What if Satan was never actually in the Garden of Eden? And what if early Christianity contained secret teachings that most Christians were never taught?
Professor Elaine Pagels, one of the world's leading historians of early Christianity and author of *The Gnostic Gospels* and *The Origin of Satan*, joins Strange & Mysterious World to explore how the idea of Satan evolved, why the serpent in Genesis was later identified with the Devil, and what the Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Mary and other lost Christian writings reveal about the earliest followers of Jesus.
We explore the historical Jesus, the Roman crucifixion, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Lucifer, the origins of the Devil, Mary Magdalene, Gnosticism, the creation of the New Testament canon, Christianity's mystical traditions and the provocative idea that Jesus may have given different teachings publicly and privately.
Pagels also explains why her own personal tragedy led her to investigate the origins of Satan and why decades of historical research ultimately deepened, rather than destroyed, her spiritual search.
Watch to the end for her remarkable perspective on what may lie at the heart of Jesus' message.
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