Goethe’s Faust makes not a pact with the Devil, but a wager.“Only in Faust: Part One (1808) does Goethe commit himself to his second great divergence from the traditional fable: his Faust now makes not a contract with the Devil but a wager. Faust wagers that, however much of human life the Devil shows him, he will find none of it satisfying—and if he is wrong (i.e., if he is satisfied), he is willing to give up living altogether.”Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. (2010). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 11, 2010, from Encyclopædia Britannica OnlinePasted from <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/237027/Johann-Wolfgang-von-Goethe/260249/Faust>
“The authority for such pacts is *Isaias*
“The authority for such pacts is *Isaias*(*Isaiah*) xxviii which in the Vulgate translation reads: “Foryou have said we have entered into a league with death, and wehave made a covenant with hell.” Both Origen and Augustinemention these pacts and the scholastic philosophers distinguishbetween express and implied pacts. The former consists in actually evoking the demon, the latter in merely expecting helpfrom him. The demon here refers to any evil spirit, and therewere vast numbers of such.” http://www.satanservice.org/propaganda/occ.60sc.txtA History of Witchcraft, Magic and Occultism, by W.B. Crow,
Wilshire Book Company, 1968; pp. 228-30.Pasted from <http://www.satanservice.org/propaganda/occ.60sc.txt>