As she moves on with her life, Pagels comments on her work, "The Origin of Satan," that she devoted herself to after her losses.
How, then, to address the concept of Satan, as enmeshed in one's personal pain, as recorded in historical writings?
In the crucifixion of Jesus, who was God's spirit and who was the Satan? She would be astonished in her discovery.
"When I began to reread the gospels stories, I was surprised to see that they [Jesus's followers] never blame the Romans for killing Jesus. Instead, they blame only the Jewish enemies of Jesus - first of all, Judas Iscariot, whose name, in Greek, connotes "Jew" (Ioudas); then they blame the chief priest and the Jewish council, who, Mark says, sentenced Jesus to death. Matthew's gospel goes so far as to blame "all the people," and John's gospel accuses "the Jews" - as if Jesus weren't Jewish himself!
But why, I wondered, would Jewish writers indict only Jews, even if some did play a role in Jesus's arrest, while exempting the Romans, who, as all the evidence indicates, crucified Jesus on charges of inciting revolution against Rome?... Most simply put, Jesus's earliest followers spun the story as they did because they were terrified of being arrested and killed themselves."
So, the religion of the glorified scapegoat, is rooted in its followers, who themselves scapegoated certain entities, exempting authority, because of fear, fearing for their own safety.