Lesson 65 Assignment – “After Satan’s rebellion, Satan was motivated more by his envy of God than his jealousy of God: true or false?

Paradise Lost was written by John Milton in 1674 and was divided into two books. It is the story of Genesis, the downfall of Lucifer and the eventual casting out of Adam & Eve from paradise. The style in which this work is written is clearly influenced by the Greek Epics and at the beginning of Milton’s work, he invokes the Holy Ghost as a muse, which was a common practice among ancient authors when creating hymns, poetry, or epic history.

As to the question posed, we have to review first the definition of jealousy, and the definition of envy. The former is defined as “fiercely protective or vigilant of one’s rights or possessions.”, therefore we can infer that jealousy is fueled by the fear of losing something, common in relationships as an example. Envy is defined as “a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else’s possessions, qualities, or luck.”, therefore we can conclude that Satan was, in fact, envious of God’s status and power over him. He wanted that power for himself, he desired it and believed that the way to attain it was through ridding himself of God’s power over him. Envy is when someone else has something you want, but you don’t have.

He was resentful, and vengeful after being cast out of heaven, and the reason he was cast out of it in the first place was that he was envious and rebelled against God. After he was cast out, he organized his plan in Pandamonium with his lackeys to enact revenge against God through his creation in paradise. He later deceives Adam and Eve to consume the forbidden fruit, even after they were warned by God and Raphael which leads to them being expelled from Paradise, cursed with long years to toil the earth. Satan and his followers are then turned into snakes after going back to hell from their mission.