Abstract

Bedeviling Satan

This article discusses the book "The Origin of Satan," by Elaine Pagels. This book by Pagels is a fascinating and valuable book, but it is not the book these sentences suggest. Its focus is narrower; it is a philologically trained scholar's book, rather than an intellectual historian's. Pagels, who made her reputation with "The Gnostic Gospels," a study of radical and dissident early Christian sects, turns her mind here to the history of Satan in the life and texts of the ancient world. The Gospel of Luke continues the identification of the Jews with Satan and his cohort, but places the accusation in the mouth of Jesus himself. Luke, whom Pagels identifies as a Gentile, is determined to play up the non-Jewish aspects of Christianity, its openness to all believers.