Is Satan one of the “sons of God”?

Question

In the framing story of Job, we read about הַשָּׂטָן (ha-Satan) and בְּנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים (ben 'elohiym) appearing before God:

Now it fell upon a day, that the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.—Job 1:6 (JPS)

Wikipedia (and all the other places I can recall the issue being discussed) suggests that Satan is among the "sons of God" (AKA, the Divine Council). But the way the clause is rendered in English, it sounds more like he slipped in when the door was opened to let the legitimate audience enter.

Leaving aside the question of who the sons of Elohim might be, does the text allow for the idea that the Adversary was not counted among their number? Or does the Hebrew make more clear than the English translation that it was one group and Satan was specifically called out as a member?

Answer 1

It seems that anyone who is termed the "son of God" is someone who is directly created by God. Thus Adam is the "son of God" because he was directly created by God (Luke 3:38). Likewise, Jesus is the "son of God" because he was begotten by his heavenly father. Satan, like other angels, was created by the direct hand of God (Ezek 28:13), and therefore he too is a "son of God" (Job 1:6). Satan addressed Jesus as the "son of God," and yet Satan still believed that by tempting Jesus, he might cause Jesus to sin, and thus (like Satan) become a fallen son. The reason that one is a "son of God" in the New Testament era is that when you are born again, you receive eternal life, which was something you had not had as a spiritually dead person. (We are all sons of Adam, and therefore we are born spiritually dead.) That is, when you believe, your new spiritual life is the direct creation of God, and therefore the believer is termed a "son of God" (Gal 3:26).

Answer 2

The Hebrew for the final clause is:

וַיָּבוֹא גַם הַשָּׂטָן, בְּתוֹכָם.

גַם means "also", so a straightforward reading suggests that the satan was not part of the group. We see another "exclusive gam" in Gen 33:7, where Yaakov's concubines (handmaids) approach Eisav and "gam Leah" -- Leah is not a handmaid but a wife. These are just two examples, though, so there might be an "inclusive gam" in Tanakh somewhere. A quick search finds 508 occurrence of the word.