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Who is Satan in the New Testament, and what is the evil that he represents? In this groundbreaking book, Elaine Pagels, Princeton's distinguished historian of religion, traces the evolution of Satan from its origins in the Hebrew Bible, where Satan is at first merely obstructive, to the New Testament, where Satan becomes the Prince of Darkness, the bitter enemy of God and man, evil incarnate. In The Origin of Satan, Pagels shows that the four Christian gospels tell two very different stories. The first is the story of Jesus' moral genius: his lessons of love, forgiveness, and redemption. The second tells of the bitter conflict between the followers of Jesus and their fellow Jews, a conflict in which the writers of the four gospels condemned as creatures of Satan those Jews who refused to worship Jesus as the Messiah. Writing during and just after the Jewish war against Rome, the evangelists invoked Satan to portray their Jewish enemies as God's enemies too. As Pagels then shows, the church later turned this satanic indictment against its Roman enemies, declaring that pagans and infidels were also creatures of Satan, and against its own dissenters, calling them heretics and ascribing their heterodox views to satanic influences.… (more)
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Pagels starts with the four Gospels and sets the background with the Jewish rebellion against the Romans which culminated in 70 C.E. with the burning of the Temple, a traumatic event. The rifts between Jewish groups – some who supported the rebellion, others who wanted to make peace with the Romans – influenced the writing of the Gospel of Mark. Pagels describes reasons for the negative depiction of Jews in the Gospels and the more conciliatory portrait of the Romans (contrasting to contemporary accounts of Pontius Pilate, for example, which put him somewhere on the uncaring to cruel spectrum). Jews were the intimate enemies at that point, the group that stubbornly resisted Jesus’ message. Pagels notes that Romans – and other foreign enemies – were traditionally compared to animals but the demonic depictions of Jews were new. Early accounts of Satan portrayed him as an agent of God, but Pagels shows that increases in satanic and demonic comparisons occurred with the rise of various breakaway Jewish sects, notably the Essenes who withdrew from Jewish society. The intra-Jewish conflict was described in stark terms of good and evil which was continued in the books of Matthew and Luke. John is notably absent of the personification of Satan, but the Jews fulfill the role of Satan in that account. Besides casting the Pharisees and the Jewish population as the instigators, the accounts also rehabilitate Jesus’ lineage and cast the story in mythical terms – relating it to the Old Testament, describing Jesus’ coming as the fulfillment of many prophesies, portraying Jesus’ life as a cosmic struggle.
In describing how demonic imagery came to apply to pagans, Pagels analyzes the lives of a number of Christian converts in the second and third century C.E. Along the way, she describes the spread of Christianity and how it moved beyond the Jews, often tearing apart families. She does a good job in contrasting that sect to the others that were fermenting at the time – for example, the Essenes were a rather exclusive group compared to Christians; not just anyone could join. I did find the analysis in this section to be interesting and well-done but sometimes it seemed like Pagels was just writing about topics that interested her and that only semi-related to the overall theme. For example, she spends time on the life and philosophy of Marcus Aurelius – good, but tangential.
In her section on the demonization of heretics, Pagels describes the consolidation of the church as well as some out-there takes on Christianity. She again seems to want to talk about her favored topics such as the Gnostic gospels, the subject of her best-known book. I found this to be very interesting and would like to read Pagels’ other books despite the focus/organization issues.
Pagels analysis highlights the war between Jews and Roman authorities (especially the siege of Jerusalem) as the key contextual event in which to place an understanding of the Bible. This war and its aftermath motivated the very writing of the Bible, and defined who would be around to write it. Interestingly, this event is also pretty much irrelevant to understanding Jesus, since he died 30-35 years before -- unless by "understanding Jesus" is meant the portrait put forth by different groups claiming him as their own, in which case this is merely another way of saying "understanding the Bible" (and helps explain the rift between heretics such as the gnostics and the Church).
Also interesting: Pagels seems to have come to this topic / question in part out of her grieving for her husband, who died in a hiking accident. That Pagels would acknowledge this personal motive in her introduction marks out the perspective she uses in all her popular writings: a critical and scholarly examination undertaken by a believer. I respect her scholarship and thesis all the more for this perspective.
It’s typical Pagels, opinionated and controversial, but thought-provoking. I love Pagels’ work!
You’ll read a little about the evolution of ideas
Like Pagels, I find the war of 70 CE, when the Temple was destroyed and Jerusalem leveled, more than just a little important to understanding the development of Christianity. (In fact, I tend to go a bit overboard on this theme in my books). But Satan isn’t allied only with the Romans; he also takes the side of the Pharisees (read: Rabbinic Judaism), Herod, and pagans everywhere. Finally, in later Christian writings, Satan manages to seduce even Christians, and the war turns against heretics.
Fun book, and a different take from what the title may make you think.
Pagels may make some uncomfortable with her findings which lean on other theologians and scholars works as well, but the book is a fine addition to any library for those who still seek to find deeper understanding amidst the superficiality of popular dogma.
It's an interesting hypothesis that doesn't get fully played out. Or rather - when Pagels is on, she's on. But the argument is stretched too thin, and tangents are too pervasive, to make for a very tight and impressive read. Often this book reads as an introductory "history of Christianity," with stretches of pages where neither Satan nor the book's argument get brought up. This might have worked better as a longer academic paper, but that would be at the severe detriment of limiting audience. So there's a lot of interesting thought that I'll definitely take from my reading experience. But the book has its high and low points, and so I can't praise it whole-heartedly, knowing its potential that didn't get followed through on.
Read on kindle.