f
his _real_ manifestation, to which, afterwards, the doctrine connected
itself. The judgment of the reader should not, as it were, be [Pg 21]
anticipated. The simple fact is communicated to him, in order that,
from it, he may form his own opinion.

_Further_,--It has been asserted that, in the entire Old Testament, and
until the time of the Babylonian captivity, no trace of an evil spirit
is to be found, and that, hence, it cannot be conceived that his
existence is here presupposed. But this assertion may now be regarded
as obsolete and without foundation. Closely connected with the
affirmation, to which allusion has just been made, is the opinion which
assigns the Book of Job to the time of the captivity, an opinion which
is now almost universally abandoned. This book must necessarily have
been written before the time of the captivity, because Jeremiah refers
to it, both in his Prophecies (_e.g._, Jer. xx. 15 sq., which passage
evidently rests on Job iii.) and in his Lamentations. (Compare, for a
fuller discussion of this subject, _Kueper's_ "_Jeremias libror.
Sacrorum interpres atque Vindex_") The reference in Amos iv. 3 to Job
ix. 8, and several allusions occurring in the Prophecies of Isaiah
(_e.g._, chap. xl. 2 and lxi. 7, which refer to the issue of Job's
history, which is here viewed as a prophecy of the future fate of the
Church; the peculiar use of [Hebrew: cba] in xl. 2, which alludes to
Job vii. 1; chap. li. 9, which rests on Job xxvi. 13), lead us still
farther back. The assertion of those also who feel themselves compelled
to acknowledge the pre-exilic origin of the book, but who maintain, at
the same time, that the Satan of this book is not the Satan of the
later books of the Old Testament, but rather a good angel who only
holds an odious office, is more and more admitted to be futile; so that
we must indeed wonder how even _Beck_ (_Lehrwissenschaft_ i. S. 249)
could be carried away by it, and could make the attempt to support this
pretended fact by the supposition, that the apostasy of part of the
angels from God, and their kingdom of darkness, are ever advancing and
progressing. The principal evil spirit is, in Zech. iii. 1, introduced
as the adversary of the holy ones of God; and this very name is
sufficient to contradict such a supposition, for the name is
descriptive of the wickedness of the character. He who, under all
circumstances, is an "adversary," must certainly carry the principle of
hatred i