Is Satan as the devil a Zoroastrian construct? It seems very possible since prior to Judaism encountering Zoroastrians they had no concept of Heaven/Hell, and there was reference to "The Satan" but that being was a helper. The Zoroastrians were a dualistic system Good/Evil. It was after the Judaism started mingling with them that the system gradually changed into a dualistic system. This pattern repeats time and time again. You get the entire horned, and pitchfork look from mingling with Romans and the concept of Pan and Hades. Just like Christmas is not actually a Christian holiday. It is a pagan one that existed before then, and it is known Christ could not have been born on that day.

It was easier to ALTER the religion as time went by to convert pagans to their religion.

If you go back far enough you'll find that MOST of their ideas for people like Christ existed with Horus in the Egyptian religion thousands of years earlier and Krishna in Hinduism also predates that. Yet most of the mysteries, stories, disciples, healings, resurrections, etc all happened earlier in these other religions.

So what am I getting at?

Why get hung up on Satan. He is fake, he is made up. If you are having FUN that is a good enough reason though. (Smile)

That is not to say that there is no such thing as good, evil, or right, and wrong. It is simply stating that those avatars are made up and changed in history in whatever way best suits the expansion of the base of that religion.

EDIT: I get into the entire Satan and possession type stories too, and conspiracies to end the world, etc. Yet I get excited about them for the same reason I get excited about Game of Thrones, or a good HP Lovecraft novel, etc. They are fun and exciting. :)