fifth of the archangels of the world of Briah. Among his portions are Esau, the people who inherent the sword and bring war; the goats and se'irim (demons); and the destroyer angels.[10]

>In the last heaven Moses saw two angels, each five hundred parasangs in height, forged out of chains of black fire and red fire, the angels Af, "Anger", and Hemah, "Wrath", whom God created at the beginning of the world, to execute His will. Moses was disquieted when he looked upon them, but Metatron embraced him, and said, "Moses, Moses, thou favorite of God, fear not, and be not terrified," and Moses became calm. There was another angel in the seventh heaven, different in appearance from all the others, and of frightful mien. His height was so great, it would have taken five hundred years to cover a distance equal to it, and from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet he was studded with glaring eyes. "This one," said Metatron, addressing Moses, "is Samael, who takes the soul away from man." "Whither goes he now?" asked Moses, and Metatron replied, "To fetch the soul of Job the pious." Thereupon Moses prayed to God in these words, "O may it be Thy will, my God and the God of my fathers, not to let me fall into the hands of this angel.

Tradition Satan​

 

[Erika The Magi of Time]

Samael, from the amoraic period onward the major name of Satan in Judaism. The name first appears in the account of the theory of angels in the Ethiopic Book of Enoch 6, which includes the name, although not in the most important place, in the list of the leaders of the angels who rebelled against God. The Greek versions of the lost Hebrew text contain the forms Σαμμανή (Sammane) and Σεμιέλ (Semiel). The latter form takes the place of the name Samael in the Greek work of the Church Father Irenaeus in his account of the Gnostic sect of the Ophites (see below; ed. Harvey, I, 236).

According to Irenaeus the Ophites gave the snake a double name: Michael and Samael, which in the Greek work of the Church Father Theodoretus appears as Σαμμανή (Sammane). The Greek version of Enoch used by the Byzantine Syncellus retained the form Σαμιέλ (Samiel). This form still retains the original meaning derived from the word sami (סמי), meaning blind, an etymology which was preserved in various Jewish and non-Jewish sources until the Middle Ages. In addition to Samiel, the forms Samael and Sammuel date from antiquity. This third version is preserved in the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch 4:9 (from the tannaitic period), which states that the angel Sammuel planted the vine that caused the fall of Adam, and therefore Sammuel was cursed and became Satan. The same source relates in chapter 9, in an ancient version of the legend of the shrinking of the moon, that Samael took the form of a snake in order to tempt Adam, an idea which was omitted in later talmudic versions of the legend.

In the apocalyptic work The Ascension of Isaiah, which contains a mixture of Jewish and early Christian elements, the names Beliar (i.e., Belial) and Samael occur side by side as names or synonyms for Satan. What is recounted of Samael in one passage is stated in another about Beliar. For example, Samael dominated King Manasseh and embraced him, thus taking on the form of Manasseh (ch. 2). In chapter 7, Samael and his forces are stated to be under the first firmament, a view that does not accord with his position as the chief of the devils. Samael is mentioned among the “angels of judgment” in the Sibylline Oracles 2:215. In the tannaitic and amoraic period, Samael is mentioned as being outside the alignment of the hosts of the *Merkabah. Drawing from Jewish tradition, several Gnostic works refer to Samael as “the blind god” and as identical with Jaldabaoth, who occupied an important place in Gnostic speculations as one of, or the leader of, the forces of evil. This tradition apparently came down through the Ophites (“the worshipers of the snake”), a Jewish syncretistic sect (Theodore Bar Konai, Pagnon ed., 213). Partially ecclesiastical traditions of this period, such as the pseudepigraphic versions of Acts of the Apostles, Acts of Andrew, and Matthew 24, retain the name Samael for Satan, acknowledging his blindness. He is mentioned as head of the devils in the magical Testament of Solomon (Testamentum Salomonis), which is essentially a superficial Christian adaptation of a demonological Jewish text from this period (ed. Chester Charlton McCown (1922), 96). Undoubtedly Simyael, “the demon in charge of blindness” mentioned in Mandean works (Ginzā, trans. M. Lidzbarski (1925), 200, and The Canonical Prayer Book of the Mandaeans, ed. E.S. Drower (1959), 246), is simply a variant of Samael.

The Great Horned One​

In rabbinic tradition the name first occurs in the statements of Yose (perhaps b. Halafta or the amora Yose) that during the exodus from Egypt “Michael and Samael stood before the Shekhinah” apparently as prosecutor and defender (Ex. R.18:5). Their task is similar to that of Samael and Gabriel in the story of Tamar (Sot. 10b), in the statement of Eleazar b. Pedat. Samael retains the role of prosecutor in the account of Ḥama b. Ḥanina (c. 260 C.E.; Ex. R. 21:7), who was apparently the first to identify Samael with Esau’s guardian angel during the struggle between Jacob and the angel. His name, however, does not appear in Genesis Rabbah (Theodor ed. (1965), 912), but he is mentioned in the old version of the Tanḥuma, Va-Yishlaḥ 8. In the parallel version in Songs of Songs Rabbah 3:6, the amora has Jacob saying to Esau: “your countenance resembles that of your guardian angel,” according to the version of the Sefer Mattenot Kehunnah (Theodor ed.). Surprisingly, in the section of the Midrash Yelammedenu on Exodus 14:25, Samael fulfills a positive function during the dividing of the Red Sea, pushing back the wheels of the chariots of the Egyptians. In gematria, Samael is the numerical equivalent of the word ofan (“wheel”; in Ms. British Museum, 752, 136b; and in the Midrash Ha-Ḥefeẓ ha-Teimani, which is cited in Torah Shelemah, 14 (1941) to this verse).

Mention of Samael as the angel of death first occurs in Targum Jonathan on Genesis 3:6, and this identification frequently appears in late aggadot, especially in the legends on the death of Moses at the end of Deuteronomy Rabbah, at the end of Avot de-Rabbi Nathan (ed. Schecter (1945), 156). In Deuteronomy Rabbah 11, Samael is called “Samael the wicked, the head of all the devils.” The name “Samael the wicked” is repeated consistently in Heikhalot Rabbati (1948), chapter 5, an apocalyptic source. The Hebrew Enoch 14:2, acknowledges him as “chief of the tempters” “greater than all the heavenly kingdoms.” This text differentiates between Satan and Samael, the latter being none other than the guardian angel of Rome (ibid. 6:26). In traditions concerning the rebellion of the angels in heaven (PdRE 13–14 (1852)), he is the leader of the rebel armies. Prior to his defeat he had 12 wings, and his place was higher than the ḥayyot (“holy heavenly creatures”) and the seraphim. Several tasks are attributed to him: Samael is in charge of all the nations but has no power over Israel except on the Day of Atonement, when the scapegoat serves as bribe for him (ibid. 46). It is he who rode on the snake in the course of the fall of Adam and hid in the golden calf (ibid. 45). In Midrash Avkir (see *Midrashim, Smaller), Samael and Michael were active at the time of the birth of Jacob and Esau, and even on the way to the *Akedah of Isaac, Samael intervened as a prosecutor (Gen. R. 56:4). The war between him and Michael, the guardian angel of Israel, will not be completed until the end of days, when Samael will be handed over to Israel in iron shackles (Gen. R., ed. Albeck, 166, following Mak. 12a, and similarly in the messianic chapters (pirkei mashi’aḥ) in A. Jellinek, Beit ha-Midrash 3 (1938), 66f.).

El wanted Abraham to kill his son and Samael stayed his hand with a lie.​