Pagels sees the whole demonizing tendency as continuing down the centuries in anti-Semitism and in sectarian hatred generally. Fundamental to Pagels's argument is the thesis of many scholars that the Gospel accounts of Jesus' trial and execution, by seeming to place blame on the Jews rather than the Romans, actually reflect the situation of later decades when Christians were completely separated from Judaism and anxious not to provoke the Romans. As the Christian movement became increasingly Gentile, this demonizing came to be directed against pagan magistrates and, finally, dissident Christians. She argues that this dualistic cosmology originated with the Jewish Essene sect who pitted the ``sons of Light'' against the ``sons of Darkness.'' Pagels argues that the Gospels invoke this apocalyptic scenario against the Jews who opposed Jesus. Pagels (Religion/Princeton The Gnostic Gospels, 1979, etc.) believes that this attitude led to a demonizing of human opponents and opened the door to a new kind of fanaticism and hatred. Paul declared that Christians were struggling with the powers of darkness and not with common flesh and blood, he was expressing an essentially cosmic attitude. The Devil is essential in the New Testament because he constitutes an important alternative to Christian theodicy.” On this point I agree with Russell but go considerably further: in New Testament sources the devil plays a major role not only in theodicy but simultaneously in the Christians' social identification, both of themselves and of those they regard as “others.An NBCC and National Book Awardwinning scholar of Gnosticism and early Christianity argues that the concept of Satan was central to the way apocalyptic Jews and the Christian Church saw-and treated-their enemies. On the contrary, the Devil…stands at the center of the New Testament teaching that the Kingdom of God is at war with…the Kingdom of the Devil. ) notes that “generations of socially oriented theologians dismissed the Devil and the demons as superstitious relics of little importance to the Christian message.

In his discussion of Christian theodicy,, Russell ( The Devil, 222 Google Scholar The present discussion focuses instead on the various perceptions of Satan found in New Testament sources and their Jewish antecedents and parallels. 3, 4), investigating in his work “perceptions of evil,” begins with a discussion of evil figures including examples from India, Egypt, and Greece. ( The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity Google ScholarĬhaps. : “In the collection of documents…known to Christians as the Old Testament, the word never appears…as the name of the adversary…rather, when the satan appears in the Old Testament, he is a member of the heavenly court, albeit with unusual tasks.” Forsyth, Neil, The Old Enemy: Satan and the Combat Myth ( Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987) 107 Google Scholar

The origin of satan by elaine pagels