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The problem of evil has preoccupied world religions for centuries. The Old Testament contained no uniform dogma on evil powers, launching a fierce debate that has dominated theological and philosophical thought through the centuries to this day. brings together contributions from leading inter national scholars to chart that debate, tracing the history of evil from its origins in the Old Testament through early Judaism and the New Testament to the thought of Origen and one of the topic''s most influential theologians, Augustine. What role did evil adopt in ancient Judaism? What impact did the association of miracles with demons have upon Matthew''s Gospel? Evil and the Devil examines such questions, resulting in a fascinating and comprehensive exploration of portrayals of evil and its power and influence on religious thought.>
List of contents
Introduction
1. The Devil in the Old Testament
2. Evil in Second Temple Texts
3. Demonic Beings and the Dead Sea Scrolls
4. The Devil in Rabbinic Literature
5. Miracles of the Devil and His Assistants in Early Judaism and Their Influence on the Gospel of Matthew
6. Mark and the Devil
7. Binding the Strong Man: Demon-Possession and Liberation in the Gospel of Luke
8. The Believing Jews as the Children of the Devil in John 8.44: Similarity as a Threat to Social Identity
9. Paul and the Devil
10. 1 Peter and the Lion
11. The Dangerous Loser: The Narrative and Rhetorical Function of the Devil as Character in the Book of Revelation
12. "Evil is not a Nature". Origen on Evil and the Devil
13. Augustine and Evil
About the author
Ida Fröhlich teaches at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Budapest, Hungary. She is author of
Time and Times and a Half a Time: Historical Consciousness in the Jewish Literatrue of the Persian and Hellenistic Eras (1996).
Erkki Koskenniemi is adjunct professor of Biblical Studies at Abo Akademi University, Finland. He is author of T
he Old Testament Miracle-Workers in Early Judaism (2005) and
The Exposure of Infants among Jews and Christians in Antiquity (2009).
