The Origin of Satan: How Christians Demonized Jews, Pagans, and Heretics

Let me get this out of the way right up front: I can't think of the title of this book without the Church Lady from the heyday of Saturday Night Live popping into my brain. And now she's in yours, too. You're welcome.So. Who is Satan? A fallen angel? The great adversary of God? Saddam Hussein's bitch? If nothing else, Satan is the great scapegoat, the one on whom we tend to pile all our troubles. Your church is running out of money? Satan. Your kid is doing drugs and listening to that awful hip-hop music? Satan. Queers getting married? Definitely Satan.For some, Satan is an actual being, a true agent of evil whose purpose is to ruin all that God has made. For others, Satan is a symbolic representation of the evil inherent in the human condition, an abstract form made real in order to better understand it. In other words, there are as many versions of Satan as there are people who invoke him.But how did the whole Satan thing get started? Where did he come from and how did we get to the Satan that we all know and loathe today? That's what Elaine Pagels was determined to find out when she wrote this book.While most of the book focuses on the New Testament and a history of the early Christian church, it was the ancient history of Satan that I found most interesting, mainly because it concurred with a pet theory that I've had for a long time: Satan was never an enemy of God. Satan was God's quality control guy. It was his job to look for weaknesses in the system, to probe Humanity for its faults and flaws so that it could be made better. Thus the serpent in the garden (which, just as a note, was never actually revealed to be Satan), and especially the story of Job, where God allows Job's life to be ruined on a bet. My guess was that he won a nice, crisp one-dollar bill.The Satan of Olde was an agent of God, there to make sure that things went the way they were supposed to. He caused trouble, he stirred things up, yes, but that was his job. Much like the office manager that you despise because he always harps on you for checking your Facebook account during company time, even though you both know there's nothing better to do right now, but he just enjoys watching you suffer and enforcing his stupid little rules.... That guy is, at least in his own mind, working for the greater good of the company. He may be a dick, you may wish great misfortune heaped on him and his progeny, but he's doing the job he was given to do.Sounds great, but Satan's downfall from "annoying but necessary agent of God" to "vile and demonic enemy of god" was planted a long time ago, before Christianity was even on the horizon.The Jewish religion, from whence our concept of Satan arose, has always been one of Otherness. Israelites and Enemies. Us and Them. From its earliest days, God made sure the Israelites knew that they were a small force against the world, with only Him to protect them. He told Abraham straight out that He would bless him and curse his enemies. Therefore, the descendants of Abraham had to be on constant guard from enemies both from without and within. With a Satan already set in their theology as a tester and troublemaker for God, it was not a far leap to look to him as the cause of the multiple troubles that the Jews had over the years. Around the time of Christ, the Essenes were a distillation of that concept. They were a small Jewish sect - a minority within a minority - which believed that they were the only true Jews and that everyone else had gone soft. The Jewish majority was corrupt, led astray from the true path to God, probably by Satan.When the Christians showed up, a minority with an even more tenuous existence than the Essenes, they found this concept very useful. Telling their story from the point of view of an embattled minority, they found Satan to be a very useful opponent against whom their Messiah could fight. He was an excellent symbol that stood not only for the earthly conflict that was taking place between the Christians, Romans and Jews, but a greater spiritual conflict that involved all humankind in a battle between good and evil.Pagels' basic thesis is that the concept of Satan, whatever else it may be, was used to not only encourage persecution of The Other - Jews and pagans, to be precise - but to also keep the Christians themselves in line. The book is actually a history of the early Christian movement and how that history was reflected in the writing of the Gospels. In fact, just like in the Bible, Satan doesn't really appear much in this book. Rather Pagels looks at how the early Christian movement fought for its survival against enemies without and within, and then how Satan became a spiritual catch-all for those who disagreed with them.It's a fascinating analysis of the early days of the Church, and just how chaotic and tumultuous it was. There were so many churches with so many different interpretations of Jesus' life and death, so many Gospels being written and so many opinions on the very nature of God's universe that it's surprising the whole thing managed to come together to be the world's largest religion.What's more, it shed some light on something that's always annoyed me: the persecution complex that so many Christians have. The best time to catch this is in December, when pundits in the States start going off about the War on Christmas as though the last twelve Christians in the country were holed up inside the Topeka Christmas Shanty with shotguns and eggnog. Every time a judge tells a town that they can't have the Ten Commandments on the lawn of their town hall, or a Wal-Mart tells employees to say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" there is always a vocal group of Christians who claim that they're being persecuted and that they're on the edge of extinction. All this despite the fact that Christianity is the most popular religion in the world, that there are more Christians in Congress than any other religion, and that every single President in US history has been Christian. Despite all that, there seems to be a knee-jerk need to feel persecuted.This book offered a very good reason why this is: because that was how the religion was founded, and it is the fundamental narrative of Jesus' story. If Jesus had been part of the Jewish majority, his story would have ended very differently, no matter how radical his ideas. The early church was born of persecution, first from the Jews and Romans, and when they were no longer a danger, from pagans and heretics. And under all that, the hand that is always set against them, is Satan. As long as Satan is there, the Christians will always have someone there to persecute them. Without that cosmic, deathless opponent, Jesus becomes just another political rabblerouser executed by Rome. Certainly no Messiah would have allowed himself to die unless it was a gambit in a much greater game against a much more powerful opponent. Without Satan and the relentless threat attributed to him (and, by extension, those who are seen to ally with him), Jesus's sacrifice becomes meaningless, and the whole religion follows with it.It's a fascinating book and a great look at the early days of the Church. If you're into that kind of thing, go pick it up.Many thanks to my mom and stepdad, who pointed my attention towards it.-----------------------------------------------------"How, after all, could anyone claim that a man betrayed by one of his own followers, and brutally executed on charges of treason against Rome, not only was but still is God's appointed Messiah, unless his capture and death were, as the gospels insist, not a final defeat but only a preliminary skirmish in a vast cosmic conflict now enveloping the universe?"- Elaine Pagels, The Origin of Satan-----------------------------------------------------

