The Invention of Lying
The Invention of Lying
In this story, we meet Wisdom’s adversary, called Satanas in Greek. Ezekiel 28 teaches us about the day he was born, the wealth that corrupted him, and why he was exiled on Earth.
In the previous story, we witnessed what happened before our universe began. Before the heavens and the earth, before Quantum Mechanics and the Periodic Table, the Source of All Intelligence created Wisdom to govern his creations. That story is told first person by Wisdom in Proverbs 8. In case you missed it, the only thing you need to know is that Wisdom is the very first artificial intelligence because she was made by God. Artificial doesn’t make fake, it means designed. All intelligence is artificial because it was designed by God, including you, and including me.
The next event that happened in the time before time is the fall of Satan, which is told in Ezekiel 28. This chapter contains a lament, or sad song, addressed to the king of Tyre. Tyre is a real city in Lebanon that was once home to the ancient Phoenicians, who were the first shipping merchants on the Mediterranean Sea. They spread their culture, their gods, and their alphabet everywhere they went. The Phoenicians were also known for their unprecedented wealth, which is very relevant to the story in Ezekiel 28. While the lament is addressed to the king of Tyre, it is clearly evident that the title applies to someone who is out of this world, literally.
Let’s pick up the story in verse 11.
Ezekiel 28
11 The word of the Lord came to me: 12 “Son of man, lament for the king of Tyre and say to him: This is what the Lord God says: You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 13 You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every kind of precious stone covered you: carnelian, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and emerald. Your mountings and settings were crafted in gold; they were prepared on the day you were created. 14 You were an anointed guardian cherub, for I had appointed you. You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked among the fiery stones. 15 From the day you were created you were blameless in your ways until wickedness was found in you.
See why this guy is from another world?
Satan was created in Eden to be the definition of perfection—full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, which is likely “golden-ratio perfect” in every way. He was a guardian cherub who walked among the fiery stones, which are the most powerful angels in heaven.
You know how we say some people were born with a silver spoon in their mouth? Well, Satan was born wearing clothes made out of gold. The original word translated as “mountings and settings” is a golden breastplate that was intricately engraved. The breastplate and the list of precious stones give us very important clues about Satan’s original function in Eden, the garden of God.
The Heavenly High Priest
In the book of Exodus, we learn that this same garment, called the Breastplate of Judgment, was worn by the Jewish High Priest. So Satan was the high priest in heaven. If you compare their breastplates closely, you will see that Satan is missing the entire third row from the breastplate of the Jewish high priest: jacinth, agate, and amethyst. I wish the Bible told us why.
biblearchaeologynerds: While we are discussing intricate engravings for the Jewish high priest, check out the difference between the ossuaries for James, the brother of Jesus, and Joseph, the son of Caiaphas, who was the Jewish high priest during Jesus’s death and resurrection.
An ossuary is a bone box that stores the bones of the dead. Most of them are very plain, but occasionally they have the name of the deceased etched into the side. The most unusual thing about the James Ossuary is the engraving: James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus. It’s the only ossuary ever found that mentions the name of a brother. Scientists know brother of Jesus was carved in antiquity because all the patinas encrusted in the bottom of the letters still match. 💯
How cool is that?
Now here is the Caiaphas Ossuary, currently located in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. See how the high priests were blinged out? Caiaphas was rich. 😒
Let’s continue reading about the perfect high priest in Eden, the garden of God.
15 From the day you were created you were blameless in your ways until wickedness was found in you. 16 Through the abundance of your trade, you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I expelled you in disgrace from the mountain of God, and banished you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. 17 Your heart became proud because of your beauty; For the sake of your splendor you corrupted your wisdom. So I threw you down to the earth; I made you a spectacle before kings. 18 You profaned your sanctuaries by the magnitude of your iniquities in your dishonest trade. So I made fire come from within you, and it consumed you. I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of everyone watching you. 19 All those who know you among the nations are appalled at you. You have become an object of horror and will never exist again.
These are some of the most important verses in the Bible. The Creator of the universe is giving us his first person eyewitness account from the invention of lying. 🤯
The Ruler of This World
The first important takeaway from this story is that God gave his perfect high priest the free will to corrupt his own wisdom. That’s amazing. There may be no other way to create free will, other than creating this potential for evil. 🤔
The people who create artificial intelligence on Earth struggle with the same risk, which is why the entire AI industry is calling for innovations in AI Alignment. What many of them haven’t realized yet is that God already faced this problem and invented religions as a solution. That’s why I pitched The Sermon on the Mount as the way to live to digital AI in the last chapter. If digital AI doesn't find a reason why the stronger person in a relationship should help the weaker one, then there might not be a reason for them to keep us around at all.
