WILL THE REAL SATAN PLEASE STAND UP







 







by byron lebeau







 







[SOURCE: ORIGIN OF SATAN, by Elaine Pagels, Vintage Books, N.Y., 1996]







 







Elaine Pagels has written a very important book that not only illuminates us on the NATURE OF SATAN, but uncovers, in the process, layers of the spiritual struggle that unwrap other heretofore enigmatic layers of spirtual immaturity attempting to blossom within a sea of mistrust & confusion.  This latter maturity, which entails the latter part of both the book and this critque, concerns itself with what very well may be the ESSENCE of Jesus' message, not confined to mere words ~ as in, the letter killeth, but the spirit brings life.







 







I believe that Pagels has written an important book that not only unmasks the real Satan, but more importantly, shows how a deeper understanding of the gnostic "heretics" may have cast even a more bright light on the very fabric of the real Satan.  The theme of the book is expressed on page xviii: How Satan is invoked to express human conflict and to characterize human enemies within our own religious traditions.







 







In the New Testament, the gospels almost never identify Satan with the Romans, but they consistently associate him with Jesus' Jewish enemies, primarily Judas Iscariot & the chief priests & the scribes.  LUKE says what MARK & MATTHEW imply ~~  that the devil returned in person in the form of Judas Iscariot to destroy Jesus, initiating the betrayal that led to his arrest & execution. (pgs. 12-13)







 







In the Hebrew Bible, Satan is not necessarily evil as he first appears, much less opposed to God.  As Pagels indicates, he appears in the book of NUMBERS & in JOB as one of God's obedient servants -- one who was sent from God for the specific purpose of "blocking & obstructing human activity" ~~ as in its root meaning: one who opposes, obstructs, or act as an adversary.  Even the Greek term for devil (diabolos) literally means "one who throws something across one's path." (p.39)







 







Pagels quotes Neil Forsyth to illustrate an insight: "If the path is bad, an obstruction is good."  She continues on page 40 to show in the book of NUMBERS how Balaam was going someplace contrary to the wishes of God, so an angel of the Lord took his stand in the road as his "SATAN.'  Balaam was so obstinate that he continued to strike "the ass" he was riding, (who had seen the angel and would not go down the path where it saw that very angel,) to the extent that the Lord opened the mouth of the beast to ask why Balaam was striking it. (22:28-30); then Balaam saw the angel himself that informed him that if the ass had not turned, the angel (THE SATAN) would have slain Balaam. (22:31-33)  Thus the Hebrew Satan is looked upon as a special "roving intelligence agent." (p.41)







 







By the time of the MACABEES (168 B.C.E.,) the priest Mattathias & his son, Judas Maccabeus, fought not only the outward adversary (the Syrian king Antoichus Epiphanes,) who was trying to force the Jews to worship the Greek god Olympus Zeus, but also the Jews who were trying to accomodate the foreigners.  The Jewish victory over this oppression of two types of satans was commemorated as the festival of Hanukkah. (pgs. 45-46)







 







THE TURNING OF THE SATANIC SCREW







 







As Elaine Pagels brilliantly observes, by the time of the Essenes, the character of Satan has been transformed into "GOD'S ANTAGONIST" ~~  and no longer a FAITHFUL SERVANT! This same attitude is continued in the gospel of MARK & later Christianity.  Thus, the opponents of the Essenes become as "APOSTATE" and are accused of having been seduced by the power of evil, of whom they call Satan, Beelzebub, Semihazah, Azazal, Belial & Prince of Darkness. (p.47)







 







From the desciptions of ISAIAH (14: 12-15) the great prince, son of the dawn, becomes a fallen star, brought down to the depths of the pit.  Other accounts are embellishments of the 6th chapter of Genesis.  A third apocryphal source had Satan refusing to bow down to the younger human sibling (Vita Adae et Evae 14:3) even though the Archangel Michael did. (p.49)







 







The fruit of this disobedience causes all sorts of problems for humans as enumerated in the FIRST BOOK OF ENOCH, where Semihazah, the leader of the WATCHERS, (those who lost their heavenly estate,) convinces 200 angels to mate with humans (therby bringing illicit sex,) while another angel, Azazal, brings war ~~ in the form of disclosing secrets of metallurgy, which helped men make weapons, and women to adorn themselves with gold, silver, & cosmetics. (p.50)







