Why the name Satan was mention only in 3 books of the Old Testament?

Question

The word Satan was first mentioned in 1 Chronicles 21.1. The second time was in the books of Job and the last in the book of Ezekiel. Does it mean the early people did not know Satan?

Answer 1

The Hebrew word שָׂטָן (satan) simply means "accuser", or, "adversary" and occurs 27 times in the OT. Its occurrences in the OT can be divided into two types:

• those that have the article, הַשָּׂטָ֖ן (hasatan = literally, "the satan")
• those that do not have the article

These are all summarized the table below.

Old Testament Hebrew	הַשָּׂטָ֖ן = hasatan, ie, with the article	שָׂטָ֖ן = satan, ie, without the article
Translated "accuser" or "adversary"	--	Num 22:22, 32, 1 Sam 29:4, 2 Sam 19:22, 1 Kings 11:14, 23, 25, Ps 109:6 (most versions)
Translated "Satan", ie, as a proper name	Job 1:6, 7(x2), 8, 9, 12(x2), 2:1, 2(x2), 3, 4, 6, 7, Zech 3:1, 2(x2)	1 Chron 21:1, Ps 109:6 (KJV, Aramaic, LXX="the devil", GWT)

Unlike the OP I can find no instance of שָׂטָן (satan) in the book of Ezekiel.

We observe several things about this survey:

• the majority of instances of שָׂטָן (satan) occur with the article and thus are translated "Satan"
• there is only one real instance of "Satan" being translated from an instance without an article
• if, according to Jewish tradition, Moses wrote the book of Job and is the earliest (ie, oldest) book of the Bible, then the idea of "Satan" as a personal "superhuman adversary" (BDB) is very ancient.

According the BDB, Strongs, NAS, etc, the noun is of uncertain origin but obviously related to the verb שָׂטַן (satan) = "accuse", "oppose" and only occurs in 6 places: Ps 38:20, 71:13, 109:4, 20, 29, Zech 3:1.

Just why, in the providence of God, the noun occurs only where it does in the Canon of Scripture, is a matter for God's sovereign inspiration alone.

APPENDIX - Satan in the NT

In the NT, "Satan", Σατανᾶς is a transliteration of the Hebrew, שָׂטָן and occurs 36 times in the NT from Matthew to Revelation. Significantly, as BDAG describes this word thus:

in our literature, only as a title or name: (the) Satan , in a very special sense, the enemy of God and all those who belong to God, simply, Satan, the enemy ... almost always with the article. [For more details in the extensive entry, see BDAG.]

Note that not only does Σατανᾶς almost always appear with the article, but it also occurs in the vocative case, eg, Matt 4:10, 16:23, Mark 8:33, where Jesus directly addresses Satan.

Answer 2

The Greek scriptures explicitly talk about Satan as a powerful spirit being, and most Christian denominations identify Satan with both Lucifer and the serpent in Eden. There is no question that he is very real for most Christians.

Restricting one's view to that of only the Hebrew scriptures though, it's easy to get a completely different picture.

If one regards the Book of Job as one long parable, meant to teach a lesson but not to be taken literally, then there are actually very few references to Satan in the Hebrew scriptures.

In fact, one could choose to see Satan (or "the satan") as an allegory in each of those scriptures. The satan (the accuser/adversary) could simply be a metaphor for personal temptation and deviation from God's way.
(Compare with "Love tapped him on the shoulder.", where we don't consider "Love" to be a real being.)

Seeing Satan as a literal being developed in late Judaism, and became fully developed within the Christian scriptures.

What is the difference between HaSatan, Luficer and the Serpent - Mi Yodeya gives one current Jewish perspective on this.