Who is sammael?

Answer 1

I believe Sammael was one of the fallen angels mentioned in the Book of Enoch, cast out of heaven for "defiling himself" with women. As a general rule regarding angels that are actually named, in Hebrew, Christian or Muslim tradition, if an angel is known by a given name, its never anything good. Of all the angels named in the mentioned traditions, only Michael and Gabriel are "good." In other traditions, Sammael is the given name of the angel of death; it was Sammael, who killed the first born of Egypt, during the time of the Exodus. In the end though the traditions tend to be convoluted, just another way of saying "who knows."

What you need to understand about the ancient near east, and the remote ancient world period, is that everything was handed down orally, by memory. Depending on what it was they were memorizing, people took it with various degrees of seriousness. For example, if its "the word of God," then you can safely bet money, that THOSE oral traditions, are fairly reliable. However if its a "fairy tale," you can't trust any of it. Did you know for instance, that the 5 books of Moses, were not written down until the Babylonian period? In fact, Hebrew writting, is a mixture of Canaanite and Cuneiform script. If you look at Hebrew letters, and Babylonian cuneiform, if, in your imagination, you picture Babylonian writting as written with an ink brush, it will ressemble Hebrew somewhat so, there is a lot of credence to that theory. Of course its not a matter of opinion; archeologists base that, based on both what they have found, and of course the traditions of Judaism. See both middle eastern, and European Jewish traditions are in agreement, the Hebrew language, specifically the writting, is a mixture of Canaanite and Babylonian script. You combine that with what archaeologists have actually found, and, few people will dispute that. The very first Torah scroll, was in fact written down in Babylon, it was not written down in Jerusalem.

For a reliable history of the Hebrew language and script, please go to your library, and under the letter "H" of course, look up "Hebrew" in BOTH the World Book Encyclopedia, and the Encyclopedia Britanica. Before you read Britanica, read World Book first, the language in Britanica is a little "heavy." Those Brits like to be cold bloodedly thorough and precise, so, to express as many ideas as possible, to give as complete and as general an explanation as possible, they will use "exotic" and "obscure" words you did not know existed. Forgive me for being so instigent regarding the pedantic and contrived diatribe of this monologue. Translation; I'm talking too much. You see what I mean? Because of the idea of "thoroughness," Brit scholars have a tendency to use more words than what is actually necessary to express something, if I was typing in the British style for example, this answer would be four times longer. How do you think the expression "get to the point!" got started? American colonials, wanting to be efficient and separate from Britain, made it a point to "rebel" against the long winded nature of the way British speak. The "get to the point!" mentality is distinctly American.

Speaking of which; Sammael, is different things, to different traditions. In some he is the angel of death, in others he is a fallen angel, while in the Christian traditions of course he is a "demon." Again, when looking at ancient tradition, most of it, is generally not trusted by the academic world as reliable, because so much of it stemmed from memory. The 5 books of Moses, the first 5 books of The Bible, believe it or not, once, ALL OF IT, was transmitted via memory. In fact, the education of the Jewish priests in ancient Jerusalem was completely oral. In ancient Greece, their education followed a similar model; the Philosopher would speak, students would listen and actively memorize. However part of memorization, is rooted in the importance the person gives to the subject being memorized, because stuff seen as "entertainment" has throughout history been given little importance, actual sources or "evidence" regarding non-cannonical tradition is sketchy at best. A tradition can only be said to be "reliable," if it persists across a wide area. Take for example, the Italian convention of "find out about that girl's/boy's family before you marry them!" Italian tradition holds, that mentality is very old, going back to Roman times, and even a little before that, many Italians hold that tradition is to be found throughout the Mediterranean world. This tradition, was carried over to Latin America; some families in Latin America, will not let you marry their son or daughter, if they don't like your family. We know, the claim is reliable, because the mindset persists a wide enough geographical area. See though with stories of fallen angels, every country in the mediterranean it seems, seems to have a different fairy tale, and because of that, THOSE traditions are not reliable.

In the end though I reccoment you go to Hastings or Barnes and noble, and ask the store rep to point you to a book on fallen angels they usually have them. There is a work called "A Dictionary of Angels" that I think you will find very interesting;

http://www.Amazon.com/Dictionary-Angels-Including-Fallen/dp/002907052X

The book will confirm everything I just said here; most of that material can not be taken as reliable academic work.

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