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In this article, the author asserts that the Old Testament does not contain the character of Satan (or the devil) as we understand it and that the ancient Israelites did not even have a concept of Satan until the second century BC or later. In the Book of Mormon Satan plays a prominent role and appears as early as 1Nephi 12 in Nephi's vision. The question is how to resolve this apparent discrepancy. Why does the Book of Mormon present a view of Satan among the Nephites that seems anachronistic to ancient Israel?
This apparent anachronism is magnified in various places in the Book of Mormon, particularly 2Nephi 2, where it presents a Miltonian view of Satan that may not have even existed until the 17th Century. I'll quote from a Wikipedia article about the devil in Christianity with the proviso that the Wikipedia article does not provide a source for its assertion.
2Nephi 2 clearly shows Satan in all three roles: as the angel who rebelled in heaven (verses 17 and 18), as the serpent in the Garden of Eden (verse 18), and as the ruler of hell (verse 29). If the Wikipedia article is correct that these separate roles were not combined into a single character until the 17th Century, how do we explain its existence in the Book of Mormon? Or, if we are contemplating an early modern composition for the Book of Mormon, does the appearance of this Miltonian concept set a lower temporal boundary on its production?Until John Milton created the character of Satan for his Paradise Lost, the different attributes of Satan were usually ascribed to different entities. The angel who rebelled in Heaven was not the same as the ruler of Hell. The ruler of Hell was often seen as a sort of jailer who never fell from grace. The tempting serpent of Genesis was just a serpent. Milton combined the different parts of the character to show his fall from near-divine beauty and grace to his eventual skulking role as a jealous tempter. He was so successful in his characterization of Satan as a romantic hero who "would rather rule in Hell than serve in Heaven" that his version of Satan has displaced all others.
https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/dai ... ame-satan/
What sayest thou gentle people? Did John Milton appeareth unto the Nephites?