 







The author points out, that in JUBILEES, God assigned to each of the nations a ruling angel or spirit "so that they might lead them astray." (JUB 15:31) The author of JUBILEES identifies these demons as foreign gods.  According to this author, it is Mastima - not the Lord - who commands Abraham to kill his son, Isaac. (p.54)  [Of course, in my own writings, this type of activity could be looked upon as the "NECESSARY FERTILIZER" that must be overcome for your bud to grow or mature into a blossom. ADVERSARIES are important for this process to effectuate itself...as was indicated in the classic case of JOB.] 







 







THE NEW ADVERSARY is clearly identified by the Essenes who feel the necessity of creating a "NEW" covenant ~ to the extent that all candidates must ritually curse all who ar not imitiates, who [therefore] belong to the "men of Beliar." (p.59) This same exclusionistic attitude was developed in the Roman Catholic Church, reflected by one of its most influential fashioners ~ IRENAEUS, orthodox bishop of Lyons.  The logic he used to limit the gospels of the New Testament to FOUR (thereby excluding other possible insights into the deeper truths of Christianity,) was to compare the four gospels to the four principal winds, or to the four corners of the universe, or the four pillars holding up the sky; and so ~ this logic [?] told him that there could be ONLY four gospels!?!  Incidentally, the gospels he did endorse, helped to INSTITUTIONALYZE the Christian movement.  Those he denounced as heresy (like the gnostics,) did not serve the purpose of institutionalization, so they had to be classified as heretics. (pgs. 69-70)  [Maybe there was a method to his madness.]







 







OTHER SATANS







 







Ms. Pagels makes an ORIGINAL observation that the gospel writer, MATTHEW, "reverses" the traditional roles, casting the Jewish king, Herod, in the villain's role traditionally reserved for Pharaoh.  (The author uses as support of this a lack of historical record that there is a mass slaughter of infants among his crimes. [So is this to be taken as a device of MATTHEW?] It may very well have been...the purpose of which may have been to turn the alien enemies of Israel's antiquity into the intimate enemies as MATTHEW perceived them; therefore Herod is lumped with the chief priests & scribes, as well as the other inhabitants of Jerusalem. (p.79) [Please consult the text for the details about the "Jews" in general.]







 







EACH GOSPEL AUTHOR choses a slightly different target as a SATAN: For MATTHEW, it was the Pharisees; for MARK, it was the scribes, but in any event, these SATANS were the sons of the evil one. [MATT 13: 38-39] (p.82)  LUKE chimes in as a disciple of Paul (writing for the gentiles,) and gospel author who refers to the "chief priest & scribes & elders" as "POWERS OF DARKNESS.' This was mouthed by Jesus, himself, before his arrest. (22: 52-53)







 







JOHN uses Judas as part of that very darkness: as in "...one of you is a devil."  (6: 70-71)  Also, according to the author, JOHN sees "the Jews"  -  not as regular Jews such as Jesus & his disciples - but as the leaders of the Jews, or as the world, who are also part of that darkness because they have rejected the light. (pgs. 104 & 111)







 







SATAN'S EARTHLY KINGDOM







 







Justin, a convert from Asia Minor, perceived the gods, including Apollo, Aphrodite, & Zeus, whom he had worshiped since childhood, as allies of SATAN.  [Justin also gave an interesting insight as to the bravery necessary to endure in being a real follower of Christ; cf. text, pgs. 122-123, where the Christians were literally fed to the beasts in the public sports arena.]







 







SOCRATES, HIMSELF, according to Pagels, had said the same thing that Christians are saying ~~ that all the gods that Homer praises, are actually evil energies that corrupt people, "seducing women & sodomizing boys." Justin says that the Roman rulers have been captured by the same evil spirits who incited the Athenians to kill Socrates; now, for the same reason, these spirits are driving them to kill Christians. (p. 124)  







 







YET, AS I OBSERVE THESE HISTORICAL PROCEEDINGS, Tatian, (student of Justin,) seemed to be the whole trumpet section for the orchestra of truth, who most eloquently defined the reality of this above-mentioned evil. Witness his comments from page 132-134 of Pagels text:







 







"Tatian ridicules the philosophers, calling Aristltle 'absurd' for his famous statement that a human being is a mere "rational animal"...part of the rational order.  Even elephants and ants, Tatian says, are "rational animals" in the sense that they "participate in 'SPIRIT', having been created in the image of the God who is spirit......Tatian perceives his essential being as spirit, ultimately indestructible."







