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A brief history of the devil - Brian A. Pavlac

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TEDEd Animation

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Satan, the beast crunching sinners’ bones. Lucifer, the fallen angel. Mephistopheles, the trickster striking deals. These three divergent devils are all based on Satan of the Old Testament. But unlike any of these literary devils, the Satan of the Bible was a relatively minor character. So how did he become the ultimate antagonist, with so many different forms? Brian A. Pavlac investigates.

In his epic poem Paradise Lost, John Milton portrays Satan as

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Meet The Creators

  • Educator Brian A. Pavlac
  • Director Reza Riahi, Mehdi Shiri
  • Narrator Jack Cutmore-Scott
  • Music André Aires
  • Sound Designer André Aires
  • Director of Production Gerta Xhelo
  • Editorial Director Alex Rosenthal
  • Producer Bethany Cutmore-Scott
  • Editorial Producer Elizabeth Cox
  • Script Editor Iseult Gillespie
  • Fact-Checker Eden Girma

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