It was during this time that the idea of an arch-enemy of God developed, and it was during this time that he began to take on the personal name "Satan". J.B. Russell summarizes this development well,
Satan, Azazel, Belial, and Mastema were none of them in their origins a principle of evil, but in the apocalyptic literature they converge in that direction. What is important is the development of the concept of the principle of evil, with which the name of Satan was linked more closely than any other. (Russell, Devil, pg. 189).
In the pseudopigraphic literature - and therefore primarily in the realm of apocalyptic - the development continues. As author and representative of evil we find here a prince of the evil spirits, who bears varioius names: Satan, Mastema (only in the Book of Jubilees), Belial or Beliar ("worthless"; primarily in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and the Qumran documents), and in Greek, diabolos ("slanderer"). he, together with his angels and powers, constitutes the realm of evil, and seeks to lead men to destruction and ruin. It was he who tempted the first human beings to sin; it was he who aided the Egyptians before and during the exodus of the Israelites; it is he who causes all evil and sins. Through him death entered the world (Wisd. Sol. 2:24). He is the prince of lawlessness, the ruler of this world (Mart. Isa.2:4); he stands in complete antithesis to God. At the end of the world, he will be conquered, bound, and destroyed by God. (Ringgren, Israelite Religion (translation) pg 313-314).
The first recorded instance of the devil being connected to the serpent in the Garden is found in the Wisdom of Solomon (1st century BC). "For God created man for immortality, and made him the image of his own eternity, but through the devil's envy death came into the world, and those who belong to his party experience it." (2:23-24). Yet even here the devil is not given the name "Satan", yet we can see a thought developing of 1)a diabolical entity either being the serpent itself or working through the serpent, and 2) evil starting to be centralized into one figure.
Yet the earliest use of "Satan" as a proper name is found in the Book of Jubilees (100 BC). However, the main enemy of God in Jubilees is not given the name Satan, but Mastema, and functions much like "the satan" in Job.
Another early use of the term "satan" as a proper name is found in the Assumption of Moses (1st century BC-1st century AD). "And then His kingdom shall appear throughout all of His creation, and then Satan shall be no more." (10:1). Here Satan is clearly presented as the arch-enemy.
This devil figure then becomes Sammael in the Targum and rabbinic literature, and in the Apocalypse of Abraham (1st century AD), this seductive angel is called Azazel.
In the Apocalypse of Moses 16-19 (also known as The Life of Adam and Eve), a book which was contemporary with the New Testament, the name Satan is identified as the one who tempts Adam and Eve through the serpent. This is probably the earliest reference connecting the name Satan with the serpent. It is also in this book that the author links Isaiah 14 to the fall of Satan.
In The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, Satan is also used as a proper name for the main antagonist of God. Dating this book has been a challenge, but scholars think that it was started during the second century BC, and reached its final form in the first century AD.
The last book we will examine is 2 Enoch (written between 1st century BC and 1st century AD). In this book , the word "devil" and the name Satan are used to refer to both the arch-enemy of God and the serpent. "The devil is the evil spirit of the lower places. as a fugitive he made Satona from the heavens and his name was Satanail (Satan)..." (2 Enoch 31:6).
In closing, since some of these books did not reach their final form until around the same time as the New Testament, it is hard to say who influenced who. The only books we can be certain of as a reference to the arch-enemy of God that pre-date the NT are the Wisdom of Solomon, Jubilees and maybe the Assumption of Moses and The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs. If we just take the ideas of these four books, we see that during this period, certain ideas began to form:
1)There was a diabolical devil working in the garden
2) There is an arch-enemy of God
3)His name is Satan or Mastema
These books show us that by this time, a new line of interpretation began to unfold. The serpent in Genesis and "the satan" in Job are starting to merge into one entity who is the arch-enemy of God. As the centuries progress, the two main names that take root in the New Testament for this nemesis are Satan and the devil. In the next article, we will examine the New Testaments understanding of Satan.