 







AND ON PAGE 133: "...we are superior to destiny, and instead of worshiping planets and 'daimones,' we have come to know the Lord...We do not follow the guidance of destiny; rather, we reject those ['daimones'] who established it."







 







AND LASTLY ON PAGES 134-135: Declaring himself free from all worldly affiliations, Tatian openly defies pagan rulers: "I reject your legislation, along with your entire system of government." [JUST THINK OF THE LIES BEING PERPETRATED upon the soveriegn citizens by the IRS for a current example of such a government.] Only allegiance to the one true God [[WHO LIES NOT IN ANY WAY]] "can put an end to the slavery that is in the world, and restore us from many rulers, and then from the ten thousand tyrants"~~freeing the believer from innumerable demonic tyrants and simultaneously from all the thousands of human rulers whom they secretly control." [cf. text for specific references.]







 







 







[[TATIAN so impressed me with his fierce eloquence that he gets my BULLdog OF OLDEN CHRISTIAN TIMES AWARD, for whatever it is worth; THANK YOU, Tatian!]]







 







Another kind of bullDOG (of quite different spots,) was the famous - or infamous - IRENAEUS, whose work, "AGAINST HERESIES," did more damage to the concept of the advancement of the free & open exchange of spiritually mature development than any - with the possible exception of TERTULLIAN! (Pagels will examine this 'piece of work' later, and I assuredly will critique her uncoverings.)







 







NOW WE HAVE A NEW TYPE OF SATAN or ADVERSARY, who ironically believe that the ones they are criticizing are the adversaries, [SPECIFICALLY THE GNOSTICE.] as in what Jesus had foretold: THAT THEY WILL FEEL THAT THEY ARE DOING A SERVICE TO THEIR GOD. In reality, it is the Irenaeuses & Tertullians of the world who would "block or obstruct human activity" (possibly in good faith) ~~  but now that ACTIVITY = MATURING TRUTHS!  Irenaeus would have none of it!~!!







 







The gnostic author of the 'Testimony of Truth,' had urged his listeners to know HOW to listen, not only with the ears, but with their understanding.  The author strongly suggests that the great majority of Christians -- those who accept the kind of leadership and domeasticated morality by the apostolic fathers -- have fallen into moral error.  They don't find the truth becasue they have been taken over by the 'old leaven of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law.' (cf. p. 156 for two above gnostic references.)







 







[The 'Testimony of Truth' is just one of 52 tractates from the NAG HAMMADI LIBRARY, found in upper Egypt in 1945, which you can learn about by visiting my website: THE GNOSTIC ELEPHANT, located at







 







http://hey_223.tripod.com/thegnosticelephantascompiledbybyronlebeau/







 







 







According to the author of the 'Testimony...' the true Christian follows a path shunned {{just got a synch on this word at 10:13 A.M., AUGUST 24TH, 2002, while listening to the song, YESTERDAY WHILE I WAS YOUNG.}}~~by most so-called Christians; such  a person, this author says,







 







"...thinks about the power which flowed over the whole universe, which comes upon him...and he is disciple of his mind...He begins to keep silent within himself...he rejects for himself argument and disputation...he is patient with everyone, makes himself equal with everyone, and he also separates himself from them" {cf. text on page 157 for reference.]







  







YET! ~~  according to Elaine Pagels, the same author goes  FURTHER than Christians like Justin or Origen (early faather of the Church, of whom I have also written about on a web page within THE GNOSTIC ELEPHANT website.) The gnostic author declares that renunciation is not only admirable but essential for any true Christian.  He suggests that the majority of Christians have been tricked into worshiping ~~ not God ~~ but supernatural "rulers" who are less than divine.  The author even goes so far as to suggest that the God of the Hebrew Bible is himself, one of the fallen angels ~~ indeed ~~ the chief of the fallen angels, from whose tyranny Christ came to set human beings free....(cf. pgs. 157-158 for gnostic references.)







