This is not a book about Jesus, rather it's about a particular aspect of the early Christian movement. Contrary to the Hebrew Bible, writes Pagles, where "a satan" is an agent of God, sent to obstruct foolish human actions, Christianity follows the Essenes in their employment and expanding autonomy of "Satan" as the king of Evil. As Essenes broke from mainstream Judaism - in that religion's constant competition over who is most properly religious - their view raised morality to polarizing levels of cosmic conflict between good and evil, God and "Satan". Over time and successive canonical gospels this trend continued in polemic terms, strengthening group solidarity. According to Pagles this type of vilification makes these two groups unique in the ancient world. Ultimately to Pagels, Satan is a tool for, and invention of politics, drawing lines simple and stark. "We" are on the side of God (claiming God directed us), dissenters are agents of Satan to be disposed. Handing Rome (notably Pilate) a pass - probably out of fear - the gospels make Satan's allies those Jews who do not follow the new movement.
To Rome, Christianity was a radical threat, notes Pagels. Not because it was different from the State religion as Romans were synchrotists (caring much more for taxes) but because Christianity demanded discarding old ways. For Rome their religion was synonymous with tradition, synonymous with community, synonymous with Rome itself. It wasn't merely about religion, it was about Pax Romana - world peace. While Jews associated Judaism to a certain people, the Christian movement encouraged adherents to abandon ancestral customs and connections. No doubt one of Christianities appeal for some, it also accelerated individuation (see Gauchet) as each must choose between the two for themselves. Pagels notes Rome also had a sense of an "almighty", leading the pagan apologist, Celsus, to write it was blasphemy for Christians to invent a power (Satan) that could constrain an infinite God.
Without resorting to traditional supernatural or longstanding mythologies of virgin birth (e.g. mother Isis, ca. 2500 BC) or resurrection (e.g. Osiris, ca 2500 BC or god of bread and wine Dionysus, ca 300 BC) Pagels offers a secular reason for deification of Jesus and the central role of Satan: "How could anyone claim a man betrayed by his own followers and brutally executed on charges of treason, not only was, but still is God's appointed Messiah, unless his capture and death were not a final defeat but only a preliminary skirmish in a cosmic conflict now enveloping the universe." There might be many ways, but she seems to be saying, create a refutation topping accusations leveled at the time, and one so magnificent as to give hope and purpose to the death of Jesus. With such a response, Satan becomes a "narrative requirement" says Pagels, which won't win her any Christian friends.
Pagels covers much more territory between the lines than her title implies, enriching the read. If we're to believe the gospels are purely and literally reporting what really happened (commonly held in America, not Europe) then their obvious and frequent contradictions must be addressed. Pagels' reminders do that secularly, such as local politics, avoiding Roman wrath, serving the writer's particular audience, change in power (e.g. rise of the Pharisees), the passage of decades, all serving to make literary conflicts understandable, though no closer to what really happened, which for many doesn't matter anyway. Without saying so Pagels sounds Thomas Paine's warning about translation as found in the original Hebrew version of Isaiah 7:14, stating "Behold a woman shall conceive..." But the Greek translation is, "Behold a virgin shall conceive..." Matthew updates Mark by using the later Greek version saying the spirit descended on Jesus at conception, not baptism, as prophesized in Isaiah, which apparently it wasn't.
Pagels ends with the predictably messy evolution of early Christianity, the Church, and Satan's utility when numerous Jesus writings were circulating (her forte), soon to be narrowed to four by the bishops. Credit Pagels for reviving the luminous Marcus Aurelius and Valentinus with his cerebral, internal approach to Christianity, professing what one becomes depends upon what one loves, not as Tertullian, Irenaeus and the Essenes promoted as what one hates. Tertullian counseled against questions for it is "questions that make people heretics", like Valentinus. Of course Valentinus lost to the simpler approach of Tertullian, still largely in place (in the States), despite the Reformation. A fun and enlightening book on the origin and development of one of humanities most dangerous inventions.
