of the Near East.11 But these theories, interesting and instructive in themselves, are not important to this study and are essentially alien to one’s biblical presuppositions. The biblical presuppositions tell enough. God is creator of all except Himself. Satan exists. Therefore Satan, in the biblical view, is a created being. God’s creation is good, therefore Satan was not originally evil. Moral evil originates in a wrong exercise of freedom on the part of a moral being—morality implies freedom.