I know Genesis does not say the serpent in Eden was Satan; but I thought this was stated in the epistles or somewhere; but now all I can find is rev 20:2, which does not mention Eden. Is there anything more explicit?
He's there in the Garden, using an upright serpent as a proxy. We know it is the Devil, Satan, formerly "Lucifer" before falling from Heaven, by the context of
Genesis 3:14-15 (KJV)
[SUP]14 [/SUP] And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
[SUP]15 [/SUP] And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
The first curse was upon the animal in verse 14.
The next one was against Satan who was "in" the animal, supplying the messages. It would be very poor exegesis of scripture to say God was only making women fearful of snakes, that women would someday stomp their heads. The "seed" is One seed, Jesus, who came as the seed of the woman Mary, not of the man Joseph. That was a prophesy both against Satan, and future "children of the Devil". The children of God have been at enmity with the children of darkness ever since. Christ Jesus effectively destroyed Satan, bruising his head by defeating death, and will completely destroy him later at the Judgment. Satan was behind the short-lived bruising of Jesus, allowed by God. God allowed the same Satan to bruise Job, who, with God, won that challenge.
As for the account in Job, again there is a proper use of the scriptures only possible by having spiritual eyes to see truth, and taking God's word in context. I see the atheist benefited from neither. I will try to simplify the passage so anyone can understand at least in part.
The story has Satan noticing a man blessed by God, who came to a council in Heaven to accuse Job and God.
In v. 6 the council was of sons of God, God's angels, checking in with God. Then came Satan. v. 7 God didn't ask the sons of God where they came from. He asked Satan, who was not of them. They met again in chapter 2. No doubt the angels do that regularly, sent out to minister, returning with reports. Satan reported he was just going about on earth, up and down.
Satan reported he was going to and from, the English phrase for the Hebrew 'shut'[FONT="][/FONT], meaning early to and from. It was God's chief adversary/opponent/arch enemy, called "Satan" as transliterated from the Hebrew, an angel named that, like
"Sir Adversary". "Satan" is a proper noun, a name of one being, like Gabriel, Michael, other arch angels.
From there on it becomes clear that God is the one who blesses, protects, but also lets. The lie was that men won't fear God unless God blesses them. He was willing to withdraw His protection of Job with a condition. In doing that God proves it is Satan who delivers death and destruction if given a chance. Most people suffer from that because they won't accept God's hand on their lives in the first place.
Satan made use of many powers of earth to destroy all that Job had. No human servant of an earthly king could command tornado like winds and fire from the sky like an arch angel.