<p>22:31 <i>And the Lord said: Simon, Simon, Satan has asked for you that he might sift you as wheat</i>- The fact an Angel was called 'satan' in Num. 22 and in Job's case means we can maybe have another look at Luke 22:31, where Jesus tells the disciples &quot;satan has desired to have you (lit. 'demanded you for trial') that he may sift you as wheat&quot;. Wheat is normally a symbol of the righteous after a process of tribulation or judgement. The satan here could be an Angel, demanding them for trial from God, as Job's satan Angel did. The Lord&rsquo;s comment that satan had demanded to have the disciples, especially Peter is clearly based upon the experience of Job, whom satan also demanded.&nbsp;The Lord saw a similarity between Job and Peter, in that Job&rsquo;s sufferings were to be repeated in their essence in the experience of Peter. Only through that bitter weeping and reflection upon it, corresponding in the Lord&rsquo;s analogy to all that Job went through, would Peter like Job emerge triumphant.<br />The Old Testament prophecies also give insight into the actual process of the betrayal. The Hebrew for &quot;equal&quot; in &quot;a man my equal&quot; (Ps. 55:13) is invariably translated elsewhere as 'price' or 'estimation'; possibly implying that the Jews had set the same price on Judas' head (in the sense of a bribe offered to them) at one stage as they had on Jesus. The Jewish satan seeking Peter and the other disciples (&quot;Simon, Satan has desired to have you&quot;, plural) implies an organized attempt to subvert each of the twelve, perhaps by offering a financial reward for becoming a secret agent for the Jews. Judas having an equal price in the Jews' eyes as Jesus indicates how highly he was seen to rank among the disciples in the public eye- as important to the Jews as Jesus himself. This further strengthens the impression that Judas was highly esteemed by both Christ and the other disciples. It would appear that the love of this money was a significant factor in Judas' downfall; in the same way as Joseph's brethren were blinded by a money motive in betraying him rather than being interested in his death for its own sake. In addition, Judas' motives seem to have also been from being influenced by the thinking of the Jewish satan, offering the chance of an immediate Kingdom. He is alluded to in 1 Jn. 2:19 (cp. Jn. 13:30) as the prototype of all who left the true faith to be influenced by Judaist doctrine.&nbsp;See on 1 Pet. 5:8.</p><p>It is noteworthy that the Lord had previously warned that the Jewish Satan / world would be actively trying to influence the disciples to stumble: &ldquo;Woe unto the world (often referring to the Jewish world in the Gospels) because of the offences... but woe to that man by whom the offence comes... whoso shall offend one of these little ones (the disciples &ndash; Zech. 13:7 cp. Mt. 26:31) which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned&rdquo; (Mt. 18:6,7). This invites comparison with &ldquo;Woe unto that man by whom the son of man is betrayed... it had been good for that man if he had not been born&rdquo; (Mt. 26:24). Notice that this stumbling of the disciples at the hand of the Jewish world and its servant Judas was to be around the time of Christ&rsquo;s capture (Mt. 26:31); which is what Luke 22:31 is warning the disciples (&ldquo;you&rdquo; plural) about, and which proved to be so relevant to Peter in the hours after the Lord&rsquo;s capture. Further proof that &ldquo;the world&rdquo; that was to cause these offences was the Jewish world is found by comparing Mt. 13:38,41. It&rsquo;s also been pointed out that &lsquo;Satan desires to sift you as wheat&rsquo; &ldquo;is a proverbial expression&rdquo; (H.A. Kelly, <i>Satan: A Biography</i> (Cambridge: C.U.P., 2006) p. 312). Schleiermacher therefore observes about this passage: &ldquo;There is no intention to teach anything with regard to Satan or to confirm that older belief&rdquo; (F.E. Schleiermacher, <i>The Christian Faith</i> (London: Clark, 1999 ed.) p. 165).</p><p>There&rsquo;s also some evident allusion back to the record of Job in the Septuagint version. &ldquo;The Lord said to the Devil, &lsquo;Behold I give him over <i>paradidonai</i> to you; only preserve his life&rdquo; (Job 2:6 LXX). <i>Paradidonai</i> and related words are very frequently used of how the Lord Jesus was &lsquo;handed over&rsquo; to the systems of the Roman and Jewish Satan (e.g. Mk. 14:41), and yet ultimately His life was preserved by God. Here in Lk. 22:31 we have the Jewish Satan desiring to have the disciples, just as Job&rsquo;s &lsquo;Satan&rsquo; desired. If the disciples grasped the allusion, they would perceive that they were to be as Job, and believe that ultimately the &lsquo;Satan&rsquo; was under God&rsquo;s control, and through prayerful endurance they would come to victory as Job did.</p>