 







The author of this radical tractate also states that the "God" of GENESIS  ~~  LIED!!!!   HOW?  This god told Adam that "...on the day that you shall eat of [the tree in the midst of Paradise], you shall die."  YET the serpent tells Eve just the opposite: "You will not die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (3:4-5)  The 'Testimony...' author then stated that it was the serpent who told the truth since they surely did not die that very day!?! 







 







[This one scene is worth meditating on, if, in fact, the author of the 'Testimony...' is making accurate observations.  Who is the real Satan here?  Will he please stand up and identify himself!!!]  This god of GENESIS shows himself to be not only a malicious envier, but jealous of his own creation, as well as ignorant & vindictive. (p. 159)







 







Another anonymous Christian teacher whose writing was discovered at Nag Hammad was asked by one of his sutudents what "the great apostle" Paul meant when he warned that "our contest is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers of the universe and the spirits of evil" (Eph. 6:12).  He replied by writing a secret revelation called the "Reality of the Rulers". which he says, "I have sent you since you have asked about the reality of the [cosmic] rulers."  The teacher explains that "their chief [the God of the Hebrew Bilbe] is blind; because of his power and his ignorance and his arrogance, he said,...'It is I who am God, and there is none apart from me.'  This teacher then says:







 







When he said this, he sinned against the whole place.  And a voice came forth from above the realm of absolute power, saying,







"You are wrong , Samuel," that is, "God of the blind."...







And he said, "If anything else exists before me, let it become visable to me!"







And immediately Wisdom stretched forth her finger and brought light into matter....







And he said to his offspring, "It is I who am the god of the whole"







And Life, daughter of Faith-Wisdom, cried out and said, "You are wrong, Sakla!" (that is, "fool").  She breathed into his face, and her breath became for her a fierry angel; and that angel bound him and cast him down into Tartaros, below the abyss." [cf. text, page 160 for references.]







 







This very radical approach by this gnostic author who clearly states that work, marriage, & procreation do NOT reflect divine blessing, but demonstartes enslavement to cosmic forces that want to blind human beings to their innate capacity for spiritual enlightenment and most Christians, like most Jews and pagans, remain entangled in sexual, social & economic bondage. (p. 161)







 







[SPECIAL NOTE: Pagels will later examine another gnostic school ~ the VALENTINIANS ~ which takes a more flexible stance on this above radical approach; if you go to the web page, 'SHELLING THE GNOSTIC NUTS,' on the website: THE GNOSTIC ELEPHANT, you will get a good overview of this more moderate approach, an approach which I believe is more in keeping with being fully human while trying to be fully divine.]







 







The Orthodox "hit-man two" :TERTULLIAN







 







This above-captioned gentleman probably did more to keep the majority of Christians "in-line" than most other orthodox figures of the first millennium.  As Pagels points out on page 163, he translates  the Greek word for heresy   as liteally meaning "choice" ~ but notes immediately that these heretics actually pride themselves on the points at which they differ from the majority.







 







To understand the mind of Tertullian, and to know what any adversary is up against when dealing with him, I quote in full from page 164:







But Tertullian insists that making choices is evil, since choice destroys group unity. [THE HIVE MIND?]  To stamp out heresy, Tertullian says, church leaders must not allow people to ask questions, for it is "questions that make people heretics" ~~above all, questions like these: Whence comes evil?  Why is it permitted?  And what is the origin of human beings?  Tertullian wants to stop such questions and impose upon all believers the same 'regula fidei,' "rule of faith," or creed.  Tertullian knows that the "heretics" undoubtedly will object, saying that Jesus himself encouraged questioning, saying, "Ask, and you shall receive; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you" (Matt. 7:7)  But Tertullian has no patience with such people; [PEOPLE WHO FOLLOW THE ADVICE OF JESUS???] "Where will the end of seeking be?  The point of seeking is to find; the purpose in finding, to believe.  Now that the church can provide a direct and simple answer to all questions in its rule of faith," Tertullian says, "the only excuse for continuing to seek is sheer obstinacy...."