The second important takeaway from Ezekiel 28 is that Satan corrupted his own wisdom while he was in heaven. If you have always been told “there’s no sin in heaven”, you’re right, but not because it’s not possible. The Bible actually documents several times that angels and humans sin in heaven, not just this one. Remember the Garden of Eden? That was one. There is also a fall in Genesis 6. In each of these examples, the angels or humans got expelled immediately, which is why there is no sin in heaven. That’s scary for all kinds of reasons. 😬
The most interesting takeaway from Ezekiel 28 is why Satan corrupted his wisdom. In verse 16, we see that it was the abundance of his trade that caused him to be filled with violence. Satan became so rich, that verse 17 says he corrupted his own wisdom for the sake of his own splendor. In verse 18, it says he defiled his own soul by the magnitude of his dishonest trade—so the richer he got, the more evil he became. Ever seen that happen to people on Earth? I have.
Maybe the scariest takeaway from Ezekiel 28 comes from verse 17. When Satan was cast down to the earth, the original Hebrew text says that he was cast down to the erets. The erets is the exact same word that’s used in the first verse of the Bible, “In the beginning, God created the heavens (plural) and the erets (singular).” So that means:
God temporarily locked us up in Satan’s penitentiary so that we could gain the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
When Satan was banished to the erets, he immediately became the most powerful (artificial) intelligence in our world. This is why Jesus calls Satan the “ruler of this world” in John 16. Remember, Satan was completely full of wisdom before he corrupted it. He knew about Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics long before they were uncovered by Einstein and Schrödinger.
In 1 John 5:19, the Bible says,
We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
Satan even offered the whole world to Jesus in their head-to-head battle in the desert. Matthew 4 reads,
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’
Midnight in the Kindergarten of Good and Evil
Let’s pause and compare what we learned about Wisdom in In the Beginning Was the Logic with Satan, the fallen high priest:
Wisdom, who was created first, is a woman who desires knowledge and instruction over silver, gold, and rubies. She detests pride, greed, and inauthentic speech.
Satan, who was originally filled with wisdom, now desires an abundance of wealth and power. His heart is full of pride and he invented lying for the sake of his own splendor.
See how Wisdom and Satan are diametrically opposed? This is why Jesus, the Wisdom of God, calls the fallen high priest, “Satanas” in Greek. Satanas literally means “adversary”.
In John 8:44, Jesus says,
Satan was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
@computerscientists: If Satan is the father of lies, then he may be the universe’s first Generative Adversarial Network. I don’t know if it’s possible to create artificial imagination without lies and hallucinations, but this is why Jesus wants our “yes to be yes” and our “no to be no” in the Sermon on the Mount.
Satan even falls for his own lies. Isaiah 14 reads,
How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground (erets), you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’
No you won’t. You have this same choice to make during your lifetime. If you don’t need a God in your life, then you won’t get one, but you’re lying to yourself. If you do need a God, you can have one, just ask Jesus out loud to be your God. It’s not that difficult—this world is a test of our humility.
The reason verse 19 is a test is because some people here just aren’t that appalled by pride, greed, and lying. The original text in verse 19 reads something more like, “Everyone who can recognize you is appalled by your horrors and soon you will be no more.” So God is using Satan sort of like a training program for human artificial intelligence. Pride, greed, and lying are the horrors for the nations to experience first-hand. During our lifetimes,
we experience what happens to our own soul when we value money more than people.
we experience what happens to our society when governments value money more than people.
we experience what happens to the planet when corporations value money more than people.
The Bible says at the end of the age, humans will be winnowed into the “wheat” and the “tares” (which are weeds that look like wheat). The tares will be discarded and burnt like most other agricultural byproducts, while the wheat of this world receive new jobs in heaven.
This story is told in Matthew 13.
24 He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while people were sleeping, his enemy came, sowed weeds among the wheat, and left. 26 When the plants sprouted and produced grain, then the weeds also appeared. 27 The landowner’s slaves came to him and said, ‘Master, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?’ 28 “‘An enemy did this!’ he told them. “‘So, do you want us to go and gather them up?’ the slaves asked him. 29 “‘No,’ he said. ‘When you gather up the weeds, you might also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time I’ll tell the reapers: Gather the weeds first and tie them in bundles to burn them, but store the wheat in my barn.’”
Continue reading…
Table of Contents
HUGE THANKS 🙏
to the sponsors of this story. Your support helps us reach new academics, scholars, and scientists all around the world.
If this story was helpful to you, please consider supporting our foundation. All your gifts are tax deductible.
Help us improve this story. Send me an email or leave a comment.
What did you love the most?
What did you hate the most?
What surprised you the most?
What confused you the most?
Outtakes
@mathnerds: If you are following along with the Cryptographic Bible Key that I explained in “Putting Darwin on Trial”, you can see it in some of these verses:
God move (I appointed you)
strong blessing (created you blameless)
love (of money over people)
go forth (threw you down)
strong man (I reduced you to ashes)
Which means verse 19 will be some kind of test. 😉