Post-Christian Period

JEWISH: POST-CHRISTIAN PERIOD

The Jewish stories that have come down to us in the Haggadah are more akin to the Persian than they are to any other stories. Their monotheism seems to be nominal, veiling a real dualism. Thus, God creates the Angels on the second day "lest man believe that the Angels assisted God in the creation of the heavens and the earth." This suggestion of rivalry is in many of the stories: God is on one side, the Angels on the other. The Angel Samael who becomes Satan is, in his opposition to the Most High, like Angra Mainyu in relation to Ahura Mazda. The stories that form the Haggadah were developed between the second and the fourteenth century of our era. They are accessible in "The Legends of the Jews" by Louis Ginzberg. ¹¹

Footnotes

xiv:11 Four volumes. Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society.