medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I have been reading a series of sermons from the Rhineland in the 12th century by Eckbert of Schonau in which he is attempting to establish the difference between orthodox and heretical thought regarding the fall of the angels and the devil. According to Eckbert, at the beginning of time, Satan and several of his angels were cast down to hell for trying to overthrow God. God then created humans, so that, on the Day of Judgment, those certain Elect good souls of men could fill the seats in heaven left by the rebel angels.
The canonical references to the Fall are vague at best (a few in Revelation, one in Luke.) I believe there are a few Talmudic references as well, but nothing to the extent of detail that Eckbert talks about in the 12th century.
I know that this is already been addressed to some degree, but my question is, where did the fallen angel myth originally come from? At what point did it go from being a reference in Luke where Jesus says mysteriously, "I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning," to being a detailed point of medieval doctrine?
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