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Index/People/Elaine Pagels

Elaine Pagels

American writer

Fact-Checks

2 results
Dec 18, 2025

How did early Christian theology transform Jewish concepts of satan into a personified evil?

Early Christianity transformed a relatively marginal Hebrew figure—ha‑Satan, an agent who tests or accuses—into a fully personified, cosmic Prince of Darkness through a mix of late‑Jewish apocalyptic ...

Dec 7, 2025

How do major gnostic texts like the Gospel of Thomas differ theologically from the New Testament gospels?

The Gospel of Thomas is a noncanonical collection of 114 sayings that differs sharply from the narrative, apostolic, and resurrection-centered gospels in the New Testament; scholars date Thomas mostly...