XPost: alt.christnet.theology, alt.christnet.demonology, alt.religion   
   XPost: alt.religion.christianity, alt.christnet.satanism   
   From: psperson1@ix.netcom.invalid   
      
   On Tue, 21 Aug 2018 03:19:42 +0200, Steve Hayes   
    wrote:   
      
   >On Sat, 18 Aug 2018 11:04:42 -0700, Paul S. Person   
   > wrote:   
      
      
      
   >Aye, but the original source material is what you would need to   
   >consider if you were trying to find out whether Satanism preceded   
   >Christianity.   
      
   It occurred to me that I don't know what you are actually looking for:   
      
   1. If by "Satanism" you literally mean "worship of Satan", as opposed   
   to The Devil, Lucifer, Belial, Belias, Malebolgia, and so on, you may   
   have a /very/ hard time deciding the issue.   
      
   2. Just because some ancient author /says/ so-and-so worshipped Satan   
   doesn't mean they actually did. And finding documentary evidence for   
   /actual/ Satanism may not be easy: not only would any documents have   
   most likely been burned by the Church (or scraped clean and reused by   
   the Monks), but it is not clear that there would be any to begin with.   
      
   3. Witches may not be the best choice for this. For one thing, the   
   only witch we see in action in the OT is clearly a spiritualist   
   clairvoyant conducting a seance. For another, women who identified as   
   witches in the Middle Ages may have started worshipping Satan only   
   after the Church asserted that that is what witches do.   
      
   4. A better choice might be astrologers/alchemists/occultists -- the   
   guys said to have drawn pentacles (either to stand in for safety or to   
   keep the demon safely contained) and summoned demons. /They/ might   
   have worshipped Satan as the master of the demons and so perfectly   
   placed to order one to appear when summoned.   
      
   5. OTOH, there is a tradition in the Bible of regarding pagan deities   
   as demons. (This is, of course, separate from the tradition of   
   regarding them as nothing whatsoever apart from the idol itself.) It   
   is possible that one or another of the Greek/Roman gods was identified   
   with Satan, either in pre-Christian or early Christian times. So, if   
   you are looking more for when the /concept/ of Satanism arose (that   
   is, when "others" were said to worship Satan) rather than the   
   /actuality/ of Satanism, it may turn out to have been very early   
   indeed.   
      
   All of which has, no doubt, already occurred to you.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)