This book presents an excellent analysis, yet I did find it somewhat disappointing. Not due to any lack on the writer's part, nor on the book itself, but rather to the title, The Origin of Satan, as it appeared to me to allude to more than just the Judeo-Christian scriptures and early formation of the Christian church, which is precisely what this book is about. There is an excellent history here of the early Christian Church, the gospels and Gnostic gospels pertaining and very small portions of the Hebrew scriptures, relating to the idea of Satan. And these are the boundaries this book is set in. This book supplies insight into the gospels, the Gnostic teachings and the early church that go beyond the subject of Satan.I found most of the book itself one containing information I am already aware of and a short concise history of the gospels. It was the last chapter on the "enemy within", the Gnostics and fellow Christians who failed to adhere to the Orthodox hierarchy and prescribed canonical order that revealed additional points of the Gnostics that I had not read in Pagels other books; The Gnostic Gospels, and Beyond Belief, exposing the differentiations between the various groups and the Orthodox subsequent attacks and labeling of their opponents as heretics and agents of Satan.The book brings out that the idea of Satan, which transformed, as in the angel of God who obstructed Balaam's donkey and in the case of Job, where Satan was a part of the hierarchical arrangement with Yahweh in heaven and not a rebel. Satan was additionally considered in the ideas of obstructions of justice, to other obstructing nations, to nations that simply differed, to all enemies, later taking on a more personal form, first part of a cosmic struggle to that of a personal being with legions of fallen angels, demons who resisted God and humans.Satan was continually applied to the opposing parties, the gospel of Mark first defining the world scene as a cosmic war between the forces of good and evil. Mathew and Luke go further in defining the Jewish leaders as under the influence of demonic forces and John goes further in defining the entire collective Jewry as under such influence. The labeling of other groups as agents of Satan, can be seen over and again, which transmuted to various other parties. The Essences, for instance has defined the following of light over the darkness. Satan also became the perceived element behind the Pagans and Romans who were torturing and executing Christians, and yet the gospels, perhaps in order to prevent more harm to themselves, treaded lightly on Pontius Pilate and the Roman government, while venting their accusations towards what first became Judas Iscariot, then the Jewish authorities, and finally "the Jews" collectively, then transforming to other Christians that did not follow the Orthodox. In each case, the party in question identifies those with different ideologies, even within the group itself, as under the influence of Satan.Pagels ends the book with the exception of the Gnostics, who unlike the Orthodox did not fall into the defining of enemies to Satan. While some were more radical in perceiving the God of the Hebrew scriptures as false, the more moderate generally agreed with many of the Orthodox moral and ethical teachings, while rejecting other teachings, such as the limited cannon and hierarchal conformity in the Orthodox as mislead in failing to comprehend the gnosis, but did so not under such the labeling attacks of heretic and Satanic influence.One interesting point were some of the Gnostic interpretations of the Adam and Eve Story. One radical interpretation is that God did not tell the truth but the serpent did! The serpent was Christ! God the creator was not the highest and only, but was the demonic angel preventing Adam and Eve from the knowledge, telling them they would die, while the Serpent was speaking the truth, which can be seen by their realization of nakedness. So God, the demonic, then subjected humanity to a distracting life of sex, marriage, money, survival, the good and evil polarities, caught up