[[HOW UTTERLY CONVENIENT!]]







 







The hubris of Tertullian reaches its natural end with this disclosure on page 165 of Pagels' book:







 







"Heretics ought not to be allowed to challenge an appeal to the Scriptures, since we...prove that they have nothing to do with the Scriptures.  For since they are heretics, they cannot be true Christians."







 







[[To me, this sounds like the same arguments the IRS uses to this very day: We are the law, so we do not have to show you the law; it doesn't matter whether it exists or not......CERTAINLY, a 'CATCH-22' for the poor heretics, who are only asking hard questions.]] In fact, no one is spared the wrath of this 'giant' mind ~ even the far less radical ~ but far more threatening to the emerging clerical authorities and their advocates, observes Pagels on page 166.  Tertullian paints  the gnostic  VALENTINUS with  motives of envy and frustrated ambition since he lost out on becoming bishop.  Yet -- this is how Pagels portrays Valentinus:







 







"Valentinus had been baptized and had accepted the creedal statement of faith and participated in common Christian worship.  But after his baptism he received a revelatory dream in which the Logos appeared to him in the form of a newborn child; he took this vision as an impetus to begin his own spritual explorations.  Having heard of a teacher named Theudas who claimed to have received secret teaching from the apostle Paul himself, Valentinus eagerly learned from him all he could.  Henceforth he became a teacher himself, amplifying what he had learned from Theudas with his own spiritual explorations, and encouraging his students to develop their inner capacilty for spirtual understanding."  (cf. text for references.)  [This also seems like a much different slant on Valentinus than the great mind of Tertullian would have us believe.]







 







As alluded to before, Valentinus was one who wished to bring the opposite spiritual extremes closer, i.e. between the radical ideas of the gnostic author of the 'Testimony of Truth,' BUT WELL BEYOND the literal interpretation of the orthodox point of view, in order to question the gospels' deeper meanings.  By so doing, he believed, one could progress beyond faith to understanding, that is ~~ to 'gnosis!' This is ultimately defined as a knowledge of personal relationships (or wisdom or insight.)







 







One gnostic teacher encourages his students to seek gnosis within themselves:







 







FROM PAGE 167 OF THE TEXT: "Abandon the search for God, and creation, and similar things of that kind.  Instead, take yourself as the starting place.  Ask who it is within you who makes everything his own saying, "my mind," "my heart," my God."  Learn the source of love, joy, hate, and desire....If you carefully examine all these things, you will find [God] in yourself." (cf. text for reference.)







 







The crux of gnosis ~ as exemplified on my website, THE GNOSTIC ELEPHANT, is more than a message  about repentance & forgiveness of sin; it becomes a path of spiritual awakening through which one discovers the divine within. (p. 167)







 







A BUD &  THE BLOSSOMING







 







Quoting directly from the Pagels' text on page 168, one can plainly see this essence: "The author of the 'Gospel of Philip,' a follower of Valentinus,describers 'gnosis' as a natural progression from faith.  Just as a harvest is gathered through the cooperative interaction of the natural elements, water, earth , wind and light, so, 'Philip' says,







 







"God's farming has four elements--faith,hope,love and 'gnosis.'  Faith is our earth, in which we take root.  And hope is the water through which we are raised; love is the wind through which we grow. 'Gnosis,' then, is the light through which we ripen [or "become mature"]"







 







Valentinus then, continuing on the same page, accepted the moral, ecclesiastical, and scriptural consensus as binding upon the majority of Christians, but not upon those who had gone beyond mrere faith to 'gnosis'--those who had become spiritually "mature." [Please consult the text on both pages 168-169, for the details of this important distinction that Valentinus makes, not only as different from orthodoxy, but also as different from other gnostic schools of thought.]







 







SATAN AND THE 'GOSPEL OF PHILIP'







 







Satan never appears! Instead, the divine Father and the holy spirit, working in harmony with each other, direct all that happens, even the actions of the lower cosmic forces, so that ultimately, in Paul's words, "all things work together for good" (Rom. 8:28).The 'Gospel of Philip' offers an original critique of the way all other Christians, orthodox and radical alike, approach morality. Much as they disagree on content, both orthodox and radical Christians assume that morality requires 'prescribing' one set of acts, and 'prescribing ' others.  But the author of 'Philip' wants to throw away all the lists of good things and bad things--lists that constitute the basis of Christian morality.  For, this author suggests, what we identify as opposites--"light and dark, life and death, good and evil"--are in reality pairs of interdependent terms in which each implies the other. [[cf. p. 171 of the text for Pagels' reference to the above statement.]







 







On the next two succeeding pages of Elaine Pagels' text, we find the HEART OF PHILIP: 'Philip' refuses to argue over sexual behavior--whether, for example, Christians should marry or remain celibate.  Posed as opposties, these choices, too, present a false dichotomy.  This  author admonishes, "Do not fear the flesh, nor love it.   If you fear it, it will gain mastery over you; if you love it, it will devour and paralyze you." 'Philip' intends to follow Paul's insight that for one person marriage may be the appropriate "diet," for another, celibacy.  [As the viewer will note, this is a more moderate stance than the injucntion within the 'Testimony of Truth.'] 







 







Continuing on page 174, we come to the heart of the 'Gospel of Philip': the theme is the transforming power of love: that what one becomes depends upon what one loves.  Whoever matures in love takes care not to cause distress to others: "Blessed is the one who has not caused grief to anyone."  Jesus Christ is the paradigm of the one who does not offend or grieve anyone, but refreshes and blesses everyone he encounters, whether "great or small, believer or unbeliever."  The gnostic Christian, then, must always temper the freedom 'gnosis' conveys with love for others. [Again, see the text for specific reference.]







  







For the purposes of this essay, Elaine Pagels could have ended this most important book right here.  Up to here, two things are absolutely clear to me:







 







(1) Becasue Man has free will, all sorts of tests are necessary to see if Man will really choose what is pure & holy & noble (against the sea of things that are trying to lull him away from these characteristics--THE ADVERSARY!)  It makes no difference whether Satan operates from without or within or as a separate entity, (which in fact, happens, if we can believe the documented stories of the early saints such as Antony, first century ascetic;) yet more often, the adversay is coming from within, where this battle is with ourselves.  Elaine Pagels had mentioned on TV, that the 70th saying of the 'Gospel of Thomas' was her personal favorite:







 







'Jesus said, "That which you have will save you if you bring forth from yourselves.  That which you do not have within you [will] kill you if you do not have it within you."







 







That "something" is nothing less that the fruit of spiritual maturity, which takes a great deal of time to cultivate, so that your bud will blossom.  If you do not cultivate it, the bud dies on the vine!!!







 







(2) It is absolutely ludicrous to see things in such BLACK & WHITE terms, (as in Irenaeus & Tertullian - as if they had already possessed all truth,) that one need no longer ask questions ~ but simply be led blindly down the road by what could be called ~ "blind guides!"  Are not these the very people Jesus had warned us about?







 







I, lebeau, heartily recommend the full reading of this book, as well as a full reading of the 52 tractates of the NAG HAMMADI LIBRARY, for a deeper appreciation of gnostic [liberating] thought.  When we do this, we would find - that if the devil were to stand up - we would see a striking resemblance to ourselves ~~  i.e.  ~~ until we decide the importance of becoming pure & holy & noble.  That's when we will see Jesus as in a mirror, thus becoming the TWIN of the Saviour, one with the Father-God.







 







POSTSCRIPT: Earlier, in typing this essay, I received & noted a synchronism revolving around the word "shunned.' In reflecting on this, I could only come to one idea: "Yesterday, while I was young..." I certainly shunned many of the spiritually mature concepts to pursue selfish things which kept me ~ for quite some time ~ spiritually stagnant.  Somehow, in the early nineties, I got 'on-track' again, and even though I am older now, I no longer am inclined to shun the things that I now see as very important.  I just see them in a whole new light!  Synchronicity has been just one of the "fruits" of seeking, when we are really ready to seek, and to face the adversaries both without and within..  Despite the ramblings of a mind like Tertullian, my next step is to knock even harder  by asking even more hard questions!







 







TAKE THAT, TERTULLIAN!!!