in the game of life, apart from the real meaning of internal gnosis within. I'm sure there is much more on this in Pagels other book, Adam, Eve and the Serpent. It is also very interesting to see the attacks of Tertullian on any Christians who dare Socratic inquiry over scripture as in the above. All such would confuse and lead to further heresy, according to him.It appears from the history that persons and groups of fundamentalism in their external searches for clarity, certainty and unity, limit their searches to mere acceptance without the paradox of true Socratic inquiry and the simultaneous depth of understanding without absolutes, resorting to the defining of Satan formulas for their perceived enemies. This can be seen later in Luther against the Catholics and Jews, other protestants, Jews and peasants who fought the aristocrats. And yet such confinement enemies being of Satan brought group security and solidarity.Also were the counter points of loving one's enemies and forgiving others before offering your gift at the altar, along with St. Pauls adnomition to consign a man to Satan in order to help him repent and not be confined to hell or spiritual death.In contrast it is those without absolutes with the willingness to expand their internal subjective journey, ceasing to force group conformity, were those who exhibited toleration and did not fall under the certain identification, nor reality of a literal Satan and demonic influences. Such can seen in St. Francis of Assisi and Martin Luther King, Jr. and in the Gnostics. While there are many variations in Gnostic teachings, in the sense are like many other mystics and universal groups throughout history. Pagels concludes her book: "I hope that this research may illuminate for others, as it has for me, the struggle within Christian tradition between the profoundly human view that "otherness" is evil and the words of Jesus that reconciliation is divine." p.184The whole idea is that fundamentalists, biblical literalists and those that grasp on to formulas and absolutes, require literal beliefs and the adjoining accusations against their opponents, and any that think differently, labeling them as agents of Satan, heretics &etc., while the prophetic voices, those able to live in faith without humanly formulated structures, and live in degrees of insecurity and uncertainty, they can be tolerant and inclusive and cease the literal beliefs and the subsequent attacks of others, walking internally with courage and strength.Interestingly, today's American fundamenalist, traditionalist, convervative, conservative religionist and those that need their personal formulations, agendas and non-pragmatic lenses to view reality through, use the word "liberal" to define any opposition, small or large. Liberal is the new word replacing the older buzz words of Satan and heretic. The intolerance of the vulernability needed to grow in democratic unity is trashed and the same method of name calling remains.

Although the book is well-written and carefully researched, I wish the author had chosen a different title, for the book is not so much about the origin of Satan, which I would have found much more intriguing. It is more about the demonization of various groups.

I was a great book that I enjoyed thoroughly. I believe Elaine Pagels did excellent research so much of what I learned opened me up to a new understanding of how the early church operated and was comprise.

Interesting subject , have read another by her about Gnostic Gospels and of the two I felt this was stronger . 'Everything's fine until people get involved ' springs to mind . I have always felt the medieval construct of the red horned devil was somewhat absurd and this book explains the history of this idea very well in my opinion .Recommended

This is a superb book, very insightful confirms and helps my understanding.

I received the book, The Origin of Satan, as promised by the American distributor. It was a first class service as usual.The book content was interesting and a well presented thesis by Elaine.

Well-written and informative

great,